Fashion Career Statistics

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Considering a career in fashion design? Know these numbers first.

  • Fashion designer jobs are expected to increase about 5 percent through 2016, though that number could change depending on economic growth.
  • Nearly one quarter of fashion designers are self-employed.
  • According to the Princeton Review, after two years of working professionally, 92% of all fashion designers stay in the business.
  • About 2.8% of all working designers in the United States are fashion designers.
  • According to many fashion experts, women's plus-sized clothing is an under-represented market and will be increasingly targeted for development in the future.
  • The median salary for fashion designers in all industries (including cut-and-sew manufacturing, apparel wholesalers and specialized service industries) is rougly $62,000 -- the middle 50% earn between $42,140 and $87,150.
  • Fashion designers in apparel wholesaling make the most -- their annual average earnings are $71,400.
  • Top-paying states for fashion designers are New York, Maine, New Hampshire, California, and Connecticut.
  • The average fashion designer works 55 hours per week.

Numbers retrieved from the Princeton Review and the Bureau of Labor Statistics