U.S. and Texas manufacturers of textiles, apparel and leather have incurred significant job losses as production moves overseas to cheaper labor markets. Some areas of Texas, such as El Paso, still maintain a large presence of textile and apparel jobs, but these areas, too, have experienced heavy job losses within these subsectors.
Texas had about 17,100 textile, apparel and leather manufacturing jobs in 2016. The average annual wage for these jobs was about $36,200. The top occupations within these subsectors include sewing machine operators, knitting and weaving machine setters and shoe and leather workers and repairers.
The leather and allied product subsector’s share of total employment is 1.80 times greater in Texas than in the U.S., as measured by location quotient.
*Location quotient compares an industry’s share of jobs in a specific region with its share of nationwide employment.
Despite heavy job losses in these four subsectors during the past few decades, the Texas Workforce Commission does project some future job growth. Overall, the four subsectors are projected to rise by about 11 percent from 2014 through 2024.
San Antonio leads all U.S. metro areas in footwear manufacturing employment.
The Upper Rio Grande and South regions maintain a high concentration of employment in these subsectors compared to the national average.
U.S. and Texas jobs in the textiles, apparel and leather manufacturing subsectors fell by 62 percent from 2001 through 2016. These developments were expected and have occurred in other advanced economies, as production moves to cheaper labor markets.