ANALYSIS OF LABOUR FORCE AND (UN)EMPLOYMENT IN REPUBLIC OF CROATIA AND SELECTED MEMBER STATES OF EUROPEAN UNION

Every country in the world should continuous take care of its citizens, trying to improve their quality of life, and living standards. This quality is partly achieved by investing in people, and in their education. In this waycitizens will find it easier to enter to the labour market. But the problem often lies in the structure of the labor force, consisting of employed and unemployed persons classified by economic activity. Employed are all persons who have signed a work contract with the employer, regardless of whether it is based on a definite or indefinite period of time, regardless of the length of working hours and the property of the employer, or the legal entity. Unemployed persons are all fully or partly capable person to work at the age of 15-65 years, who is not employed and who are regularly registered the Employment Service. For the purpose of the work was conducted a detailed analysis of the labor force and unemployment and employment in selected EU Member States in the period from 2001 to 2013. Therefore, before the Croatian accession to the European Union. The analyzed countries are the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. It analyzed the labor force, employed and unemployed in relation to the total population of each state, and the criteria were gender (male, female), age group(15-24 years, 25-54 years, 55-64 years), geographical coverage (urban, rural) and level of education(primary education, secondary education, higher education).