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 4, 2014
Jean Nouvel commissioned to design Islam Museum next to WTC
El-Gamal's plans has been dubbed controversial by many industry professionals.
| Aug 4, 2014
Facebook’s prefab data center concept aims to slash construction time in half
Less than a year after opening its ultra-green, hydropowered data center facility in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is back at it in Mother Svea with yet another novel approach to data center design.
| Aug 4, 2014
Retail Giants: Grocery-anchored centers, trophy malls among hot retail developments [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Despite the rapid growth of online shopping, the 'bricks and mortar' retail sector is faring quite well, headed by power centers, grocery-anchored centers, and trophy malls, according BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 4, 2014
BIM Giants: Firms enhance BIM/VDC with advanced collaboration tools [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Cloud-based data sharing, rapid iterative design, and cross-discipline collaboration are among the emerging trends in the BIM/VDC field, according to BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Aug 4, 2014
7 habits of highly effective digital enterprises
Transforming your firm into a “digital business” is particularly challenging because digital touches every function while also demanding the rapid development of new skills and investments. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Aug 4, 2014
What AEC executives can do to position their firms for success
Most AEC leadership teams are fastidious about tracking their hit rate–the number of proposals submitted minus the number of proposals won. Here are three alternatives for increasing that percentage. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Aug 1, 2014
Best in healthcare design: AIA selects eight projects for National Healthcare Design Awards
Projects showcase the best of healthcare building design and health design-oriented research.
| Aug 1, 2014
Recession recovery spotty among American cities: WalletHub report
Texas metros show great momentum, but a number of Arizona and California cities are still struggling to recover.
| Jul 30, 2014
Higher ed officials grapple with knotty problems, but construction moves ahead [2014 Giants 300 Report]
University stakeholders face complicated cap-ex stressors, from chronic to impending. Creative approaches to financing, design, and delivery are top-of-mind, according to BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 Report.
Sponsored | | Jul 30, 2014
How one small architecture firm improved cash flow using ArchiOffice
Foreman Seeley Fountain Architecture not only managed to survive the Great Recession, it has positioned itself to thrive in the economy’s recovery.