Order slump deprives workers of stable textile-garment jobs

The industry’s exports have been “bizarre” this year, significantly impacting many companies, said Tran Thi Tuyet Mai, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS).

At the beginning of the year, businesses received a lot of orders and even faced worker shortages; but since the second quarter, impacts of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine have led to rising fuel prices and people in many countries changing their consumption habits, causing a sharp decline in purchasing power for clothes and fashion items, she said at a conference in HCMC Thursday.

Mai said many factories have had to let workers alternate because there was not enough work for all of them at once.

VITAS is carrying out a survey on the damage done to the industry to try and identify solutions to help businesses and workers, she said.

Vietnam’s textile and garment industry has 13,000 companies with more than three million employees.

The industry’s exports topped $40 billion last year, accounting for 12 percent of the nation’s total export value.