The Indian textile and apparel industry is cutting down on the number of jobs due to the global economic slowdown. Job creation in the apparel and textile industry dropped 70 per cent in the quarter ended March 2015 as compared to the December 2014 quarter. A lot of handloom and power loom units shut down or had their capacities slashed to half in the last few months because of policies like withdrawal of interest subvention and duty drawbacks.

Yarn and fabric verticals have trouble dealing with excess stock and inventory pile-up as China has reduced cotton yarn imports from India. This too has resulted in a decline in capacity by five to ten per cent and a fall in job creation.

The apparel sector has almost stopped expansion work. Slowdown in exports has damped outlook. And the domestic market, too, is not booming. There has been hardly a seven to eight per cent growth in recent times and this rate of growth does not require any expansion to be made. So there has been no expansion on the labor front as well. However, the apparel industry still hopes to bounce back after November with an increase in exports.