New York, NY —

The largest manufacturing industry in New York city remains apparel. But the economic down turn that worsened after the 2001 terrorist attacks dealt a large blow to an industry already shrinking. The immigrants employed in garment factories say two years later they continue to struggle to keep steady work. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

Man: There would be 6 people in the back every department is down by 50 to 60 percent and that's basically how the numbers basically add up this is the cutting department...this is the cutting department...

Cynthia Petterson owns New York Princess Knitwear an apparel company started by her mother. It's located in an old factory building in the South Bronx. From the outside it looks like it may be abandoned but up three flights of a dilapidated stairway is an airy bright factory floor where women speaking Spanish, steam clothes, cut patterns and stitch up hemlines.

Petterson sells to small specialty stores around the nation and a few major retailers, Nordstroms is one of her customers. But since September 11th she's lost just over 300 of the 500 customers she once had and her revenues are down by 60 percent. She was forced to reduce to a skeleton staff and employs just over 20 people now. On the factory floor is a woman shearing fabric that will soon take the shape of a vest. Petterson calls her the floor supervisor, then points to her as she explains employees are now multi-tasking.

Petterson: And it's not only customers she's lost, Petterson says she's also lost about 35 to 40 percent of her suppliers among them the knitting mills.

Petterson: Two of the knitting mills that supplied our fabric closed down, um the dye houses are closing down, the thread suppliers are leaving so it is a very difficult time and in apparel specifically this industry has suffered tremendous losses and will continue you now in the free trade environment that will exist in 2005 on. It's a completely different ball game.

As businesses struggle to stay afloat, workers are growing increasingly anxious about their jobs. Victorino Cortez came to the city from Mexico in 1980 he packs clothes at a garment factory and says the atmosphere at work has changed dramatically. Prior to September 11th his job was located in Manhattan now it's in New Jersey He says in March, 17 of his co-workers were fired and in July 20 more lost their jobs.

Cortez: Estoy preocupado por perder mi trabajo despues de laborar 21, 22 anos para la misma compania (I'm preoccupied with losing my job after laboring for the same company for 21, 22 years)

He has relied on this steady work to provide for his 4 sons, his wife and his mother all back in Mexico and says losing his job would be devastating .but acknowledges those who are undocumented have it much harder. Luisa Sanchez agrees, although they do not know each other both live in Bushwick Brooklyn, a neighborhood dominated by latino immigrants.

She frequents one of several school playgrounds in the neighborhood where on Sundays dozens of Ecuadorians gather to play volleyball and barbecue. She says at her factory, business is bad and the owner has gotten much more demanding and pushes the workers to do more just last week she stood up for one of her colleagues.

Luisa Sanchez: Yo puedo hablar por mi y fui para hablar por la muchacha tambien porque ella no tiene papeles entonces yo le dije a la muchacha mire le dije si a ti viene a molestar otra vez tu no te calles tu hablame a mi .(I speak up for myself and I went and spoke on her behalf too because she doesn't have her papers so I told her the next time he comes and bothers you don't stay quiet you come and tell me.)

Undocumented or not, workers are beginning to doubt their futures within an industry that has provided them jobs for decades . Urban Studies expert, Joel Kotkin from Pepperdine University, recently co - authored a report on the city's economy post 9/11. He says the city should do more to sustain the manufacturing jobs its managed to keep.

Kotkin: I think New Yorkers when they think about coming back from the dot com bomb and from 9/11 always think about how do we build a big building how do we create a new massive office retail complex for more yuppies to come in and the strength of New York is right under the surface it's the immigrant population and its people who come here for opportunity and its not putting more people in more steel and glass towers that you don't need.

The report done along with Center for an Urban Future, a local think tank, recommends the city do more to nurture small businesses. According to the report, apparel remains the largest manufacturing industry in the city but has still suffered a 59 percent loss in job growth since the 1980's. Kotkin says making real estate cheaper for this sector and investing more in helping the outer-boroughs grow, would result in an economy that could sustain all classes of people.

Kotkin: You can't have a city made up of investment bankers and the characters of sex and the city there aren't enough of them, they rely too much on the ups and downs of the stock market.

The city has managed to help some small businesses though. Cynthia Petterson recently won a 4 million dollar contract with the defense department. Instead of her self-described comfortable yet sophisticated line of women's wear she will soon be shipping over 100 thousand flight deck jersey's to be worn on air craft carriers. Although she came up with the idea herself, it was the city's small business services who helped her get through 68 pages of bidding documents. She says she has a vision for the future....it includes a very strong relationship with the defense department.

Petterson: In addition to that we will be developing and continuing our branded labels perhaps not exactly the same way but um in the midst of all this I am very confident that we will be moving forward there is a breath of fresh air that's been injected and we will survive. I also say that recognizing that most of us are not surviving and I say that with a great deal of sadness because uh it's terrible to watch an industry that you love disappear.

For WNYC: I'm Cindy Rodriguez