The trade association, previously the Scottish Print Employers Federation, carried out an online survey that garnered views on the continuance of the National Agreement in its current form and the scale of energy and materials cost increases over the past 12 months.
Anticipated costs as well as expectations relating to the demand for print in the coming year were also taken into account.
The decision to freeze wages this year was negotiated within the National Agreement and employers were "unequivocally opposed" to an increase to wage rates from 1 July 2009.
GES director Simon Fairclough said that few, if any, would be surprised by the results of the research.
"Scotland's print employers are exceptionally hard-pressed in this severe, recessionary environment," he said.
He said that the approach this year will concentrate on preserving the trade's ability to emerge from the downturn with a sufficiently robust skills-platform.
"In other words, they are committed to preserving jobs," he added.
The survey also found that the majority of respondents wanted the National Agreement to be maintained.
Fairclough said the main challenge for many will be surviving the downturn in volume which has compounded drastically eroded margins.
"There is constrained demand, costs that can't be passed on and destructive, last ditch price competition," he said.
"Demand will return but the industry needs the resilience to survive the doldrums. The winners will be those emerging from recession with the skills, capacity, efficiency and innovative customer partnerships in place."
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