COLOMBO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in the third quarter of 2019, local media reported on Wednesday, quoting a Labor Force Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department.
According to the survey, Sri Lanka had 437,797 unemployed persons in the third quarter of 2019, raising the unemployment rate to 5.1 percent as compared to 4.9 percent in the second quarter.
Females continued to show a higher unemployment rate at 8.5 percent compared to the male unemployment rate of 3.3 percent. Unemployment among the youth aged 15 to 24 remained the highest at 23.3 percent.
Unemployment rates were seen to be the highest among the educated, with high school graduates having an above average unemployment rate of 7.7 percent compared to 2.8 percent in the case of those who had not completed high school.
The industrial sector saw the sharpest drop in employment, from 28.3 percent in the second quarter to 27 percent in the third quarter. Unemployment in the service sector remained steady at 47.7 percent while employment in agriculture saw a marginal increase from 24.3 percent to 25.3 percent in the third quarter.
Sri Lanka Labor Force Survey is conducted quarterly since it was introduced in the first quarter of 1990.
