The overall employment in the Indian textile and clothing sector is expected to increase from the current 33 to 35 million to about 60 to 62 million by 2022. The human resource requirement in the mainstream textile and clothing sector is expected to be closely related to market driven textile and apparel industry growth. 

By 2022, there would be an additional human resource requirement of about 25 million persons, of which the mainstream textile and clothing sector has the potential to employ around 17 million people. The total employment in fabric manufacturing in India is estimated to reach 11 million by 2022. Similarly, fabric processing is expected to employ 6,00,000 people, garmenting is estimated to employ around 16 million, while the employment in the spinning industry is expected to reach 3 million.

However, the human resource requirement in areas such as handloom and handicrafts would have to be supplemented by initiatives from the Indian government and the textile and apparel industry. The mainstream textile and clothing sector comprises spinning, fabric manufacturing, fabric processing and garmenting. The related industries include handloom, woolen, sericulture, handicrafts and jute sectors.