Knowledge and investment in innovation is becoming the main criteria of competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine concepts of knowledge, innovation and competitiveness. To prove the stated, comparative analysis was conducted on Eurostat data on EU public expenditure on education. Further analysis involved the data of employed and unemployed persons depending on the completed educational program in Croatia. Furthermore, a benchmarking of countries\u27 innovation performance was carried out based on the Global Innovation Index, the Bloomberg Innovation Index and the European Innovation Scoreboard. The aim was to determine the most competitive economies compared to Croatia. The third analysis included innovation performance of Croatian companies. The contribution of the paper is visible in the analysis of the theoretical determination of knowledge and its development completed with the list of future jobs. The importance of the paper is reflected in the necessity of creating strategies corresponding to the future.Znanje i ulaganje u inovaciju postaje osnovni kriterij konkurentnosti. Svrha je ovoga rada ispitati koncepte znanja, inovacije i konkurentnosti. Da bi se dokazalo navedeno, provedena je komparativna analiza Eurostat podataka o EU javnim troškovima za obrazovanje. Daljnja analiza uključivala je podatke o zaposlenima i nezaposlenima, ovisno o završenom stupnju obrazovanja u Hrvatskoj. Nadalje, provedena je usporedna analiza inovacijske uspješnosti zemalja na temelju globalnog inovacijskog indeksa, Bloomberg inovacijskog indeksa i Europskog inovacijskog semafora. Cilj je bio odrediti najkonkurentnije ekonomije u usporedbi s Hrvatskom. Doprinos ovoga rada vidljiv je iz analize teorijske odrednice znanja i njegova razvoja upotpunjenog popisom budućih zaposlenja. Važnost rada odražava se u potrebi stvaranja strategija u skladu s budućim potrebama
