Semper is the leading US placement firm for skilled help in the graphic arts and printing industry and has been doing a quarterly survey of 300 commercial printers of all sizes on both their hiring trends and the mood of the industry for nearly a decade.

This time around it found that much of the early year cautious optimism felt by many of the companies has been eroded by a summer business slowdown.

"What really worries printers is what happened in the latter half of June, when many of them saw a collapse in demand," Semper International CEO David Regan told PrintWeek in an interview to discuss the latest results.

"There was a big reduction in orders — more so than normal during the slow summer months — and for many owners that served to prove that many of their concerns for the year are valid."

The second half of the year appears to be getting off to a slow start as well - looking at the first two weeks of Q3, companies reporting an increase in current sales were down by 15%.

However, the findings did contain some positives, including that fact that that 75% of the companies surveyed reported a profitable Q2 — up 6% over the first quarter.

However, only 46% expect sales to be up during the current three month period, while 40% predicted their sales would stay the same. "The third quarter is normally a good quarter but our survey showed that many of them are negative about the third quarter and that’s not a good sign," Regan noted.

Even the expected surge in politically-themed direct mail in advance of the national, state and local elections in November hasn’t been near the business driver that some expected.

"Right now if you look at battleground states there are only five or six of them," Regan explained. "If there were a lot of battleground states there would be a lot more printing done, but right now that’s not the case."

Slightly more than half of those surveyed reported healthcare was the labor cost component that increased the fastest last quarter.

The greatest competitive threat to printers is the current macro economy, far exceeding lower cost competitors and emerging technology.  "A lot of commercial print owners expressed the stress they been feeling as they’ve tried to make it through the last five years," Regan noted.