Semper International CEO David Regan told PrintWeek that despite the Q3 revenue increase, "People were feeling a little bit less positive about the coming quarter—in large part because of the uncertainty about the election."
The latest survey also found many printers are once again feeling threatened by the overall macro economy, with just over half citing it as their biggest worry. The vast majority of those surveyed also cited continued price pressure in their traditional print business.
But for the most part, Semper found most commercial printers seem willing to stay the course, with more than 86% either adding staff or staying at the current employee head count.
"We are seeing a heavy use of flex staff," the report noted. "We suspect it is clients trying to be flexible in meeting their clients’ needs while keeping labor costs low and staff fully utilized. However, a risk to this strategy is of internal staff burning out faster, so direct hire sales are increasing."
The survey also found that just under half of companies reported that healthcare is the labor cost component that increased the fastest last quarter—and Regan noted healthcare has remained the fastest growing component of cost for the last 10 quarters.
He also pointed out that with many portions of the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) not set to go into effect until 2013 and 2014—and with the financial impact on small and mid-size companies still unknown—the issue is likely to continue to be on the of the biggest concerns faced by many printers.
Regan later noted that regionally, printers in the both the Midwest and Northeast seem to be faring better than those in the southern parts of the country - though he quickly adds that could change due to Hurricane Sandy.
"The whole printing market for the past week has been extraordinarily slow," he added. "We’re seeing a slowdown. I know a lot of printers who are hurt and if Madison Avenue, which does a majority of the designs and campaigns for the printing /marketing industry, is out, that could slow things down for the next few weeks."
- Just under half of companies reported that healthcare is the labor cost component that increased the fastest last quarter. Overtime, the next largest component, jumped up 7 points, from 13% last quarter. Healthcare has remained the fastest growing component of cost for the last 10 quarters.
- The greatest competitive threat to printers remains largely unchanged from last quarter. The current economy (56%) is the biggest threat, growing pressures from lower cost competitors (27%) and operating costs (15%). Emerging technology dropped from 10% down to 3%.
- Print buyers place the greatest pricing pressure on ink to substrate printing (47%). Pricing pressure on copy jumped up to 8% from 2%.
