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4.2 Employment in the Industry
Figures reflecting employment in the clothing industry are “unreliable because of the large
number of informal and small clothing firms that are not captured and/or miscalculated”
(Morris et al, 2005:15). When scrutinising the actual number of jobs lost, it is important to
note that one cannot account merely for the individual loss of employment, but must take
into consideration the cumulative impact of such job losses on households and the wider
economy. The figures reflecting clothing sector job losses in research literature and
through the media differ slightly; however, holistically, they reflect that retrenchments in the
industry has risen over the years, mostly due to an inability to compete at the lower end of
the market against the cheaper imports arriving from Asia.
Barnes (2005:6) states that the clothing sector contributes about 1,8% to overall
employment in South Africa. Or as COSATU claims, the industry contributes “less than five
percent of the manufacturing output, but contributes 10 percent of manufacturing jobs”
(Wray, 2004). Barnes (2005:6) says the job contribution of this sector is in the region of 13,4%
of the total manufacturing employment. Expanding on the importance of the clothing
sector for employment, Robbins et al (2004:4) cite a quote from SACTWU, claiming that
each factory worker in the industry supports a family of five.
According to Barnes (2005), 83.3% of those employed in the clothing sector are women
compared to the 16.7% of males. The scale of women workers in the industry is reflected in
statistics that show 95% of the workforce in the Western Cape clothing sector is made up of
women (Greenburg, 2005:40). Given the higher percentage of women clothing workers,
and the developmental impact of money in the hands of women means retrenchment in
this industry does have negative effects for the house-hold well being.
The Bargaining Council employee data for KwaZulu-Natal for the period 1990 to 2001
reported a total of 44 623 employees (1990) in the clothing industry, which reduced to 15
639 in 2001 (Morris et al, 2005:17). Apportion of this reduction might be attributable to
companies moving to non-regularised areas during this period, and companies closing or
restructuring, so that their workers entered the informal sector, often as unregistered
operators (Morris et al, 2005:18). 2
2 The Natal Bargaining Council’s July 2006 list cites that there are 379 registered manufacturers and cut-
make-and-trim (CMT) suppliers within KwaZulu-Natal, providing 32 060 jobs, The reflection of employment
figures with KwaZulu-Natal exemplifies the fluidity of labour in the industry and the difficulties of
determining correct employment figures.
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