Sri Lanka's estimated unemployment rate for the fourth quarter 2015 has dropped to 4.3% from 5.0% in the third quarter, the Census and Statistics Department releasing its Labour Force Survey - 4Q 2015 Thursday (March 31) said.

The Unemployment Rate is the proportion of unemployed population to the total labor force. The number of unemployed persons is estimated at 389,062 during the fourth quarter 2015.

The estimated employed population is about 8.6 million for this quarter, of which, about 47.2 percent engaged in Services sector, 27.5% in Agriculture sector and 25.3% in Industry sector.

Highest employment share is in service sector and this pattern is same for both male and female. The lowest employment share is for industry sector. Also the survey reveals that about 68% of the employed population works more than 40 hours per week.

According to data, the estimated economically active population is about 9 million in the fourth quarter 2015, of which 64.5% are males and 35.5% are females. Out of the economically inactive population 24.3% are males and 75.7% are females.

Overall unemployment rate reported for female is 7.6% and it is 2.6% for male. Unemployment rate of Youth from age 15- 24 years in the fourth quarter 2015 at 16.7% is the highest unemployment rate among all other age groups.

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