Informality and Chinese imports break the recovery of jobs in the clothing industry: Inegi

Considered as the great generator of labor in Mexicothe dress industry sees it “difficult” to recover the jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic Covid-19when facing growing informality and the record of the highest peak in history in imports of clothing from China, revealed the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

Jorge Quevedo Mendoza, director of economic studies at INEGI, reported that 85 of 100 micro-enterprises dedicated to clothing are informal; while the manufacturing industry average is 70 out of 100.

At a press conference, the director of the autonomous body commented that although the clothing industry faced a rebound in its GDP of 24% in the post-Covid period, it has not yet recovered to the level prior to the pandemic. “There is a long way to go and I swim against the current,” he said.

Informal companies only contribute 2.4% to the total production of the clothing industry, while formal ones (14.6% of all companies) contribute 98% to GDP.

When submitting the post “Getting to know the clothing industry”carried out by INEGI with data from the clothing sector, Quevedo said that this industry was the hardest hit during the pandemic and dragged down by Chinese imports since 2000.

He said that 94,000 jobs were lost between 2019 and 2021, reflecting a 15 percent drop.

Meanwhile, imports in 2021 ranked as the highest volume in history, and 33.4% come from China and 27% from the United States.

Mexico imported 10.987 million dollars in clothing, and exported 7.781 million dollars in clothing.