We kicked off 2026 with a 2.7% decrease in overall industry employment in January, and thus we were happy that February employment was generally flat. In March, overall employment remained generally flat, being up only 0.3%. In April, we again remained relatively flat overall—down 0.4% from March—with production employment up 0.6% and non-production employment down by 2.5%, essentially the reverse of what we saw in March.

Publishing employment was down 0.5% from March to April, again the reverse of what we saw in March.

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

Overall employment in the signage industry was flattish from February to March, with sign production employment down 2.7% and non-production up 1.9%.

Converted paper products employment was up 0.9% from February to March, with paperboard container employment up 0.8% and paper bags and coated and treated paper employment up 0.4%.

Looking at some specific publishing and creative segments, from February to March, periodical publishing employment was down 1.7%, newspaper publishing employment was down 0.4%, and book publishing was down 0.7%. Graphic design employment was up 2.2%, ad agency employment was down 0.1%, and PR agency employment was down 0.8%. Direct mail advertising employment was down 0.7% from February to March.

As for March employment in general, it was not particularly encouraging. The BLS reported on May 8:

Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade. Federal government employment continued to decline.

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) increased from 8.0% to 8.2%.

The labor force participation rate decreased slightly from 61.9% to 61.8% and the employment-to-population decreased from 59.2% to 59.1%. The labor force participation rate for 24–54-year-olds was unchanged at 83.8%.  

The revisions this time were pretty mild:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 23,000, from -133,000 to -156,000, and the change for March was revised up by 7,000, from +178,000 to +185,000. With these revisions, employment in February and March combined is 16,000 lower than previously reported.  

This was not a bad jobs report and was well above the consensus forecast of 75,000 jobs added. Still, the economy has only added 251,000 jobs over the last year, which is starting to worry some labor watchers.