Key Messages

CHAPTER 4

How Does an Apparel Export Strategy Fit into the Jobs-to-Careers Transition?

Key Messages

• Apparel exporting creates many jobs—tending to be more formal and higher paying than other opportunities available to women with less than secondary education—but few careers.

• Even though apparel exporting provides jobs and tends to employ the most women among manufacturing industries, it is still only a small portion of the labor market and alone has minimal impact on female labor force participation unless apparel is a country’s only export.

• Apparel exporting represents a temporary country strategy because of cost competitiveness and power dynamics between buyers (apparel brand owners) and developing-country manufacturers. • Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) rarely move from apparel manufacturing to apparel services, and no such country has moved into global branding or retailing.

• But LMICs can use apparel exporting to boost human capital, which would enable movement to other industries and higher wages to promote domestic services.