There were 27.6 million people in forced labour on any given day in 2021. This figure translates to 3.5 people for every thousand people in the world. Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people in forced labour increased by 2.7 million. The overall rise was the product of an increase in the number of people in privately-imposed forced labour.
- Nearly nine out of every 10 (86%) instances of forced labour are imposed by private actors – 63% in forced labour exploitation and 23% in forced commercial sexual exploitation.
- State-imposed forced labour accounts for the remaining 14% of people in forced labour.
- Asia and the Pacific is host to more than half of the global total (15.1 million).
Forced labour touches virtually all parts of the private economy.
The industry sector includes:
- mining and quarrying,
- manufacturing,
- construction, and
- utilities.
The services sector encompasses activities related to:
- Wholesale and trade, accommodation
- food service activities
- art and entertainment
- personal services
- administrative and support services
- education, health and social services
- transport and storage.
The agriculture sector includes:
- forestry, hunting
- cultivation of crops
- livestock production
- fishing
- domestic work is that performed in third party households.
People in forced labour are subjected to multiple forms of coercion to compel them to work against their will. The systematic and deliberate withholding of wages is the most common (36%) form of coercion, used by abusive employers to compel workers to stay in a job out of fear of losing accrued earnings. This is followed by abuse of vulnerability through threat of dismissal, which was experienced by one in five (21%) of those in forced labour. More severe forms of coercion, including forced confinement, physical and sexual violence, and the deprivation of basic needs, are less common but by no means negligible.
Total illegal profits generated from forced labour amount to an estimated US$236 billion annually, resulting from almost US$10,000 profit per victim. In the case of workers in forced labour exploitation, these illegal financial gains represent the difference between what the employers are actually paying the workers and what they would be paying them in the absence of forced labour under normal circumstances. In other words, they are the wages that rightfully belong in the pockets of workers that instead remain in the hands of their exploiters as a result of their coercive practices.
Source: ILO, Profits and poverty: The economics of forced labour. Second edition, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2024. © ILO.