A survey conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics to quantify the labour demand of Sri Lanka in 2017 reveals that the country’s private sector employed around five million people while there were almost half a million vacancies across various job categories.

The highest number of employees was reported in the ‘service and sales workers’ category with the highest demand being reported for sewing machine operators and security guards.

The data and statistics collected through this survey can aid in planning vocational and university training programmes, which will ensure that the labour supply matches the demand