PIA Print Market Update Shows Growth Slowed in 2012: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, YTD 2012 shipments on a nominal unadjusted basis declined 2.2%. While the Census Bureau still reports a decline, it is an improvement from the first quarter's 3.9% decline.
For the past few quarters, the majority of industry growth was generated from larger firms. When calculating the percent change in industry sales, we give a higher weight to each firm with more than 100 employees because these firms generate more than 60% of industry sales. Since the fourth quarter 2011, we have noticed a trend-larger firms reporting sales growth declining each quarter from a high in the fourth quarter of 2011 of 5.1% to a low in the current quarter of 2.1%.
