Floral designers accounted for an estimated 43,350 U.S. jobs in May 2023, with a mean annual wage of $35,500. The occupation is distributed across florists, retailers, wholesalers, hospitality, and other services, while projections point to fewer jobs but thousands of annual openings through 2035.
Contents
- U.S. employment and wages
- Industries employing floral designers
- State employment, concentration, and pay
- Metropolitan employment
- Outlook and projected openings
- Training and work context
U.S. employment and wages
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated 43,350 floral designer jobs in the United States in May 2023. These Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics figures are employer-survey estimates for the BLS Floral Designers occupation and cover the industries and geographies included in that survey. The source is Floral Designers — Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023.
The BLS estimated a mean hourly wage of $17.07 and a mean annual wage of $35,500 for floral designers in May 2023. BLS annual wage estimates use a 2,080-hour year-round full-time convention, so the annual figure is a standardized estimate rather than a guarantee of an individual employee’s yearly pay.
The wage distribution shows how pay varied across the occupation:
- The 10th-percentile annual wage was $24,960.
- The 25th-percentile annual wage was $29,120.
- The median annual wage was $34,690.
- The 75th-percentile annual wage was $38,940.
- The 90th-percentile annual wage was $46,650.
In the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, the median annual wage was $37,360 in May 2025. That is a later measurement from a different BLS publication and should not be treated as a replacement for the May 2023 mean and percentile estimates. The median is also a different measure from the mean: half of workers are above it and half below it.
Industries employing floral designers
Florists were the largest listed industry employer in the May 2023 BLS data, with 29,080 floral designers. Food and beverage retailers employed another 7,350. The remaining supplied industry counts were much smaller, but they show that floral design work also appears outside traditional flower shops.
| Industry | Floral designer jobs, May 2023 |
|---|---|
| Florists | 29,080 |
| Food and beverage retailers | 7,350 |
| Merchant wholesalers of nondurable goods | 1,440 |
| Lawn and garden equipment and supplies retailers | 730 |
| Miscellaneous store retailers | 430 |
The BLS also reported mean annual wages for floral designers in selected industries. Traveler accommodation had a $48,760 mean annual wage, followed by other personal services at $46,260. Management of companies and enterprises had a $45,210 mean annual wage, while other support services had a $44,170 mean annual wage. Each of these figures refers to May 2023 and is an industry-specific mean, not a nationwide occupation-wide median.
These industry figures can help explain why a floral designer’s pay context may differ by workplace. The occupation title remains the same, but the setting may range from a dedicated florist to a retailer, hospitality business, personal-service operation, or support-services employer.
The industry distribution also places most of the identified employment in florists and food and beverage retailers, while the other listed categories represent smaller employment settings within the broader occupation.
State employment, concentration, and pay
California had the highest state floral designer employment in the May 2023 BLS estimates, with 4,790 jobs. Texas followed with 3,230, Florida had 2,770, New York had 2,320, and Pennsylvania had 2,050.
The states with the largest job counts were not necessarily the states with the highest relative concentration. BLS location quotients compare an occupation’s share of employment in an area with its share nationally. A value above 1 indicates a higher-than-national concentration on that measure.
Missouri had the highest supplied state location quotient, at 1.85, followed closely by Utah at 1.84. Idaho’s location quotient was 1.75, and Hawaii’s was 1.73. These are concentration measures, not counts of total jobs and not wage rankings.
State employment and concentration therefore answer different questions: large states can have more total positions because of their overall labor markets, while smaller states can have a stronger relative concentration of floral designer employment.
The highest supplied state mean annual wages were reported in Alaska, at $44,780. The District of Columbia had a $42,920 mean annual wage, and California had a $42,790 mean annual wage. These are May 2023 state mean estimates from the BLS source. They should be compared with care because a state mean does not describe the full wage distribution within that state.
Metropolitan employment
The largest supplied metropolitan job counts were concentrated in major U.S. population centers. The New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area had 1,960 floral designer jobs in May 2023. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim had 1,570, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had 1,490.
Other metropolitan estimates included 1,010 jobs in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington; 940 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach; 910 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; and 830 in Boston-Cambridge-Nashua.
The BLS also estimated 720 floral designer jobs in San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward and 620 in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The metropolitan figures are job estimates for named areas, not measures of the number of floral businesses or the number of job openings available at one time.
| Metropolitan area | Floral designer jobs, May 2023 |
|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City | 1,960 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | 1,570 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | 1,490 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | 1,010 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | 940 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | 910 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Nashua | 830 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward | 720 |
| St. Louis | 620 |
Outlook and projected openings
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook projects 45,200 floral designer jobs in 2025 and 42,700 in 2035. That is a projected decline of 2,500 jobs, or 6%, from 2025 to 2035. These are forecasts, not counts of jobs measured in 2026.
A declining total employment projection does not mean that no opportunities will exist. The BLS projects about 5,200 floral designer openings per year on average from 2025 through 2035. Annual openings can result from people leaving the occupation as well as from newly created positions, so openings and total employment are different indicators.
ONET provides a separate projection vintage. Its Floral Designers profile lists 43,800 employees for 2024, classifies projected growth for 2024–2034 as a decline of 1% or lower, and lists 5,100 projected job openings for that period. The ONET and BLS projections use different periods and should not be combined into one forecast.
Taken separately, both sources describe an occupation with continuing replacement opportunities alongside limited or declining net growth. For someone considering floral design, the relevant distinction is between the size of the occupation, the direction of projected employment, and the number of openings expected in a typical year.
Training and work context
ONET respondents reported varied education requirements for new floral designer hires. Seventy-one percent said a high school diploma or equivalent was required, 24% said less than a high school diploma was required, and 5% said a post-secondary certificate was required. These percentages describe respondent-reported hiring requirements in the ONET profile; they are not population shares of all floral designers and do not establish a universal hiring rule.
The same O*NET profile records several reported work-context conditions. One hundred percent of respondents reported face-to-face discussions every day, while 95% reported telephone conversations every day. These responses indicate that communication is a frequent part of the reported work setting.
Ninety-one percent reported working indoors in environmentally controlled settings every day. At the same time, the profile shows a physically active and deadline-sensitive work context: 86% reported time pressure every day, 73% reported spending time standing continually or almost continually, and 86% reported spending time using their hands continually or almost continually.
Together, these ONET responses describe work that combines customer or colleague interaction with sustained manual activity, standing, and recurring time pressure. They are useful context for interpreting employment statistics, but they remain survey responses tied to the current ONET profile rather than measurements of every floral designer’s daily experience.