More jobs in the garment industry are in peril in the coming months, as the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines forecasted that about 3.5 to 4 percent of workers will lose their jobs.

This is on top of the sacking of 4,000 workers in five major garment companies at the Mactan Economic Processing Zone in Lapu-Lapu City in September.

In a virtual presser on Wednesday, Marites Jocson Agoncillo, executive director of CONWEP, said workers in the wearables export sector will feel the wrath of the slowing global demand for consumer goods.

"Currently we are experiencing around 3.5 to 4 percent workers affected with a base of 270,000 workers covering wearables (apparel, travel goods, footwear). It might reach a maximum range of 8 to 10 percent, if the current trend extends longer or global demand conditions worsen," Agoncillo told reporters.

"What happened to our Mactan, Cebu-based member should not be singled out at this moment. This will be a trend for some factories whose customers are starting to cut down on their projections, so we expect temporary closures or partial retrenchment of the workforce in the next few months," she added.

According to Agoncillo, the looming retrenchment is due to many reasons, including the spending situation of consumers in the United States, the country's top export market.

"Their monthly consumer confidence index in August 20221 stood at 96.18. This is an indicator that the average US consumer is not confident to spend as they are worried about another possible recession, so they would rather hold back spending in the next 12 months. Note that this is already happening as global giants in Silicon Valley have already started cutting down costs," she said.

Besides this, she said the continuing downturn of the global consumer confidence index clearly reveals the softening of the global apparel market, brought about by the current global trend where consumers tend to spend less and hold back on discretionary spending such as apparel and other consumer goods.

Also, she said the uncertainty of the war in East Central Europe, rising fuel costs, the disrupted supply chain, and trepidation over another pandemic directly impact consumer behavior across the globe.