Tiruppur’s apparel manufacturing facilities face labour shortage as industry shows signs of recovery

As apparel manufacturing hub Tiruppur begins to show signs of recovery from a slowdown, businesses in the area are reporting a labour shortage as many workers see employment potential back in their home states.

“In the last three months, we have seen orders from the US climbing by 10% compared to the same period of the previous year,” said the Tiruppur Exporters Association’s president M Subramanian, ET Bureau reported. “Over the past few years, the economic slowdown caused by the Covid pandemic, the US and European economic recession, the Russia-Ukraine war and the resulting industrial recession had hard-hit the apparel export business from Tiruppur. We are witnessing early signs of recovery.”
 
Another reason that many apparel manufacturing workers left Tiruppur was the recent seven-phase elections which necessitated that many citizens return to their hometowns to vote. Although some workers are now returning after the elections, others are choosing to remain in their home states with the hope that local developmental work will lead to employment opportunities closer to home, according to the Tiruppur Exporters Association’s former president Raja Shanmugam.
 
The Tiruppur Exporters Association is attempting to counter this trend by launching a large scale employment drive, the Economic Times reported. Along with offering higher wages to returning workers, the organisation is also promoting skills development to enable more individuals to enter the workforce.