Industrial designers held about 38,400 jobs in 2014. The industries that employed the most industrial designers were as follows:
Manufacturing
32%
Specialized design services
11
Wholesale trade
8
Architectural, engineering, and related services
8
About 1 in 4 were self-employed in 2014.
Work spaces for industrial designers often include work tables for sketching designs, meeting rooms with whiteboards for brainstorming with colleagues, and computers and other office equipment for preparing designs and communicating with clients. 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.
Work Schedules
Most industrial designers work full time.
Industrial designers who are self-employed or work for firms that hire them out to other organizations may need to frequently adjust their workdays to meet with clients in the evenings or on weekends. In addition, they may spend some of their time looking for new projects or competing with other designers for contracts.