According to the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey Annual Report - 2011 , published by the Department of Census and Statistics, Ministry of Finance and Planning, an estimated 8.6 million people fit the demographics to be in the labor force in Sri Lanka during the year 2011. About 8,196,927 of them were employed, leaving some 357,803 people unemployed, making the unemployment rate in Sri Lanka 4.2 percent for the year of 2011. Although this is a drop by about half from the year 2000, when the unemployment was at about eight percent, and a significant improvement from 1990, when the rate was at almost 16 percent unemployed, Sri Lanka still has a hard time employing its own native population, thus limiting opportunities for newly-arrived foreigners.
Finding a job in Sri Lanka as a foreigner may prove to be quite an enduring task, but not impossible. There are opportunities to volunteer, teach English or work for an international company. Foreigners with certain skills and experience will most certainly have a better chance of finding work in Sri Lanka.
Most commonly, expats tend to find jobs in the private sectors of commerce and industry, such as hospitality and tourism, customer relations, engineering, finance, textiles and apparel. Infrastructure and tourism are especially promising, as these enterprises have picked up since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.
Keep in mind that salaries will be low in Sri Lanka, compared to most Western countries. You may not be able to save money as an employed expat in Sri Lanka, but your salary should cover a comfortable lifestyle, mainly because the cost of living in Sri Lanka is generally significantly lower than other destinations. You may also be able to find work with an international organization that pays a ‘foreign salary,’ versus a ‘local salary.’