The Department of Census and Statistics latest bulletin on labour force, employment and unemployment statistics for the first quarter 2018 based on the data collected in January, February and March in 2018 covering the whole country revealed that estimated economically active population in Sri Lanka is about 8.3 million in the first quarter 2018.
Of which 65.4 percent are males and 34.6 percent are females. The economically inactive population is about 7.7 million. Out of the economically inactive population 25.6 percent are males and 74.4 percent are females.
The report shows the male participation to the labour force is always higher than that of females.
In terms of distribution of labour force participation by age group and by gender, the report depicts high male participation compared to female in all age groups. The highest participation rate for male is reported from age group 40-44 years (97.0%), while that for female is reported from 45-49 age groups (48.8%).
During first quarter of 2018, the total number of employed persons in Sri Lanka is estimated at about 8. million. Of which, about 45.2 percent engaged in service sector, 27.9 percent in industries sector and 26.9 percent in agriculture sector.
Majority of the workforce are private sector employees followed by own account workers. The report also depicts the percentage distribution of male and female employed population by main industry sectors, according to the report, highest employment share is in service sector and this is true for both male and female, while the lowest shares are for agriculture sector. Among employed females 29.9 percent is in agriculture sector while this share is 25.3 percent for males.
The number of unemployed persons is estimated as 372,135 during the first quarter 2018. The unemployment rate for the first quarter 2018 is 4.5 percent. Furthermore, overall unemployment rate reported for female is 7.4 percent and it is 2.9 percent for male. Youth unemployment rate (age 15 – 24 years) corresponding to the first quarter 2018 is 21.8 percent and that is the highest reported unemployment rate among all age groups. Further rates for males and females are 15.5 and 33.1 percent respectively for age group 15-24.
The survey results further reveals that the unemployment among females is higher than that of males, in all age groups. Youth and female unemployment contribute more to the overall unemployment of the country.