Getting more women into labour force

An economic advisor to the Finance Ministry recently suggested that subsidized maternity leave and investments in day care centres could increase female labour force participation and persuade companies to hire more women.

“If we do things like say subsidize for maternity leave, invest in day care centres and one of the key things is investing in public transport, to ensure females have safety and comfort when going in public transport – all of these things contribute,” Deshal de Mel said.

He noted that other countries have seen success with such initiatives and that most companies in Sri Lanka are unwilling to hire females due to their child-rearing potential.

                                                                                            Deshal de Mel 

“I think that’s one of the biggest constraints that companies see when they hire people. This person is 25 years old, she’s going to have kids in the next five to six years, we will invest in her training and then she’s going to leave,” de Mel explained. However, companies in other countries even give provisions for paternity leave, showing a higher respect for cultivating children. Meanwhile, de Mel also noted that approximately 60 percent of Sri Lankan graduates are women. Female labour force participation however was 37.6 percent in 1Q17, up slightly from 36.3 percent YoY.

“So we have invested a lot in terms of educating our population but a lot of them are not working beyond a certain point,” de Mel said. Further, the DCS figures showed that in terms of education level, the highest unemployment rate was among those who have achieved GCE A/L and above, at 7.8 percent, with female unemployment rate in the category at 10.8 percent.
Overall, the female unemployment rate too was also higher in 1Q17 with 6.5 percent compared to 2.7 percent among males.

The effect was pronounced in the 25-29 age group, where 15.5 percent of females were unemployed, compared to approximately 3.9 percent males (although the DCS warns about the accuracy of the latter figure), and to a lesser extent in the 15-24 age group, where 23.1 percent of females were unemployed compared to 15.6 percent of males.

Meanwhile, approximately 5.32 million females were classified as economically inactive, although some economists argue that a key reason for such classification, raising children and being a housewife, should also be considered as being economically active.

In comparison, just 1.79 million males were economically inactive. Many undertaking studies and training are also considered as economically inactive, since labour statistics are measured among individuals above 
the age of 15.