Croatia lost 141,000 jobs in the last two years, a recent Central Bureau of Statistics survey shows. The number of positions is equivalent to those in the entire city of Osijek.

In the last two years, the country lost approximately the same number of jobs that had been created in the previous seven, from 2002-2008 when the economy grew an average five per cent every year.

With a growth of just one to two per cent predicted for the next few years, Croatia would need 14 years to compensate for these losses.

The unemployment rate has climbed to 18.8 per cent, one of the highest in the last seven years.

In the last two years, the processing industry saw the highest number of job losses (67,000 or 21 per cent), followed by trade (58,000 r 22.7 per cent) and construction (32,000 or 22.2 per cent).