State of the design job market in 2025
Who’s hiring, what roles are growing, and more new insights for designers
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State of the design job market in 2025
Hi AI-First friends,
Design has always been one of the first functions people speculate about when big shifts hit tech. Will AI replace designers? Will remote kill collaboration? Will startups still invest in design when budgets are tight?
The reality in 2025 looks more nuanced. The hype cycles are loud, but the data tells a clearer story: design jobs are stabilizing, new opportunities are opening up, and the core expectations of the role haven’t changed as much as you’d think.
Here’s what the market looks like today:
Open design roles are trending up (though still below 2022’s peak)
Layoffs are slowing, but remain above pre-2020 levels
Remote work has leveled off at around ~20% of postings
The Bay Area continues to be the global hub for design jobs
Public tech companies are driving the bulk of hiring
AI-native companies are proving that excellent model outputs still need great interfaces
Junior and mid-level hiring is finally recovering
Figma remains the industry’s tool of choice
And the definition of “success” for designers is surprisingly consistent
This is the state of the design job market in August 2025: not the boom of 2021, not the pain of 2023—but something in between, with signals that the next cycle of design opportunity is already forming.
We partnered with TrueUp’s Amit Taylor to bring you this snapshot of the design job market. Their team tracks every open role across 8,000+ top tech companies and startups, enriching each listing with AI-driven tags for function, level, sector, and location.
This dataset makes it possible to cut through the noise and see where real opportunities are emerging. You can explore the live feed of design openings at here and sign up for free alerts to stay ahead of the market.
Now let’s dive in…
1. Open roles are climbing again (but we’re still far from the 2022 peak)
TrueUp is tracking 4,909 active Design openings, up 13% from last year’s low of 4,344.
Hiring bottomed out early last year, then inched upward through 2024 and has held steady around the 5K mark for most of 2025.
The recent ascent of AI has not led to a decline in hiring demand for Designers, despite some popular narratives suggesting otherwise. It is still tougher than the 2021–2022 boom when both hiring and budgets were at all-time highs, but job seekers should have a slightly better shot at getting hired now than the past couple years.
2. Layoffs are easing but still elevated
Tech layoffs have slowed since the 2023 peak.
Tech companies cut 430,000 people in 2023. That fell to 239,000 in 2024 and is tracking toward 212,000 in 2025 if the current pace holds.
3. Remote work has settled near a new floor
Only 21% of Design postings include a remote option, down from almost 30% at the end of 2022.
The decline has slowed, suggesting ~20% may be the new normal.
Fully-remote roles are more available in consumer apps, FinTech, and AI tooling, but far scarcer in hardware and deeply collaborative product areas.
Countries with the most remote-friendly jobs are: US (419), Canada (74), Israel (49), United Kingdom (45), India (39), and Poland (39)
4. The Bay Area is (still) the design capital of tech
The San Francisco Bay Area is the #1 location for Design jobs in Tech and claims 18.4% of all open Design roles, a higher share than it had the past few years.
Other popular US locations are New York City, Remote-US, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
International bright spots in the top-10: Bengaluru (#4), London (#7), Singapore (#8), and Tel Aviv (#10).
5. Public tech companies are where the most jobs are
Public tech companies list 2,314 roles, close to double the combined total of Early-stage startups (378) and Unicorns (1110).
FAANG+ firms (Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, etc.) contribute 689 of those 2,314 public company openings. Amazon continues to have by far the most open Design roles (2X more than Epic Games, the next company on the list).