The Department of State's 1991 and 1992 Human Rights Reports and a 1992 ILO report attest to the growing numbers of children in servitude and their worsening conditions of work. The problem of child labor has grown along with the expansion of the global marketplace. Child labor is cheap labor. Children are targeted for non-skilled, labor intensive work. Child workers are docile and easily controlled.
Employers have no fear of children demanding rights or organizing.
Child labor creates a climate where many children support their unemployed parents. The family and future generations remain in poverty and exploitation. Globalization is strengthening child labor through providing ready access to areas of cheap labor that are rife with the above described conditions. Child labor increasingly offers an attractive incentive to keep labor costs down in a highly competitive global market. A Rutgers University labor economist recently estimated that more than 290,000 children were employed unlawfully last year in the United States.