Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing evolved as a major industry in the county near the beginning of the 20th Century. Phillips &amp; Jones Co. (Now known as Phillips Van Heusen - PVH Corp, began in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and was once Schuylkill County's largest employer. Another textile giant, John E. Morgan Knitting Mills also began manufacturing in 1945 in Tamaqua, eventually becoming the largest employer in the county in the 1970-80s. In addition there were numerous smaller shops all over the county, doing subcontract work for the major manufacturers all over the US. As the century wore on, textile industry, which employed significant numbers of women, rivaled the coal mining industry in importance, especially after the end of World War 2, when that industry began to collapse. As a consequence of the Great Depression, garment manufacturers began to look for people willing to work (at lower wages) outside of New York City, the center of the industry. Pennsylvania became the 3rd highest-ranked apparel manufacturer in the United States by 1940. Women's clothing became the state's fastest growing product. The dominance of the industry in Schuylkill County lasted until the last decade of the 20th century, when it was clear that the garment manufacturing industry was leaving Schuylkill County and other regions of the US and moving to foreign countries. By 2011, only six manufacturers employing 341 people remained in the county.