---
title: "Model"
description: "Model garments or other apparel and accessories for prospective buyers at fashion shows, private showings, or retail establishments. May pose for photos…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/model"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Model

**Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-9012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-9012.00

Model garments or other apparel and accessories for prospective buyers at fashion shows, private showings, or retail establishments. May pose for photos to be used in magazines or advertisements. May pose as subject for paintings, sculptures, and other types of artistic expression.

Also advertised as: Art Class Model; Art Model; Artist's Model; Figure Model; Fine Arts Model; Life Drawing Model; Model; Nude Model.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,470 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.30/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $34,190 to $131,470, with the middle half between $35,710 and $99,320
- **Total US employment:** 3,780
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -2.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — 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 3,780 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $34,190 |
| 25th | $35,710 |
| 50th (median) | $48,470 |
| 75th | $99,320 |
| 90th | $131,470 |
| Mean (average) | $72,800 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AZ | $109,910 | $109,171 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $107,280 | $99,406 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $60,520 | $55,622 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $57,400 | $51,842 | 990 |
| IL | $53,280 | $53,302 | 60 |
| MD | $47,170 | $44,941 | 40 |
| TX | $46,840 | $48,260 | Not published by BLS |
| FL | $45,900 | $44,385 | 620 |
| VA | $45,720 | $45,221 | 40 |
| RI | $45,060 | $44,056 | Not published by BLS |
| OR | $42,880 | $41,486 | 40 |
| OH | $42,550 | $45,864 | 120 |
| NE | $41,600 | $46,169 | Not published by BLS |
| NH | $39,890 | $38,295 | Not published by BLS |
| MO | $34,610 | $38,110 | Not published by BLS |

1 more state with published wage data is omitted here. The full table for all 16 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/model/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/model.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 4,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 100 jobs, or -2.1%. Declining: -2.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 700 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:** No formal educational credential (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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 76.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 17.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 3.9% |
| Some College Courses | 2.4% |

## What the work involves

- Pose for artists and photographers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 1.3 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 1.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 1.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 1.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Gross Body Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Gross Body Equilibrium — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 2.8 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), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 6.91 |
| R — Realistic | 5.01 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.71 |
| S — Social | 2.49 |
| C — Conventional | 2.26 |
| I — Investigative | 1.09 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INFP | 67.7 |
| ENFP | 65.9 |
| ENTP | 62.9 |
| INTP | 60.9 |
| ISFP | 59.6 |

Best-fitting types: INFP, ENFP, ENTP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Fine Artist, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fine-artist) — median $55,490
- [Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance](https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance) — median $97,150
- [Photographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/photographer) — median $44,660
- [Costume Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/costume-attendant) — median $50,400
- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Camera Operator, Television, Video, and Film](https://nuecareer.com/careers/camera-operator-television-video-and-film) — median $74,990
- [Demonstrator and Product Promoter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/demonstrator-and-product-promoter) — median $39,320
- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960
- [Actor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/actor) — median Not published by BLS
- [Dancer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dancer) — median Not published by BLS

## 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/model