Agriculture Outputs are mainly divided into two:
▪ Cash crop from Plantation Agriculture. ▪ Food crop from subsistence Agriculture.
Manufacturing sector too plays a major role by employing 17 percent of the workforce of the country and contributes 19 percent of the gross domestic product approx. (nationsencyclopedia.com, 2021)
Main manufacturing types includes:
▪ Cement. ▪ Fertilizers. ▪ Petroleum products. ▪ Ceramics. ▪ Textiles. ▪ Vegetable Oils.
The Service sector which is known to be the largest contributor of the economy, it employs 45 percent of the workforce and also contributes 60 percent of the gross domestic product estimated. (nationsencyclopedia.com, 2021)
Types of Service sectors:
▪ Banking. ▪ Finance. ▪ Tourism. ▪ Retail Trade.
The country is enriched with many natural resources, with supportive equatorial climate with high average rainfall and also rich in fishing resources & unexploited ores/gems. Sri Lanka is a mixed economy, where intervention of private individuals and state (government) into the economy is equal. Foreign investments are encouraged as well as there are several free trade zones which enables country to take part in imports and exports. Sri Lanka’s economy is highly diversified and which leads manufacturing and service industries to grow rapidly, but whereas agricultural industry is being modernized. The country is almost self-sufficient in rice production, which in recent years has dropped due to modernization, which means agricultural sector activity reduces and manufacturing and service sector activity rises. Unemployment has been a problem for the country for decades and has been significantly reducing until 2000s. (nationsencyclopedia.com, 2021)
Impact Of The Pandemic On Unemployment
Sri Lanka follows ‘decent work and economic growth’ as the Sustainable Development Goals set, this goal recognizes economic growth which is not the only thing where they too consider generating jobs in terms of productive and meaningful work. Which was done in order to reduce the unemployment rates of the country. The pandemic was a huge factor affecting the economy and especially the unemployment rate. Government was taking ‘Crush and Contain’ strategy, the whole country went in most strict curfew level lockdowns for a period of 52 days after the first case of covid victim was confirmed on March 11th 2020.
The estimates state that due to the curfew level lockdowns imposed in Sri Lanka between March to June 2020, the overall unemployment rate of the country rose above 5% in the second quarter and will continue to rise above 6% as in future for the rest of the year. Also affects the future of the workforce too, for example young school graduates or degree holders may not be able to seek to new job offers because firms try to cut down costs in lockdowns and so the fresh bloods may too be including in unemployment rate and also more likely to increase the unemployment rate or unemployment until pandemic risks persist. On the other hand, part-timers, contract-based workers or time-based workers are the mostly likely to lose their jobs and unfortunately most of them are unskilled workers, which may also be an adverse effect and also may worsen the poverty gap.
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