Mechanical Drafters

Moderate Risk
Low High

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Uses mechanical drawings, specifications, testing support, prototypes, materials, and equipment documentation.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

55% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Show 2 more strengths

Operations analysis

Quite important
Why this matters
Figure out what people need and what a product must do, then translate those requirements into a workable design.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 106 votes

59% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 55% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Mechanical Drafters will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Mechanical Drafters was $68,510 ($33 per hour).

The median annual wage for Mechanical Drafters was 38.4% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Mechanical Drafters' job openings is expected to decline 6.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 39,900 people employed as 'Mechanical Drafters' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 3 thousand people are employed as 'Mechanical Drafters'.

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What people are saying (9)

Leave a comment
ME (Highly likely)
07 Aug 2025 07:33
Text to cad and 2D to 3D Cad (AI intergrations)
Andro (Low)
12 Aug 2024 15:31
The manual input of measurements within the mining industry is not Robot capable
John Myers (Moderate)
16 Mar 2024 03:41
While there is already much that is currently automated (macros, .vb, etc.), there will always be a human element needed. I do think there will one day be a version of AI that is trained on all the major aspects of the human factor for this job, and it will be close enough to fool most people into thinking that it is human thought, but I don't think that will be within two decades.
S (Moderate)
29 Jul 2022 13:48
It is easy to program drafting and currently some softwares providing that service
Willis (Low)
10 Apr 2021 18:18
It is quite thought involved process. AI currently is set order of instructions.
Ryan (No chance)
09 Apr 2021 23:45
To much creativity involved in designing something completely bespoke but automations with drawings from models created by humans and CNC programs will become more and more automated by AI.
Jimmy
23 Apr 2020 01:54
The job of mechanical drafter won't be fully automated or replaced by IA ,but powerful software like driveworks ,are going to be the new standard on almost every company around the world and eventually those software will lowered the workforce and maybe the salary.
Joe (Highly likely)
18 Oct 2019 01:17
Criteria based
D (Uncertain)
08 Oct 2019 21:28
lots of inputs that aren't very machine compatible
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Job description

Prepare detailed working diagrams of machinery and mechanical devices, including dimensions, fastening methods, and other engineering information.

O*NET-SOC code: 17-3013.00