Abstract:
The potential stock of human capital among youth is a
leading factor for accelerating the economic growth of a
country via maximising full capacity utilisation. The
main purpose of this study is to identify the factors
influencing youth unemployment in Sri Lanka using a
subsample of 3,562 youths derived from the Sri Lanka
Labour Force Survey, 2018. Findings stemmed from
binary logistic regression analysis revealed that skill
mismatch, including language and digital literacy and
geographical mismatch, including province, influences
youth unemployment in Sri Lanka. Moreover, this study
showed that the probability of being unemployed is high
among young females, youths who are educated up to
post-secondary level, vocationally trained youths, and
youths with high levels of language and digital literacy.
The findings highlight the importance of improving the
country's human capital in terms of education and
vocational training and allow policymakers to rethink the
possible reforms in the education and vocational training
systems to improve knowledge, skills, attitudes, and the
mindsets of the youth targeting job orientations.
