Pakistan: Due to the ongoing financial crisis in Pakistan, many industries are bracing themselves for high cuts and deductions in production and layoffs of the essential workforce, particularly in the textile sector, reports News International.
According to the reports, there has been a massive drop of 14.8 per cent in the textile industry of Pakistan, as per the recent analysis done by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). On his part, Nasir Mansoor, Secretary General of the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), noted that around 1 million workers from the textile sector are expected to lose their jobs.
In addition, the crisis has also impacted exports as the numbers stood at USD 103 billion in January 2023, which was recorded lesser than January 2021, USD 1.5 billion. The financial condition in Pakistan has been on the decline from the month-over-month period with a 2.5 decline, said reports.
Furthermore, News International reported, as per the words of Mansoor, “at least 45 per cent of the cotton crop was washed away during the floods that occurred in 2022, which left the textile companies without the essential raw materials for production. The imports of raw materials from other nations were a solution which also got delayed by LCs (Letters of credit).
Mansoor further explains that a joint press conference commenced earlier this year in January, where textile industry representatives unveiled that almost 7 million working forces in the sector, along with related industries with textile, were freed from their duties last summer. Government regulations are also blamed for such conditions.
Meanwhile, there has also been a trend of laying off employees in the automobile sector. The number ranges between 25,000 to 30,000, which is a large number of workers who lost their jobs due to a significant drop in sales annually, as per the reports by News International.
In the end, the management-level official stated that the ongoing crisis and macroeconomic conditions have impacted the country in various ways and affected different sectors with adverse outcomes.
