Industry Profile & Economics

Printing, one of America’s oldest industries, faces many difficult challenges in its fourth century on this continent. However, it will remain an industry with a large economic footprint and continue to provide profitable opportunities for the thousands of printing firms and their suppliers that transition their businesses to adjust to the new dynamics shaping the industry over the next decade and beyond.

The major challenge to the industry is the slowing of total printing shipments (adjusted for inflation) over the next decade. Although nominal printing shipments (not adjusted for inflation) will most likely continue to increase, real or inflation-adjusted industry shipments have most likely peaked for the foreseeable future and are projected to stabilize or decline by as much as 0.5 to 1 percent per year to 2020 before possibly beginning to grow again around 2025.

How large is the global print market? Printing Industries of America estimates that total U.S. printing production (not including in-plant production) was $166.2 billion in 2005. U.S. print production probably accounts for approximately 25 to 30 percent of total global production.