PHILADELPHIA — An interior design job can be just as glamorous as a retail job, or even a designer job, says a recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
The study, released Monday, analyzed interior design employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau’s Employer Data Center.
It found that a full-time job in interior design is an important job for nearly every age group, and for nearly all backgrounds, including those with limited education or training.
The survey, conducted by researchers from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., found that the median annual wage for a full time interior design industry job is $65,000, well above the $48,000 median for a retail industry job.
That’s nearly $12,000 more than the median household income for a non-designer job, which is $42,500.
And the median pay for an interior design worker is higher than any other field of employment in the economy, the study found.
It found that interior designers make $80,000 to $115,000 per year, which would make them among the highest-paid professions in the U.S. The average hourly wage for interior designers is $26.37.
In addition to being highly paid, the survey found that an interior designer is often asked to design a variety of interior styles, from wood-frame homes to glass-and-metal homes.
The study also found that one-third of interior design graduates also work in design services, and that the average annual salary for such a job is more than $60,000.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis said in a release that the survey also found the occupations of interior designers, architects and designers with a degree in architecture are most likely to be in the interior design field, and were among the most likely occupations to be unemployed.
The unemployment rate for interior design workers in 2017 was 5.1%, the most since 2008.
More than half of interior and landscape design workers were unemployed, and about 3% were looking for a job, the BLS said.