Sri Lanka has been regarded as a model of a country with successful social policies, yet for decades it has faced major challenges in providing employment for youth. Although the labor force has become more educated, and this trend is particularly marked for youth, the main source of employment for both youth and adults remains the informal sector. On the positive side, unemployment declined in last decades, particularly for youth. The Sri Lankan government has continually acted on various fronts to address the youth unemployment problem. It has tried to modernize Sri Lanka's general education system and to increase the accessibility of training to promote youth employability. Other actions included strengthening entrepreneurship programs, introducing career guidance and improving labor market information to help young people in their job searches. In 2007, the government developed the National Action Plan for youth employment, built on a coherent youth employment policy framework and deriving a consistent set of policy recommendations. The plan was based on in-depth analysis of Sri Lanka's labor market, provided via a series of background papers undertaken under the auspices of the Youth Employment Network. To provide the richness and comprehensiveness of this analysis in its totality, these papers, updated and revised, are collected in the present publication. It offers a wealth of valuable advice to the government and other stakeholders to achieve this goal.