The International Labour Organization (ILO) published the fourth edition of its Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers (December 2024). The report provides estimates of the international migrant labour force through 2022, including employed and unemployed migrants, disaggregated by age, sex, country income group and region.
Human Level’s Take:
- The ILO’s latest data shows that global labour migration is steadily rising. In 2022, the global labour force saw 167.7 million international migrants, making up 4.7% of the total workforce — an increase of 30 million since 2013. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed migration, the overall number of employed migrants continues to rise, particularly in sectors like care —in part the result of an aging population in high-income destination countries. Most work in services (68.4%), followed by industry (24.3%) and agriculture (7.4%).
- Migrant women face additional barriers in the workforce, the result of structural barriers, socio-cultural factors and discriminatory practices in both host and home country labour markets. Women tend to have more limited access to jobs and greater unpaid care responsibilities.
- What are the implications of these trends for the private sector? For one, companies may find higher human rights risks to workers in their operations and value chains, driven by the heightened vulnerability of migrant workers compared to non-migrant workers, especially in ‘blue collar’ roles. Migrant women face even higher risks of labour exploitation.
- In addition, companies may need to account for the fact that migrant workers tend to have less access to social services in their host countries, making it more difficult for them to earn a living wage, access healthcare and achieve an adequate standard of living. This is especially the case for workers in sectors with high rates of informality, like construction. Conducting human rights due diligence with an eye to the higher risks facing migrant workers — including in the value chain — can help companies to better prevent and mitigate these risks.
Some key takeaways:
- Labour migration on the rise: The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 167.7 million international migrants were in the global labour force in 2022, representing 4.7% of the total workforce. This marked an increase of over 30 million from 2013. While the number of international migrants in the labour force grew steadily from 2013 to 2019, the pace slowed to less than 1% annually between 2019 and 2022, likely due to factors limiting migration like the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 167.7 million migrants in the labour force, 155.6 million were employed and 12.1 million were unemployed. Despite overall growth, the share of international migrants in the working-age population remained stable, at around 66%. Per the ILO, the overall increase in the number of employed migrants suggests that more migrants have been able to find jobs abroad, potentially due to aging populations in high-income countries — creating new labour market opportunities, especially in sectors like agriculture, care and construction.
- Migrant women employed at lower rates: Men constituted the majority (102.7 million) of international migrants in the labour force, while women made up 38.7%, reflecting both a lower female share of the total migrant population and lower female labour force participation. The ILO indicates that this is likely due to structural barriers, socio-cultural factors, and discriminatory practices in labour markets. These challenges — including limited access to employment opportunities, a lack of childcare and greater responsibilities for unpaid care work — disproportionately affect migrant women. In low-income and upper-middle-income countries, as well as in regions like Eastern Europe, North America and sub-Saharan Africa, migrant women’s labour force participation is also lower than that of non-migrant women. Additionally, migrant women face higher unemployment rates (8.7%) compared to migrant men (6.2%), with socio-cultural norms and gender expectations further limiting their employment prospects in both their countries of origin and destination.
- Regional and sectoral distribution: Most international migrant workers are concentrated in high-income countries, due to incentives like better living standards and increased job opportunities. The biggest destination regions are North America, Arab States and Northern, Western and Southern Europe. In 2022, the majority of employed international migrants worked in the services sector (68.4%), followed by industry (24.3%) and agriculture (7.4%), reflecting a stable trend over time. This differs from non-migrants, who were more evenly distributed across services (51.5%), agriculture (24.3%), and industry (24.2%). There were notable gender disparities in the distribution of migrant workers across sectors. Migrant women constitute a greater proportion of migrant workers in certain sectors: in 2022, 80.7% of migrant women worked in services compared to 60.8% of migrant men. This could be driven by a global demand for care, domestic and healthcare work, fueled by aging populations, especially in high-income countries. In addition, social networks and recruitment agencies tend to funnel women into the services sector. Meanwhile, men had a much higher share in industry (31.7%) — especially in industries like construction — compared to women (12.2%). Both men and women had similar representation in agriculture, around 7%.
