Leather sector does better at preserving jobs in the EU
13/12/2012
Speaking at a special conference in Brussels on December 12, co-hosted by European tanning sector representative body COTANCE, Mr Senden quoted employment figures relating to 2010 for leather and to 2011 for the other two industries.
Clothing employed 1.1 million people in the EU in 2011and textiles 700,000. The figure for leather in 2010 was 400,000 employees.
Small and medium enterprises dominate very clearly; Mr Senden said the average number of employees in the companies active in the three sectors was between 10 and 16.
“In textiles and clothing, the loss of employment was about 5% per year between 2006 and 2011,” he said. “But in leather, the evolution of the employment situation has been much less drastic. There was a loss of employment in the build-up to the big year of the crisis, 2009, but since then there has been a recovery. The tanning sector in Italy has increased its number of employees by 6% in the last two years.”
Speaking at the same conference, Silvia Pedrana, from Italy’s Osservatorio Nazionale Concia, which promotes the work of Italian tanneries, said her country had 1,300 companies active in the tanning sector and a total workforce of 18,000.
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