Labor and the Workforce: 2026 and Beyond

The labor market has always been one of push and pull, give and take, and ups and downs. Some years, there are more jobs than people to fill them, and others, more people seeking than actual positions to fill. For the past few years, the industry has been in the first scenario, trying — and often failing — to find new people to fill open positions. But that is starting to shift, due to a few factors.

“In many areas of the country, the past decade or more, employers have been scrambling to fill positions” Adriane Harrison, vice president of human relations consulting at PRINTING United Alliance, says. “In 2026, there may be less turnover as fewer people leave their jobs because they perceive economic uncertainty. Also, more people are looking for manufacturing and other non-office jobs. All of this should mean more good candidates open to recruitment and applying for positions.”

Jules VanSant, who is chairperson of the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF), partner at Bubble & Hatch, and executive director at Two Sides North America, has been seeing the same trend starting to take shape.

“This last year, there’s been a lot of pause, a lot of uncertainty,” VanSant notes. “There’s been caution in hiring, caution in letting people go, just seeing what you could do with what you had. And these times have happened in the past, where instead of getting excited about investing in new talent, you’re kind of pulling back and only filling if you really need to. I think with the mergers and acquisitions that continue to happen, there’s a lot of movement in labor as well, with people that are experienced [being displaced].”

And that’s not just in the printing industry. Harrison stresses, “For instance, UPS cut [48,000] jobs in 2025, and recently announced another 30,000 jobs cuts in 2026. Amazon is cutting 30,000 jobs. The first round was 14,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025, and the second round is coming soon. This is the tip of the iceberg — there will be a lot of large companies scaling back their workforces. This is a real opportunity for our industry. We can offer careers — not just jobs — for some of these displaced workers.”

And that’s especially important as the wage gap continues to get wider. VanSant points out that every year, more and more workers are retiring, taking with them institutional knowledge. But at the same time, technologies are changing so rapidly, that perhaps that knowledge isn’t as valuable as it was in the past. As new employees enter the space, they bring trust in and capability with technology that older generations may struggle to keep up with.

At the same time, every successful printer needs experienced people who understand print at a fundamental level to ensure everything works well together; having a bunch of presses and people working without considering the processes before or after them translates to inefficiencies, low quality, and mistakes. A stronger workforce can be built by balancing younger generations’ keenness to learn with the experience of older generations who cut their teeth on plates and offset presses.

“In my previous lives, when I worked at a flexo free press and platemaking facility, we went from manual film stripping, and everyone in that department needed to either learn how to use a computer or they didn’t have a job anymore,” VanSant says. “And a lot of them were like, ‘I don’t want to go there.’

“I think this is a different time, but it’s a similar situation where people that work on big presses are now being asked to work on something that’s really more digitally driven. It’s a different world, right? Do they want to learn something like that? And do you need that level of expertise now, with some of the software incorporated into these pieces of equipment? Or do you need somebody who’s a good communicator, who learns quickly, who’s physically capable?”

Planning for the Future

Those trends are happening right now. But what trends should printers be planning for as we move deeper into 2026? Harrison sees a major shift from a focus on earning a college degree to moving right into a career.

“There is an increasing movement to go directly into the workforce from high school, or attend technical schools and community colleges rather than take on a four-year, white-collar degree,” she notes. “The perception is that the benefits of a bachelor’s degree do not outweigh the cost. Historically, this has not been true, but the high cost of student loan debt has changed the analysis so that the benefit is not realized until much later than it was in the past.”

Harrison continues, “Companies can capitalize on this movement by creating relationships with high schools, technical schools, and community colleges in their area. Participate in internship programs and if they don’t exist at your local schools, work with the schools to create them. Offer for your executives to speak to business classes. Donate time, money, and materials to programs at these schools. Sponsor facility tours.”

Training is also a big takeaway. VanSant emphasizes that because more employees are entering the workforce directly from high school, training is more important than ever.

“I deal a lot with college and university programs, as well as trade schools, and you see a lot of the basics being taught, but it’s still a struggle to think about from screen to production,” VanSant says. “There’s a lot of ways that people can consume information. I know the iLEARNING+ platform at PRINTING United Alliance is a great place for employers or schools to tap in and get some virtual learning, which is awesome, except it really doesn’t resonate until you’re in the thick of it. I don’t care what career path you go on, you really have to kind of start getting your hands into it.”

That follows from advice from top trainers who suggest people learn one of three ways: by hearing about something, by watching something, or by doing something. A great training program, therefore, caters to all three.

For example, a shop could have an iLEARNING+ subscription for staff that allows a new hire to take a few “101” and other relevant courses virtually. Then, they could transition into a role shadowing a mentor for a set period of time, learning workflows and how the equipment works and asking questions. Finally, the new hire can take over the work and get comfortable with the equipment while the mentor observes and offers advice when needed.

“Training matters,” Harrison stresses. “It communicates to your employees that you believe that they are a worthwhile investment. Building their skills tells them that they have a future — a career — at the company and that they aren’t in a dead-end job. Structured mentoring programs work because they create relationships and offer a safe person that a new employee can go to with questions. Hands-on training works, and online training also works, but make sure that the employee then has an opportunity to put the online training into action.”

“You can’t just have one or the other,” VanSant agrees. “I think the buddy system, having a mentor internally, getting a champion who’s willing to have somebody side by side — having those kinds of programs always seemed very successful, where you have people go from department to department and you have a culture that people are supportive of that.”

And what about retaining that talent once they have been hired and trained? Having a competitive salary is always going to be a factor, but — perhaps surprisingly — it’s not always the first or even most important thing people are looking for today.

“Create a great work environment — and get your leadership team to build trust with the employees so they feel like they have a stable job and steady hands leading the company.” Harrison notes. “There is an old saying that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their managers. This is very true in many cases.

Companies often put people into management positions based on their hard skills, but do not train them on the soft skills managers need. We need to prepare our supervisors and managers by providing training on communication, how to build trust, problem-solve, show empathy without being a pushover, do difficult things like discipline employees, and how to create a friendly relationship with their team without crossing appropriate boundaries.”

For VanSant, flexibility is still crucial. “I know that we’ve seen that kind of shifting back to an on-site work situation — which I think there’s a lot of benefits culturally to that — but that being said, have some flexibility with the schedule. Unless you’re hardcore in the production side, offering that flexibility is really important to this generation, respecting that they’ll get the work done without needing to create such a structure that they don’t have room to breathe. This is a creative industry, and these days, everything is changing so rapidly, you need people who can think creatively and who can adjust. If you put them in too much of a restrictive situation, you’re not tapping into that. And they will walk because it will become ... overwhelming and [create] burnout.”

Hiring and retaining talent is a fluid thing. What works one year, or with one generation, won’t necessarily work with the next. Taking the time to evaluate those practices and make adjustments to keep pace with the expectations of the workforce is absolutely critical. The printing industry can’t attract the best — or keep them — if it doesn’t offer a competitive and attractive environment job seekers will be drawn to. Understanding the trends and accounting for them annually will help ensure the people not only come, but stay.