According to a recent New York Times article, clothing manufacturers who sent jobs overseas in recent decades are having a hard time finding enough workers stateside to meet increased demand for products made in the USA.
In the past two decades, the Times reported, more than three-quarters of American textile workers lost their jobs to overseas workers earning less money. Now, with more demand for higher quality, American-made products, the industry has more openings than qualified applicants.
Wages for “cut-and-sew jobs,” the article said, rose 13.2% (adjusted for inflation) between 2007 and 2012. During that time, wages for the private sector as a whole increased by just 1.4%.
“Companies in Minnesota are so hungry for workers that they posted five job openings for every student in a new training program in industrial sewing, a full month before the training was completed,” the article said.
Apparel manufacturers throughout the country, the Times reported, “are wrestling with how to attract a new generation of factory workers while also protecting their bottom lines.”
