North Carolina accounted for about 30 percent of textile jobs. South Carolina and Georgia combined to provide employment for another 30 percent of the workers in this industry. The remaining jobs were found in the South, California, and the Northeast. Most textile production is concentrated in large mills. The textile industry offers employment opportunities in a wide variety of occupations, but precision production, craft, and repair occupations, coupled with operators, fabricators, and laborers, accounted for over 80 percent of all jobs.
Additional opportunities exist in general management, engineering, and clerical occupations.
Many workers enter the textile industry as machine setters and operators , the largest occupational group in the industry. They are responsible for setting each machine and monitoring its operation. Usually, operators work with one type of less complex machine, but they can advance to jobs operating more sophisticated machinery or several machines simultaneously. For example, experienced operators may work with machinery that processes raw cotton, spins fibers into thread, or weaves fabric. Additionally, they must diagnose problems when the machinery stops and restart it as soon as possible, to reduce costly machine idle time.