The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2013 revealed there are at least 52.6 million men and women employed around the world as domestic workers — nearly equivalent to the population of South Africa.
This latest estimate for 2010 was published in the ILO report ‘Domestic workers across the world: global and regional status and the extent of legal protection’ published in 2013. It is said that if all these domestic workers — maids, nannies, gardeners, cleaners, babysitters — worked in one country, that country would be the tenth largest employer worldwide.
Domestic work accounts for 1.7 per cent of total employment worldwide and some 3.6 per cent of all wage employment
Latest available data as of 2010:
Caribbean – 11.9 per cent of all paid employees are domestic workers
Middle East – has a share of 8.0 per cent, with 2.10 million domestic workers (nearly double the 1.1 million found in 1995)
Domestic work accounts for 5.6 per cent of total employment in the region, but this share is far more in some countries, such as Bahrain (12.8 per cent in 2009), the United Arab Emirates (12.8 per cent in 2008 or 608,000) and Kuwait (21.9 per cent in 2005).
In Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland and Norway, however, it is uncommon for households to hire domestic help, which represents only 0.1 to 0.3 per cent of total employment. This is partially because of the public provision for child and elderly care.
Source: Domestic workers across the world: global and regional status and the extent of legal protection, published by ILO in 2013
