# Establishments in the textiles and clothing industry A map of a former edition of the Atlas of Switzerland, the national atlas published by ETH Zurich. It opens only in the desktop atlas (version 4) for Windows and macOS, not in the web atlas; see the links below. - Map: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/establishments-in-the-textiles-and-clothing-industry/ - Short title: Textiles and clothing industry: establishments - Map id: 744 - Categories: Economy and Energy › Industry › Clothing - Keywords: Economy, Industry, Labour, Labour force - Published: 2010-11-26 - Last revised: 2022-02-10 - Content language: English - Other languages: [Deutsch](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/de/thema/arbeitsstaetten-in-der-textil--und-bekleidungsindustrie.md), [Français](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/fr/theme/etablissements-dans-lindustrie-des-textiles-et-dhabillement.md), [Italiano](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/it/tema/unita-locali-nellindustria-tessile-e-dellabbigliamento.md) ## Description The textile industry comprises those industries that process raw textile materials. They use native natural fibres such as flax, hemp (plants used for industrial purposes) and wool or imported fibres such as silk, cotton, jute and bast fibres as well as industrially manufactured chemical fibres. The individual production branches are divided into four processing stages, which are textile preparation (laundry, combing), textile processing (spinning), yarn processing (twining, weaving, knitting, hosiery, braiding) and textile finishing (including bleaching, dyeing, fabric printing, embroidery). Some of these branches also form part of the clothing industry. Today, the term clothing industry essentially refers to the industrial manufacturing of clothes (excluding the shoe industry and sometimes excluding knitting and hosiery). Craft trades of the clothing industry (e.g. made-to-measure tailoring) also come under the industry’s umbrella. While the Swiss textile industry is now a thoroughly rationalized and capital-intensive branch, the garment industry is still a highly labour-intensive one, featuring relatively low wages. *Origin and evolution* As in the rest of Europe, the textile industry is the oldest branch of industry in Switzerland too. The textile industry that preceded it was primarily made up of textile craftsmen, who were equipped for made-to-measure production. Outside the craft trades, spinning and weaving were among the activities of peasant households which, with the increase in population from the 15th century onwards, became a secondary source of income for the poor rural population. The increasing demand for textile products for domestic use or for export forced the mass production of textile goods from the end of the 16th century onwards. While manufacturing established itself as the precursor to the factory during the 17th and 18th centuries through the spatial centralisation of production, homeworking consisted of decentralised commercial production by homeworkers working at home in their living rooms. The proto-industrial textile industry also included the rural population, which led to the emergence of industrial regions in which urban and rural households were equally involved in the production process. At the end of the 18th century, the proto-industrialisation of the Swiss textile industry was well underway, with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers employed in it, 5% of whom in manufacturing companies and 95% in homework. The mechanisation of the textile industry gradually began in the first half of the 19th century, reaching its peak around 1870 with almost 150,000 employees or 12% of the working population in Switzerland. The need to stay in competition with the European and North American textile industry was the driving force behind the modernisation of mechanical equipment. Automatic production had already been introduced after 1900 and, from the 1960s onwards, production was increasingly outsourced to cheaper countries in Eastern Europe and Asia, which accelerated the contraction of the Swiss textile industry: between 1965 and 2001, the number of workplaces fell by more than half and the number of employees by as much as four fifths. As of 2017, the textile, clothing and leather goods industry comprised 2,900 companies and 14,800 employees (FSO 2020). Geographically, the textile and garment industries are mainly concentrated in Eastern Switzerland, although they are still numerous in some of the side-valleys in the Canton of Aargau. The most important «textile canton» – a further legacy of the history of industrialisation – is the canton of St. Gall. However, throughout Switzerland, all three branches use a very high proportion of foreign employees. ## Sources - Atlas of Switzerland (1997): Industry, table 61a - FSO (2020): [Taschenstatistik der Schweiz 2020](https://www.bfs.admin.ch/). Neuchâtel - HLS (2011): [Bekleidungsindustrie](https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/013971/2011-02-25/) - HLS (2014): [Textilindustrie](https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/013957/2014-10-07/) ## Data sources - Atlas der Schweiz: Administrative Einheiten 1:1 Mio. (Gemeinden, Bezirke, Kantone) - Atlas of Switzerland: [Administrative Einheiten 1:500.000 (Gemeinden, Bezirke, Kantone)](http://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/) - ETH Zurich: [Atlas of Switzerland](https://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/) - FSO (2020): [Statistik der Unternehmensstruktur](https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/industrie-dienstleistungen/erhebungen/statent.html) - swisstopo [J160089] (2010): [Gemeindegrenzen GG25](https://shop.swisstopo.admin.ch/de/products/landscape/boundaries3D) - swisstopo [J160089] (2010): [Landeskarte 1:500.000](https://shop.swisstopo.admin.ch/de/products/maps/national/lk500) ## Data owners - [Atlas of Switzerland (AoS)](http://www.atlasderschweiz.ch/) - [Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO)](https://www.bfs.admin.ch/) - [Swiss Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo)](http://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/) ## Citation The terms of use ask to name the Atlas of Switzerland and the data owners, and to keep the source references in exports, screenshots and embeds. Cite the map as: > Atlas of Switzerland (2022): Establishments in the textiles and clothing industry. ETH Zürich. Map data © AoS, FSO, swisstopo. https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/establishments-in-the-textiles-and-clothing-industry/ ## Links - Map page, with the description and sources and a button that opens the map in the desktop atlas: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/theme/establishments-in-the-textiles-and-clothing-industry/ - Open the map in the desktop atlas (version 4), where it is installed: adsglobe://map/744 - Download of the desktop atlas (version 4) for Windows and macOS: https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/ads4-download/ For the use and citation of maps and data, see the [terms of use](https://atlasderschweiz.ch/en/terms-of-use/).