Who works in the garment industry?
It is estimated that 75% of all garment workers are immigrants, many unskilled with poor knowledge of English. According to 1990 Census figures, over half (55%) of the NYC apparel industry employment is of operators, fabricators and laborers-54% were not US citizens and only 7.5% were born in the continental US. Of these workers, 80% are divided between Asian and Hispanic. In contrast, 54% of executive, administrative, and managerial employees are white and native born. “Ethnic network hiring” is very common in the NYC garment industry. Contractors, who hired the vast majority of the industry workers, hire almost exclusively from certain immigrant groups. These networks build through word of mouth, family and social connections. For example, Chinese hire other Chinese and Koreans often hire Hispanics. Of all employees in the NYC Apparel Labor force, 53% have less than a high school degree. When looking only at the operators, fabricators and laborers, the number who did not have a high
