"Absolute poverty in Croatia is low, but this diagnosis is only deceptively consolatory.Poverty in Croatia is characterised by stagnation – those who become poor take agreat deal of time to escape from indigence. In Croatia, many people are unemployed and/or have low employability and so are seriously exposed to economicpoverty and social exclusion. For such people, unemployment becomes a wearisome constant companion. This is especially true in Croatia, where a large proportion of able-bodied welfare recipients are very long-term unemployed. The effectsare damaging and costly. The task is to reduce both the flows into long-term unemployment and the stock of people already out of work for more than one year,primarily by improving their employability. The problems faced by many of the longterm jobless are often multi-dimensional and frequently include low levels of education and of motivation. Croatia has a range of active and passive measures toassist the unemployed. To be more effective, these measures should be adjustedand carefully targeted through social planning and the systematic analysis andevaluation of policy outcomes."

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