Contents
- Graphic designer employment statistics: Where do graphic designers work?
- Graphic designer employment statistics: What does the 2025–2035 outlook show?
- Graphic designer employment statistics: How do graphic designer wages compare by level and industry?
- Graphic designer employment statistics: What do unemployment and self-employment data show?
- graphic designer employment: Graphic design software skills in U.S. job postings
- Graphic designer employment statistics: What do national wage percentiles show?
- Sources
Graphic designer employment statistics: Where do graphic designers work?
Graphic designers held about 253,100 jobs in the United States in 2025. The largest-employer list identifies several different settings: self-employed workers accounted for 20%, while manufacturing was listed at 15, specialized design services at 9, advertising, public relations, and related services at 8, and information at 7. The source prints a percent sign only for the self-employed figure; the other listed values are reproduced as printed rather than given an assumed unit. These categories show that graphic design work appears across independent practice, design firms, manufacturing, advertising-related services, and information. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
The employer distribution and total job count describe different things. The total is an approximate number of jobs in 2025; the category figures are entries in the source’s largest-employers list. They should not be read as additional headcounts. In particular, the list’s “self-employed workers” entry is an employer-category figure, while a separate BLS projection table reports a self-employment characteristic. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
Graphic designer employment statistics: What does the 2025–2035 outlook show?
The 2025–2035 outlook combines a modest projected decline in employment with continuing annual openings. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook gives a projected employment change of -2% over the decade, rounded to the nearest whole percent, and says about 16,000 openings are projected each year on average. In the projections table, employment is 253.1 thousand in 2025 and 248.8 thousand in 2035. The table reports a numeric change of -4.2 thousand and a percentage change of -1.7%. These are the table’s distinct measures, with the percentage figure more precise than the rounded OOH presentation. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
| BLS projection measure | Graphic designers |
|---|---|
| Employment, 2025 | 253.1 thousand |
| Employment, 2035 | 248.8 thousand |
| Numeric change, 2025–2035 | -4.2 thousand |
| Percentage change, 2025–2035 | -1.7% |
| Annual average occupational openings, 2025–2035 | 16.0 thousand |
Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
Openings are not the same measure as net employment growth: the source reports annual average occupational openings alongside a projected decline in the number employed. The OOH expresses the annual figure as about 16,000, while Table 1.2 reports 16.0 thousand. Both refer to annual average openings over 2025–2035. They do not indicate that employment itself is expected to increase. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
The projections table lists graphic designers as 0.1% of total employment in both 2025 and 2035. That employment-distribution measure is shown at the table’s precision; it does not imply that the share is exactly unchanged beyond the displayed value. The table also reports 20.5% self-employed for graphic designers in 2025, a worker-characteristic estimate. Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
Graphic designer employment statistics: How do graphic designer wages compare by level and industry?
For May 2025, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a national median annual wage of $62,960 for graphic designers and a median hourly wage of $30.27. The same source gives thresholds at the lower and upper ends of its wage distribution: the lowest 10% earned less than $39,520 annually, while the highest 10% earned more than $104,910. These are annual wage thresholds, not separate industry pay figures. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
Median annual wages varied across the listed industries. Specialized design services had a median of $63,780, information $62,970, and advertising, public relations, and related services $61,200. Manufacturing had a median of $51,670. Each figure is for graphic designers employed in that industry in May 2025. The figures are industry-specific medians; they do not show why the amounts differ or describe every worker in each industry. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
| Industry, May 2025 | Median annual wage |
|---|---|
| Specialized design services | $63,780 |
| Information | $62,970 |
| Advertising, public relations, and related services | $61,200 |
| Manufacturing | $51,670 |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
A separate national OEWS table reports mean wages, rather than medians: $70,560 annually and $33.92 hourly in May 2025. A mean and a median summarize a wage distribution differently, so the OEWS mean should not be substituted for the OOH median. Both sets of figures describe U.S. graphic designers, but the statistic type and source presentation matter when comparing them. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Table 1
Graphic designer employment statistics: What do unemployment and self-employment data show?
The 2025 CPS annual averages report a 4.8% unemployment rate for graphic designers. The same occupation row lists 14 thousand unemployed people and a labor force of 299 thousand. The table labels its counts as numbers in thousands. The rate and counts are separate reported measures; the counts should retain their stated units and should not be confused with the OOH estimate of jobs held. Source: BLS Current Population Survey, Table 25b, 2025 Annual Averages
Self-employment appears in two measures with different source contexts. The BLS projections table reports 20.5% self-employed among graphic designers in its 2025 worker characteristics. The OOH employer list prints 20% for self-employed workers among its largest employer categories. The projection-table figure is explicitly a percent self-employed; the OOH list is reproduced as printed. These figures are close but not identical, and their presentation and table context differ. Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2 Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook
The CPS labor-force measures and self-employment figures describe different aspects of work. CPS reports unemployment and the labor force by occupation for 2025 annual averages, while the projections table includes a worker-characteristic estimate for 2025. The sources provide no basis here for attributing unemployment or self-employment patterns to a particular cause. Source: BLS Current Population Survey, Table 25b Source: BLS occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2
graphic designer employment: Graphic design software skills in U.S. job postings
O*NET’s Employer-Based Hot Technologies data cover U.S. nationwide postings from January 1 through December 31, 2025. The reported percentage is the share of unique postings linked to the graphic designer occupation that mentioned each skill. It measures what appeared in postings, not the share of working designers who use a tool. Adobe Illustrator appeared in 62% of postings, Adobe Photoshop in 61%, Adobe InDesign in 49%, and Adobe Creative Cloud software in 47%. Source: O*NET OnLine, Employer-Based Hot Technologies, Graphic Designers
Other named tools and software had lower reported posting shares: Microsoft PowerPoint appeared in 18%, Microsoft Office software in 16%, Adobe After Effects in 16%, Figma in 11%, Microsoft Excel in 10%, hypertext markup language HTML in 8%, Canva in 7%, and cascading style sheets CSS in 5%. Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, and WordPress each appeared in 4%; Adobe Acrobat appeared in 3%; Apple macOS appeared in 2%; JavaScript and Trimble SketchUp Pro each appeared in 1%; Autodesk AutoCAD was listed as under 1%. Source: O*NET OnLine, Employer-Based Hot Technologies, Graphic Designers
| Software skill named in postings | Share of unique postings |
|---|---|
| Adobe Illustrator | 62% |
| Adobe Photoshop | 61% |
| Adobe InDesign | 49% |
| Adobe Creative Cloud software | 47% |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | 18% |
| Microsoft Office software | 16% |
| Adobe After Effects | 16% |
| Figma | 11% |
| Microsoft Excel | 10% |
| Hypertext markup language HTML | 8% |
| Canva | 7% |
| Cascading style sheets CSS | 5% |
| Microsoft Outlook | 4% |
| Microsoft Word | 4% |
| WordPress | 4% |
| Adobe Acrobat | 3% |
| Apple macOS | 2% |
| JavaScript | 1% |
| Trimble SketchUp Pro | 1% |
| Autodesk AutoCAD | Under 1% |
Source: O*NET OnLine, Employer-Based Hot Technologies, Graphic Designers
The listed percentages indicate a concentration in postings of the named Adobe design applications, while the same table includes office, web, interface, and other software terms at smaller reported shares. Because percentages are posting shares and may reflect mentions in the same posting, they should not be added together as though they represented mutually exclusive job types. The evidence describes posting language during 2025, not a full inventory of skills required in every graphic designer role. Source: O*NET OnLine, Employer-Based Hot Technologies, Graphic Designers
Graphic designer employment statistics: What do national wage percentiles show?
The national wage tables present annual and hourly figures separately and identify the 25th percentile, median (50th percentile), and 75th percentile. For annual wages, the 25th-percentile figure is $49,040, the median is $62,960, and the 75th percentile is $81,830. These points show positions in the national wage distribution: the median divides the distribution, while the 25th- and 75th-percentile measures mark lower and upper points around it. Source: O*NET OnLine, National Wages, Graphic Designers
The hourly series gives a 25th-percentile wage of $23.58, a median of $30.27, and a 75th-percentile wage of $39.34. Keeping the two series in their original units avoids confusing hourly wage levels with annual totals. These percentile values are national figures based on 2025 BLS wage data, as identified in the source. Source: O*NET OnLine, National Wages, Graphic Designers
| National percentile | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $49,040 | $23.58 |
| Median (50th percentile) | $62,960 | $30.27 |
| 75th percentile | $81,830 | $39.34 |
Source: O*NET OnLine, National Wages, Graphic Designers
The annual median of $62,960 matches the OOH May 2025 median, and the hourly median of $30.27 also matches its Quick Facts figure. The OEWS table’s $70,560 annual and $33.92 hourly amounts are means, so they belong to a different measure. Reading each value with its unit, percentile or mean/median label, population, and period makes the comparisons meaningful without treating them as interchangeable. Source: O*NET OnLine, National Wages, Graphic Designers Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Table 1
Sources
- Graphic Designers: Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Occupational projections and worker characteristics, Table 1.2, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Table 1. National employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey by occupation, May 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Employer-Based Hot Technologies: 27-1024.00 Graphic Designers, O*NET OnLine
- 25b. Unemployment levels and rates by detailed occupation, 2025 Annual Averages, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- National Wages: 27-1024.00 Graphic Designers, O*NET OnLine