Fact Sheet
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Australia’s Textile, Leather, Clothing and Footwear Manufacturing industry produces a wide range of apparel, household products, plus outdoor and industrial products. The sector is involved in a diverse range of fibre-based activities, including:
- early stage processing of natural fibres such as wool, and leather
- textile production
- transformation of leather, yarns and textiles into clothing, footwear, carpets and other fabric products for the home and office
- technical textiles such as shade cloth, medical and sanitary products filtration products and insulation materials
The Textile, Leather, Clothing and Footwear Manufacturers have faced increasing competitive pressures over the last decade. Sector-wide efforts are being made to ensure that businesses are able to take advantage of new technologies and new research and have the skills and strategies that are needed to compete in the global market place.
In recent years, Textile Leather Clothing and Footwear Manufacturing production has increased its emphasis on high value, capital intensive and niche products, and less on labour intensive, standardised products. This focus has led to an increase in non-manufacturing employment in the broader industry particularly in the design, marketing, wholesale and logistics areas.
There are now a broad range of career opportunities in this sector that include creative craft skills like dressmaking, millinery, weaving or creative thinking in concept designing and marketing. There are also specialised technical jobs involved in textile production, testing, grading, patternmaking using computer aided design technology. There are opportunities to start hands-on at production level, as a trade apprentice or as a tertiary graduate.
The 2006 Census indicated there were over 43,000 employed in the Textile, Leather, Clothing and Footwear Manufacturing industry. Over 31,000 of those were full-time and more than 10,000 people were working part-time.
In the 2006-07 financial year, this sub division contributed over $2.5 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).