Around 43 percent of young Sri Lankans with postsecondary education are unemployed, according to data presented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), highlighting a serious mismatch between educational qualifications and employment opportunities.
The figure places Sri Lanka at the highest end of the comparison on youth unemployment among those with advanced education. The data highlight the particularly difficult transition from education to employment facing young people in Sri Lanka and other South Asian economies.
Sri Lanka’s estimated 43 percent is followed closely by India at about 42 percent, while Bangladesh records approximately 36 percent. By comparison, the corresponding rate is around 19 percent for the rest of the world, while unemployment among highly educated youth is considerably lower in Singapore, at about 8 percent, and Japan, at approximately 4 percent.
The figures underline the scale of the employment challenge confronting Sri Lanka’s educated youth. More than four in every ten young Sri Lankans with postsecondary qualifications are represented as unemployed, despite having attained higher levels of education, the IMF noted.
The IMF has identified a broader regional problem in which highly educated young workers struggle to find positions that match their qualifications. The situation reflects a persistent mismatch between the skills produced by education systems and those demanded by employers.
For Sri Lanka, the problem is particularly significant as the country continues to recover from a severe economic crisis that disrupted employment, incomes and household living standards. Young people entering the labour market face the additional challenge of finding suitable employment in an economy undergoing structural and technological change, according to the IMF.
The issue is also emerging as artificial intelligence and automation transform workplaces. While new technologies have the potential to increase productivity, create investment and generate new forms of employment, they may also reduce demand for some entry-level tasks if the development of workers’ skills fails to keep pace.
The IMF has also stressed the importance of making education and reskilling systems more responsive to changing labour-market requirements. Universities, vocational institutions and technical programmes need to ensure that graduates possess skills that correspond with the needs of employers.
For Sri Lanka, this means addressing not only the number of jobs available but also the quality and relevance of employment opportunities for graduates. Stronger links between universities, industry and skills-training institutions could help reduce the gap between qualifications and labour-market demand, the IMF added.
