Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Private sector prefers non-graduates

, The Island.

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The country’s private sector favours non-graduates with skills and certain experience or technical qualifications over degree holders, a recent survey reveals.

This preference could be highly noticeable in the recruitment of non-graduates to the emerging sectors of the economy especially in the fields of IT, Marketing and related service industries, says the survey titled ‘Determinants of Unemployment among Sri Lankan University Graduates.

The survey was conducted by the Department of Manpower and Employment of the Ministry of Productivity Promotion.

The report says: "The causes for high unemployment among graduates are manifold. The new job creation in the labour market is not sufficient to absorb the increasing number of graduates passing out from the universities. Even for the professional sectors like engineering and medical services, the private sector does not provide sufficient new job creations in comparison to the piling demand for jobs. The eventual result is the long job queues for public sector employment among graduates, irrespective of the fact that the public sector is already overloaded."

Impact of previous employment of some graduates, too, had been observed by the survey which identifies it among other determinants of unemployment of graduates.

More than 5,000 graduates who passed out from six national universities during 2006 – 2009, were taken as the survey sample.