In the underground economy of homework and contract shops, workers are hired and fired as production schedules dictate. These are the sweatshops of the new century. In the early 70s, only 22 percent of the industry was made up of factories with less than twenty workers. By the 90s, the picture had reversed and over 75 percent of clothing was produced in shops with fewer than twenty workers. Retailers today require immediate reorders of seasonal clothing as popular items sell out.
Contractors bid on price and a turn-around time for small production runs.
The incentive is to cut production time and to use every conceivable way to lower production costs from renting the smallest possible work space in run-down buildings or suburban industrial malls, to subcontracting to homeworkers who cover all of their own overhead costs and provide their own machines. Subcontracting and homework aren t restricted to Northern countries. These less visible sweatshop practices are also becoming widespread in most Southern countries. Industry pyramid The end product of restructuring in the Canadian garment industry is a pyramid-shaped system of production with the retailer at the top. The retailer contracts work out to a jobber , who subcontracts to a small factory where the cutting and possibly some sewing is done.