US commercial printing employment continues to reflect consolidation activity and survivor effects. Overall employment for June was -0.5% compared to last year, with -2400 total employees. Production employment is up, however, +0.7%, with +2300 more production employees than last year. That means non-production employment was down. The industry has -4700 fewer administrative and non-production workers than it did at last year. That's a decline of -3.4% in that category. This implies that the industry will be more healthy and efficient in months ahead. Overheads are being cut and production staffing is more in line with underlying business levels.

Magazine publishing's contraction persists, and employment is -5.4% compared to last year. Newspaper publishing is down -6.1%, with total employment in that industry at levels not seen since the end of WW2. Content creation employment remains very strong. Since last year, advertising employment is u by +15,300 workers (+3.2%).

Payroll employment was up last month, with an increase of +287,000. Payrolls for April were revised up by +21,000, but May payrolls were decreased by -27,000. That means that May's payroll employment was up only +11,000. Analysts were expecting a big revision to the upside. Truman's desire for a one-handed economist is getting harder to find.