NOC 2021 · 73401 · TEER 3
Printing press operators
Unit group 73401 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.
Check which category draws this code qualifies for
What this group covers
Printing press operators set up and operate sheet and web-fed presses to print text, illustrations and designs on a wide variety of materials such as paper, plastic, glass, leather and metal. They are employed by commercial printing companies; newspapers, magazines, and other publishing companies; and establishments in the public and private sectors that have in-house printing departments. Apprentices are also included in this unit group.
Example job titles
As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.
- apprentice press operator
- apprentice press operator - printing
- apprentice pressman/woman
- apprentice pressman/woman - printing
- apprentice printing press operator
- assistant press operator - printing
- assistant pressman/woman
- assistant pressman/woman - printing
- commercial press operator
- cylinder press operator - printing
- cylinder press set-up operator
- cylinder pressman/woman - printing
- cylinder printing press set-up operator
- first press operator - printing
- first pressman/woman
- first pressman/woman - printing
- flat-bed press set-up operator
- flexographic press adjuster
- flexographic press operator
- flexographic press set-up technician - printing
- flexographic pressman/woman
- gravure press operator
- gravure pressman/woman
- gravure printer - printing
- gravure printing press operator
- gravure proof press operator - printing
- gravure proof puller - printing
- gravure proof wallpaper puller
- ink evaluation and press operator - printing
- ink evaluation pressman/woman - printing
- intaglio printer - printing
- intaglio printing press operator
- job printer
- letterpress operator - printing
- letterpress proof press operator - printing
- letterpress proof puller - printing
- lithographic offset proofer
- lithographic offset proofing hand
- lithographic press operator - printing
- lithographic pressman/woman - printing
- lithographic printer
- newspaper press operator
- newspaper pressman/woman
- offset lithographic proof press operator - printing
- offset machine operator
- offset press operator
- offset press operator - printing
- offset pressman/woman - printing
- offset printer
- photoengraved plate proof press operator - printing
- photoengraved plate proof puller - printing
- plastic sheet offset press operator
- platen press operator - printing
- platen press tender
- press operator - printing
- pressman/woman - printing
- printer
- printing press assistant operator
- printing press operator
- printing technologist
- proof press operator
- proof press operator - printing
- proof pressman/woman - printing
- proofer - printing
- proofing hand - printing
- proofing press operator
- rotary offset press operator
- rotary press operator
- rotogravure press operator - printing
- rotogravure pressman/woman - printing
- rotoprinter - printing
- senior press operator - printing
- senior pressman/woman - printing
- sheet metal lithographic press operator
- sheet metal lithographic pressman/woman
- thermographic printer
- wallpaper gravure proof press operator
- wallpaper rotogravure press operator
- Web press operator - printing
- Web pressman/woman - printing
What it pays, and where it is hiring
Job Bank publishes a wage estimate and a three-year employment outlook for each occupation, region by region. Both are below as published — where an estimate is missing from the source it is missing here too, because the alternative is inventing one.
Across Canada
$25.00 an hour
Low $18.27, high $35.00
Where it pays most
- Montérégie · Quebec$29.50
- Laurentides · Quebec$28.31
- Vancouver Island and Coast · British Columbia$28.00
- Outaouais · Quebec$27.87
- Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie · Ontario$27.66
Economic regions only. A province’s figure is an average over the regions inside it, so including one would rank a province above its own best region and read as a finding.
By province and territory
| Where | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Prince Edward Island | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nova Scotia | $20.00 | $17.25 – $25.50 | Moderate |
| New Brunswick | $21.50 | $15.65 – $30.00 | Undetermined |
| Quebec | $26.65 | $20.60 – $37.00 | Moderate |
| Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Moderate |
| Manitoba | $24.00 | $18.00 – $31.50 | Moderate |
| Saskatchewan | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Alberta | $27.56 | $19.86 – $34.51 | Limited |
| British Columbia | $28.00 | $19.00 – $40.00 | Limited |
| Yukon Territory | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Northwest Territories | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nunavut | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
By economic region
The 37 economic regions where Job Bank publishes a wage or a rated outlook, of 72.
| Where | Province | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax | Nova Scotia | $20.00 | $17.25 – $25.50 | Moderate |
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | Quebec | $26.31 | $21.21 – $31.03 | Undetermined |
| Capitale-Nationale | Quebec | $27.16 | $21.32 – $32.49 | Moderate |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | Quebec | $25.00 | $17.92 – $36.00 | Moderate |
| Estrie | Quebec | $26.03 | $20.52 – $30.38 | Moderate |
| Centre-du-Québec | Quebec | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Montérégie | Quebec | $29.50 | $21.79 – $36.26 | Moderate |
| Montréal | Quebec | $24.50 | $17.08 – $33.02 | Limited |
| Laval | Quebec | $26.65 | $20.60 – $37.00 | Limited |
| Lanaudière | Quebec | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Laurentides | Quebec | $28.31 | $23.07 – $36.33 | Limited |
| Outaouais | Quebec | $27.87 | $18.93 – $35.48 | Undetermined |
| Mauricie | Quebec | $26.03 | $21.17 – $34.29 | Limited |
| Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean | Quebec | $26.80 | $21.21 – $33.20 | Undetermined |
| Ottawa | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Moderate |
| Kingston--Pembroke | Ontario | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Muskoka--Kawarthas | Ontario | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Toronto | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Moderate |
| Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie | Ontario | $27.66 | $21.20 – $33.26 | Moderate |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Moderate |
| London | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Moderate |
| Windsor--Sarnia | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Limited |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | Ontario | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Northeast | Ontario | $25.00 | $19.00 – $35.00 | Undetermined |
| South Central | Manitoba | $25.16 | $20.43 – $33.99 | Good |
| North Central | Manitoba | Not published | Not published | Good |
| Winnipeg | Manitoba | $24.00 | $18.00 – $31.50 | Moderate |
| Interlake | Manitoba | $23.83 | $20.66 – $32.14 | Undetermined |
| Saskatoon--Biggar | Saskatchewan | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Lethbridge--Medicine Hat | Alberta | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Calgary | Alberta | $27.49 | $20.89 – $36.76 | Limited |
| Banff--Jasper--Rocky Mountain House | Alberta | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Edmonton | Alberta | $26.76 | $22.31 – $36.43 | Limited |
| Athabasca--Grande Prairie--Peace River | Alberta | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Vancouver Island and Coast | British Columbia | $28.00 | $19.00 – $40.00 | Moderate |
| Lower Mainland | British Columbia | $26.50 | $19.00 – $40.16 | Limited |
| Thompson--Okanagan | British Columbia | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
Job Bank rates employment prospects for each occupation in each economic region from very good to very limited over 2025–2027, and says “undetermined” where it has not got enough to rate. It is an assessment of prospects, not a count of vacancies.
The estimates on this page come from Labour Force Survey (2023-2024) · Small Area Estimation (2024) · Employment Insurance Survey Data (2023-2024).
Job Bank publishes an estimate for 24,364 of the 44,376 occupation-and-place pairs in this release. The rest are suppressed rather than modelled, and appear here as not published.
Wage estimates from the 2025 Wages release, revised 19 November 2025; employment outlooks from 2025-2027 Employment Outlooks - NOC 2021, released 8 December 2025. Both are updated annually. Estimates for different regions come from different surveys, so comparing two regions is exactly as sound as Job Bank’s own regional comparison and no more.
Source: Statistics Canada — National Occupational Classification 2021 V1.0; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wages; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank 3-year employment outlooks. Data current as of 13 August 2026. NOC 2021 Version 1.0. The classification is versioned rather than dated — IRCC moved to it in November 2022, and a new version would be a new classification rather than an update.