Industrial design connects product concepts with manufacturing, business, and intellectual property. In the United States, the occupation included 30,810 jobs in May 2023, while the global total of industrial design applications reached 1,524,000 in 2023. The figures below show where the work is concentrated, how pay varies, and how design activity differs by region and country.
Contents
- U.S. employment and pay
- Where industrial designers work
- Highest-paying industries
- The occupational outlook
- Global application activity
- Resident applications by country
- International filing activity
U.S. employment and pay
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 30,810 commercial and industrial designer jobs in May 2023. The occupation’s mean hourly wage was $39.36, corresponding to a mean annual wage of $81,870. These are national occupational estimates for that measurement period, rather than a forecast or a measure of every person who performs product design work under another occupational title. (BLS, [Commercial and Industrial Designers])
The wage distribution shows a broad spread across the occupation:
- The 10th-percentile annual wage was $46,530.
- The 25th-percentile annual wage was $59,170.
- The median annual wage was $76,250.
- The 75th-percentile annual wage was $99,290.
- The 90th-percentile annual wage was $126,010.
The median separates the lower and higher halves of the reported wage distribution; it is different from the $81,870 mean because the two measures respond differently to the distribution of wages. For readers assessing a product design career, the percentile figures provide more context than a single average. They show that reported annual pay ranged from $46,530 at the 10th percentile to $126,010 at the 90th percentile in May 2023. (BLS, [Commercial and Industrial Designers])
Where industrial designers work
Commercial and industrial designers appear across services, manufacturing, wholesale, engineering, and corporate organizations. The largest listed employment concentrations in May 2023 were:
- Specialized design services: 3,130 designers.
- Merchant wholesalers of durable goods: 2,660.
- Architectural, engineering, and related services: 2,490.
- Management of companies and enterprises: 2,430.
- Furniture and related product manufacturing: 1,570.
These counts describe employment in the named industries, not the total number of designers in each industry’s broader design ecosystem. They also illustrate that industrial design is not limited to factories. Specialized design firms, distributors, engineering organizations, corporate management, and furniture manufacturers all appear among the leading listed employers. (BLS, [Commercial and Industrial Designers])
The BLS industry figures also report each industry’s share of employment accounted for by industrial designers. Specialized design services had the highest listed share at 2.02% in May 2023. Furniture and related product manufacturing recorded 0.47%, followed by other miscellaneous manufacturing at 0.45%. Fabric mills accounted for 0.38%, and textile furnishings mills accounted for 0.36%. These percentages are industry-specific employment shares, so they should not be read as the share of all designers working in those industries. (BLS, [Commercial and Industrial Designers])
Highest-paying industries
Mean pay varied substantially by industry in the May 2023 BLS estimates. The five listed industries with the highest annual wages were computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing at $128,920, motor vehicle manufacturing at $125,000, semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing at $123,140, accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services at $118,740, and software publishers at $117,970. Their corresponding hourly wages were $61.98, $60.10, $59.20, $57.09, and $56.72.
| Industry | Mean hourly wage | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing | $61.98 | $128,920 |
| Motor vehicle manufacturing | $60.10 | $125,000 |
| Semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing | $59.20 | $123,140 |
| Accounting and related services | $57.09 | $118,740 |
| Software publishers | $56.72 | $117,970 |
The industry comparison places technology-heavy manufacturing and software publishing near the top of the listed wage results. It also shows why an occupation-wide mean should not be treated as a guaranteed salary for a particular product category. The BLS figures are estimates for industrial designers within each named industry and refer specifically to May 2023. (BLS, [Commercial and Industrial Designers])
The occupational outlook
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reported a median annual wage of $79,450 for industrial designers in May 2024. That 2024 median is a later measurement than the May 2023 commercial-and-industrial-designer wage estimates above, so the two median figures should be kept separate rather than treated as a single time series. (BLS, [Industrial Designers])
For the 2024–2034 period, BLS projected industrial designer employment to grow by 3%. Its projection rises from 30,600 jobs in 2024 to 31,600 jobs in 2034, an implied net gain of 1,000 jobs. This is a forecast, not a count of realized employment. The projected change also uses the Occupational Outlook Handbook’s industrial designer series, while the May 2023 figures above use the commercial and industrial designer occupational estimate. (BLS, [Industrial Designers])
The projected increase is therefore best read as modest expansion over a ten-year horizon. For product design guides and career planning, the forecast supplies a directional view of demand, while the wage percentiles and industry figures provide the more detailed snapshot of conditions at the earlier measurement date.
Global application activity
The World Intellectual Property Organization reported 1,524,000 industrial design applications worldwide in 2023. The total grew 1.7% from 2022 to 2023. This is an application measure, not a count of unique products, designers, companies, or granted registrations. (WIPO, [World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024])
Asia dominated the geographic distribution with 1,051,900 applications, or 69.0% of the world total. Europe accounted for 357,900 applications, or 23.5%. North America recorded 69,100 applications, or 4.5%. The remaining regions represented smaller shares: Africa had 17,000 applications and 1.1%; Latin America and the Caribbean had 17,700 and 1.2%; and Oceania had 10,400 and 0.7%.
| Region | Applications in 2023 | Share of world total |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | 1,051,900 | 69.0% |
| Europe | 357,900 | 23.5% |
| North America | 69,100 | 4.5% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 17,700 | 1.2% |
| Africa | 17,000 | 1.1% |
| Oceania | 10,400 | 0.7% |
The regional figures describe where applications were counted in WIPO’s 2023 indicators. They should not be interpreted as a direct ranking of design quality or as a measure of the commercial success of the resulting products. (WIPO, [World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024])
Resident applications by country
WIPO’s resident application counts provide a country-level view of domestic filing activity in 2023. China led with 882,807 resident industrial design applications. The United States recorded 69,076, followed by Germany with 64,986, Italy with 60,486, and the Republic of Korea with 60,120.
Other reported resident totals were 54,783 for Türkiye, 45,912 for France, 45,370 for the United Kingdom, 34,589 for Japan, and 26,966 for India. The spread between China’s 882,807 applications and the next listed country, the United States at 69,076, is a defining feature of the 2023 resident-filing data.
Resident applications are not the same as applications filed abroad. A resident count identifies applications associated with filings in the applicant’s home country under the WIPO table’s measure; it does not by itself capture a country’s entire international filing footprint. (WIPO, [World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024])
International filing activity
The 2023 WIPO figures also identify applications filed abroad. Switzerland filed 22,926 industrial design applications abroad, Spain filed 20,721, the Russian Federation filed 8,289, the Netherlands filed 8,149, Iran filed 7,796, Poland filed 7,003, Brazil filed 5,768, Australia filed 5,505, Austria filed 5,067, and Indonesia filed 4,949.
Another reported list gives abroad filing counts of 78,703 for China, 21,553 for Germany, 19,596 for Switzerland, 13,758 for Japan, 10,784 for France, 9,781 for the UK, 9,527 for Italy, 9,026 for the Republic of Korea, and 4,285 for the Netherlands. The two groups reflect distinct reported measures in the WIPO data and should not be combined into a single ranking without the table definitions.
WIPO also reported equivalent application design counts abroad for selected countries. China had 782,002, Germany 433,691, Italy 376,187, the United States 358,712, and France 171,261 in 2023. Equivalent counts are a design-count measure rather than a simple count of application forms, so they add another lens on international activity rather than replacing the resident or abroad application figures.
Taken together, the 2023 statistics show three different scales of industrial design: a U.S. occupation with tens of thousands of jobs, a global filing system with more than 1.5 million applications, and a highly concentrated regional pattern in which Asia accounted for 69.0% of applications. Each measure answers a different question, making the measurement date, geography, and definition essential when comparing product design markets.