By Manuel Gutierrez, Consulting Economist to NKBA
Interior design services jobs dropped to 54,800 in April, down from an all-time high of 55,800 in March. Yet, year over year numbers show a 1,400 gain in April, with the number of interior design jobs seeming to have stabilized between 54,000 and 56,000 over the last twelve months.
- The majority of workers in interior design are women, representing 67 percent of all the industry’s jobs in April. This is an increase from a ten-year low of 65 percent in February. The percentage of interior designers since 1990 that are women has ranged from a low of 57 percent in April 2010, to a high of 76 percent in June 2015. In April, 36,800 women held interior design jobs — just 200 less than the historical high of March.
- Conversely, men represent just under one-third of all those employed in interior design. There were 18,000 men employed in April, one thousand less than in March. The number of men in interior design was also 1,500 fewer than the peak of 19,500 in February.
- Hourly wages for all interior designers in April fell to $37.13, a $1.41 drop per hour from the previous year’s $38.54. However, interior designer wages were 9.2 percent higher than the average for all Professional & Business Services jobs, which include accounting, legal, landscape, etc. Additionally, interior designer jobs paid more than the average for most specialty trades: The average hourly pay was 5.5 percent higher than the specialty trade average of $35.18.
- On average, those employed in interior design worked 35.7 hours a week — 1.8 fewer hours than in the previous year. Workers in interior design businesses put in almost one- and- a-half more hours a week than all workers in the private sector, while they put in less than over half an hour than workers in professional and business services, who averaged 36.3 hours a week.
