Sri Lanka’s Pvt sector has 5Mn employees and 500,000 vacancies: report

Jan 08, 2018 (LBO) - Around five million people were engaged in employment Sri Lanka's private sector currently while around 500,000 vacancies are there in various job categories, a new report shows.. The highest number of employees was reported in the services sector and among the occupation group the highest number of employees was reported in the Service and Sales Workers category in 2017, the Department of Census and Statistics says in it's Labour Demand Survey 2017. According to the findings of the survey, the number existing vacancies in the country by June 2017 was estimated as 497,302. Among them Sewing Machine Operator is the occupation, which has the largest demand. In addition to that  Security Guards  Other Manufacturing Labourers  Shop Sales Assistants  Advertising and Marketing Professionals  Commercial and Sales Representatives  Cleaners and Helpers in Offices  Hotels and Other Establishments  Manufacturing Supervisors  General Office Clerks  Stall and Market Salespersons were found to be highly demanded jobs in the country. The highest demand for labour is reported for Sewing Machine Operators (77,189) followed by security guards (57,008). Among the professional categories, high demand was reported for mechanical engineering technicians, accounting associate professionals and nursing professionals. Labour Demand Survey was conducted in 2017 by the Department of Census and Statistics for the first time with the view of full filling the existing data gap with respect to the labour demand in Sri Lanka.   A sample of 3,500 firms covering whole Island has been selected using the frame designed at the listing stage of the Economic Census conducted in 2013. Target population of the survey was firms consist of more than 3 persons engaged belong to private sector. Since the availability of administrative data for public sector, it was not covered in the survey.