Determinants of Unemployment and Unemployment Duration

Abstract

— Unemployment is a global problem and in Sri Lanka has continued to be consistently high. Consistently high unemployment is irrespective of the economic growth but cause to change the Gross Domestic Product. The aim of this study is providing a statistical tool to model unemployment and unemployment duration to enhance the dynamics of the unemployed. Basically used primary data through questionnaire and two stage stratified sampling procedure is adopted to select a sample of 1200 housing units in Kalutara district. Chi square test, Binary Logistic Regression and Cox Regression used as the main analytical tools to find out the determinants of unemployment and unemployment duration. The results reviled that living sector, gender, level of education and language constraints are highly associated with unemployment of an individual. The majority among unemployed are young people who belongs to age group 15 – 29 years and it shows that unemployment rate declines with the age. Highest unemployment rate is reported from educated group. It can be highlight that long-terms unemployment amongst Sri Lankans mainly due to their extended job search.