Ludhiana is grappling with a severe labor shortage. Migrants have yet to return from their native places, resulting in production losses to the industry. The migrant workforce in Ludhiana constitutes over 70 per cent of the total workforce in manufacturing industry. There are over eight lakh migrants in Ludhiana, including women and children. As the industry is heavily dependent on migrant workforce, their absence has hit production by at least 30 per cent. Over one lakh units across all sectors such as manufacturers of auto parts, hand tools, cycle parts, spinning mills and garment manufacturers have been affected by the labor shortage. Night shifts have been discontinued. Orders are not executed on time.

Ludhiana is a hub for knitwear and has around 5000 units with a majority of them in the medium and small scale sector. Ludhiana and its surrounding area is the headquarters for several renowned Indian and global apparel brands and also home to thousands of knitting, spinning and weaving units as well as garment manufacturing units. The northern region is one of the biggest Indian hubs for manufacturing textiles and apparel. Rising imports of manmade fiber textiles from China have Ludhiana upset. These imports attract low duty.