New York City has long been considered the epicenter of the fashion industry in the United States and a trendsetter on the global stage. However, the city now faces a triple threat from declining economic output, employment, and education, note senior partner Maurice Obeid and coauthors. Since 2014, there’s been a decline in the market value of goods and services and in employment levels, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation. Market value had its steepest drop of 19.6 percent from 2019 to 2020, and the industry now employs 50,000 fewer people than ten years ago. The talent pipeline may also be shrinking, with a 30 percent plummet in 2022 from the 2016 peak.
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A set of 3 charts show key trends in the New York City fashion industry. The first bar chart depicts the industry’s inflation-adjusted gross regional product, in billions of dollars. It shows that the fashion industry’s gross regional product was relatively stable in 2012–21, at ~$23 billion, dropping to $18 billion in 2020 before rebounding to $20 billion in 2022. The second line chart shows the number of people employed in the fashion industry, in thousands. It shows a gradual decline in employment in 2012–22, decreasing from 180,000 in 2012 to ~110,000 in 2022. The third line chart shows the number of students completing fashion programs, in thousands. It shows a general decrease in fashion program completions since 2010, declining from about 3,500 in 2010 to less than 3,000 in 2022, after a peak of about 4,000 in 2016.
Footnote 1: For fashion subindustries where employment was given as <10, employment was approximated as 5 in this analysis.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U); Lightcast, accessed Dec 14, 2023.
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To read the article, see “At a crossroads: New York’s status as a global fashion capital,” September 4, 2024.