Puebla, Pue. Despite the fact that textile companies are active and some with excess demand for production due to shipments to the United States, they still face a personnel shortage, said the president of the sector, Carlos Couttolenc López.
He indicated that the Chamber of the Textile Industry (Citex) for the Puebla-Tlaxcala region is concerned about resolving this situation that has worsened in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they already have 70% of the workforce made up of women and it is men who leave jobs the most.
He stressed that the industry is active after a complicated period due to the pandemic, in such a way that to date there are 170 companies operating, with the generation of more than 23,000 jobs.
However, he acknowledged that around 4,000 jobs were lost, which have not been fully recovered despite the fact that the plants are fully operational. “We have a lot of turnover and that creates problems for us, it’s a sensitive issue, because the new generations have a different concept of the processes in the industry.”
Couttolenc López, who is about to leave office after three years at the head of Citex, elaborated that salary is another factor that influences the turnover problem, although in textile plants the payment is higher than the minimum wage.
He said that those who stopped working in the textile sector looked for a way to obtain income and chose to start a business or work in another productive branch.
The businessman commented that they have made an effort to train personnel to provide them with the tools to achieve better development, with which there is a “win-win” between employer and employee.
He reiterated that at this stage of over-demand from manufacturers in the American Union, they need to have more personnel so as not to fail to meet customers.
Currently, he specified, there is no productive sector that does not require textiles, from vehicle assembly plants to the countryside and agri-food industry.