Interior Designers
SOC 27-1025 · 2024-2034
Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Design interior environments or create physical layouts that are practical, aesthetic, and conducive to the intended purposes. May specialize in a particular field, style, or phase of interior design.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $82,476per year
- Projected openings
- 9,960
- Projected change
- +5.6%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Speaking
- Active Listening
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
- Service Orientation
- Social Perceptiveness
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $85,991 | 1,290 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $85,851 | 60 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $81,969 | 400 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $81,507 | 130 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $81,137 | 810 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $79,764 | 1,540 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $79,570 | 770 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $78,935 | 220 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $78,395 | 3,930 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $77,768 | 40 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $77,213 | 370 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $76,607 | 160 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $75,785 | 50 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $72,087 | 470 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $71,789 | 40 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $67,342 | 120 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $67,034 | 90 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $52,366
- A quarter earn under
- $65,144
- Half earn under
- $82,476
- Three quarters earn under
- $105,822
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $135,459
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial and Industrial Designers | $103,591 | 4,320 | +1.9% |
| Landscape Architects | $101,134 | 2,050 | +3.8% |
| Set and Exhibit Designers | $107,970 | 5,810 | +4.2% |
| Fashion Designers | Not reported | 6,620 | -3.7% |
| Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers | $48,326 | 19,470 | +2.7% |
| Architectural and Civil Drafters | $78,662 | 10,740 | +7% |
Programs that train for this job — 2
Core Skills Interior Design Certificate of Achievement
City College of San Francisco · San Francisco · $1,386
Certificate in Interior Design: Foundation Level Hybrid
UCLA Extension · Los Angeles · $19,920