Unemployment rate higher among women

The unemployment rate for the second quarter of 2013 was reported at 4.4 percent according to the latest statistics released by the Department of Census and Statistics.

The report said that when sampling error is considered there is no statistically significant drop of unemployment rates reported over a one-year period from the second quarter 2012.The number of unemployed people was estimated at about 390,975 during the second quarter 2013.

General characteristics of unemployment in Sri Lanka remained unchanged during the period under review and unemployment among women and educated youth is higher.

Overall unemployment rate for females was 6.9 percent and it was 3.1 percent for males. Youth unemployment rate (15--24 years) reported during the period was 20.1 percent and it is the highest unemployment rate recorded among age groups.

According to gender classification, the unemployment rate among this age group was 15.0 among males and 27.8 percent among females. The survey results revealed that unemployment was severe among females compared to males in all age groups. According to the level of education, the highest unemployment rate was among people with GCE (A/L) qualifications - 10.2 percent. According to gender classification, the rates were 6.8 percent and 14.0 percent for males and females.

This shows that the problem of unemployment is more acute in the case of educated females compared to educated males.The estimated economically active population was about 8.87 million in the period under review of which 65.0 percent were male and 35.0 percent were female. The number of employed people in Sri Lanka was estimated at about 8.5 million of which, about 42.4 percent are engaged in the services sector, 31.5 percent in agriculture, and 26.2 percent in industry.