Similary, in industry the workforce fell by two per cent globally. Manufacturing was the largest sub - sector of industry to be affected. However, these figures represent only an overall picture, as some countries saw industrial employment actually rise by one per cent. This was particularly noticeable in certain south-east asian countries, where low wages and fast industrialization have enabled countries like china to become world leaders in manufacturing. In other sub-sectors of in dustry such as textiles, the global workforce dropped from 14.5 million in 1990 to 13 million in 2000,as increasing automation reduced the number of employees needed.