COMMERCIAL PRINTING - A Soft Landing

"We are not just competing within our own market, but rather economy-wide for people with computer, sales and management skills. Those skills will remain in short supply even after the economy slows and the unemployment rate trends back up."

These same themes, and more, also can be found in the Forecast 2001 released by industry research firm TrendWatch, of Harrisville, RI. It expects the economic slowdown to really hit in the second half of the year, with the financial impact starting to affect printers in 2002. The forecast also looks at the longer-range picture, out to the year 2010, and says print will be a good business if you're a big shop, have little employee turnover, have a well-trained workforce, have an up-to-date digital infrastructure and know why your customers use print.