A major knowledge gap facing policymakers and civil society as they design global value chain regulations is the lack of reliable, industrywide employment data. Without a solid baseline understanding of how many people work in an industry, where, and at what jobs, it will be impossible to design effective Just Transition regulation – and the risk of unintended consequences will be unacceptably high.

Using the global garment industry as a test case, this paper presents an evidence-based estimate of the worldwide workforce that is consistent across a wide range of countries, and is disaggregated by value chain stage, gender, and a range of other factors relevant for due diligence.  It then the explores the policy implications of the data for value chain governance and Just Transition planning.