Jordanian tailors’ jobs hang by a thread

Jordanian tailors are going extinct.

In 2007, the number of tailor shops in the Kingdom was 7000. Today, just 650 of them remain.

A third of those shops are based in Amman and they employ 8,000 tailors; a large drop in comparison with the 21,000 tailors who had jobs in 2007.

Female tailors make up 20% of all tailors in Jordan, while 5% of male and female tailors are aged between 5-12.

The figures were released on Saturday in a report published by the Jordanian Labour Watch.

“Only 25% of tailors are Jordanian; the rest are expats, with the majority of them coming from Bangladesh,” the report noted.

“Tailors stay in their jobs for decades without their salaries changing. Experienced tailors make the same as those less experienced than them.”

In a bid to save their profession, dozens of Jordanian tailors will stage a sit-in outside the Ministry of Industry & Trade on Monday.

Clothes shops across the Kingdom are flooded with all the styles one’s heart might desire, and for cheap as well, which sharply decreased the number of people who request items made-to-order.

Another major factor affecting tailors’ livelihood is the employers who open unlicenced tailor shops in rented homes and hire Bengali tailors to work in them.

Many of those workers opt to live in their workplace and rob Jordanian tailors from any potential job opportunities.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition