U.S. Apparel Jobs Fell Nearly Four Times Faster Than Establishments From 2021 to 2025, Arklavo Finds

Arklavo has published a free 2026 report on apparel manufacturing in the USA. Federal records show U.S. apparel manufacturing employment fell 12.5% between 2021 and 2025, while the number of establishments fell only 3.2%. California alone accounts for 38.0% of the net decline, cut-and-sew shed 10,198 jobs, and average pay rose 20.2% over the same years.

WILMINGTON, Del., September 16, 2026. Arklavo today released Apparel Manufacturing in the USA: 2026 Report, an open-access analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and establishment records for the domestic apparel industry, with the monthly indicator carried through August 2026. The full report, its charts, the state decomposition and the BLS extracts are free at arklavo.com/blogs/custom-apparel-guide/apparel-manufacturing-usa.

According to the annual Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages records analyzed, private U.S. apparel manufacturing averaged 78,794 jobs and 6,194 establishments in 2025, compared with 90,019 jobs and 6,398 establishments in 2021. That is 11,225 fewer jobs, a 12.5% decline, against a 3.2% decline in establishments, and the calculated average establishment size fell from 14.07 jobs to 12.72, a mean that the report notes does not show any individual establishment cut staff. Employment peaked within the window at 92,556 in 2022, so the fall from peak is larger still, at 13,762 jobs.

"The establishments are mostly still there. The jobs inside them are not," said an Arklavo spokesperson. "For any business that wants to buy American-made uniforms, that means a supplier's address tells you less than it used to about what is actually sewn on site."

California Accounts for 38% of the National Loss

Using the published state totals, the report decomposes the national decline. California accounted for 4,270 of the 11,225 jobs lost, or 38.0%. The rest of the country combined accounted for 6,955, or 62.0%. The report states plainly that this decomposition does not establish relocation, a policy effect or a decline in every other state; suppressed state observations were not filled in.

Cut-and-Sew Carried Almost the Entire Decline

Industry groups moved in different directions. Cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing fell from 70,898 jobs to 60,700, a loss of 10,198, or 14.4%, larger than the net national decline once gains in other groups are netted out. Apparel knitting fell 24.3%, while accessories and other apparel employment rose 7.3%. The most recent monthly Current Employment Statistics indicator shows 72.0 thousand apparel jobs in August 2026, seasonally adjusted and preliminary, down from 72.8 thousand in May.

"Cut-and-sew is the part of the industry a uniform buyer actually depends on, and it is the part that shrank," the spokesperson said. "The right question for a domestic supplier is which operation is domestic, not just whether the company is."

Fewer Jobs, Higher Pay, Lower Output

Nominal average annual pay in the industry rose from $49,701 in 2021 to $59,722 in 2025, an increase of 20.2%, over the same years employment fell 12.5%. The report notes that the data do not establish an equivalent rise in real wages. A separate BLS productivity series reported 2025 changes of 4.0% growth in output per hour, a 9.9% fall in hours worked, a 6.3% fall in output and a 6.0% rise in unit labor costs. Fewer hours were worked, output fell faster than hours, and labor cost per unit of output rose.

Every figure carries its measurement period and program. The annual comparison covers 2021 to 2025 from QCEW. The monthly indicator reaches August 2026 from CES. The report keeps the two series apart rather than splicing them into one trend line.

"Every number in this report has a year and a BLS table next to it," the spokesperson said. "If a reader disagrees with a conclusion, they can open the same table we used and check the arithmetic."

What the Report Contains

The report includes a short appendix on verifying where a garment was actually cut, sewn and decorated, and a second on comparing a domestic quote and an imported quote on the same terms. A limitations section states what the data cannot establish: output in garments, future employment, or the quality of any producer.

Where to Get the Report

The full report is free to read in its entirety at arklavo.com/blogs/custom-apparel-guide/apparel-manufacturing-usa. The national and industry-group extracts, the California decomposition and every chart in PNG and SVG form are available for free download from the same page, and a PDF edition is available on request through the page. The suggested citation credits BLS for the source observations and Arklavo for the comparison.

About Arklavo

Arklavo is a United States custom branded apparel company founded in 2023 and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The self-funded company supplies custom polos, tees, hoodies, hats, jackets, aprons and workwear to more than 13,000 businesses across corporate, healthcare, hospitality, education, sports, trades and retail, with no minimum order, in the United States and internationally. Arklavo also publishes open-access research on the apparel industry, with every dataset and calculation released alongside each report. Learn more at arklavo.com.

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