The International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF published Child Labour: Global Estimates 2024, Trends and the Road Forward (June 2025). This report provides an overview of child labour patterns and trends, concluding with a discussion of the road ahead.
Human Level’s Take:
- Nearly 138 million children are engaged in child labour—8% of all children globally—with 54 million involved in hazardous work that threatens their health, safety, and development. While child labour has declined by over 22 million since 2020, the world is not on track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, which aims to eliminate child labour in all its forms by 2025.
- Some sectors are more at risk of child labour than others. Agriculture remains the largest sector for child labour, accounting for 61% of all cases, followed by services (27%), like domestic work and selling goods in markets, and industry (13%), including mining and manufacturing.
- Climate change is a major driver of child labour. How? For instance, it pushes many households deeper into poverty, increasing the likelihood that families will rely on children’s income and labour to survive. The World Bank estimates that between 32 to 132 million people could fall into extreme poverty due to climate change by 2030.
- So, what can companies do? Companies can seek to identify and address child labour risks and impacts in their operations and supply chains, focusing on lower tiers in their supply chain where risks are higher. Companies can also provide decent work with fair pay and respect workers’ rights to organise and bargain collectively. In addition, they can design and implement climate action that considers impacts on children, as well as support public policies that reduce child labour, such as ensuring free, high-quality schooling and universalising social protection.
- Since child labour is a complex issue requiring collective action, companies should also: engage in dialogue with governments and workers’ organisations to ensure actions to tackle child labour reflect local priorities and are grounded in societal consensus. They can also look for opportunities to engage in collaborative frameworks, such as the Global Coalition on Social Justice, the Alliance 8.7, and the Child Labour Platform, to mobilise coordinated action.
Some key takeaways:
- The current situation: Nearly 138 million children are in child labour, accounting for almost 8% of all children globally. 54 million children are in hazardous work likely to harm their health, safety and morals. More boys than girls were involved in child labour, although this changes when household chores are factored into the data. Agriculture remains the largest sector for child labour, accounting for 61% of all cases, followed by services (27%), like domestic work and selling goods in markets, and industry (13%), including mining and manufacturing. Over the last four years, the world has returned to a path of progress to end child labour. Today, there are more than 20 million fewer children in child labour than in 2020. However, despite recent gains, the fight against child labour will continue for decades into the future without rapidly accelerating progress. For instance, to eliminate child labour by 2030, there needs to be 11 times the current pace of progress. The ILO and UNICEF highlight that behind the numbers and statistics are real children, and it is their faces and futures that must remain at the forefront of the global drive against child labour.
- Child labour and climate change: Climate change is both a direct and indirect driver of child labour. It is pushing many households deeper into poverty, with the World Bank estimating that between 32 million and 132 million people could fall into extreme poverty due to climate impacts by 2030. This increases the likelihood that families will rely on children’s income or labour. Climate change is also impacting agricultural productivity, pushing farmers in some affected areas to shift to crops for which child labour may be more intensive. Children may also be sent to work in other sectors, such as mining and manufacturing, if less rain reduces agricultural productivity. In addition, exposure to climate-related shocks, such as lasting damage to crops, reduced harvests, the loss of livestock, the destruction of storage facilities and damaged farm machinery, leaves families more likely to fall into persistent poverty and, therefore, be more reliant on child labour. Furthermore, climate change is associated with changes in migration and violent conflict due to diminishing basic resources such as water and fertile lands. Both these situations can put children at greater risk of child labour, including its worst forms, as well as loss of schooling. Climate change is impacting children already in child labour by worsening working conditions. For instance, children in agriculture are exposed to heat stress, insect-borne diseases, dust, wildfires and higher reliance on pesticides. These negatively impact their health, development and wellbeing.
- So, what can companies do? Companies can:
- identify and seek to address child labour risks and impacts in their operations and supply chains, paying particular attention to informal micro-and small enterprises operating in the lower tiers (where child labour risks are more pronounced).
- provide decent work with a fair income to workers, which lessens the reliance on child labour.
- advance workers’ rights to organise and bargain collectively, empowering them to influence working conditions, productivity and incomes. This is the foundation for achieving and sustaining decent work and, therefore, reduces families’ reliance on child labour.
- carefully design and implement climate action that avoids unintentionally increasing the risk of child labour. For example, taking into account that closing coal mines without providing alternative livelihoods can leave families struggling and more likely to resort to child labour.
- support government policies that reduce child labour, including ensuring free, high-quality schooling until at least the age of compulsory schooling; strengthening legal protections against child labour, aligned with international standards; equipping education systems to support the school-to-work transition; universalising social protection to offset the socio-economic vulnerability underpinning child labour; and expanding access to basic services, including safe water and reliable electricity.
- engage in dialogue with governments and workers’ organisations to ensure actions to tackle child labour reflect local priorities and are grounded in societal consensus; and
- look for opportunities to engage in multilateral collaborative frameworks mobilising to tackle child labour, including the Global Coalition on Social Justice, the Alliance 8.7, and the Child Labour Platform.
