---
title: "Electrical and Electronics Drafter"
description: "Prepare wiring diagrams, circuit board assembly diagrams, and layout drawings used for the manufacture, installation, or repair of electrical equipment."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-drafter"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Electrical and Electronics Drafter

**Category:** Architecture and Engineering · **SOC code:** 17-3012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 17-3012.00

Prepare wiring diagrams, circuit board assembly diagrams, and layout drawings used for the manufacture, installation, or repair of electrical equipment.

Also advertised as: Computer-Aided Design Operator; Designer; Drafter; Drafting Technician (Drafting Tech); Electrical Designer; Electrical Drafter; Layout Designer; Printed Circuit Board Designer (PCB Designer).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,870 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.96/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $50,040 to $120,290, with the middle half between $61,430 and $96,730
- **Total US employment:** 17,920
- **Typical entry education:** Associate's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -3.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 15/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 17,920 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $50,040 |
| 25th | $61,430 |
| 50th (median) | $76,870 |
| 75th | $96,730 |
| 90th | $120,290 |
| Mean (average) | $81,280 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NH | $102,070 | $97,989 | 220 |
| NM | $101,330 | $109,888 | 390 |
| MA | $87,290 | $82,538 | 470 |
| NC | $81,960 | $86,890 | 430 |
| ID | $81,590 | $85,440 | 100 |
| OH | $80,840 | $87,136 | 510 |
| GA | $80,620 | $83,724 | 470 |
| TX | $80,620 | $83,065 | 1,840 |
| IN | $80,100 | $85,825 | 360 |
| UT | $79,360 | $80,272 | 290 |
| CO | $79,300 | $76,951 | 750 |
| KY | $79,050 | $87,678 | 80 |
| CA | $78,310 | $70,728 | 2,730 |
| OR | $78,170 | $75,628 | 330 |
| NY | $77,830 | $72,118 | 850 |

29 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 44 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-drafter/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/electrical-and-electronics-drafter.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 18,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 18,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 600 jobs, or -3.4%. Declining: -3.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Associate's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 40.1% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 23.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 21.1% |
| Some College Courses | 6.7% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 6.1% |
| Master's Degree | 2.5% |

## What the work involves

- Consult with engineers to discuss or interpret design concepts, or determine requirements of detailed working drawings.
- Draft working drawings, wiring diagrams, wiring connection specifications, or cross-sections of underground cables, as required for instructions to installation crew.
- Assemble documentation packages and produce drawing sets to be checked by an engineer or an architect.
- Confer with engineering staff and other personnel to resolve problems.
- Review work orders or procedural manuals and confer with vendors or design staff to resolve problems or modify design.
- Draft detail and assembly drawings of design components, circuitry or printed circuit boards, using computer-assisted equipment or standard drafting techniques and devices.
- Draw master sketches to scale showing relation of proposed installations to existing facilities and exact specifications and dimensions.
- Examine electronic schematics and supporting documents to develop, compute, and verify specifications for drafting data, such as configuration of parts, dimensions, or tolerances.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Design — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.62 |
| C — Conventional | 5.53 |
| I — Investigative | 3.44 |
| A — Artistic | 3.06 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.90 |
| S — Social | 1.32 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 90.9 |
| ISTP | 78.8 |
| INTJ | 75.2 |
| ISFJ | 72.5 |
| ESTJ | 68.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Mechanical Drafter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-drafter) — median $71,550
- [Architectural and Civil Drafter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/architectural-and-civil-drafter) — median $66,150
- [Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $78,190
- [Electronics Engineer, Except Computer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electronics-engineer) — median $130,220
- [Mechanical Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,510
- [Electrical Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-engineer) — median $120,630
- [Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $64,950
- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820
- [Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-numerically-controlled-tool-programmer) — median $68,120
- [Commercial and Industrial Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-and-industrial-designer) — median $83,910

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/electrical-and-electronics-drafter