Step aside New York and L.A., The Atlantic’s CityLab finds that not all design jobs have these two trendy hotspots as their epicenters.
CityLab Editor at Large Richard Florida worked together with occupational data provided by the labor market data and research firm EMSI to identify geographic clusters of the design sector – architects and landscape architects; commercial and industrial designers, graphic designers, fashion designers, interior designer, and others. His analysis included both designers working for firms and self-employed freelancers.
Around 625,000 Americans are employed in the design sector, a decline of about 12,000 since the Great Recession.
The analyst zoomed into specific metro areas (those with more than a million people) and mapped out the number of workers in the design sector, median wages and regional share of designers for the largest 51 U.S. metros.
Florida developed a stat named the location quotient (LQ), which measures the concentration of a given occupation in a metro area to its concentration across the country. Hence, an LQ of 1 indicates the occupation’s share matches the national average, an LQ of 2 is double that, and so on.
Though the concentration of fashion designers expectedly falls on New York first and L.A. second, Florida’s findings indicate four clusters of design fields concentrated in a city other than those two, and here they are:
Detroit – Commercial and Industrial Designers
Commercial and industrial designers that design manufactured products like cars, toys and appliances are centered in the rust belt, with Detroit’s LQ leading at 5.7.
Seattle – Architects
With an LQ of 2.42, Seattle was far above New York, which came in tenth, and Los Angeles, which came in twentieth.
Minneapolis – Graphic Designers
The Twin Cities tops the list of graphic designers with an LQ of 1.7., which Florida thinks is “driven by its long-standing strength as a center for marketing and advertising.”
San Francisco – Self-employed Designers
It’s only natural that San Francisco, the hub of start-ups, would also invite a lot of independent, self-employed designers of all fields. With an LQ of 2.06, the City by the Bay is ahead of Los Angeles and New York, with tech hubs San Jose, San Diego and Austin between them.
Visit CityLab to learn more and view maps of the United States with bubbles showing the concentration of workers in the design sector.
Related Stories
| Aug 10, 2016
DATA CENTER GIANTS: Information overload is pushing the limits of mission-critical facilities
Streamlined design and delivery approaches for individual business enterprises and co-location facilities are being born out of the necessity to bring new capacity online as quickly as possible.
| Aug 10, 2016
Top 30 Data Center Architecture Firms
Gensler, Corgan, and HDR top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest data center sector architecture and A/E firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 10, 2016
UNIVERSITY GIANTS: Facing money woes, the nation's colleges double down on innovative ideas
Budget constraints are compelling some public institutions to pursue alternative methods of financing their major building projects.
| Aug 9, 2016
Top 100 University Architecture Firms
Gensler, Perkins+Will, and CannonDesign top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest university sector architecture and A/E firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Aug 9, 2016
Renascent architecture: Demolished Frank Lloyd Wright structures get new life
The Frank Lloyd Wright Revival Initiative is set to begin its reconstruction efforts with the Banff Pavilion, which was demolished in 1939.
Building Team | Aug 4, 2016
Thought leaders from architecture, engineering and construction to meet at 2016 Bluebeam eXtreme Conference
Bluebeam users inspire technological change through shared insights and training at three-day event.
| Aug 4, 2016
MULTIFAMILY BUILDING GIANTS: Rental complexes focus on affordability, accessibility, and specialty amenities
To address the affordability problem and attract tenants, owners and developers are experimenting with smaller and smaller units, amenity-rich environments, and “co-living” concepts.
| Aug 4, 2016
Top 110 Multifamily Architecture Firms
Perkins Eastman, CallisonRTKL, and Solomon Cordwell Buenz top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest multifamily building sector architecture and A/E firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 3, 2016
GREEN BUILDING GIANTS: Sustainability leaders turn to wellness and technology to get an edge
AEC leaders in green building are stepping up to a higher level of innovation and to be a green leader today, you have to dig deeper into data.
| Aug 2, 2016
Top 130 Green Building Architecture Firms
Gensler, Stantec, and HOK top Building Design+Construction’s annual ranking of the nation’s largest green building sector architecture and A/E firms, as reported in the 2016 Giants 300 Report.
