California Apparel News

California may be the apparel manufacturing center of the country, but the region continued to shed apparel manufacturing and textile jobs in 2013.

Overall, employment in apparel manufacturing statewide dropped 7 percent to 51,300 in October, the latest figures available, from 55,300 in November last year. Cut-and-sew manufacturing saw a high of 51,800 jobs in February before dropping to 48,700 in October.

The most dramatic drop was seen at vertical knit apparel manufacturers (which are classified as knitting mills by the Employment Development Department), which dropped 21 percent to 1,100 in October from a high of 1,400 jobs in November 2012.

Textile-mill employment dropped 5.8 percent to 8,000 in October from 8,500 in November 2012.

Many of the lost manufacturing jobs were clearly coming from the smaller manufacturing hubs outside Los Angeles, where the job news was somewhat less severe. In October, apparel-manufacturing jobs stood at 42,000, down 6.6 percent from 45,000 in November 2012. Cut-and-sew manufacturing employment in October was 41,700, down 0.9 percent from 42,100 in November 2012. Textile-mill employment in October was 6,200, down 4.6 percent from 6,500 in November 2012.

The California Employment Development Department classifies jobs using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Under these classifications, textile mills include companies that “transform a basic fiber (natural or synthetic) into a product, such as yarn or fabric, that is further manufactured into usable items.” These companies can be fiber, yarn and thread mills (NAICS 3131), fabric mills (NAICS 3132), or textile and fabric finishing and fabric coating mills (NAICS 3133). Knit and woven fabric mills are combined under the same textile-mill category.

The NAICS separates apparel makers into two groups: cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing (NAICS 3152), in which apparel makers purchase fabric, which is then used to produce garments, and apparel knitting mills (NAICS 3151), which includes vertical manufacturers who knit their own fabric, which is then made into garments. These two groups can include traditional manufacturers; apparel contractors, who “[perform] cutting or sewing operations on materials owned by others”; jobbers, who “[perform] entrepreneurial functions involved in apparel manufacture”; and tailors, who manufacture custom garments for individual customers.