Textile Employment Down

Textile employment nationwide fell by 10 percent to 428,000 in 2003, according to the American Textile Manufacturers Institute in its recently released annual year-end trade report. “The industry, still one of the largest manufacturing employers in the United States, will be in a fight for its survival in the coming year,” said ATMI President James W. Chestnutt. “This will be a tough fight, but the industry, for the first time in many years, is organized, energized and united.”