Employment Down 5%+ In Commercial Printing

The U.S. Labor Department estimates that there were a total of 1,473,400 workers employed in the printing and publishing industry during September 2001. This total includes both full- and part-time workers, but not others with a less direct attachment to the industry, like independent contractors, consultants, and freelancers.

The industry has lost an estimated 4.8% of its employment base—or about 73,500 jobs—during the past 12 months. Overall manufacturing sector employment has declined by 5.2% over the same period of time. After increasing 0.8% during 1998, industry employment declined by an identical 0.8% in 1999 and then by another 0.3% over the course of 2000 (on an annual average basis). The September 2001 employment total is the lowest for the industry since October 1986.

Employment trends among the various subsectors of printing/publishing have varied a bit, but all were decidedly negative through the first two-thirds of 2001. During the most recent 12 months, newspaper publishing employment fell by 3.3%, after a gain of just 0.1% over the course of 2000.