Sri Lanka’s current phenomenon of an ageing population, with persons aged 60 years and above representing a share of 12.4%, compared to a mere 6.6% in 1981, poses serious challenges to the economy, the Central Bank has warned. Such demographic trends pose challenges in the guise of reduced labour force participation, increased dependency ratio, low productivity, lower savings rates and increased public expenditure on social welfare.
“Thus, policies could be directed towards engaging the elderly population on productive activities through upskilling initiatives, educating them on retirement planning, encouraging their participation in contributory superannuation schemes and development of workforce skills for the geriatric care sector to reduce possible socio-economic vulnerabilities,” the Central Bank highlighted in its 2017 Annual Report.
The report noted that while the government in 2017 continued to spend on health and education services, with the aim of improving the quality and equitable access to such services, the country’s health sector policies, however need to be focused to address the issues stemming from an ageing population and changing disease patterns.
Sri Lanka’s labour force grew by a marginal 3.1% in 2017, compared to 2016, the Central Bank said.
The labour force, which is defined as the economically active population aged 15 years and above, was 8.567 million in 2017, compared to 8.311 million in 2016.
Meanwhile, the number of employed persons had increased by 3.3% to 8.2 million in 2017, compared to 7.95 million in the previous year, amidst structural shifts in employment in the economy.
In terms of the absolute number of employment opportunities created, a significant increase was observed in private sector employment, amidst an increase across all categories during 2017.
Accordingly, the number employed in the private sector, which represented a share of 43.3% of total employment in 2017, increased by 117,405 persons while the self-employed category increased by 59,273 persons.
On the other hand, as per the Public Sector Employment Survey conducted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the total public sector employment was 1,394,172 at the end of 2017, compared to 1,389,767 in 2016. - AR