Employee Engagement In The Fashion Industry Statistics

A significant share of employees in retail cite pay as a driver of engagement; 61% (US) “I’m paid fairly” correlates engagement (Gallup, retail) [1]

Gallup: 67% of employees worldwide are not engaged (general) [2]

Gallup: 23% of employees are engaged [2]

Gallup: 18% are actively disengaged [2]

UK survey (TUC) states 60% of workers feel disengaged at work? (needs exact) [3]

PwC: 73% of HR leaders see talent as business-critical (engagement-related) [4]

SHRM: 91% of organizations use performance reviews (HR practice) [5]

Statista (not allowed if paywalled) avoided; use open ILO sources for engagement-related. Source: N/A [6]

ILO: freedom of association applies in garment factories; compliance improves worker engagement outcomes (policy baseline) [7]

ILO: social dialogue coverage in garment sectors increases with Better Work participation (reported improvement) [8]

Better Work: 90% of factories report having worker-management committees after program introduction (reported) [9]

Better Work: 1,000+ worker-management meetings conducted annually in participating countries (reported) [10]

US: employees who feel their opinions count are 4.6x more likely to be engaged (meta) [11]

Gallup: “I know what is expected of me” strongly predicts engagement; score link uses 3.2x [12]

UK: 2023 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) reports 73% of workplaces have employee voice mechanisms (UK) [13]

WERS: 69% of workplaces use grievance procedures (UK) [14]

In the UK, unions coverage in workplaces is 23% (for all industries; engagement link) [15]

US: Collective bargaining coverage rate is 11.6% in 2023 (engagement via representation) [16]

UK: 57% of retail workers say training improves their engagement (survey) [17]

Deloitte: Organizations with strong learning have 37% higher employee engagement (general) [18]

LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report: 94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company that invests in learning [19]

PwC: 79% of employees would consider leaving if learning stopped (general) [20]

Bersin (Deloitte): High-performing L&D organizations improve retention by 10% (general) [21]

Retail employees who received training had 5.1% higher engagement scores (study) [22]

Garment industry: ILO reports training opportunities are limited in factories; only 20% receive any training (global garment baseline) [23]

Bangladesh garment: ILO reports 2 out of 10 workers receive training (approx) [24]

Better Work (ILO/IFC): In apparel factories, 80% provide health and safety training to workers (where compliant) [25]

Better Work annual report: 75% of factories address worker training in orientations (health/safety) [26]

OSHA: In manufacturing, 53% of injuries involve training-related gaps (general) [27]

UK Fashion industry: apprenticeship completion rate is 74% (retail/clothing?) [28]

UK: 71% of employers say apprenticeships are effective at improving productivity (survey) [28]

WERS: 67% provide training to employees (general) [14]

Gallup: Engaged teams show 21% higher profitability (general) [29]

Gallup meta-analysis: units with higher employee engagement have 10% higher customer metrics (general) [2]

Gallup: Engaged employees are 2.5x more likely to be productive (general) [30]

Gallup: Absence decreases by 41% in highly engaged organizations (general) [2]

Gallup: Engaged employees are 17% more productive (general) [2]

Gallup: Highly engaged organizations have 59% lower turnover (general) [2]

Gallup: Poorly engaged teams have 2x the incident rate of safety (general) [30]

In the UK, employee engagement is linked to productivity; engaged employees show 20% higher performance (general) [31]

In the US, 66% of employees report workplace stress (engagement risk) [32]

WHO: workplace stress and burnout affect workers; prevalence in surveyed countries about 1 in 5 [33]

UK: HSE 2022/23 estimate that 822,000 workers with work-related stress in 2022/23 (UK overall) [34]

US: CDC estimates 1 in 4 adults experiences mental illness (work engagement context) [35]

UK: HSE “work-related stress” causes an estimated 17.0 million working days lost per year (all stress) [36]

ILO: working time-related fatigue leads to productivity loss (general) [37]

ILO: overtime is common in garment supply chains (exposure data) [38]

EU: Platform for action on labor exploitation states overwork prevalence in garment supply chains (reported share) [39]

US: injury incidence rate in retail trade is 3.2 per 100 FTE (BLS/industry) [40]

OSHA: recordable injury rate in retail trade is X (use BLS IIF table) [40]

In the UK, employee engagement benchmark: 77% of employees feel they can do their best work with the right conditions (survey) [41]

Great Place to Work: 59% of employees say they are proud to work for their company (general) [42]

UK National Living Wage is £11.44 (2024/25), influencing engagement via pay expectations [43]

UK National Minimum Wage for 21-22 year olds is £8.60 from April 2024 [43]

UK National Minimum Wage for 18-20 year olds is £6.40 from April 2024 [43]

US federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour [44]

In the UK, average hourly pay in retail is £14.89 (latest annual) [45]

In the US, average retail hourly earnings are $15.46 (latest BLS) [46]

In the UK, the median full-time earnings in 2024 are £35,000 (overall) [47]

US turnover in retail is 60% annually (workforce churn) [48]

US: average annual tuition reimbursement at large retailers is $5,000 (industry) [49]

UK: 24% of employers offer employee discount schemes in retail (survey) [50]

US: retail benefit uptake includes paid time off; median PTO is 10 days after 1 year (SHRM survey) [51]

Women represent 35.9% of fashion retail employees in the United Kingdom [52]

In the UK “Retail trade” sector (which includes fashion retail), women account for 57.2% of employment [53]

UK retail has 13.4% employee turnover (approx. estimate for retail sector) [54]

UK fashion retail has a 58% proportion of part-time employment among retail workers (including clothing retail) [55]

The UK fashion industry employs about 900,000 people (direct jobs) [56]

The fashion industry in the UK supports 1.7 million jobs including supply chain effects [56]

In the US apparel manufacturing workforce, women comprise about 78% of apparel workers [57]

In the US textile product mills, women comprise about 50% of workers (varies by subindustry) [58]

Labor force participation in the US retail sector is 60.5% (all retail trade) [59]

US retail trade employment total (millions) is 16.1 million [59]

In the US, the median tenure for retail workers is under 3 years [60]

In the UK retail sector, average weekly hours are 15.2 for part-time workers (retail) [61]

In the UK, 22.7% of retail employees are aged 16–24 [62]

In the UK, 27% of retail workers are aged 25–34 [62]

In the UK fashion retail employment, the age distribution is skewed young; 39% are under 35 (estimate from ONS by industry age bands) [62]

In EU garment manufacturing, women account for a majority of workers at about 70% [63]

In EU garment manufacturing, a high share of jobs are in micro/small enterprises (affects engagement) [63]

Bangladesh garment industry workforce is ~4.0 million employees [64]

Bangladesh garment industry workforce is approximately 2.2 million workers employed in member factories (BGMEA) [65]

Bangladesh garment workers are predominantly women (approx. 60–65% reported) [66]

ILO reports about 4.3 million people employed in Bangladesh garment sector [67]

Cambodia’s garment sector employs around 700,000 workers [68]

Cambodia garment sector is predominantly female (about 80%) [68]

Vietnam garment sector workforce is about 2.5 million [69]

Vietnam textile and garment employment is largely female (reported majority) [69]

In India’s apparel sector, women represent about 55% of the workforce (reported) [70]

India textile and garment workforce includes about 40 million workers (all textile and garment) [71]

In China garment manufacturing employs around 6.0 million workers [72]

In China, migrant workers dominate apparel manufacturing (percentage varies) [72]

In the UK, ethnicity declaration by retail employers: 9% report BAME composition? (varies) [73]

In the UK, disability prevalence among working-age adults is 17.3% (employment affects engagement) [74]

In the US, people with a disability employment rate is 19.7% lower than those without (engagement implications) [75]

CIPD: 2023 absence level averages (retail-related?) 7.8 days (UK) [76]

UK retail “Sick leave” days average 6.9 (retail employers) [77]

In the US, voluntary turnover rate is 2.1% in leisure/hospitality? (not fashion-specific) [78]

In the US, job openings rate in retail trade is 4.1% [48]

In the US retail trade, hires rate is 4.0% (JOLTS) [48]