End of the job category "Printer"

[Lorenzo lab guy]

From the Washington Post: ​​​​​​Stop the presses. As of this month, “printer” and “screen printer” are no longer official jobs — at least as far as the Labor Department’s flagship release is concerned. The same goes for “printing support” jobs such as platemaking and prepress work.

Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics takes stock of industries that have become too small to be counted as a separate category in the database accompanying its widely watched monthly report on U.S. non-farm payrolls.

 

[Keith]

So, what are the implications of that? Forgive me for such an ignorant question.

 

[Lorenzo lab guy]

So, what are the implications of that? Forgive me for such an ignorant question.

The article suggests the decline of employment in those categories are because demand for the end product is declining and productivity has gone up so there is less need for labor. What I would like to know is the decline in production declining to a point where the trades will continue to shrink or is there a point where the 'long tail" means folks can keep their jobs (and I can keep selling and producing). We have seen the number of shops decline in our area (thus declining employment), but we are doing fine, at least in part because we generate our own content to makerket and sell.