By Chellappah Gnanaganeshan
As Sri Lanka continues its path towards economic recovery, one critical challenge remains insufficiently addressed: the large and persistent number of young people who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET).
This issue is not merely a labour market concern; it represents a structural development challenge with far-reaching implications for inclusive growth, social cohesion, and long-term economic resilience.
Recent data from the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) underline the scale of the problem. According to the DCS (2024), the NEET rate among youth aged 15–24 declined modestly to 17.2% in 2024.
While this suggests some improvement, it still means that approximately one in five young people in Sri Lanka remains disconnected from education, employment, or training. Studies that apply a broader youth definition (ages 15–29) estimate NEET rates of around 25%, indicating that youth disengagement remains substantial across age cohorts.
More troubling than the overall figure is the pronounced gender disparity it conceals. While the NEET rate among young men declined significantly to 11.9%, the rate among young women remained high at 22.4%, close to one in four.
In effect, recent labour market gains have disproportionately benefited young men, while young women continue to face systemic barriers, including unpaid care responsibilities, limited mobility, and restricted access to suitable and flexible employment opportunities. This persistent exclusion heightens labour market vulnerability and constrains Sri Lanka’s inclusive recovery.
The implications extend far beyond labour statistics. High NEET rates undermine economic productivity, weaken social cohesion, and increase the risk of intergenerational poverty. When a significant share of youth, especially educated young women, remains excluded from productive engagement, the country forfeits a critical demographic dividend at a time when recovery demands maximum utilisation of human capital.
Sri Lanka’s NEET challenge is particularly striking in comparative perspective. Despite relatively strong education and human development outcomes, the country’s NEET rate remains higher than that of several regional countries.
In contrast, East and Southeast Asian economies such as Vietnam and Indonesia have reduced youth disengagement through stronger school-to-work transition systems, labour-intensive growth, and closer employer engagement in skills development.
In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, although youth unemployment may rise during economic downturns, comprehensive social protection systems, childcare services, and activation policies limit the duration and persistence of NEET status.
Evidence from the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests that Sri Lanka’s NEET challenge is largely structural rather than cyclical. A significant share of NEET youth, particularly young women, are economically inactive rather than unemployed. Many transition directly into informal, low-quality work with limited income security or social protection, while rural youth face additional constraints related to transport, market access, and weak local labour demand.
Addressing this challenge requires moving beyond fragmented, supply-driven training programmes towards market-oriented and integrated solutions. A value chain approach offers a practical pathway by linking youth directly to real economic opportunities across priority sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, livestock, construction, and small-scale manufacturing.
Rather than focusing narrowly on job placement, this approach identifies multiple entry points along value chains – as service providers, processors, logistics operators, digital marketers, and micro-entrepreneurs.
In Sri Lanka’s agri-food sector, for example, NEET youth do not need to enter farming solely as traditional cultivators. They can engage in agri services such as mechanisation, irrigation system maintenance, post-harvest handling, food processing, packaging, storage, transport, and digital marketing.
Young women, in particular, can participate through home-based or group enterprises producing value-added products, enabling economic engagement while accommodating mobility and care constraints.
However, value chain interventions alone are insufficient unless combined with targeted care economy investments. Unpaid care responsibilities remain one of the most significant barriers preventing young women from entering or remaining in the labour force.
Expanding access to affordable childcare, promoting community-based care models, and supporting flexible work arrangements are therefore essential complements to market-driven youth employment strategies. When these approaches are integrated, they create sustainable pathways from inactivity or informal work into productive and secure livelihoods.
Sri Lanka’s recovery will not be sustainable if a quarter of its youth remains disconnected from opportunity. Placing NEET youth, especially young women, at the centre of economic and social policy is not only a social imperative, but a sound economic investment in the country’s future.
(The writer is from DevPro, the legacy organisation of Oxfam in Sri Lanka, working towards inclusive economic development)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication.
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