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About the U.S. Textile Industry

U.S. Textile and Apparel Employment

Data on number of employees by industry in the U.S. is published by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. From time to time the National Textile Association downloads the most recent data and makes them available as an Excel spreadsheet of Textile Mill, Textile Product Mills, and Apparel Employment. The spreadsheet contains three tables corresponding to the three North American Industry Classification System ("NAICS") classifications that include:

Textile Mill Employment (NAICS 313) which covers fiber, yarn, and thread mills and all types of fabric formation and fabric dyeing printing and finishing;
Textile Product Mills (NAICS 314) which covers carpet mills; bed, bath, and kitchen linen manufacturing; curtain and draperies; textile bag manufacturing; and cord, twin, and rope manufacturing; and
Apparel Manufacturing. (NAICS 316)

For updated employment stats for those three NAICS classifications go to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics and enter the series ID of interest from this list:

for NAICS 313, textile mill employment, enter series ID CES3231300001
for NAICS 314, textile product mill employment, enter series ID CES3231400001
for NAICS 315, apparel manufacturing employment, enter series ID CES3231500001

U.S. Textile and Apparel Production

The Current Industrial Report ("CIR") program of the Bureau of the Census has been providing monthly, quarterly, and annual measures of industrial activity for many years. The primary objective of the CIR program is to produce timely, accurate data on production and shipments of selected products. The data are used to satisfy economic policy needs and for market analysis, forecasting, and decision-making in the private sector. However, the value of the CIR program has been severely limited by the discontinuance of many industry sector surveys.

The CIRs are available on the internet at http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/cir/index.html. In the textile and apparel industries there remain three quarterly surveys: