Tourism, as one of the leading branches of the Croatian economy in recent years, is facing a labor shortage, which is why it is increasingly necessary to implement certain measures in order to reduce and avoid it. This deficit has a direct effect on the success of the tourism industry, but the long-term consequences can be much more pronounced and will have an impact on the entire Croatian economy, since a large number of remaining sectors rely on tourism as the most important sector in the Republic of Croatia. The aim of the paper is to identify and analyze the main reasons why the labor force is lacking in the tourism sector and how this has manifested itself on the Croatian economy. The paper analyzes what are the visible causes of labor shortages in the tourism sector, but also those less visible causes such as employee satisfaction in the workplace and the employer 's attitude towards them. Also, the impact of the deficit in the tourism sector on the revenue generated in this sector is analyzed, which ultimately has an impact on the entire Croatian economy. The paper also gives examples of other countries that have had problems with the tourism sector staffing deficit and gives examples of how these countries have addressed the tourism staffing deficit. The theoretical part of the paper defines unemployment, types and causes of unemployment, as well as the consequences for the unemployed. The specificities of tourism employees are defined, followed by statistics on unemployment, wage trends in tourism, tourism trends related to the number of nights, the number of employees in tourism, and the ratio of tourism employees and how much tourism contributes to GDP. in the Republic of Croatia. This is followed by examples of how other tourism countries have dealt with this problem. The empirical part of the paper presents the results of a survey that sought to identify the causes of labor shortages in tourism. It can be concluded that the lack of workforce in tourism is primarily due to the employers' attitude towards employees, starting with the payment of low wages and other working conditions.