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Sri Lanka Characteristics and Occupational Distribution
A precise breakdown of the labor force and movement within it
was not possible in the late 1980s because the official
statistics were not reliable. Early censuses, taken when the
island was a British colony, compiled long lists of occupations
with little comparability from one census to the next. The
postindependence censuses also suffer from inconsistencies. They
show a decline in the proportion of the work force engaged in
agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing from 52 percent in
1953 to just over 45 percent in 1981. The proportion of the work
force engaged in manufacturing remained steady over the same
period, at 10 percent. The largest increase was in services,
including commerce, banking, and finance. The proportion of
workers in this category rose from 11.2 percent in 1953 to 15.7
percent in 1981. There was also an increase in construction, from
1.9 percent to just over 3 percent. Transport, storage, and
communications increased from 3.5 percent to 4.8 percent over the
same period. All such figures should be regarded as tentative and
subject to revision.
Demographic and educational changes after independence
altered the composition of the work force as much as economic
development. Rapid population growth brought additional workers
into the job market every year and lowered the average worker's
age. The growth of the economy was too limited to provide
opportunities for the new workers. Similarly, the extension of
education qualified many thousands of youths for jobs that did
not exist. This fact has been particularly true for women, who in
the 1980s made up about 25 percent of the labor force despite
equal access to education.
Data as of October 1988
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