Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate marginally increased by 0.2 percentage point to 4.4 percent in 2018, compared to 4.2 percent recorded in 2017 totaling the unemployed population of 372,593 persons in 2018, Finance Ministry data showed.
Unemployment Rate in Sri Lanka increased to 4.90 percent in the second quarter of 2019 from 4.70 percent in the first quarter of 2019.
The number of unemployed persons increased to 420231 this year from 372,593 in 2018.
Unemployment Rate in the country averaged 7.76 percent from 1991 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 16.60 percent in the second quarter of 1992 and a record low of 3.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013
The unemployment rates among females are higher than those males: females and males unemployment stood at 7.1 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively last year.
The youth unemployment between the 15 – 24 and 25-29 age groups recorded high at 21.4 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.
In terms of the level of educational attainment, the highest unemployment rate of 9.1 percent was witnessed from the G.C.E. (A/L) and above group: it was among females at 13.2 percent; among males at 5.1 percent.
The highest unemployment rate of 6.0 percent was recorded from the Eastern Province.
The economically active population in Sri Lanka was 8.4 million in 2018 of which 5.5 million were males whereas the economically inactive population was 7.8 million of which the majority were females.
Finance Ministry noted note that there is a significant increase in the inactive population including the elderly population which is estimated at 0.53 million in 2018 which requires immediate policy measures. .
(LI)