Employment Levels for Printing Still Waning

Printing employment is still declining at present, while jobs in the information industry are on the rise.

In the last three months, printing employment fell by 5,100 jobs, including 3,100 in commercial lithographic printing and 1,000 in quick printing. The declining long-term trend—largely due to pixels replacing ink—will be mostly offset by mid-year by the cyclical rise in printing demand. The trend will improve further next year, during the mature phase of the business cycle when printing demand is rising the quickest. But expect monthly printing job declines to return after the peak of this business expansion, about two years ahead.

Anticipated net hiring by high-volume printers will be enough to quicken industry wage growth after several years of declining wage gains. More pressure for larger wage increases will appear later this year when workers become aware that the general inflation trend has started to rise. Raises will have to increase from the recent 2% a year to well over 3% by late 2005.

Overall, information industry employment has been steady since last October, with the electronic sector expanding and the print sector declining. Internet publishers added 1,100 people, almost 4%, in the last three months. Support service providers, such as Internet connection services (ISPs) and portal Web sites (such as Yahoo! and Google) also have added employees.