Unemployment in Sri Lanka grew to 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 4 percent a year earlier, with loss of jobs in the agriculture and industry sectors, data from the Department of Census and Statistics showed on Monday.

While in the fourth quarter of 2017 when the total number of those employed in the agriculture sector stood at 2.24 million, this number had decreased to 2.07 million in the fourth quarter of last year, the Department said.

Female participation in the labor force also shrank during the fourth quarter of last year to 34.3 percent, from 36.4 percent a year earlier.

Unemployment remained high among the youth, especially females.

In terms of education, unemployment was highest among those who had General Certificate of Education (GCE) A/L or higher qualifications.

"The problem of unemployment is more acute in the case of educated females than educated males, which was observed consistently over the results of previous survey rounds as well," the Department of Census and Statistics said.

However, according to local media reports, Sri Lanka creates more female university graduates than males.