# Introduction auritius as any country in the world has faced the challenges of the industrialization process and over the years, growing concerns have emerged concerning the labour market and its evolution during the island's economic transition and growth. This article provides the historical background and an insight of the mismatch of labour in Mauritus which is qualified as a "Paradox" by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) (2013) where an increasing trend of joblessness and the number of unfilled skilled-job vacancies on the market. As at December 2015, figures from the CSO (2016) show that Export Oriented Enterprises (EOE) employed 56,601 workers of which 22,576 were expatriate workers while unemployment rate stood at 7.9% representing 46,600. This mismatch is even more of a concern in the Clothing and Textile Industry where the industry employs a total of 39,952 workers of which 20,305 are expatriate workers representing 50.8% of the total workforce. This article shed light on of the labour market and provides the reasons for such mismatch between the recruitment of migrant workers and employment in the Clothing and Textile industry. # a) The Labour Market in Mauritius With the advent of fundamental structural changes in the Mauritian economy, the labour market Author ? ? ?: Open University Mauritius. e-mails: achansun@orange.mu, schittoo@gmail.com, ks.sukon@open.ac.mu structure has evolved over the past 43 years. The rapid development of the manufacturing sector in the seventies and eighties led to a rapid demand for relatively low-skilled jobs to cope with the fast expansion of the EPZ sector. Lincoln (2009) also explained how in the 1990's, Mauritius started to source labour from overseas to compensate for the withdrawal of workers in low-wage sectors. He also pointed out how already through the late 1990s and early 2000s the coincidence of rising national unemployment and sustained levels of foreign worker recruitment was an indicator of the value of labour migrants for Mauritian manufacturers. The HRDC conducted a survey on manpower planning requirements and found out that out of those 15% of respondents who employed expatriates, 24% had to employ expatriates because of the unwillingness of locals to work in this sector. Moreover, during the same period, we have seen the emergence of new sectors, namely the tourism and financial services sectors which necessitated higher skilled manpower. In the wake of the new millennium, the government in its vision to further develop the economy of the island, decided to promote the ICT sector. This further created a need for high-skilled labour with higher level of education. This economic transformation involved some cost adjustment: the economic cycle necessitated the decline of certain traditional sectors such as the sugar sector at the expense of new ones, which were very different in nature. At the same time, remaining sectors absorbed almost all their capacity of unskilled labour (NESC, 2010). For the past 10 years, new service sectors have emerged with many companies offering high-end services to the market with required different input mix, generally more capital intensive than labour intensive. While labour was easily being absorbed by the new emerging sectors, there was a further need for more skilled human capital. However, those who lost their jobs from the traditional sectors of the economy could not easily be absorbed by the new sectors because of a lack of higher academic qualifications. The services sectors such as the ICT, imposed both minimum academic qualification and other additional skills such as language skills and higher degree of technological know-how. # b) Unemployment: A structural phenomenon The NESC (2013) explained in its report on "Integration in the Global Economy" that despite a Abstract-The economic transformation of Mauritius has impacted on its labour market with the implementation of the Export Processing Zones in the 1970's whereby the primary objectives were to reduce unemployment. A shift in the skills was noted from low-skilled jobs to cope with the expansion of the EPZ to high-skilled job sover time. This resulted into the rise of unemployment among low-wage workers in the 1990's with the closure and delocalisation of many enterprises in the Clothing and Textile Industry (C&T) to cheaper countries. Many articles have demonstrated that the local workers have been snubbing jobs in the C&T industry at the expense of newly developed sectors such as the Tourism, ICT and Services sectors. Our study reveals the reasons for the unwillingness of local workers to join this industry and provides an insight of the current labour market situation that will be useful for policy decisions. relatively stable economic performance, Mauritius experienced a U-curve employment phenomenon since the last decade. It can be observed that the rate of unemployment has been slowly crawling, from a record low level of 4% in the early 1990's. The NESC report further pointed out that if we pay a closer look at the nature of unemployment, it shows that the majority of those without a gainful job have the following characteristics: (i) Young, often less than 30 years of age, (ii) Never held a first job, (iii) Failed primary or secondary education, (iv) No vocational or technical training and (v) Single and family supported. The ILO reports that youth population is over 1.2 billion youth in the world and today almost one person in five is between the ages of 15 and 24 years. According to ILO, the majority of them, about 90 per cent live in developing countries, with 60 per cent in Asia and 17 per cent in Africa. The current population of young people in developing countries is the largest; around 1 billion and is expected to reach a maximum of 1.1 billion in 2060 (ILO, 2012). Tandrayen & Kaseeah (2013) reported that one of the challenges that Mauritius is facing today is the reduction of youth unemployment as they do not have the relevant education, training and experience to be employable. Also, many of them do not have the necessary soft skills and relevant practical experience required by employers and in many cases, they may lack both. Johnson (1978) explained the attitude of young people for not being willing to take jobs by putting forward the theory of Job shopping which stipulates that a young work seeker must first try a job before deciding if he is going to keep this employment or start a new search. O'Higgins (2001) highlighted that it is quite normal that the initial experience of youth employment in the labour market often involve a certain amount of "shopping around" in order to find the appropriate job whereas Jovanovic, (1979) explained that unlike the previous theory, models of job matching explain youth joblessness by decisions from both the perspective of the employee and the employer are based on the individual's productivity. Lim Fat (2010) explained that all youth who desire a college education were aided and supported by the government in obtaining that education, thus factory work is less desirable to college educated people and is less favorable than working in other service-oriented industries (Lim Fat, 2010).The NESC (2013) added that Youth tends to regard the unskilled jobs as being unattractive and would rather stay unemployed. A basic reason for snubbing such jobs on offer is that the wages tend to be low, with the job carrying little potential for career advancement while requiring atypical hours of work including during holidays. However, the CSO (2013) noted that despite the rising trend in joblessness, two paradoxical facts can be observed. On the one hand, the number of unfilled skilled-job vacancies, especially in the financial services sector and in the ICT sector has been increasing since the last 10 years. On the other, the EPZ is crippled by labour supply shortages and is compelled to import foreign labour mainly from China, India and Bangladesh. Lee (2008) explained how similar situation had prevailed in Taiwan in the 1980's in the manufacturing industry which gave rise to the employment of illegal immigrants and how it was necessary for the government to establish a decree for tackling this issue. A similar situation prevailed in the 1990's in Malaysia during its industrialization process, where the growing presence of foreign workers could be explained by excess demand for labour combine with rapid economic growth, as well as the cheaper cost of foreign workers. This leads us to conclude that it is therefore appropriate to say that the unemployment phenomenon is of a structural nature caused by changes in demand and technology and that there is a mismatch between available skills and available jobs. Structural unemployment cannot be cured solely by "reflation", which is the macroeconomic policy to increase aggregate demand in view of creating more jobs. Instead, a policy that would emphasize on retraining and relocation of the affected workforce is necessary (Ramdoo, 2004). The NESC stresses on the fact that education plays a central role in the labour market in Mauritius as it is one of the determining factor for supplying skilled labour through the various educational systems. They highlight that Mauritius is one of the countries with a high literacy rate, but some weaknesses were outlined especially in the teaching of natural science, engineering and vocational subjects. Our education system is based on academic and traditional fields of study and it was noted that there have been, until recently a lack of training/ retraining programmes that would prepare the labour force for the newly emerging sectors, such as ICT and high value added services. Before the reforms in education launched in 2001, a large proportion of the young were unable to access secondary education because of the competitive system for getting an entry to secondary schools, and this created a deficit in the supply of necessary skilled labour (NESC, 2013). Figures show that for the 2004 CPE exams, the failure rate was as high as 62.6% with many of those who fail their CPE exams dropping out of the system, therefore remaining unskilled. The consequence is obviously a deficit in the skilled labour market, especially in the emerging sectors. The government has brought reforms to the education system in order to remedy the situation through training/ retraining programmes, technical courses and additional university courses, in particular in technology (NESC, 2013). # c) Main Characteristics of the Labour Market in Mauritius At the beginning of the crisis, in 2008, the unemployment rate stood at 7.2 percent. Since then, the rate of unemployment has been on an ascending trend reaching an 8.0 percent mark in 2015. There are indications that local enterprises are having difficulties to deal with the crisis of unemployment. The Mauritian labour force is estimated at around 584,600 in 2015 as compared to 575,700 in 2014, an increase of 1.5 percent. Employment (Mauritian) meanwhile has reached 538,300 in 2015, up from 530,900 in 2014. However, an increase of 0.1 percent only was noted from 2015 as compared to 2014. In fact, the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) outlined in its economic overview 2012 reported that a sluggish growth situation was tainting the economy's capacity to create jobs to absorb the new entrants in the economy. The Clothing and Textile Industry suffered from a decline in employment since 1999 where the sector was at its peak with 285 enterprises employing 80,960 workers and contributing to 10.98% of GDP. The export of this sector represented Rs. 24.83 billion. For the four consecutive years, a slight decline in employment was noted each year bringing total employment down to 76,570 workers in 2002 with a GDP of 9.4%. From 2002 to 2006, sharper declines were noted in employment for the 5 consecutive years and in 2006, only 226 enterprises were in operation with a low employment of 53,583 workers. The contribution to GDP of the Clothing and Textile industry was then at 6.6% of GDP but still representing an export of Rs. 23.4 billion. The same descending trend was observed from 2006 to now where employment has further decreased to 40,161 as at June 2013 with a share of GDP of 4.8% only. The export, however, is expected to be maintained at Rs. 24.5 billion. An analysis of the figures confirms what have been outlined in the previous chapters, where the UNDP (2007) report highlighted the decline of the sector and the need for restructuring of the sector as regards employment. The export figures show that the Clothing and Textile Industry is still performing quite well while maintaining yearly export at Rs. 24 billion although employment from 1999 to now has been reduced by 50%. This shows that the sector has been able to restructure itself by investing into new technology and also move towards producing higher value markets. This was qualified as a paradox by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) in its report of May 2010. However, the Clothing and Textile Industry has remained one of the biggest employers of foreign workers since its first batch of 1000 workers arrived in 1990. This trend has been increasing, and as at December 2015, The C&T Industry employs 20,305 expatriates out of a of 39,952 workers. The NESC (2010) expressed its concern on this matter and explained that this situation was caused by the relaxation of barriers to the entry of foreign workers into Mauritius. The council also pointed out that this trend will persist and argued that the inflow of foreign workers has coincided with the migration of Mauritians mostly of working age, to countries where salaries and standards of living are perceived to be higher. It is to be noted that the NESC could also not confirm this situation due to lack of reliable statistics on the number of migrating who decide not to return after their studies. The Council pursue further by stressing that this situation was caused by the liberalisation of the economy which has ushered a new situation marked by an increasingly higher percentage of foreigners in the local labour force. The NESC also explained that there are two schools of thought regarding foreign workers in Mauritius. While on one side, many are in favour of the foreign skills which are increasingly viewed as a necessity in making our productive sectors more efficient. Others argued that foreign workers are viewed to bring more social problems to the local population. The NESC tend to privilege more the latter view by pointing out that the majority of foreigners employed are predominantly of low or semi-skilled grades working as manual workers. Similarly, in many countries, there has been much controversy as to whether or not migrant workers cause higher unemployment among natives. It is often said that at micro or enterprise levels there are undoubtedly displacements that take place when firms restructure and foreign workers are hired to take the place of local workers especially the older and less skilled, who have been laid off. Venables (1999) explained that what is difficult to assess is whether, after taking all economic adjustments into account, there is higher unemployment among natives after immigration than before. He added that if migrant workers are a short term solution to cope with shortages of labour and bring about an expansion of the economy, it is no longer clear that it causes higher unemployment among natives. The OECD (1999) examined the experience of several countries between 1984 and 1995 and concluded that there was no evidence of a negative impact. In one study, no relationship at all was found between unemployment and the growth in immigrant arrivals: in the countries that had the highest inflows of immigrants, unemployment often stayed the same or went down. Indeed some studies even show that immigration has led to an increase in employment as a result of an expansion in production. The OECD report pointed out that admission of unskilled labour may, for example, lead to increased production of labourintensive products and increased exports, thus raising overall levels of employment. Battistella (1999) explained that studies and recent episodes have indicated that unskilled migrants do not compete with nationals because they are employed in sectors that are shunned even by unemployed national workers. He further pointed out that Bill Jordan of the ICFTU Trade Union World observes: "... the argument that immigrants are responsible for the rise in unemployment does not hold up to close inspection. In fact, repatriating immigrants would cause a higher number of job losses than new jobs available to nationals of the country in question after their departure." Boswell et al. (2004) analysed the impact of the inflow of foreign labour on the domestic labour force and its skill composition and note a complementary relationship between foreign and local workers whereby some jobs require skills of foreign labour as they cannot be performed even by qualified local workers. Their results also show a positive impact of skilled foreign labour on productivity, innovation and growth. Philip Martin (2000) on his part pointed out that: "Most East Asian societies receiving migrants insist that migrants are and will remain, temporary workers, not permanent residents." The experience of Western Europe clearly shows that a substantial of migrant guest workers chose to settle down in the countries of destination. While Asian countries are quite resistant to such an idea, Castles (1999) and Martin (2000) show that it is happening on a limited scale. In destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong (China), skilled migrants stay much longer and also get accepted as permanent residents over time. Overall, Mauritius has performed well in terms of securing relatively high growth rates without large adverse consequences for inequality, but it would be desirable for efforts to promote inclusive growth to continue in light of the measured increase in inequality over the period 2001/02-2006/07 (NESC, 2013). It is important to bear in mind that 2006 and 2007 were years during which unemployment rates were relatively high (9.1 and 8.5 percent, respectively), which might bias the results in favor of finding more inequality. In fact, in the first part of the 2000s, labor force growth in Mauritius exceeded net employment creation by 15,000 workers (World Bank, 2011). But in the period 2006-08, net employment creation surpassed the growth of the labor force, and this trend persisted until Mauritius was affected by the global recession in 2009/10. In addition, an outward shift in the so-called "Beveridge Curve", which depicts the relationship between the job vacancy rate and the unemployment rate, points to a deterioration in the job-matching process over the 2000s, possibly linked to skill mismatches, suggesting a potential increase in structural unemployment over the period. IMF (2013) also points to evidence that unemployment in Mauritius seems to be mostly structural and particularly concentrated among the youth and women. At end-2011, the female unemployment rate was close to 12 percent according to data from Statistics Mauritius, compared to a rate of close to 5 percent for men (David and Petri, 2013). In Mauritius, very few studies have been conducted among employers in the Clothing and Textile industry in order to find out the specific reasons that motivate them to employ foreign labour. However, the above literature provides an insight of the various reasons elaborated in many countries which will provide a basis for understanding for migrant workers in Mauritius. The Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) Manpower Planning Survey 2006-2010 revealed that the manufacturing sector is characterised by a low educational background of the majority of its employees, especially in the EPZ sector. The report already predicted that the number of employees would decrease by 2010. An estimate was also made for the number of employees that would be required for the sector in terms of occupational groups by 2010. The study also revealed the difficulty that exists in some areas like machine operators, machinists and quality controllers, where it is difficult to recruit employees in the EPZ sector. There also exist problems especially in the EPZ sector to find trainers in certain areas. The survey reported that since many years the Export Oriented Enterprises (EOE) sector has been employing foreign labour because domestic job seekers consider EOE employment unattractive, on account of its low pay and high insecurity. However, large manufacturing firms do have a certain number of expatriates in managerial positions to take advantage of foreign expertise. The survey outcome showed that 15 percent of respondents employed expatriates while the majority of respondents did not have any in their labour force. Out of those 15 percent of respondents who employed expatriates, around 21 percent stated that they did so because of lack of locally trained labour in related fields and their high labour cost. 24 percent had to employ expatriates because of the unwillingness of locals to work in this sector. The HRDC (2012) further outlined the reasons for shortage of labour in the manufacturing sector as: lack of technical skills, negative opinion about this sector, unfavourable conditions of employment compared to other sectors, lack of language proficiency, not sufficient job security compared to other sectors, insufficient ICT proficiency, low wages compared to other sectors, employees not willing to adopt flexi-time, workers are not sufficiently proficient in numeracy, employees not willing to work overtime and not willing to work on shift, education system does not meet market demands and wrong attitude towards work. In Mauritius, the NESC (2013) has explained that the labour market has lost the stability of the past. Because of more competitiveness in world markets, globalisation has reduced the life cycles of business enterprises, thus making job tenure become more insecure than was the case earlier. Job losses bring uncertainty in the lives of families and unless the unemployed can quickly shift to other occupations, families can be temporarily deprived of their normal incomes. The NESC further explained how the opening up of the economy has transformed the structure of our workforce and how Mauritian workers are now showing reluctance for certain stressful and low-paid occupations mainly in the construction and textile sectors, preferring to move towards those which bring leisure and higher pay. As a result, businesses have to fill the void by recruiting more foreign labour, which today accounts for around 6% of our total labour force. Hein (2004) pointed out that local workers lack motivation and are not willing to work overtime and night shifts, and they are lazy Mondays. According to a survey conducted by the MRC in 2005 on "Working Time in Mauritius" it was found out that foreign workers were seen as ultimately flexible as compared to local Mauritian workers working in the manufacturing sector mainly EPZ. Cardoza and Pun Sin (1996) on their part explained that the fact that level of earnings has increased by ten-fold in the EPZ from 1980 to 1990, local workers earn sufficient enough to enjoy themselves and this "enjoyment is especially manifest" on Monday's: at the EPZ in Port Louis, the rate of absenteeism often is as high as 30 percent. A research conducted by the University of Cape Town (2001) on the Restructuring of the Mauritius Clothing Industry in light of New Trade Agreements also highlighted the causes of low productivity encountered by Mauritius which according to them could be related to worker attitudes in the Mauritian manufacturing industries -high rates of absenteeism, poor work discipline and lack of motivation are common complaints from firms. Mohit, (2011) also confirmed the above statements as he agreed that Mauritian workers earn a higher salary as compared to other third world countries and are no longer motivated to work on 24/7 and overtime. This has given rise to a rate of absenteeism of 10% and a high labour turnover rate of 40% in the Mauritian Textile and Apparel industry. The influx of foreign workers is coinciding with the migration of predominantly white collar Mauritian workers, who are moving to countries where wages and standards of living are perceived to be higher. This socalled circular movement of manpower, while being of benefit to the country, is also becoming the source of other social problems. An increasing presence of foreign workers is often perceived as the cause of other social ills such as drug proliferation, prostitution and alienation (NESC, 2013).Further, the internationalisation of job searches has created huge disparities in wage levels between those at the two extremes of the income scale. The gradual deregulation of wage fixing mechanisms has allowed market forces to prevail more heavily in the negotiation of salaries. Contractual employment and mobility of workers from jobs becoming obsolete to those needed by the market and the constant training of workers to cope with skill deficiencies have become new features of our job market. It is worth noting that the Mauritian labour market is relatively rigid, in part due to the particularities of its labour market institutions. In Mauritius, the wage determining institutions are the Tripartite Committee (TC), the National Remuneration Board and the Pay Research Bureau. The Tripartite Committee is responsible for the determination of wages at the national level through consultations involving Government, trade union and representatives of the private sector. These wage agreements of the TC are legally binding on all sectors of the economy. The NRB sets minimum wages by worker category for 29 sectors in the private sector. There are more than 400 of these minimum wages. However, changes to them are not made uniformly. The PRB makes recommendations regarding salaries in the Public Sector. The determination of wages by such a centralised bargaining system discourages sector-specific competitive wage setting, resulting in a strong relationship between wages in the traditional sectors and those in the emerging sectors. While new sectors create demand for skilled labour, wage increases typically follow in the traditional sectors leading to a loose relationship between wages and productivity in traditional sectors. The rise of wages in the traditional sectors reduces domestic demand for unskilled labour and tends to increase unemployment rate of these workers. From the labour supply side, skill premium, expressed by wage differential between the two sectors is constrained by this staple relationship, resulting in fewer incentives for the young to invest in education and to supply skilled labour for the new sectors. With respect to foreign workers, the EPZ sector, has since a few years, been employing foreigners because domestic job seekers consider EPZ employment unattractive, on account of its low pay and high insecurity. # II. # Methodology A mixed method approach was used in the studyto show how inferences from mixed methods may be greater than the single method components (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). The research was conducted using an exploratory approach conducted among stakeholders of the industry followed by both quantitative and qualitative methods using primary and secondary data. All data relevant to the case have been compiled and organized to provide intensive analysis of many specific details often overlooked by other methods for this study. # a) Research Design The purpose of this two-phase, mixed methods purpose study explores the participant's views who are # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XVI Issue VIII Version I Year ( ) A experts in the field. This information was developed and tested with a sample from the Clothing and Textile industry. The data collected provided allows us to perform an in-depth assessment of the companies and their contributions in the context. The first phase was conducted through a qualitative exploration in the form of a stakeholder's meeting to find out "What are the Challenges that the Clothing and Textile industry is facing on the labour market?" by collecting data from participants (experts) already working in the sector. The second phase consisted of quantitative research questions which will measure the relationship between the independent and dependent variables that have been identified in our literature review with respect to Clothing and Textile companies. The purpose of this concurrent mixed method approach helped to better understand the research problem by converging both qualitative data in terms of detailed views from experts in the field and quantitative data in terms of broad numeric trends data. In the study, a questionnaire with open-ended questions was also used as main instrument for interviews and observations gathering the views of experts in the field. At the same time, quantitative instruments were used to measure the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables within the companies. # b) Questionnaire Design The questionnaire was designed to be as simple and comprehensive as possible, covering widely the different aspects related to the assessment of critical success factors for the Clothing and Textile industry. The questionnaire was designed to reflect the various identified critical success factors as covered both in the literature review and from the exploratory exercise. This was listed under a specific section which led for quality of information. A pilot test was run among 4 companies and feedback obtained allowed us to make constructive changes for the final questionnaire. # III. # Analysis of Results The survey was carried out among a list of 85 Export Oriented Companies (EOE) working in the Clothing and Textile industry obtained from the Ministry of Industry. During the survey, it was found that 5 of them were no longer in operation since 2014 and thus excluded from the data and four companies were not willing to participate in the study for confidentiality reasons. In order to have a representative sample, care has been taken to include among the respondents organizations from various sizes in the Clothing and Textile industry. The respondents are represented by 39 organizations grouped under various sizes with respect to their turnover as categorized by the Ministry of Industry in Mauritius. The study has also included participants from the three mentioned categories which are small, medium and large companies with turnover of less than Rs.10 million, Rs.10 -50 million and over Rs.50 million respectively. The respondents were asked whether they agree with the listed statements below as to why local workers are not willing to join the Clothing and Textile industry as per table 1.0 below: 66% of the respondents agree that local workers would not take employment in the Clothing and Textile industry as salary is lower as compared to other sectors. 71% of the respondents agree that local workers view the working environment as a stressful and 76% of them agree that local workers are not willing to join this sector as working hours are longer as compared to other sectors. 74% of the respondents agree that local workers do not want to join the Clothing and textile industry due to long hours of overtime. Moreover, 79% of the respondents agree that local workers will not join the Clothing and Textile sector as # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XVI Issue VIII Version I Year ( ) A there is no job security, and 76% of respondents agree that local workers can easily find more attractive jobs in other sectors. Only 58% of the respondents believe that local workers are not willing to work in the Clothing and Textile industry due to the bad image of the industry. # IV. # Inferential Analysis Tests of ANOVA for Labour Market Conditions and Recruitment of Local Workers in the Clothing & Textile Industry were conducted by Size and Type of industry. A normality test using Shapiro-Wilk (Sample<50) was carried out test to verify whether the data follows a normal distribution for all sizes of companies. The results show P-values (> 0.05) of 0.566 and 0.060 for medium and large companies and P-value of 0.007 for small companies thus concluding that the data does not follow a normal distribution. Since the conditions of normality was not satisfied, a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted where the mean rank of small, medium and large companies13.10, 19.50 and 22.87 respectively for the various sizes of companies. The Kruskal-Wallis Chi-Square test is not significant beyond the 0.01 level with ? 2 (2) = 5.127; p = 0.077 > 0.01, thus this infers that there is no difference in the mean rank among small, medium and large companies and reasons for local workers for not willing to join the Clothing and Textile industry. The same set of data was analysed to see whether it satisfies the conditions to run an analysis of variance test (ANOVA) among those companies involved in different sectors of the Clothing and Textile sector. Since the date did not follow a normal distribution, a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was again used where the mean ranks of 18.16, 25.67 and 20.17 were obtained with ? 2 (2) = 2.312; P = 0.315 > 0.01, thus showing that there is no difference in mean rank among the various types of companies working in the Clothing and Textile industry and local workers not willing to join the industry. V. # Factor Analysis Before proceeding to Factor Analysis, the data was tested for normality using Shapiro-Wilk test a sour sample is (< 50) small. As all p-values < 0.05, this implies that the data does not follow a normal distribution. Moreover, reliability test using Cronbach's Alpha was also conducted where a high internal consistency of 0.826 was obtained thus allowing us to proceed with factor analysis. Prior to the extraction of the factors both the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) for measuring sample adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity were conducted. The KMO test indicates a 0.5 index which is within the range of 0 to 1 considered to be suitable for factor analysis (Hair et al., 1995). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of 0.768, exceeding the recommended value of 0.5 (Kaiser 1970(Kaiser , 1974) and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity (Barlett 1954) reached statistical significance, supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix. # a) Total Variance Explained The seven reasons for locals not willing to join the Mauritian Clothing and Textile companies were subjected to principal components analysis (PCA) using SPSS version 21. Principal components analysis revealed the presence of two components with Eigenvalues exceeding 1, explaining 49.6% and 16.4% of the variance respectively. A scree plot was also plotted to reveal a clear break after the third component. The two component solution explained a total of 66% of the variance, with component 1 contributing to 37.4% and component 2 contributing to 28.5%. To aid in the interpretation of the two components, # b) Rotated Component (Factor) Matrix Varimax rotation technique was performed, and the simpler orthogonal rotation yielded meaningful item groupings and strong, unambiguous loadings. By referring to the content of those items, one can discern the nature of the latent variable that each factor represents. The idea of rotation is to reduce the number factors on which the variables under investigation with high loadings. Rotation does not actually change anything but makes the interpretation of the analysis easier. Looking at the table below four factors namely: locals are unwilling to join C&T industry because of long hours of overtime, long working hours, low salary and can find more attractive jobs elsewhere are loaded on factor 1 while locals are unwilling to join the C&T industry due to bad image of the industry, as stressful environment and job insecurity are loaded on factor 2. # c) The Two Topic Factors The four items loaded onto Factor 1 relate to the reluctance of locals to join the Clothing and Textile (C&T) industry. The factor loads on their unwillingness to work in the C&T industry because of long hours of overtime, long working hours, low salary and ability to find more attractive jobs in other sectors. This factor is labelled "Poor working conditions for local workers". The three items that load onto factor 2 relate to the fact that local workers are not attracted to work in the C&T industry due to the bad image of the sector, a stressful environment and job insecurity. This is labelled as "Poor working environment for local workers". # d) Component One -Poor Working Conditions for Local Workers This component groups the factors that according to companies, local workers are not willing to join the Clothing and Textile industry. This component is labelled as the "Non-conducive working environment for local workers". Four items were loaded onto component 1 which is related to the reluctance of local workers to join the Clothing and Textile sector, the results show that long hours of overtime and working hours are too long were identified with high factor loading of 0.869 and 0.834 while the other two factors namely salary is lower as compared to other sectors and the ability for local workers to get a better job in other sectors have loadings of 0.699 and 0.608 respectively. The response for local workers is found to differ from that of the young graduates where by respondents agree at 73.5% and 76.5% that the reluctance for local workers to join the industry is mainly due to long hours of overtime and long working hours. This is followed by two items namely salary is lower than in other sectors and local workers can easily find more attractive jobs in other sectors which were agreed by respondents at 65.5% and 76% respectively. The working conditions have already been outlined in previous sections by the ILO (2004) describing the highly competitive environment in which workers have to evolve. The long hours of work and irregular hours have been identified as the two factors that are shunned by local workers. As for the NESC (2010), Mauritian workers are now showing reluctance for certain stressful and low-paid occupations mainly in the construction and textile sectors which are in line with our results. As for the HRDC (2006), long working hours and overtime do not motivate people to join the manufacturing industries, and this motivates workers will have the tendency to join the informal sector where it is easier to earn an income in less stringent work conditions. A similar situation prevails in Singapore where a report published by the Ministry of Manpower in January 2014 shows that locals are not willing to take any jobs thus causing vacancies unfilled for extended periods in 2013. It is also highlighted that key barriers to recruiting locals for hardto-fill were unattractive pay, physically strenuous job, non-conducive working environment and shift work. # e) Component two -Poor working environment for local workers This component has listed 3 items for local workers not willing to join the Clothing and Textile industry due to the industry, reflecting a bad image, being a stressful environment and offering no job security. The three factors have a loading of 0.917, 0.700 and 0.694 respectively. The bad image has a high factor loading of 0.917 and thus considered as the most important item for component two. Respondents have agreed at 58% that bad image is a reason for local people not willing to join the industry. We have explained more elaborately in the literature where both the HRDC and articles from local newspapers described the bad image that Clothing and Textile industry has projected during many years. 71% of the respondents also agree that the C&T industry is a stressful environment while 79% agree that there is no job security in the C&T industry. These as explained earlier were mostly linked to the massive closures of factories and workers deprived of any compensation creating high job insecurity. Moreover, the NESC (2013) refers to the reluctance for Mauritian for certain stressful and lowpaid occupations mainly in the construction and textile sectors. The above findings were also confirmed during an interview with the CEO of an international Clothing industry who added the following: # Question/Topic Responses Coding Themes The study shows that there is a shortage of labour which is caused by a mismatch of skills, lack of training & retraining and ageing population? Yes, there is indeed a shortage of labour in the Clothing and Textile Sector as many companies are moving for more automated equipment and require higher level skills for more competitiveness. An upgrade in skills is therefore important as the C&T sector will require lesser lower skills jobs although the sector remains a labour intensive one. However, the Mauritian workforce does not want to do low skills job as the younger are more educated and not willing to take lower skills jobs. Also it is important to add that many companies do rely on foreign labour for manual jobs such as machinists. # Labour shortage # Need for automation # Concern about local workers not willing to do lowers skills jobs Younger generation more educated and not willing to take lower skill jobs Companies' reliance on foreign labour. Labour shortages in the C&T sector # VI. Conclusion and Recommendations The results demonstrate that there are no difference in views with respect to the unwillingness of local workers to join the C&T industry both by firm size and type of activity. Moreover, from the factor analysis, two components were identified as Poor working conditions and Poor working environment which prevents local unemployed people to take a job in the Clothing and Textile industry. The results are based on data gathered from both exploratory research and data collected from the survey questionnaire. The various factors in each component are important for all stakeholders to clearly understand the situation and take the necessary measures for corrective actions by both the entrepreneurs and the government through a sectorial policy decision. The study clarifies the current situation of the labour market in the Clothing and Textile Industry in Mauritius and provides the necessary insight for the preparation of a national manpower planning to provide the necessary support to this industry to cope with labour shortages in this area. Moreover, the dependence of the Clothing and Textile Industry on expatriate workers is more and more becoming a major concern. This warrants serious consideration on the part of all stakeholders including the Mauritian Authorities in order to sustain this pillar of the economy which contributes to 8.7% of the GDP and is considered as a backbone of the Mauritius export Processing Zone (EPZ).We will also recommend that further studies be carried out to assess the impact of foreign workers and their contribution to the EPZ in Mauritius. # Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XVI Issue VIII Version I Year ( ) ![](image-2.png "") 1Strongly AgreeAgree Neither DisagreeStrongly DisagreeTotal 2Component12 © 2016 Global Journals Inc. (US) The Labour Market: A Mismatch in the Clothing and Textile Industry in Mauritius © 2016 Global Journals Inc. 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