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%, and while production employment was down 0.8%, non-production employment was up by 2.9%.

Publishing employment was up 0.5% from February to March.

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

Overall employment in the signage industry was flat from January to February, with sign production employment up 0.5%, and non-production unchanged.

Converted paper products employment was up 0.2% from January to February, with paperboard container employment down 0.5% and paper bags and coated and treated paper employment up 2.8%.

Looking at some specific publishing and creative segments, from January to February, periodical publishing employment was down 2.2%, newspaper publishing employment was up 0.9%, and book publishing was down 0.9%. Graphic design employment was up 0.4%, ad agency employment was up 0.3%, and PR agency employment was up 0.7%. Direct mail advertising employment was up 0.7% from January to February.

As for March employment in general, it was not particularly encouraging. The BLS reported on April 3:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing. 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 7.9% to 8.0%.

The labor force participation rate decreased from 62.1% to 61.9% and the employment-to-population decreased from 59.3% to 59.2%. The labor force participation rate for 24–54-year-olds decreased from 83.9% to 83.8%.  

The revisions this time were pretty mild:

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 34,000, from +126,000 to +160,000, and the change for February was revised down by 41,000, from -92,000 to -133,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 7,000 lower than previously reported.  

This was not a bad jobs report and was well above the consensus forecast of 50,000 jobs added.