Contract, part-time work available:

Sharp drop in youth unemployment rate

by Nilma DOLE

Youth unemployment in Sri Lanka has dropped to four percent this year from 10 percent about 15 years ago, said Prof. Indralal de Silva, Senior Professor of Demography and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo. He was speaking at a forum discussion organised by the Sanasa Development Bank.

"When we see youth demonstrations and protests, we think that youth unemployment is on the rise, but this is not true. Today, young people undertake contract or part-time work, but they desire permanent employment or government sector jobs," said the professor who was a former lecturer at Harvard, Australian and Singapore National Universities.

He said Sri Lankan youth earn small sums of pocket money and some do not always depend on their parents.

In 2009, unemployment in the 15-24 age group was at 21.3 percent with the highest percentage being 35.6 in 1993.

He said Sri Lanka's youth unemployment was on par with the percentage of Western countries and was lower than that of our Asian counterparts where youth unemployment was high.

"When surveys were done earlier, part-time or casual work was not taken into account, but from our latest university surveys, we found out that young people were earning even before graduating," he said.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer Deputy Chairperson of Sanasa, Samadanie Kiriwandeniya said young people have money and are not poor.

"Young people always have money to put a reload for their phone, buying electronic equipment or giving gifts for their loved ones, but we don't see these money going into a bank account," she said.