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Job outlook for electrical drafters in the United States
Electrical drafter job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected electrical drafter job growth rate is -3% from 2018-2028.
About -6,700 new jobs for electrical drafters are projected over the next decade.
Electrical drafter salaries have increased 4% for electrical drafters in the last 5 years.
There are over 38,155 electrical drafters currently employed in the United States.
There are 30,376 active electrical drafter job openings in the US.
The average electrical drafter salary is $52,027.
Are electrical drafter jobs in demand?
Electrical drafter job and salary trends over time
Electrical drafter jobs over time
Electrical drafter job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38,155 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 38,767 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 39,250 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 39,440 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 39,530 | 0.01% |
Average electrical drafter salary over time
Electrical drafter salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $52,027 | $25.01 | +0.9% |
| 2025 | $51,549 | $24.78 | +2.4% |
| 2024 | $50,326 | $24.20 | +0.6% |
| 2023 | $50,008 | $24.04 | --0.5% |
| 2022 | $50,242 | $24.15 | +0.8% |
Electrical drafter jobs by state
Most common states for electrical drafters
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 56 | 8% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 498 | 7% |
| 3 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 637 | 6% |
| 4 | Arizona | 7,016,270 | 388 | 6% |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 345 | 6% |
| 6 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 310 | 6% |
| 7 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 308 | 6% |
| 8 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 196 | 6% |
| 9 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 191 | 6% |
| 10 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 459 | 5% |
| 11 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 288 | 5% |
| 12 | California | 39,536,653 | 1,410 | 4% |
| 13 | Michigan | 9,962,311 | 392 | 4% |
| 14 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 291 | 4% |
| 15 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 206 | 4% |
| 16 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 151 | 4% |
| 17 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 81 | 4% |
| 18 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 58 | 4% |
| 19 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 53 | 4% |
| 20 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 26 | 4% |
Most common cities for electrical drafters
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Appleton | 2 | 3% | $50,098 |
| 2 | Aliso Viejo | 1 | 2% | $50,697 |
| 3 | Huntsville | 1 | 1% | $48,708 |
| 4 | Sacramento | 2 | 0% | $52,531 |
| 5 | Chicago | 1 | 0% | $50,310 |
Electrical Drafter job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of electrical drafter experts
Gonzaga University
Stevens Institute of Technology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
San Diego State University
University of Utah
Old Dominion University
University of Central Florida
Kennesaw State University
Wright State University
What Electrical Drafter skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Steven Schennum Ph.D. P.E.: The most important skill is the ability to learn new things, and especially to unlearn things you “know” after evidence demonstrates that these things are not true. Learn how to analyze information. Your intuition, simulations, and results should all be in alignment. If they are not, then dig deeper. Learn the terminology and jargon specific to your company and your projects. Spend time reading. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be intimidated by new software.
What Electrical Drafter skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Min Song: Communication skills and innovative thinking skills. As emerging technologies continue to be complex and multidisciplinary, it’s important to be able to communicate with professionals in diverse disciplines. Taking robotics, for example, the electrical engineer must be able to work with mechanical and biomechanical engineers, computer engineers, software engineers, artificial intelligence experts, cognitive scientists, system engineers, etc. A person will be able to generate innovative ideas only if the person has a complete and comprehensive understanding of the entire system and can work well with other individuals with a range of expertise.
What Electrical Drafter skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Arie Nakhmani: Electrical Engineering has always (from its inception) been a good profession to enter, but now it is better than ever. Now everything is becoming Electrical Engineering, and the world cannot survive without it even for a few days. Electrical Engineering is the most necessary profession for the survival of modern society.
What will help Electrical Drafters increase their earning potential?
Dr. Arif Engin: Electrical engineers solve problems by skillfully applying mathematics and science. Electrical engineering classes are challenging at college, and electrical engineers must embrace lifelong learning to remain at the top of their skills. In the end, seeing the results of their work in a finished product is a rewarding experience.
Florian Solzbacher
Department Chair, Professor, Elect & Computer EngineeringUniversity of Utah
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
What soft skills should all Electrical Drafters possess?
Florian Solzbacher: Engineering is about teamwork. All major quantum leaps and most products require extensive system engineering and diverse skills. Engineers need to be able to understand the languages and workflows not only across engineering disciplines but also ranging into business, legal and ethical aspects of their work. This includes communication and project management skills.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Drafters?
Michel Audette Ph.D.: My take on this is what I've seen with my wife's work in industry, which suggests that the industrial landscape is going to be increasingly equipped for, and open to, remote work. I think that the implication for graduates is that they may need to be flexible about working within a geographically distributed team. If company deciders feel that someone is worth employing because of a unique skill set, then they would typically be more willing to hire that person even if unable to make it to work regularly, if that is feasible given the nature of the work; some work, such as hardware testing or industrial production, may not lend itself to remote contributions.
Nonetheless, for those areas that accommodate geographically distributed activity, such as software development, graduates can expect to interact with team members all over the US, possibly all over the world, if someone is deemed unique enough to hire despite living abroad. This places a high premium on the ability and willingness to work in a heterogeneous team, where not only will members look different, but also have myriad accents in their English, which will also impose a certain adaptability and tolerance to team members.
A related impact could also be that global hiring will make it easier for multi-national companies to hire a portion of their talent in countries where wages are lower and motivate US-based engineers to seek out graduate degrees in order to increase their competitiveness and employability at US salaries.
What experience really stands out on Electrical Drafter resumes?
Michel Audette Ph.D.: I am not in Human Resources, so I cannot speak from that perspective, but I suspect that a resume that can describe in a few words not only some meaningful projects undertaken by the engineer, but through a few well-crafted sentences, convey that this engineer has an important role in a design project and possesses real expertise rather than just the ability to insert buzzwords in a sentence. I once heard Elon Musk say in describing who he hired for Tesla, that a true expert can describe a problem at several scales; I like that definition. It takes more than buzzword-level expertise to do that.
I also believe that employers are looking for certain industry-standard tools, such as GIT software revision control or MS TEAMs, as well as relevant open-source tools that relate to that specific area of the company in question. I am convinced that they also value any leadership qualities that they can ascertain from a resume, where a candidate makes the case for having a formative impact on the outcome of a project. Not a blowhard, made-for-TV, hierarchical take on leadership, but the ability to take a high-level view of the state of a project, parse it in terms of what the bottlenecks or pitfalls are, find a technical solution collegially, as well as rally and motivate collaborators to see those critical areas through.
Maria Jacob
ProfessorUniversity of Central Florida
Department of ECE
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Drafters?
Maria Jacob: Well, this is a somewhat difficult question, since it's hard to predict what is going to happen.
Given the current research, everything seems to indicate that even with the vaccine, we won't be able to come back to what we were used to for a long time.
This will mean, work and classes from home for some time. Although I see and enjoy some of the advantages of staying at home (that go from clothing to saving money on gas), I feel we are losing some of the human contact we were used to. Of course, we have software like Zoom or Meet that helps us to communicate with others, but this virtuality is just simply different. For example, some students do just fine, and others can't deal with the fact that they have to write their questions over a chat. More than that, some students have family making everything more difficult.
There are other aspects that also impact the knowledge the new graduates have at the time of start working. For example, we as professors also have to take into account that we are living special circumstances and that some students may find this new system more difficult. Then, sometimes is easy to overcompensate and be more lenient with some things. If we are not careful this could lead to students graduating having less knowledge in some topics, where students pass a class not knowing certain topics that they should.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Electrical Drafters?
Hai Ho Ph.D.: I believe the impact is short term, and once vaccines are effective and available, our graduates will have expected graduation and access to a responsive job market.
What general advice would you give to an Electrical Drafter?
Fred Garber Ph.D.: I think the primary question, in the minds of those who are yet to graduate or are still searching, is in regard to the strength of the technical job market, especially the local job market. But you are in a position to definitively answer that question.
In you article, I would ask that you address the following:
Number of employers looking to fill and number of job offerings in the region (by engineering and computer science major) compared to last year and to the previous five years.
Any noticeable differences in job descriptions Zippia is receiving relative to work environment, benefits, starting salaries, etc.
Many of our soon-to-graduate students would be very interested in these quantitative and qualitative comparisons. Additionally, vast numbers of potential students would benefit from such information to guide their career choices.