To effectively gauge the size of the printing industry, it helps to take a look at the employment numbers. In 2018, about 631,000 persons were employed in printing and reproduction of media in the European Union (that includes prepress and finishing). Manufacturing of paper and paper products, which is closely linked to print, adds another 673,000 employees. Each industry accounts for slightly over 2% of the total manufacturing employment in Europe. Their shares combined are in the range industry of sectors much better known, such as manufacturing of chemicals & chemical products and is even larger than manufacturing of computer, electronic and optical products. Readers of my European sizing reports might remember that the reported printing industry numbers are far from complete - the Eurostat printing industry data lacks parts of label & packaging print and the complete data for in-house print, data centre print or copy shops.

From 2005 to 2018, the number of employees in printing and media reproduction in the European Union (including the UK) declined from 900,000 to 631,000, which is about a 30% reduction. This represents an average annual decline of 2.7%. The decline has been relatively uniform, while production values in the printing industry tended to fluctuate more during that period. This is due to the fact that staff reductions happen with some time lag after revenues decrease. Even with flat revenues, there is an ongoing decrease in staffing due to automation and efficiency gains.

The average decline in employment numbers obscures that fact that employment in the EU member countries developed quite differently. Broadly speaking, most Eastern European countries did increase in printing industry employees, while Western European countries experienced a decline. Poland had the strongest increase in employees, with numbers increasing by more than 50% since 2005. The Nordic countries and Benelux showed a strong decline on the other hand, with the numbers of employees almost halving. France and the UK reported strong declines as well.