Emurse

Printing occupations range in skill from those found in quick printing to specialized production occupations rarely found in other industries (table 2). Production occupations make up 53 percent of industry employment with printing machine operators accounting for the most employment of any single occupation in the industry at 14 percent.

Prepress technicians and workers basically prepare material for printing presses: they take what clients send to them and make it printworthy. Increasingly, prepress technicians receive the material for the pages as electronic computer files, which they load into their computers, and use digital imaging software to layout the pages. In very small shops or shops with small format digital equipment, prepress technicians can also do design for those clients who need it. “Preflight” technicians examine and edit the pages to ensure that the design, format, settings, quality and all other aspects of the automated desktop work are acceptable, and that the finished product will be completed according to the client's specifications before it is printed.

Printing plants that use older technology and employ people in older, manual occupations, such as film strippers, lithographic dot etchers, and platemakers, are disappearing. However, because of digitization, new computerized occupations have arisen. Scanner operators, for example, employ electronic or computerized scanning equipment to produce and screen film separations of photographs or art to use in lithographic printing plates. Desktop publishers and digital typesetters perform typesetting and page layout on personal computers, and make sure that the files submitted by the customers are in the right format. Illustrators create drawings, charts, graphs, or full-color artwork to complement the text, while graphic designers use their creativity and computer skills to layout advertising material, brochures, and other print items that artfully bring together text, photos, and illustrations to create the kind of visual impact desired by clients.

When the material is ready, printing machine operators install and adjust the printing plate on the press, mix fountain solution, adjust pressure, ink the printing presses, load paper, and adjust the press to paper size. Operators also must correct any problems that might occur during a press run. Job printers, who usually work in small print shops, perform the prepress work as well as operate the press.

Table 2. Employment of wage and salary workers in printing by occupation, 2004 and projected change, 2004-14 (Employment in thousands)

Occupation	Employment, 2004		Percent change, 2004-14
	Number	Percent
Total, all occupations	665	100.0	-9.8
Management, business, and financial occupations	45	6.7	-2.8
Top executives	14	2.2	-4.7
Industrial production managers	5	0.8	-3.9
Cost estimators	6	0.8	2.2
Professional and related occupations	29	4.3	-5.3
Computer specialists	8	1.2	-1.9
Graphic designers	14	2.1	-9.1
Sales and related occupations	37	5.5	-4.5
Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical and scientific products	21	3.1	-3.9
Office and administrative support occupations	131	19.7	-14.2
Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks	10	1.6	-13.5
Customer service representatives	26	4.0	-1.8
Production, planning, and expediting clerks	7	1.0	-4.9
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks	13	2.0	-13.0
Secretaries and administrative assistants	9	1.4	-14.8
Desktop publishers	8	1.3	2.6
Office clerks, general	11	1.6	-14.5
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations	12	1.8	-4.0
Production occupations	354	53.2	-10.0
First-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers	27	4.1	-3.9
Bindery workers	56	8.4	-23.3
Bookbinders	6	0.9	-7.4
Job printers	39	5.8	-4.1
Prepress technicians and workers	44	6.6	-18.2
Printing machine operators	93	14.0	-3.9
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tenders	10	1.5	-10.3
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	7	1.1	-13.7
Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders	5	0.8	-9.1
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders	9	1.4	-3.9
Helpers--Production workers	25	3.7	-4.1
Transportation and material moving occupations	53	8.0	-10.7
Truck drivers, light or delivery services	6	0.9	-3.9
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand	9	1.4	-13.5
Machine feeders and offbearers	14	2.1	-23.1
Packers and packagers, hand	14	2.1	-3.9
Note: May not add to totals due to omission of occupations with small employment

During the binding or postpress stage, the printed sheets are transformed into products such as books, catalogs, magazines, or directories. Bookbinders assemble books from large, flat, printed sheets of paper. They cut, saw, and glue parts to bind new books and perform other finishing operations, such as decorating and lettering, often using hand tools.

A small number of bookbinders work in hand binderies. These highly skilled workers design original or special bindings for publications with limited editions, or restore and rebind rare books. In many other shops, bindery workers fold and fasten groups of sheets together, often using a machine stapler, to make “signatures.” They then feed the signatures into various machines for stitching or gluing. More of these workers are now using computers on the job, and consequently must learn new skills to operate the more complex machinery.

In addition to these specialized printing occupations, office and administrative support workers, marketing and sales workers, workers in professional and related occupations, and management, business, and financial operations workers also are employed in the printing industry. One occupation becoming more common are customer service representatives, also called production coordinators. Workers in this job track the various processes of production and act as liaison between clients and technicians. Thus, the customer service representative works to ensure the customer's satisfaction with the timely delivery of a high-quality product.