Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CHAPTER 5 Bridging Human Development Gaps: Employment and Livelihoods Access to productive employment is a key element of human development, as it is the means by which people reap the benefits of investments in health and education. When people do not have assets providing adequate incomes, productive employment remains a key channel out of poverty, although it may not be sufficient by itself. The type and nature of employment people can find is also important. Poor employment opportunities may lead mainly to social unrest. While Sri Lanka’s unemployment rate is relatively low, employment growth lags considerably behind GDP Labour Market Performance There were 8.1 million economically active people in Sri Lanka in 2010, 199 comprising roughly half the population above age 15, for a labour force participation rate of 53.4 percent. Men were twice as likely to participate in the labour market as women. 200 The rates for rural and urban populations were 54.4 and 46.8 percent, respectively. For the country as a whole, the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in 2010, an improvement over the 7.6 percent rate in 2000. 201 But high unemployment among more educated Figure 5.1: Unemployment Rate by Education Level, Age Group and Sex, 2010 Note: Total excludes the Northern Province. Source: Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka 2010a. growth, which averaged at least 5 percent from 1990 to 2001. Further, the quality of jobs created has been poor. This chapter examines the performance of the labour market in Sri Lanka, recognizing that outside the Western Province, most people are dependent upon agriculture for employment. It then explores ways to improve agricultural productivity and access to other types of employment opportunities. people, youths and women (Figure 5.1), especially outside the Western Province, is a major concern. Various factors explain this phenomenon, including the relevance of skills taught by the education system, differences in the terms and conditions of employment across sectors, and slow job creation. The unemployment rate for people with an A-Level education and above was 11.6 percent in 2010, more than sri lanka Human Development report 2012 81
twice the rate for the economy as a whole. While the unemployment rate for the educated has been a concern to policy makers for decades, the problem remains unresolved, and in particular, high youth unemployment rates remain of special concern. In 2010, across provinces with available data, unemployment was highest in the Southern, Central and Eastern provinces in that order, all of which recorded rates above the national average (see Tables A20 and A21 for details). North Central, Western and Uva provinces recorded the lowest unemployment rates. This is explained in the Western Province by the fact that it contributes close to half of national GDP, and in the North Central and Uva provinces in part due to the high prevalence of unpaid or very poorly paid family workers. Compared to the national average of 10.4 percent for this category, the proportions in these two provinces were 24.2 and 21.5 percent, respectively. Both have a high dependence on agriculture as the major source of employment. The Government employs about 14.3 percent of workers; the private sector employs 41 percent. Another 42 percent are self-employed or unpaid family workers, mostly in low-productivity agriculture. Sri Lanka’s relatively low unemployment rate depends on how an employed person is defined. Since more than a third of the labour force works in low productivity agriculture and other poor quality jobs, low unemployment is not necessarily a synonym for good employment. Other factors that influence labour market performance include available job opportunities, working conditions, remuneration and the mobility of workers. Available evidence indicates that Sri Lanka faces both the lack of ‘good jobs’ in the formal sector, and a mismatch between the skills of the educated and those demanded by the labour market. 202 The lack of language and technology skills poses major constraints for seekers of whitecollar jobs created by the private sector since economic liberalization. 203 According to Hettige and Salih, the emphasis on monolingual education in Sinhalese has divided the society into those who speak English well and those who do not. 204 Language barriers, they note, increase ethnic divisions by limiting young peoples’ access only to those jobs using their mother tongue. Further, because the economic marginalization of educated youth is common to all ethnic groups, most of those who do not speak English well look for jobs in the public sector. The tradition of providing public sector employment for unemployed graduates practiced by successive governments has in fact created awkward incentives. People with degrees wait for public sector jobs for more reasons than one: competence in English is not usually a requirement, the working days are shorter, and the benefits are better. 205 Labour force participation rates are particularly low for women. Among districts with available data, the rates climbed above 40 percent only in Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, Badulla and Moneragala districts, the only ones in which the agricultural share of employment is above 50 percent. This suggests that a large share of female employment is in this sector (Figure 5.2). The low labour force participation of females in Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa may be due to cultural reasons, given the high proportion of Sri Lankan Moors, who are mostly Muslims. Figure 5.2: Female Labour Force Participation Rates and Agricultural Employment by District, 2010 Note: Total excludes the Northern Province. Source: Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka 2010a 82 sri lanka Human Development report 2012
Page 1 and 2:
SriLankaHumanDevelopmentReport 2012
Page 3 and 4:
Sri Lanka Human Development Report
Page 5 and 6:
Acknowledgements This report would
Page 7 and 8:
sri lanka Human Development report
Page 9 and 10:
Access to water 89 Accessibility to
Page 11 and 12:
Figure 1.1: Share of GDP by Provinc
Page 13 and 14:
Table 2.1 Table 2.2: Table 2.3: Tab
Page 15 and 16:
CHAPTER 1 Why Revisit Regional Dime
Page 17 and 18:
spreading its fruits more equitably
Page 19 and 20:
Negotiations are still ongoing to f
Page 21 and 22:
Box 1.1 A Selected Summary of Damag
Page 23 and 24:
Other Vulnerable Groups A number of
Page 25 and 26:
education financing and the distrib
Page 27 and 28:
CHAPTER 2 Patterns of Human Develop
Page 29 and 30:
population. It accounts for inequal
Page 31 and 32:
Regional Variations in the Human De
Page 33 and 34:
Map 2.1: Human Development Index 20
Page 35 and 36:
Gender Inequality Index Among distr
Page 37 and 38:
Comparing Districts Across Indices
Page 39 and 40:
14.5 percent in 2009-2010. As seen
Page 41 and 42:
Economic Growth and Inequality Alth
Page 43 and 44:
The poverty gap index, which measur
Page 45 and 46: half the headcount index. For the e
Page 47 and 48: What are the factors that push peop
Page 49 and 50: lowest incidence of both income and
Page 51 and 52: CHAPTER 3 Bridging Human Developmen
Page 53 and 54: disability of the heads of poor hou
Page 55 and 56: Infant Mortality and Under-five Mor
Page 57 and 58: and given three doses each of polio
Page 59 and 60: as the absence of illness, but also
Page 61 and 62: Box 3.2: Gender-based Violence The
Page 63 and 64: Figure 3.7: Distribution of Governm
Page 65 and 66: Figure 3.10: Medical Officers per 1
Page 67 and 68: While access to public health care
Page 69 and 70: Data on access in the Northern and
Page 71 and 72: People in Conflict-affected Areas F
Page 73 and 74: CHAPTER 4 Bridging Human Developmen
Page 75 and 76: Levels)—mark the end of the senio
Page 77 and 78: Funding Education Public investment
Page 79 and 80: Figure 4.2: Distribution of Out-of-
Page 81 and 82: Male children are generally less li
Page 83 and 84: Deficits in information technology
Page 85 and 86: supports displaced children who ret
Page 87 and 88: Educational Performance: Senior Sec
Page 89 and 90: Building a Knowledge Economy Sri La
Page 91 and 92: Figure 4.10: Distribution of Univer
Page 93 and 94: offered by private institutions. 18
Page 95: CHAPTER 5 Bridging Human Developmen
Page 99 and 100: across geographic locations and by
Page 101 and 102: Box 5.1 Programmes to Improve Infra
Page 103 and 104: Figure 5.5: Extent (Ac) of Agricult
Page 105 and 106: towards constructing multipurpose r
Page 107 and 108: The length of national, provincial
Page 109 and 110: performs better in terms of mobile
Page 111 and 112: Technological advancements and tran
Page 113 and 114: Figure 5.12: Number of Fishers and
Page 115 and 116: CHAPTER 6 Bridging Governance Gaps:
Page 117 and 118: Figure 6.1: Sri Lanka’s Tax Reven
Page 119 and 120: When taxation becomes more visible,
Page 121 and 122: Table 6.2: The CPI: Comparing Count
Page 123 and 124: While the objective is laudable, it
Page 125 and 126: There has been progress on some ind
Page 127 and 128: to collect their own revenue throug
Page 129 and 130: the public sector in policy reform
Page 131 and 132: Table 6.6: Women in Elected Politic
Page 133 and 134: CHAPTER 7 Building on Peace, Progre
Page 135 and 136: This is a considerable task, but it
Page 137 and 138: The Ministry of Health in associati
Page 139 and 140: nationally and locally. The decline
Page 141 and 142: Notes sri lanka Human Development r
Page 143 and 144: 54 World Health Organization 2001.
Page 145 and 146: amount equivalent to 8 percent of G
Page 147 and 148:
Bibliography sri lanka Human Develo
Page 149 and 150:
———. 2009e. Statistics databa
Page 151 and 152:
Draft-13%2006%202010.pdf]. Last acc
Page 153 and 154:
———. 2008c. Land Reforms in S
Page 155 and 156:
Table A2: Human Development Index a
Page 157 and 158:
Table A4: Income Poverty, Multidime
Page 159 and 160:
Table A6: Income Poverty and Measur
Page 161 and 162:
Table A8: Demography, Land and Hous
Page 163 and 164:
Table A10: Infant Mortality, Under-
Page 165 and 166:
Table A12: Maternal Nutrition, Tota
Page 167 and 168:
Table A14: Health Awareness Percent
Page 169 and 170:
Table A16: Primary Gross Enrolment
Page 171 and 172:
Table A18: Government Schools and S
Page 173 and 174:
Table A20: Labour Force Labour forc
Page 175 and 176:
Table A22: Unemployed Population Un
Page 177 and 178:
Table A24: Household Possessions Co
Page 179 and 180:
Table A26: Average Distance and Tim
Page 181 and 182:
Technical Note sri lanka Human Deve
Page 183 and 184:
HDI= (I Life Expectancy ) 1 / 3 ×
Page 185 and 186:
where MMR=maternal mortality rate;
Page 187 and 188:
Multidimensional poverty headcount(
Page 189 and 190:
Figure T.2: Intensity of Poverty an
Page 191 and 192:
of the total deprivations of poor p
Page 193:
178 sri lanka Human Development rep
show all

Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?