RIT’s Printing Industry Center Releases Publication about Printing Industry Employment

A newly released publication from the Printing Industry Center at Rochester Institute of Technology analyzes core occupational employment within the U.S. printing industry. The publication, Printing Occupational Employment, High Wage Jobs & Industry Sources of Growth – 2001 to 2005, is authored by Maryellen Kelley, president of Pamet Hill Associates, a consulting group that specializes in economic analyses of innovation and government policy, including assessments of the impacts of technological change on industry and occupations.

The publication synthesizes the data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics program in its nationwide surveys and surveys of government agencies. Core printing-related occupations, industries of employment, occupational earnings and employment growth are all analyzed during the survey period of 2001 to 2005.

Key findings include:

• Expanding role of graphic designers: Between 2001 and 2005, the overall demand for graphic designers from industry groups increased by 31.6 percent. Traditional print- producing groups contributed 27.1 percent of this growth, while industries relatively new to printing contributed 56.6 percent of this growth.
• Industry shifts in employment of production printers: The loss of production printer jobs nationally can be largely explained by the contraction of print production activity in two industry groups: Apparel/Textiles and Packaging. (Some of these losses may also reflect productivity improvements in print technology.) However, losses in one type of production job were often accompanied by simultaneous increases in the other type of job.
• Employment growth in high-wage industries: For desktop publishers, graphic designers and press operators, at least half of all new hires occurred in industry groups with more high-wage than low-wage workers in these occupations.

The report is available for purchase as a softcover book for $39.95 from Lulu.com.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT

The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Ashley Walker, communications coordinator, Printing Industry Center at RIT, (585) 475-4231 or aswppr@rit.edu.