3 Ways You’ll Know Print is on the Mend

The most recent issue of Money magazine dedicated one page to the topic ‘Three Ways You’ll Know the Economy Is on the Mend.’ Although not rooted in any economic truths, the three ways do take a common sense approach to figuring out when the economy will be on upward trend again.

• Managers Say Things Are Looking Up (I would also add the media into this group too.)
• Housing Supply Starts to Shrink
• Temps, Temps, Everywhere – Companies start to hire temps before adding full time employees

As I read this article, I was struck by the similarities that could be applied to the printing economy as well. The industry has been down trodden and cannibalized internally by negativity. In some cases this general perception is almost tangible, as if we are standing here holding a ticking time bomb or chunk of kryptonite. Secondly, there has been a capacity glut in the print market for years which only gets exacerbated in a sluggish general economy. There should be some correction of this capacity as more print shops close their doors and as advertising dollars return. Finally, there will continually be downward pressure on the print labor market for some time to come. Even the US Labor Statistics project an overall decline in employment through 2016. Nonetheless, the print workforce should begin to stabilize and start to hire the necessary talent for the potential growth areas of the business.

Three Ways You’ll Know Print Is on the Mend

1. The Print Industry Says Things are Looking Up – The word “structural change” will cease to be in everyones cliched vocabulary.
2. Overall Print Utilization Trends Up – More work equals less capacity and higher utilization.
3. Joe the Printer Finds a Job – The printing labor pool stabilizes before slowly adding business critical jobs.