During the last year, I have talked to many members of the Printing Industries Association of Southern California about two converging themes: finances and human resources. For most of the last year, printers have been worried about balancing operating needs against one of their largest costs, labor.

Unfortunately, the pandemic created the need for furloughs, layoffs, or some combination of the two. Many printers used the pandemic to “retool” and optimize their operations, becoming experts at doing more with less. To keep the business open, employees were asked to take multi-tasking to a new level. To the degree that more efficient, productive, and effective processing was achieved, the post-pandemic period will bear fruit.

Now, as we march into the economic recovery, printers are realizing that at some point soon, customer demand will result in the need for more employees. Printers must now find the balance between satisfying their customers and increasing their workforce. The cruelty of the situation is that almost all surviving printers are vying for limited resources at the same time.