Covid – 19 Pandemic and Unemployment in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic also known as the corona virus pandemic, is an ongoing pandemic of in the world. This pandemic has affected economic and social activities all over the world. There are lot of countries have locked down their economies. Unemployed persons available and/or looking for work, and who did not work and taken steps to find a job during last 4 weeks and ready to accept a job given a work opportunity within next two weeks are defined as unemployed. Unemployment is a key measure of economic health. Sri Lankan labor force has 8.6 million of economically active population in the 4th quarter of 2019.Because of this pandemic employment protection has been threatened and the loss of income. The problem is how to affect Covid -19 pandemic to unemployment in Sri Lanka? Objectives of this study, is to identify the relationship between these two, how this situation affects to Sri Lankan economy, due to the impact of new trade routes, export import orientation, international trade and advancement of new transportation system we as a country experience the impact of globalization. In this study, primary data from questionnaire and secondary data from quarterly data reports of Census and Statistics department, Sri Lanka have used to this study and used descriptive statistics for represent data and used some statistical data packages for data analysis.The challenge that Sri Lanka faces now is that how to take control over economy regenerated employment opportunities and take relevant measures protect existing employment in the labor market through proper labor market reforms. As a result of this study we found the unemployment rate got increased because of the pandemic and these two have positive relationship. The final conclusion is that the objectives have been achieved.