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| Offset Lithographic Press Operators |
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| Employment Increase: |
37% |
| People In Field: |
108,000 |
| Average Salary: |
$22,932 |
| Qualifications: |
Training |
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Nature of the Work:
Printing press operators prepare, operate, and maintain
the printing presses in a pressroom. Duties of press operators
vary according to the type of press they operate — offset,
gravure, flexography, screen printing, or letterpress. Offset is
the dominant printing process and is expected to remain so
into the next century. Gravure and flexography should increase
in use, but letterpress should continue being phased out,
and only major breakthroughs in plate technology can prevent
it from slipping from the ranks of major printing
processes within a few years. In addition to the major printing
processes, plateless or non-impact processes are coming into
general use. Plateless processes, including electronic,
electrostatic, and inkjet printing, are used for copying, duplicating,
and document and specialty printing, generally by quick
and inhouse printing shops.
Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement:
Operators need mechanical aptitude to make press
adjustments and repairs and an ability to visualize color to work
on color presses. Oral and writing skills also are required.
Operators should be able to compute percentages, weights,
and measures, and should possess adequate mathematical skills
to calculate the amount of ink and paper needed to do a
job. Technological changes have had a tremendous effect on
the skills needed by press operators. New presses require
basic computer skills. Printing plants that change from
sheetfed offset presses to weboffset presses have to retrain the
entire press crew because the skill requirements for the two types
of presses are different. Weboffset presses, with their faster
operating speeds, require faster decisions, monitoring of
more variables, and greater physical effort.
Job Outlook:
Employment of press operators is expected to grow about as fast as
the average for all occupations through the
year 2005 as demand for printed materials grows. However,
employment growth will vary among various press operator
jobs. Employment of offset, gravure, and flexographic
operators will increase, while employment of letterpress operators
will decline. Most job openings will result from the need to
replace operators who retire or leave the occupation. There
will be about 108,000 offset lithographic press operators by 2005.
Sources of Additional Information:
Details about apprenticeships and other training
opportunities may be obtained from local employers such as
newspapers and printing shops, local offices of the Graphic
Communications International Union, local affiliates of
Printing Industries of America, or local offices of the state
employment service.
For general information about press operators, write to:
Graphic Communications International Union
1900 L St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Graphic Arts Technical Foundation
4615 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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