Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Bureau of the Census published the long-awaited 2017 Economic Census and printing industry analysts were surprised by the reclassification of “commercial printing” as “Miscellaneous Tractor Parts Manufacturing, Not Specified Kind,” (NAICS 332998).

Although the Census Bureau could not be reached for comment, in a press release announcing the publication of the latest Economic Census, Government analysts noted, in part, “where to put the printing industry has become one of the Bureau’s most recent challenges. Our first inclination was to ignore it and hope that no one would notice, especially now that Dr. Joe Webb has retired. Upon reconsideration, we felt that grouping it with other kinds of big machinery-based manufacturing made the most sense from a logistical standpoint. Tractors...printing presses—when you get right down to it, it’s really all just big stuff with lots of turning wheels and gears and things.”

“I suppose we’re more bemused than anything,” said Frederick Wonkman, economic analyst for Keypoint Intelligence – Infotrends, “although we got the sense that this kind of reclassification was coming.”

Never ones to make idle threats, Printing Industries of America sent a press release to industry trade publications. “Printing Industries of America is disappointed—but not surprised—to learn that commercial print, screen printing, and support activities for printing will now be classified with tractor parts manufacturing. We have long encouraged government agencies to evolve their definition of ‘commercial printing,’ although this isn’t quite what we had in mind.”  

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