Global Fashion Industry Statistics

General data

Metric	Value
Population	327 million
Labor force	161.0 million
Unemployment rate	3.8%
GDP per capita (PPS)	62,500 US dollars
Market share of the fashion industry	4 percent
Domestic market value of the fashion industry	406 billion dollars
Employment in fashion-related industries	1.9 million

New York: Fashion capital

Metric	Value
New York City population	8.55 million
New York City labor force	4.2 million
Employment in fashion-related industries (NYC only)	185,000
Wages in the fashion industry (NYC only)	11 billion dollars
Fashion industry tax revenue (NYC only)	2 billion dollars

source: NYCEDC (US Census Bureau)

Employment

In the United States an estimated 1.8 million people are employed in the fashion industry, among whom 232,000 in manufacturing textiles for apparel and other fashion items.

About 79 percent of all US employees in fashion work for apparel retailers. The average annual wage at such companies is 26,650 dollars.

Average annual wages in fashion range from 26,440 dollars, for textile bleaching and dyeing machine operators, to 84,600 dollars for marketing and sales managers in fashion.

Apart from the jobs listed before, the United States has room for around 18,000 fashion designers. Their average annual wage is 73,690 dollars, meaning that they receive over 30 dollars per hour.

Apparel manufacturing

Fashion companies

Some of the world's largest fashion companies are based in the United States. Nike is the currently largest fashion company globally.

Nike is an athleisure- and lifestyle brand with annual revenues of 30.6 billion and a market value of nearly 105 billion dollars. Nike offers its products worldwide and its largest markets are the United States, accounting for 46 percent of the total revenues, and Western Europe (19 percent).

TJX Companies is the second largest fashion company in the United States with a market value of 54.5 billion dollars and 2015 annual sales of 30.9 billion dollars. TJX operates the majority of its stores in the United States and is best known for its fast-fashion brand T.J. Maxx.

VF Corporation is the third largest fashion company in the United States. VF owns several brands including Lee, The North Face, Timberland and Napapijri. In 2015 VF's annual revenue rose to 12.4 billion dollars.

Imports & Exports (2016)

Exports of textiles and clothing: 22.9 billion dollars

The United States are not one of the largest exporters of fashion-related products in the world, however it still supplies a fair share of several textiles for fashion purpose to overseas markets.

Imports of clothing: 105 billion dollars

The United States are the largest importer of fashion-related products in the world. It mostly imports manufactured apparel.

Sources

• Import and export data: OEC
• Largest companies Info: FashionUnited top 100
• Population and Labour Data: World Bank | www.wto.org