Gender imbalance in sri lankan labor markets and the concerns of human resource management

Abstract

The employment conditions in Sri Lanka are at the optimal in statistics for a period of time since independence. According to the Central Bank statistics, the employment rate is 95.3% while the labor force participation rate is 53.3% in 2014. Sri Lanka is now experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in comparison to previous periods. But, it does not mean that the labor force is performing perfectly. Even though, there are no major issues in Sri Lankan labor markets today, it is expected such issues in future which will result unfavorably from the Human Resource Management perspective. That hidden issue is emphasized as the gender imbalance in Sri Lankan labor markets which simply means women participation rate to the labor force is gradually increasing while men participation rate is slightly decreasing. This is a review paper which investigates the reasons affecting to this gender imbalance in Sri Lankan labor markets, analyzing the employment contribution by gender in Sri Lankan economy, future trends in economy's labor force. Further, this features the role of Human Resource professionals and the strategies to be adopted in addressing the aforesaid imbalance. This paper fostered with the information obtained by secondary sources and this is the first review carried out in emphasizing such an issue in Sri Lankan labor force blending with the HRM perspective.