---
title: "Floral Designer"
description: "Design, cut, and arrange live, dried, or artificial flowers and foliage."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/floral-designer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Floral Designer

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-1023 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-1023.00

Design, cut, and arrange live, dried, or artificial flowers and foliage.

Also advertised as: Floral Artist; Floral Business Owner; Floral Clerk; Floral Studio Designer; Florist; Wedding Decorator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $37,360 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.96/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,600 to $51,000, with the middle half between $32,810 and $45,700
- **Total US employment:** 40,590
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -5.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — 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 40,590 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,600 |
| 25th | $32,810 |
| 50th (median) | $37,360 |
| 75th | $45,700 |
| 90th | $51,000 |
| Mean (average) | $39,520 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $48,130 | $47,021 | 80 |
| CA | $47,040 | $42,486 | 4,080 |
| MA | $46,460 | $43,931 | 870 |
| HI | $46,170 | $41,991 | 380 |
| CO | $45,380 | $44,036 | 790 |
| NY | $45,260 | $41,938 | 2,330 |
| NJ | $45,190 | $41,533 | 1,020 |
| OR | $44,730 | $43,276 | 710 |
| VT | $44,720 | $45,652 | 110 |
| WA | $44,460 | $41,546 | 910 |
| NH | $43,230 | $41,501 | 220 |
| DC | $42,950 | $39,081 | 70 |
| MD | $41,020 | $39,082 | 460 |
| DE | $39,630 | $39,706 | 100 |
| NV | $39,600 | $39,608 | 440 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/floral-designer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/floral-designer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 45,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 42,700 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 2,500 jobs, or -5.6%. Declining: -5.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,200 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Plan arrangement according to client's requirements, using knowledge of design and properties of materials, or select appropriate standard design pattern.
- Trim material and arrange bouquets, wreaths, terrariums, and other items, using trimmers, shapers, wire, pins, floral tape, foam, and other materials.
- Confer with clients regarding price and type of arrangement desired and the date, time, and place of delivery.
- Water plants, and cut, condition, and clean flowers and foliage for storage.
- Order and purchase flowers and supplies from wholesalers and growers.
- Perform general cleaning duties in the store to ensure the shop is clean and tidy.
- Decorate, or supervise the decoration of, buildings, halls, churches, or other facilities for parties, weddings and other occasions.
- Inform customers about the care, maintenance, and handling of various flowers and foliage, indoor plants, and other items.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 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.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Originality — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — 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 Realistic (R), Artistic (A), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.07 |
| A — Artistic | 4.45 |
| C — Conventional | 3.88 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.74 |
| S — Social | 2.45 |
| I — Investigative | 1.64 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 61.7 |
| ESTJ | 61.0 |
| ISFJ | 58.1 |
| ESFJ | 56.3 |
| ESTP | 55.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Painting, Coating, and Decorating Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/painting-coating-and-decorating-worker) — median $41,600
- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960
- [Retail Salesperson](https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-salesperson) — median $35,410
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Fabric and Apparel Patternmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fabric-and-apparel-patternmaker) — median $62,750
- [Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker) — median $52,540
- [Merchandise Displayer and Window Trimmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/merchandise-displayer-and-window-trimmer) — median $39,390
- [Interior Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/interior-designer) — median $67,190

## 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/floral-designer