Career Trends: Industrial Designers

Industrial designers develop the concepts for manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and toys. They combine art, business, and engineering to make products that people use every day. Industrial designers consider the function, aesthetics, production costs, and the usability of products when developing new product concepts.

Industrial designers work in offices in a variety of industries. Although industrial designers work primarily in offices, they may travel to testing facilities, design centers, clients’ exhibit sites, users’ homes or workplaces, and places where the product is manufactured.

A bachelor’s degree is usually required for entry-level industrial design jobs. It is also important for industrial designers to have an electronic portfolio with examples of their best design projects.

Employment of industrial designers is projected to grow 2 percent from 2014 to 2024, slower than the average for all occupations. Consumer demand for new products and new product styles should sustain the demand for industrial designers.

This occupation supported 39,200 jobs in 2012 and 38,400 jobs in 2014, reflecting a decline of 2.0%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 4.3% in 2022 to 40,900 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 39,500, compared with an observed value of 38,400, 2.8% lower than expected. This indicates current employment trends are worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 2.0% in 2024 to 39,200 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 41,200 jobs for 2024, 5.1% higher than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are much worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation.