The employment Impacts of Trade liberalisation and of increased competition in export markets: The North African clothing sector.

This paper addresses the employment impacts of increased competition in the clothing sectors of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. While drawing on secondary sources it also reports findings from three tracer surveys of individuals who have been dismissed from jobs within the clothing sector. Our findings conform broadly to other reports of the employment impacts of economic restructuring in contexts of market liberalisation: there is evidence both of some labour market churning and of increased informalisation of employment; both self-employment and unemployment have risen and while some of the self-employed report that they are now better off, there is also evidence of increased hardship among some dismissed workers and their households. Our prognosis for the clothing sector in North Africa is that it will be unable to resume the role of leading sector in the expansion of manufacturing output, of low skilled employment and of exports. Significant reductions in unemployment now require the implementation of employment-oriented growth strategies for these economies which extend beyond the clothing sector to agriculture, other branches of manufacturing and to services.