Factors influencing Youth Unemployment in Sri Lanka

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.