Industrial output in July rose by 1.3 percent compared with July last year. In that same month, the number of workers in industry fell by 2.6 percent. Both figures come from the same State Statistical Office report, and together they say something neither of them says on its own.

Where the workers are disappearing

The decline is present across all three main industrial sectors. It is largest in mining and quarrying - minus 7.8 percent. In manufacturing the number is down 2.3 percent, and in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning by 0.9 percent.

Seen from the start of the year, the picture is the same: from January to July the number of industrial workers is down 2.8 percent compared with the same period in 2025.

The hardest hit is clothing manufacturing - minus 11.6 percent for a single month against last year. Next come wood processing and wood products with 6.3 percent fewer workers, and the repair and installation of machinery and equipment with 3.4 percent. The manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers lost 2.2 percent, electrical equipment 1.9 percent, and fabricated metal products 1 percent.

Where the hiring is

Not everything is going down. The biggest growth is in the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products - plus 15.1 percent. Then tobacco products with 9.3 percent and beverages with 2.8 percent. In food products growth is 0.6 percent, which in practice means the number is standing still.

That is a short list next to a long one. And there is where the real information sits: industry is not shrinking evenly - it is moving. One branch grows fifteen percent, another falls eleven.

What it means for output to rise while the workforce shrinks

If output grows 1.3 percent with 2.6 percent fewer people, then productivity per worker has gone up. That can mean two things. Either factories invested in machinery and automation, which is good news. Or the same work is now being done by fewer people, which for those who stayed is not good news at all.

Across the main industrial groupings there is no annual growth anywhere. The steepest falls are in non-durable consumer goods at 3.6 percent, energy at 3.3, intermediate goods other than energy at 2.4, capital goods at 2.3 and durable consumer goods at 2 percent.

The branch disappearing loudest

Clothing manufacturing is losing people faster this year than any other industry. Textiles have traditionally never been spread evenly across the country - they are concentrated in specific towns, and the workforce there is predominantly female. When a branch loses 11.6 percent of its workers in a year, that loss does not spread out across Macedonia. It lands in particular places, and the statistics do not say which.

The industrial output index for January to July stands at 100.9 - almost identical to last year. Industry is producing the same, with considerably fewer people in it. Which of those two numbers gets quoted the next time anyone talks about economic results is a question that answers itself.