For the last several months of 2024, production and non-production employment alternated being up and down, and January employment was down a bit from December—quite a bit in the case of non-production employment. In February, the slowdown…slowed down, and in March and April employment was on net flat, with production employment up 0.4% and non-production employment down 0.4%.

Publishing employment was up 0.1% from March to April.

Looking at other business categories, the reporting of which lags a month:

Overall employment in the signage industry was up 1.2% from February to March 2025, with sign production employment up 1.4%, and non-production up 0.9%.

Converted paper products employment was down 0.3% from February to March, with paperboard container employment down 0.9% and paper bags and coated and treated paper employment up 1.5%.

Looking at some specific publishing and creative segments, from February to March, periodical publishing employment was up 1.1%, while newspaper publishing employment was up 0.6% and book publishing was down 1.2%. Graphic design employment was down 0.4%, ad agency employment was unchanged, and PR agency employment was down 2.5%. Direct mail advertising employment was down 1.0%.

As for April employment in general, the BLS reported on May 7:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 177,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in health care, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and social assistance. Federal government employment declined.

Meanwhile, February employment was revised down by 15,000 and for March was revised down by 43,000—ergo, employment in February and March combined was 58,000 lower than previously reported.

The U-6 rate (the so-called “real” unemployment rate which includes not just those currently unemployed but also those who are underemployed, marginally attached to the workforce, and have given up looking for work) decreased from 7.9% to 7.8%.

The labor force participation rate increased in April from 62.5% to 62.6% and the employment-to-population ratio increased from 59.9% to 60.0%. The labor force participation rate for 24–54-year-olds increased from 83.3% to 83.6%.  

The April report was above economists’ expectations, even though February and March payrolls were revised down by 58,000 total.