This is the official count rather than a market-research estimate, and it is worth distinguishing the two. The ABS figures below come from its Australian Industry collection, which is built on business tax and survey data. Where this masthead has previously used IBISWorld for industry size, that is a commercial firm's modelled estimate. Both are useful; only one is the national statistical agency counting.
The three years, as the ABS has them
| Measure | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment at end of June | 26,200 | 25,500 | 24,000 |
| Wages and salaries | $1,726m | $1,726m | $1,701m |
| Sales and service income | $7,721m | $6,740m | $7,335m |
| Total expenses | $7,101m | $6,340m | $6,836m |
| Operating profit before tax | $690m | $412m | $670m |
| EBITDA | $943m | $725m | $810m |
| Industry value added | $2,939m | $2,732m | $2,880m |
What moved and what did not
The financial columns describe a bad year followed by a recovery. Sales and service income dropped 12.7 per cent in 2023-24 and then rose 8.8 per cent in 2024-25. Operating profit went 690, 412, 670: down 40 per cent, then back to within 3 per cent of where it started. Industry value added did the same in miniature.
The employment column does none of that. It falls in both years, including the year everything else recovered, and the two-year change is 2,200 fewer people, down 8.4 per cent. Wages and salaries were flat and then fell slightly, which with fewer people in the count means the average moved the other way.
Two ratios, and they are our arithmetic on the ABS figures rather than ABS series. Industry value added per person employed went from about $112,000 in 2022-23 to $120,000 in 2024-25. Wages and salaries per person employed went from about $65,900 to $70,900. Fewer people, each producing more and each paid more.
What that is, and what it is not
Our reading, labelled as such. This is the shape of an industry taking capacity out and not putting it back when demand returned. It is consistent with automation, with consolidation, with work moving offshore, and with businesses that cut in 2023-24 simply choosing not to rehire when the next year came good. The ABS collection cannot tell you which, and we are not going to pick one. What it does establish is that the recovery in the money did not become a recovery in the payroll, and that is a fact a trade looking at its own prospects should have in front of it.
It is also worth keeping the level in view alongside the trend. Sales in 2024-25 are still 5.0 per cent below 2022-23, so this is a rebound from a bad year rather than a return to growth. The profit line has recovered further than the revenue line, which is what cost reduction looks like in a table.
Three cautions before anyone quotes these numbers
- The subdivision is wider than printing. ANZSIC 16 is
Printing (including the reproduction of recorded media)
. It is the closest official match for the trade and it is not a pure one. - Employment is a point in time, measured at end of June, not an average over the year, so it does not capture people who came and went inside it.
- These are estimates from a statistical collection, not a census of every business, and small differences between years should not be read as precise.
The next edition is already dated. The ABS lists the following Australian Industry release for 18 September 2026, which will carry 2025-26 and answer the only question that matters here: whether the employment line turns.
How we did this
Read from the ABS data cube 81550DO001_202425
, table 1, key data by industry
division and subdivision, downloaded and read on 28 August 2026 from the Australian
Industry 2024-25 release page. The seven measures above are the ABS's own columns for
subdivision 16 across the three years the table carries. Percentage changes, the 2,200
figure and the two per-employee ratios are our arithmetic on those numbers and are labelled
as ours; every input to them is in the table. The release date of 19 June 2026 and the next
release date of 18 September 2026 are from the same release page. We have not contacted the
ABS, and no company is named or characterised in this piece.
Sources
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Industry, 2024-25 financial year (released 19 June 2026, read 28 August 2026): the reference period, the release date and the next release date of 18 September 2026.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Industry 2024-25, data cube 81550DO001 (XLSX, downloaded and read 28 August 2026), table 1: employment at end of June, wages and salaries, sales and service income, total expenses, operating profit before tax, EBITDA and industry value added for ANZSIC subdivision 16, printing including the reproduction of recorded media, for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25.