7.5 million jobs insecure in textile sector

01 Jul '09

2 min read

The China Textile Industry Association released its "Annual report of social responsibility of China's textile and garment industry (2008-09). According to the report, big companies have been badly hit by the crisis, creating job insecurity for as many as 7.5 million workers.

This is the third annual report on corporate social responsibility released by the China Textile Industry Association. China's textile enterprises employ more than 20 million directly and indirectly and it provides livelihood to another 100 million people and is considered the biggest industrial employment generator.

Business environment of China's textile enterprises has been deteriorating since 2008, with industry profits rapidly declining. The industry for the first time saw a negative growth since 2003 and the first two months of 2009 alone, the number of loss-making big textile enterprises reached 12,644.

According to the report, as of November 2008, shrinking employment situation of the industry became quite obvious, as employment in large-scale enterprises fell by 1.24 percent year-on-year, excluding the small and medium-sized textile enterprises that have been even more seriously hit.

According to the latest data, China's textile industry showed improvement over the first quarter, but employment levels stays at the bottom. From January to May this year, exports of textile products declined 1.42 percent year-on-year, while the drop in the first two months was as high as 17.18 percent.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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