Cambodia closed around 110 garment factories in the first nine months of this year, leaving 55,000 employees without jobs, though union leaders fear that the figures maybe even higher. As per a Textile Focus report, Ngoy Rith, Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, the country has closed 111 factories in the clothes, footwear and travel goods sector by early September. The number of these closures is equivalent to the first nine months of last year when 110 factories were closed, Rith said. According to him, these closures left 55,174 jobs unemployed.

However, the government has enforced suitable step to keep factories though COVID-19 pandemic and other causes had effectively shut down the global demand for garment goods. The number of suspended job contracts had steadily subsided while the number of frozen work contract garment factories had declined to 52, impacting the incomes of nearly 14,000 employees, says Rith. However, Fa Saly, President, National Trade Union Confederation, says, the real statistics may be higher than the estimates published by the Ministry of Labor and that more Cambodian employees every day were losing their employment and incomes.