Employment

Drafters held about 199,800 jobs nationally in 2012. About 43 percent of all jobs for drafters were in architectural, engineering, and related services firms that design construction projects or do other engineering work on a contract basis for other industries. Another 28 percent of jobs were in manufacturing industries such as machinery, fabricated metal products, computer and electronic products, and transportation-equipment manufacturing. Approximately 7 percent of the jobs were in the construction industry.