We kicked off 2026 with a 2.7% decrease in overall industry employment in January, so we’re happy that February employment was generally flat, with overall employment up 0.1%, production employment up 0.2%, and non-production employment down by 0.1%.

Publishing employment was down 0.4% from January to February.

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

Overall employment in the signage industry was down 0.8% from December to January, with sign production employment down 0.2%, and non-production down 1.4%.

Converted paper products employment was down 0.2% from December to January, with paperboard container employment up 0.4% and paper bags and coated and treated paper employment down 1.8%.

Looking at some specific publishing and creative segments, from December to January, periodical publishing employment was down 1.6%, newspaper publishing employment was down 2.1%, and book publishing was up 0.2%. Graphic design employment was down 0.8%, ad agency employment was down 2.2%, and PR agency employment was down 3.2%. Direct mail advertising employment was up 0.3% from December to January.

As for February employment in general, it was not particularly encouraging. The BLS reported on March 6:

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in health care decreased, reflecting strike activity. Employment in information and federal government continued to trend down.

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 8.0% to 7.9%.

The labor force participation rate decreased from 62.1% to 62.0% and the employment-to-population decreased from 59.4% to 59.3%. The labor force participation rate for 24–54-year-olds decreased from 84.0% to 83.9%.  

And, as always, the devil is in the revisions:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised down by 65,000, from +48,000 to -17,000, and the change for January was revised down by 4,000, from +130,000 to +126,000. With these revisions, employment in December and January combined is 69,000 lower than previously reported.

The February numbers were much worse than what economists had expected; the decrease of 92,000 jobs was well below the general forecast of an increase of 60,000 jobs. This data can be noisy month-over-month, but over the last 12 months total employment has only increased by 156,000 jobs.