Changing causes and consequences of labour force participation trends among the elderly in Sri Lanka

Population ageing in Sri Lanka is an inevitable outcome of a rapid demographic transition. This has occurred in a shorter time period in Sri Lan­ka than the developed countries. In traditional Sri Lankan society, younger generations were responsible for subsistence of the elderly while the elder­ly withdrew from the workforce. Increased life expectancy, modernization, migration, family transition, and retirement benefits, health condition of the elderly and inter and intra generational dependency influence changes in economic status among elderly and it can determining the wellbeing of the elderly in the latter part of their life cycle. Therefore, this paper focuses on examining the trends and patterns of the elderly labour force participation, causes and consequences. A Mixed methodological approach has been used, while quantitative data was drawn from the micro data of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Surveys of 2008 to 2012 and qualitative data collected from case studies. The main analysis is based on a total of 8006 males and fe­males aged 60 years and over. The results indicate that annual elderly labour force participation rates are about 26% and nearly 9% of them are elderly in the total labour force over the period.

Sri Lanka Journal of Advanced Social Studies, 2013; Vol 3(2); Page 3-30