Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate has risen to 4.9% in the second quarter of 2019, data from the state statistics office show.

The number of unemployed persons is estimated as 420,231 during the second quarter 2019.

Overall unemployment rate reported for female is 7.5% and it is 3.4% for male.

Youth unemployment rate (age 15 – 24 years) corresponding to the second quarter 2019 is 20.0% and that is the highest reported unemployment rate among all age groups. Further the unemployment rates for males and females are 17.1 and 25.5% respectively for age group 15—24.

The survey results further reveals that the unemployment among females is higher than that and gender – Second quarter 2019 of males, in all age groups. Youth and female unemployment contribute more to the overall unemployment of the country.

The highest unemployment rate is reported from the G.C.E (A/L) and above group which is about 9.5%. Corresponding percentages are 5.1% and 14.0% for males and females respectively. Female unemployment rates are higher than those of males in all levels of education.

Survey results further shows that the problem of unemployment is more acute in the case of educated females than educated males, which was observed consistently over the results of previous survey rounds as well.