Employers looking for new workers in Garment Industry of Bangladesh

Desk Report: Plummy Fashions in Narayanganj has doubled its production capacity. The company plans to increase the number of workers by 60 percent. They have also hired 600 workers in the last three months. It will take 300 more workers in the next one month. Before hiring new manpower, 2,000 workers worked in this eco-friendly factory.

Fazlul Haque, managing director (MD) of Plummy Fashions, told on Sunday, ‘We plan to increase production capacity only when buyers’ orders start to rise after the first Corona collision. Because of many buyers are looking for quality factory. At present, there is no such trouble to double the production capacity as the purchase order is good.’

Many export-oriented garment factories, such as Plummy Fashions, are increasing production capacity due to increased purchasing orders. Giving less lead time (time from purchase to shipping) than before has created pressure to produce more goods in less time. Due to these two reasons, the recruitment rate of new workers has increased. However, the entrepreneurs in the garment sector said that they are not getting enough skilled or even unskilled workers as per the demand.

When asked, Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of BGMEA, an association of owners of readymade garments, said that the purchase orders for garments are 10-15 percent higher than in 2019. As a result of additional procurement, employment may increase by 5-6 percent. It could create some two lakh new jobs.

There is no accurate calculation of the number of factories and workers in the export oriented garment industry. However, according to BRAC University’s Entrepreneur Development Center (CED) Mapped in Bangladesh, there are 3,384 export-oriented garment factories in the country. 26 lakh 8 thousand workers work in these factories. Of these, 11 lakh 13 thousand are men and 15 lakh 53 thousand are women.

If the statistics of Mapped in Bangladesh and the demands of BGMEA are taken into account, due to additional purchase orders, 5-6 percent or 1 lakh 33 thousand to 1 lakh 8 thousand new workers may be employed in the garment industry. However, out of 3,384 factories, BGMEA and BKMEA have 65 non-member factories. As a result, the number of new workers may be lower. Many workers who were laid off during the coronation period are also being re-employed.

Snowtex Group is one of the top companies in the garment sector. They export garments of 250 million dollars a year. They have hired 6,000 new workers in Snowtex Outerwear and Snowtex Sportswear. One thousand new workers will be recruited.

SM Khaled, MD of Snowtex Group, told, “Our purchases orders are almost double now compared to 2019.” If there was more capacity, more orders could be taken.

Entrepreneurs in the garment sector say that the United States and European Union (EU) countries have returned to normal with a large number of people being vaccinated against corona virus. So the buyers of those countries are placing orders for the coming summer and spring season as before. Apart from that, some of the orders are being shifted to Bangladesh due to the military rule in Myanmar and the horrors of Corona in India. Before that, some purchases orders were transferred from China to other countries including Bangladesh. Some purchases orders are also coming due to the recent lockdown in Vietnam. In all, 15-20 percent more purchase orders have come than in 2019.