So it’s been two years and almost 300 rants since PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER went live….actually I was alive for 51 years prior but who is counting?
I hope to follow this up with a terrible two’s retrospectively synoptic analysis of how this blog changed the professional interior design world……or not…mostly not…..Okay I didn’t change anything but my underwear but others did….somewhat…..Okay not enough. Till then I have to address something that came across the wire this morning.
Design Success University’s 2013 Interior Design Fee & Salary Survey reveals a shocking statistic: 23.2% of all interior designers left the industry between May 2008 and May 2011 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The free eBook is available for immediate download.
So according to DSU, government statistics verify that nearly one-quarter of all interior design jobs were lost in the 4 year period from ’08 to ’11. WOW. I am well aware that the profession, or industry as ASID calls it, took a hit in the 2008 downturn but did we really shed a fourth? So I tasked my investigative research team to confirm the data.
After an exhaustive analysis of U.S.B.L.S. data (read 30 minute webscan) I can say that yes…overall those who claim “interior design” as their chosen occupation did suffer such losses. That anybody lost their job is tragic but I still found it hard to swallow that professional interior designers took such a hit. Well they, the professionals, did not.
As inferred above the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not distinguish the innately qualified self-proclaimed interior designers from trained/educated and vetted professionals. So my researchers drilled deeper into the statistics (read scanned more of the webpage) to find that ‘interior designers” are included in several categories. Architecture & Engineering Occupations (17-0000) and Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports & Media Occupations (27-0000) and within those are subcategories..but let’s stick with those two.
When looking at those interior designers categorized in 17-0000 there was only a 14% reduction in jobs over the same period. Which in my biased opinion indicates that those who have endeavored to align themselves with other vetted/licensed design professions MAY be less prone to the whims of the economy. A point the DSU P.R. blurb fails to clarify.
Regardless none of this is positive news but as long as we exist in an occupation/industry/profession that includes everyone from retail window dressers
to those designing living and working environments that physiologically improve the quality of the occupants lives – I will still have a job at PROFESSIONALINTERIORDESIGNER
Professional Interior Designer's Blog 
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