Employment levels in the clothing, textile, footwear and leather (CTFL) sectors in South Africa have increased. Following a few years of job losses, the CTFL industry in South Africa had started to witness stability in the last year. The textile industry is making a comeback after languishing for a few years.

There has been a year on year increase of 1.5 per cent in the number of employees across the CTFL industry from December 2014 to March 2015. The highest quarterly increase was in the leather sector, which went up 3.9 per cent. Next was the textile sector, which rose by 2.9 per cent, followed by the clothing sector which increased by 1.5 per cent. The footwear sector registered a decline in number of employed by 3.8 per cent over the last quarter.

In the 12-month period, the highest increase in the number of employees was in the leather sector, which saw employees increase by 4.5 per cent. In second place was the footwear sector where employment rose by 3.3 per cent, followed by the textile sector which has 1.5 per cent more employees. The clothing sector followed last with an increase of 0.8 per cent in its employees.