We finally got September employment numbers (but we will not be getting an October report because of the government shutdown during the time the data would have been collected.)  

As we have been tracking, throughout spring 2025, printing employment had been generally flat, but started to decline as we headed into summer. Heading into September, it has remained fairly flattish/declining, depending how you want to define “flat” and “declining.”  Net printing employment in September 2025 saw printing industry employment decline 0.3% from August—overall, production employment was down 0.3% and non-production employment up 0.2%.

Publishing employment was up 0.5% from August to July.

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

Overall employment in the signage industry was down 0.5% from July to August 2025, with sign production employment unchanged, but non-production down 1.1%.

Converted paper products employment was unchanged from July to August, with paperboard container employment down 0.4% and paper bags and coated and treated paper employment also down 0.2%. These are all much smaller drops than we had seen from June to July.

Looking at some specific publishing and creative segments, from July to August, periodical publishing employment was down 0.5%, while newspaper publishing employment was down 1.5% and book publishing was up 0.2%. Graphic design employment was down 0.2%, ad agency employment was up 0.3%, and PR agency employment was down 1.8%. Direct mail advertising employment was up 1.8%—a turnaround from its having been down 2.8% from June to July.

As for September employment in general, the BLS reported on November 20:

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 119,000 in September but has shown little change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, changed little in September. 

Areas where employment was up included health care, food services and drinking establishments, and social assistance. Areas where employment was down included transportation and warehousing and the federal government.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised down by 7,000, from +79,000 to +72,000, and the change for August was revised down by 26,000, from +22,000 to -4,000. With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 33,000 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 8.1% to 8.0%.

The labor force participation rate increased in September from 62.3% to 62.4% and the employment-to-population increased from 59.6% to 59.7%. The labor force participation rate for 24–54-year-olds was unchanged at 83.7%.  

The September report was a bit above economists’ expectations, but the downward revisions in July and August payrolls are concerning.

Says the BLS:

BLS will not publish an October 2025 Employment Situation news release. Establishment survey data for October 2025 will be published with the November 2025 data. Household survey data were not collected for the October 2025 reference period due to a lapse in appropriations and will not be collected retroactively. For both surveys, the collection period for November 2025 data will be extended, and extra processing time will be needed. The Employment Situation news release for November 2025 is scheduled to be published on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.

As part of next week’s PrintStats update, we’ll look at the recent ADP payroll data, so you may want to start drinking now.