Sri Lanka’s unemployment has dropped to 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2016 from 4.7 percent a year earlier, with new jobs being created in services and industry, the state statistics office said.
The total employed persons rose to 7.968 million in the first quarter of 2016 from 7.800 million in 2016 with services creating 155,638 jobs, Sri Lanka’ statistics office said.
The unemployment rate is also down from a peak of 5.1 percent in the third quarter of 2015 and 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. But the Department of Census and Statistics say the results are within a margin of error for the survey.
Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate has hovered between 4 and 5 percent for the last three years.
The industry sector had created 72,273 jobs.
Agriculture has lost 59,051 jobs.
When people move from agriculture to services and industry mostly because labour productivity and therefore salaries are higher in those sectors, agriculture productivity also has to improve including with more mechanization or changes in practices to keep up.