Interior designers held about 54,900 jobs in 2012. Most interior designers work in clean, comfortable offices. About 25 percent of interior designers were self-employed in 2012. Technology has changed the way many designers work. For example, rather than using drafting tables, interior designers now use complex software to create 2-D or 3-D images.
The industries that employed the most interior designers in 2012 were as follows:
Specialized design services 30%
Architectural, engineering, and related services 16
Furniture stores 6
Merchant wholesalers, durable goods 5
Construction 4