Recruitment fees and related costs at a glance

This brochure presents key insights on global and regional data and trends on recruitment fees and related costs, including crucial information on measuring recruitment fees and related costs.

This brochure offers key insights on global and regional data and trends on recruitment fees and related costs in a visual format. It also showcases key stakeholder initiatives, including from employers’ and workers’ organizations, state-led bilateral and multilateral initiatives aimed at reducing or eliminating recruitment fees and related costs, and regional and multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at reducing or eliminating recruitment fees and related costs. 

The Brochure also provides information on empirical evidence on the impact of recruitment fees and related costs. It includes guidance on measuring recruitment fees and costs paid by the worker as a portion of the worker’s monthly income earned in the destination country, with data from eight countries and further disaggregates the information by gender for seven of them. This document also briefly explores the links between gender and recruitment fees and related costs.

Executive Summary - Global study on recruitment fees and related costs: Second edition

This executive summary synthesizes the key finding of the second edition of the Global Study. It presents the trends concerning recruitment fees and related costs for countries, businesses, trade unions, and other recruitment stakeholders, as well as key promising practices and considerations for the future.

The second edition of the Global Study on recruitment fees and related costs is a review of 110 countries across all five regions to document current regulatory approaches and experience on the recruitment fees and related cost. This global study further reviews international, regional, and bilateral frameworks on recruitment and labour migration and considers business-led, trade union, and multi-stakeholder initiatives regarding recruitment fees and related costs. It documents the progress made, challenges encountered, and regulatory gaps that need to be addressed in the five years since the adoption of the ILO Definition of recruitment fees and related costs. 

This executive summary synthesizes the key finding of the second edition of the Global Study. It presents in a concise and easily digestible manner the regional trends concerning recruitment fees and related cost, noting important similarities in relation to prohibition or regulation of recruitment fees and costs, and sanctions regimes. It also presents the main findings regarding business-led, trade union and multistakeholder initiatives concerning recruitment fees and related costs, while noting promising practices and considerations for the future. 

By examining the global landscape of recruitment practices, the study offers valuable insights into national context-specific regulatory conditions and practical realities that workers, labour recruiters, enterprises, and employers face regarding recruitment fees and costs. It specifically highlights the engagement of the ILO supervisory bodies with the topic of recruitment fees and related costs, showing the multi-faceted and cross-cutting nature of the issue.

Global study on recruitment fees and related costs: Second Edition