India’s garment industry faces its toughest season in years as a steep 50% US tariff on apparel imports disrupts trade flows and cripples factory activity during the peak export cycle. Exporters, usually gearing up for their busiest months, are instead seeing shrinking orders, underutilized units, and falling margins. The hardest hit are small and mid-sized factories reliant on the US market, many of which have cut shifts and reduced production.
The impact is most severe for daily-wage and unskilled workers, who traditionally depend on stable May–September employment. Thousands have been forced to seek alternate jobs, with families facing acute financial pressure as hiring freezes and layoffs ripple across garment hubs.
Inside factories, production urgency has slowed, targets have been slashed, and morale is low amid uncertainty. Managers admit hiring plans are canceled, fearing the long-term loss of skilled labour. HR efforts to reassure staff with talk of government negotiations bring little comfort as the tariff prolongs instability.
This crisis highlights the vulnerability of India’s export-led industries and how global trade policies can deeply unsettle local livelihoods. Until clarity emerges, each garment stitched bears the weight of tariff-driven uncertainty, making this a precarious chapter for one of India’s largest employment sectors.
