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Arunatilake and Jayawardena
education, these statistics suggest that the access and relevance of education at the upper-secondary and tertiary levels need to improve if Sri Lanka is to take advantage of the emerging global employment markets— both for migrant workers and for domestic workers in the IT-enabled services sector—and to make Sri Lankan businesses more competitive globally (table 1.6).
Summary: Labor Force This analysis shows that overall growth of the labor force has slowed in Sri Lanka and the youth labor force is contracting. The contraction results mainly from the slow growth of the youth population coupled with declining participation rates. Moreover, compared with world regional averages, youth labor force participation rates in Sri Lanka are low. On the plus side, the lower participation rates are partly explained by a higher proportion of youth engaging in studies, but the proportion of youth neither in studies nor in the labor force has also increased. The labor force has become more educated over time, but a large part of the gain is at the primary level. Although the proportion of employed with upper-secondary or higher levels of education attainment has also increased, this proportion is still less than 15 percent of the total labor force. Table 1.6 Composition of Sri Lankan Labor Force by Level of Education, 1992 and 2006 Percent Age group 1992 15–19 20–24 25–29 30 and above Youth (15–29) Total 2006 15–19 20–24 25–29 30 and above Youth (15–29) Total
Primary or below
Secondarya
O-levels
A-levels
Degree and above
19.7 14.5 19.1 33.0 17.2 26.8
65.4 52.7 45.1 42.8 52.3 46.6
13.3 21.7 20.9 16.6 19.8 17.9
1.7 10.9 13.3 5.4 10.0 7.2
0.0 0.2 1.5 2.1 0.6 1.5
5.7 6.4 7.8 27.0 8.3 21.0
70.9 50.5 50.8 43.3 56.7 46.5
19.0 23.1 19.3 16.0 19.3 17.4
4.5 19.5 18.0 10.4 14.2 12.2
0.0 0.5 4.0 3.3 1.9 2.9
Source: Authors’ calculations, based on DCS 1992 and 2006. a. Individuals with 6 to 10 years of schooling.