Export-oriented labor-intensive industries have the potential to be affected by the issue of the global economic recession and continue to be faced with threats of termination of employment (PHK). This was reflected in the decline in aggregate demand for exports of textile products and textile products (TPT) and footwear. The condition of the labor-intensive industry, especially the TPT, which includes garments and footwear, is increasingly worrying amidst the threat of a global economic recession. Demand from the global market, especially from developed countries, fell sharply at the end of semester II/2022. This condition is expected to continue until the first quarter of 2023. Thus forcing companies in the sector to reduce production significantly and lead to reduced working hours to layoff policies.

Chairman of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) Sukoharjo, Yunus Arianto, said TPT industry players are currently having difficulties exporting due to a decline in orders since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. On the other hand, imported products have flooded the domestic market.

“Labor-intensive industrial sectors such as TPT and footwear are still very heavy. Requests for orders have not been normal from developed countries. Plus the price of raw materials is expensive. This is a separate problem faced by labor-intensive industries," he said, Tuesday (31/1/2023).

Ari, as he is affectionately known, said that labor-intensive industry players could not confirm when demand for export orders would return to normal. This is closely related to global economic conditions. Moreover, the threat of a global economic recession will have a real impact on the textile industry sector nationally.

He hopes that labor-intensive industrial exports can recover in the second quarter of 2023. In this way, companies can avoid reducing production and the threat of laying off employees. "Although a global economic recession is not certain to occur, at least the condition of the textile industry which has been hit the hardest due to Covid-19 is slower to recover and return to normal," he said.

In Sukoharjo, there are more than five export-oriented textile and various textile industries. TPT products must compete with imported products that flood the domestic market at competitive prices.

General Manager of HRD at PT Sri Rejeki Isman (Sritex) Tbk, Sri Saptono Basuki, said that the textile industry was still in a tough condition to return to normal as it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. This condition is added by the uncontrolled thrifting fashion imports that have flooded Soloraya. The hope is that the government will immediately realize control of illegal imports to maintain the continuity of the resilience of clothing, especially the TPT industry which absorbs tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of workers.