---
title: "Commercial and Industrial Designer"
description: "Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Commercial and Industrial Designer

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-1021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-1021.00

Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use, marketing, and materials to create the most functional and appealing product design.

Also advertised as: Design Engineer; Designer; Industrial Designer; Mechanical Designer; Mold Designer; Product Design Engineer; Product Designer; Product Development Engineer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $83,910 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $40.34/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $53,460 to $139,770, with the middle half between $66,450 and $109,050
- **Total US employment:** 33,490
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 25/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 33,490 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $53,460 |
| 25th | $66,450 |
| 50th (median) | $83,910 |
| 75th | $109,050 |
| 90th | $139,770 |
| Mean (average) | $93,260 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| KS | $104,870 | $116,434 | 260 |
| MI | $102,160 | $106,177 | 2,930 |
| MA | $101,720 | $96,183 | 1,240 |
| RI | $101,140 | $98,885 | 190 |
| CA | $100,770 | $91,013 | 5,300 |
| LA | $98,040 | $111,148 | 130 |
| MN | $94,370 | $95,690 | 590 |
| WA | $94,280 | $88,101 | 340 |
| AR | $92,540 | $106,445 | 230 |
| GA | $91,360 | $94,877 | 360 |
| CO | $90,590 | $87,907 | 400 |
| NJ | $90,310 | $83,002 | 1,230 |
| NY | $89,640 | $83,061 | 2,400 |
| IN | $88,040 | $94,333 | 1,110 |
| PA | $82,610 | $84,666 | 770 |

26 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 41 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 35,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 36,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +2.4%. Slower than average: 2.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 67.9% |
| Some College Courses | 15.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 12.3% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 4.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.3% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare sketches of ideas, detailed drawings, illustrations, artwork, or blueprints, using drafting instruments, paints and brushes, or computer-aided design equipment.
- Modify and refine designs, using working models, to conform with customer specifications, production limitations, or changes in design trends.
- Confer with engineering, marketing, production, or sales departments, or with customers, to establish and evaluate design concepts for manufactured products.
- Research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods and provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
- Evaluate feasibility of design ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
- Investigate product characteristics such as the product's safety and handling qualities, its market appeal, how efficiently it can be produced, and ways of distributing, using, and maintaining it.
- Direct and coordinate the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of working drawings and specification sheets from sketches.
- Present designs and reports to customers or design committees for approval and discuss need for modification.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Technology Design — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Design — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Fluency of Ideas — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Originality — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Realistic (R), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 5.54 |
| R — Realistic | 4.62 |
| I — Investigative | 4.06 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.70 |
| C — Conventional | 3.47 |
| S — Social | 1.84 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTP | 84.6 |
| INTJ | 78.3 |
| ISTP | 71.1 |
| ENTP | 70.5 |
| INFP | 67.8 |

Best-fitting types: INTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Mechanical Drafter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-drafter) — median $71,550
- [Model Maker, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/model-maker-metal-and-plastic) — median $63,340
- [Fabric and Apparel Patternmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fabric-and-apparel-patternmaker) — median $62,750
- [Patternmaker, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patternmaker-metal-and-plastic) — median $58,000
- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960
- [Industrial Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-engineer) — median $102,440
- [Layout Worker, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/layout-worker-metal-and-plastic) — median $63,870
- [Mechanical Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,510
- [Manufacturing Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/manufacturing-engineer) — median $102,440
- [Materials Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/materials-engineer) — median $112,860

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer