Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

across geographic locations and by the level of education.
Compared to the national average, 9.6 percent of workers
in the estate sector are among the working poor, more
than twice the 4.2 percent for urban areas. By level of
education, those who have not passed O-Levels are much
more likely to be considered working poor than those with
higher education. In fact, 91 percent of the working poor
have not passed O-Levels. 219 Women were more likely
to be working poor than men, possibly because more are
unpaid family workers. By employment status, private
sector employees and family workers were most likely to
be poor. Across sectors, the portion of working poor was
highest in agriculture.
The rise in employment from 2000 to 2010 resulted from
employment growth in services and industry. During this
period, total employment grew at 1.5 percent on average
Poverty is higher in agriculture and lowest in services (Table
5.1). It is highest in the estate sector, irrespective of the
type of employment: Over a quarter of estate households
were impoverished in 2006-2007. The considerably higher
rate of poverty stems in part from historical setbacks,
which are clearly evident in poor social infrastructure,
educational attainment and housing. However, the overall
poverty rate in the estate sector fell to 11.4% by 2009-10,
as discussed in Chapter 2.
Despite its low contribution to employment growth,
agriculture in 2010 produced around 12.8 percent of GDP
and was responsible for 33 percent of total employment. 221
Outside the Western Province, it is especially important,
as more than a third of all employed persons are engaged
in it. This proportion is particularly large in Uva and
Table 5.1: Poverty Head Count Index by Employment of Head of Household, %
sri Lanka Urban Rural Estate
2006-2007
Agriculture 21.6 8.3 20.8 29.4
Industry 15.1 8.3 16.0 29.2
Services 11.3 6.5 12.1 26.4
Total 15.4 7.1 16.0 28.8
2009-2010
Total 8.9 5.3 9.4 11.4
Note: Poverty data are not yet available by sector for 2009-2010.
Source: Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka 2011a
per year. 220 In comparison, the increases in industry and
services were 2.5 and 2.0 percent, respectively. Employment
in agriculture grew by a marginal 0.2 percent. In absolute
terms, the total number of employed persons rose by
almost a million. Around 61 percent of new jobs were in
services, followed by 31 percent in industry and 8 percent
in agriculture.
North Central provinces, where it employs 59 percent of
workers (Figure 5.3). Expenditure on agriculture, at 1.1
percent of GDP in 2007, is higher than for other South
Asian countries, except for Bhutan at 2.2 percent in 2007
and the Maldives at 1.3 percent that year. It is lower
than for countries like Thailand, and way below China’s
expenditure. 222
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sri lanka Human Development report 2012