The garment industry has two categories of jobs: pre-retail (design, manufacturing, and wholesale) and retail (merchandising, sales, and retail development). The industry offers diverse opportunities and crosses international borders. Jobs in the fashion industry require artistic design talent, while manufacturing jobs include pattern making, sewing, and quality control. Wholesale jobs involve selling clothing lines to retail chains, and retail jobs focus on customer service and include sales associates and corporate positions.
Garment industry jobs can be divided into two categories: pre-retail and retail. Pre-retail jobs include design, manufacturing and wholesale jobs. Retail jobs include positions in merchandising, retail development and sales. These types of jobs exist within a corporate structure that has the common types of executive positions available to support the operation of the apparel business.
Consumers tend to equate the entire apparel industry with retail shopping experiences. The apparel industry is actually much more extensive than the part of the sales process that consumers regularly interact with. Jobs in this sector are quite diverse and offer opportunities for a wide range of education levels, skills and interests. Apparel industry operations often cross international borders; therefore, the opportunities before the clothes hit the retail market may be broader than expected.
Apparel design is part of the pre-retail process that generates many jobs in the apparel industry. Some types of clothing design are given their own industrial label like ‘fashion’. The fashion industry is part of the overall apparel industry but may have its own employment structure. If a person is looking for a job in any of the industries, the types of positions available will be based on artistic design talent. Support positions are also available at the management, associate and assistant levels.
Manufacturing creates the types of jobs in the garment industry that include pattern making, sewing, machine operation and quality control. Many clothing manufacturers have their assembly shops located in third world countries to take advantage of cheap labor. While line manufacturing positions would not normally be available to the average person, all executive positions that support an offshore manufacturing operation would be available.
Wholesale apparel industry jobs involve selling clothing lines to retail chains. Jobs in this area are sales and executive positions that develop markets for a company’s products, including buying and selling agents. Companies can also outsource this process to a third-party specialist, so there are similar job opportunities working outside of a clothing manufacturer.
Once merchandise is placed in a retail environment, the apparel industry’s jobs shift to focus on the customer rather than the production process. Jobs at this retail stage include the types of positions consumers are familiar with, from sales associate to store general manager. In addition to individual store positions, there are corporate positions that support retail operations. These types of positions deal with business processes that affect the entire retail operation, such as product selection, marketing and merchandising.
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