Los Angeles has the nation’s second-largest apparel...

Los Angeles has the nation’s second-largest apparel industry, trailing only New York’s. However, the typical garment maker in Los Angeles is smaller than its cousins in the nation’s other major clothing centers--New York, New Jersey and Alabama, according to a report on the industry by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

One reason for the smaller size: “Los Angeles firms are (more) fashion-oriented, produce small runs and tend to make frequent use of contractors, who in turn are fairly small establishments,” the report said.

Job growth in the Los Angeles apparel and textile industries, steady over much of the past decade, is expected to be healthy over the next five years. The industries produced 107,520 jobs in 1985. This figure is expected to rise to 122,150 jobs by 1995, an increase of more than 13%, according to the California Department of Labor.

When the jobs in the three related businesses--garment manufacturing, clothing wholesaling and textile weaving--are combined, the industries account for 117,800 jobs in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Only aerospace accounts for more manufacturing jobs in the Los Angeles area.

Operators of a Japanese joint venture hope to get a financial foothold in the California garment industry. The joint venture firm--formed by Nisshinbo Industries, a major textile maker and Kanematsu-Gosho, a trading company--has constructed a $65-million textile mill in Fresno.

The plant, which will employ about 150 people, will produce a cotton weave fabric when it goes into full production next January. Plant executives hope to sell a major portion of its textile products to garment makers in the Los Angeles area.