Women participation in Sri Lanka labor force showed a slight improvement in 2017 compared to the previous years, according to the Labor Force Survey data released by the Department of Census and Statistics.
Among the 8.6 million economically active population in Sri Lanka last year, 74.5 percent males and females account for 36.6 percent slightly increasing from 35.9 percent in 2016, the Census and Statistics Department data shows.
Out of the economically inactive population of 7.3 million, 25.5 percent are males and 74.5 percent are females.
Higher female participation is observed in Matale (40.7%), Numara Eliya (44.0%), Anuradhapura (41.5%), Badulla (43.4%) and Kegalle (40.1%) districts.
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the estimated unemployment rate for 2017 has been 4.2 percent.
The unemployed population, reported in 2017 is 358,507 while overall unemployment for males and female are 2.9 percent & 6.5 percent respectively.
Among all age groups, unemployment rates of females are higher than those of males. Youth unemployment (age 15 – 24 years) rates are the highest for both sexes, compared to other age groups.
Labor force population expressed as a percentage of the working age population (age 15 years and over) is the labor force participation rate (LFPR). The survey results reveal that the overall LFPR for 2017 is 54.1 percent and this is 74.5 percent and 36.6 percent for males and females respectively.
The estimated employed population is about 8.2 million for 2017, of which, about 45.5 percent engaged in Services sector, 28.4 percent in Industry sector and 26.1 percent in Agriculture sector.
Accordingly the highest employment share is in Service sector and the lowest employment share is for Agriculture sector. Also the survey reveals that 67.5 percent of the employed population works more than 40 hours per week.
