Also called: Sourcing & Production Director, Factory Operations Manager
Runs the process of getting clothes made on time, on budget and at the right quality, often juggling factories around the world.
Your inbox at 7 a.m. is full of overnight updates from factories in Vietnam and Guatemala. You approve a sample, push back on a late shipment, and decide whether to fly a batch of jackets by air to make a store launch date. In the afternoon you walk a domestic sewing floor to see why one line is falling behind.
BLS industrial production manager wages; apparel brands vary widely.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in apparel merchandising, business or industrial engineering plus years of production experience.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Apparel Merchandising & Production, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, Supply Chain Management.
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years). Overall production-manager growth is about average; apparel jobs are increasingly at brands that outsource the sewing.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI handles forecasts, tracking and reports; negotiating with factories and fixing production crises stay human.
Classes: Business class, Statistics, Spanish or Mandarin.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-3051.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.