Employment Snapshot: Printing and Graphic Arts

As one of the largest manufacturing sectors in Australia, the Printing and Graphic Arts industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy. With a workforce encompassing an estimated 6,500 businesses and almost 27,000 individuals employed in related occupations, the Printing and Graphic Arts industry plays an important role as a provider essential services and employment.

The Printing and Graphic Arts industry facilitates the effective communication of messages through a range of media platforms, and also assists creative industries with delivery of their products. With such an important role to play, the industry is ever-changing in line with business and consumer needs.

There are many specialisations within Printing and Graphic Arts, including desktop publishing, digital printing, graphic pre-press, multimedia, print finishing, print production support, printing, and screen printing.

While there remains a place for each of these specialty roles within the broader industry, as things continue to change it is natural that employment levels within these specialised roles will also evolve to reflect the needs of business and consumers.

Employment in Printing and Graphic Arts

Due to the dynamic nature of the Printing and Graphic Arts industry, the number of Australians employed in the industry has experienced ups and downs over the last two decades. This pattern of growth and contraction is expected to continue for some time yet.

While some roles have experienced a reduction in numbers as the industry increasingly focuses on digital delivery, roles in Graphic Design, Illustration and Web Design are bucking the trend with strong future growth expected.

Printers continue to make up the bulk of the workforce for now, but this is expected to change alongside the ever-changing focus of the Printing and Graphic Design industry overall.

Future requirements for the Printing and Graphic Design industry

The industry has gone through many changes in recent times, with mergers and associated workforce contraction as well as a changing environment in print contributing to lower employment levels for some specialised roles. However, these changes have only served to highlight the shortage of skilled workers within the industry, particularly within certain specialised roles.

At Stockdale Personnel, we work to identify these areas of skill shortage, and recognise the opportunities they present. Through re-skilling already skilled and experienced print industry workers, we understand that these workers can offer employers greater flexibility and choice.

How we can help

Stockdale’s industry experienced recruitment managers can work with your individual business needs to offer tailored solutions for developing your workforce, which could come in the form of a short term casual or permanent candidate who is perfect for reskilling within a business and filling a skills gap.

If you’re thinking about adding to your workplace skills mix, or anticipating a future shortage – now could be the time to chat with an industry employment expert at Stockdale.

Contact the team at Stockdale today for assistance with skills shortages in your workforce.