The Hindu Business Line : `Rising rupee spells doom for jobs in textile export sector'

"A slowdown in India's export competitiveness due to the rising rupee will impact employment in the sector negatively and can even lead to loss of existing jobs."

New Delhi June 15 Stagnation of textile exports due to the appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar could lead to a loss of around 5.79 lakh potential new jobs in the 2007-08 alone, including 2.72 lakh jobs in direct employment by the industry and the balance in the allied sectors, a study carried out by Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has said.

A slowdown in India's export competitiveness due to the rising rupee will impact employment in the sector negatively and can even lead to loss of existing jobs, says the CITI study.

Direct Employment

Releasing the study, CITI Chairman, Mr Shekhar Agarwal, said: "Numbers show that while direct employment gained from textile exports has been reduced by 57,618 in 2006-07 consequent to a slowdown in exports, the incremental employment in the allied industries suffered a loss of 65,820 jobs during the year."

The textile and clothing industry is the largest employment provider in the country, after the agriculture sector. The total direct employment in the textile industry as of March 2006 was estimated to be 33.17 million, while the indirect employment generated is much higher at 54.85 million.

According to recent estimates, the employment in the industry was expected to go up by 17.37 million over the Eleventh Plan period to touch 105.39 million by 2007-12.

CITI estimates show that the deceleration in textile export growth from 16.6 per cent in 2005-06 to 9.2 per cent in 2006-07 (based on the estimated 9.2 per cent growth registered in the April-January 2006-07 period) has already pushed down the employment from the textile export trade by around 1.22-lakh jobs.

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