Glassdoor recently revealed its report highlighting the 50 best jobs in America, and unsurprisingly, data scientist claimed the top spot for the second year in a row. Every year, the jobs site releases this report based on each job’s overall “Glassdoor Job Score.” The score is determined by three key factors: the number of job openings, the job satisfaction rating, and the median annual base salary.
With a job score of 4.8 out of 5, a job satisfaction score of 4.4 out of 5, and a median base salary of $110,000, data scientist jobs came in first, followed by other technology jobs, such as data engineers and DevOps engineers.
In fact, data-related roles are dominating similar jobs reports released over the past year as well. A new study by CareerCast.com revealed data scientist jobs have the best growth potential over the next seven years, as they are one of the toughest jobs to fill. Statistics from rjmetrics.com show that there were anywhere from 11,400 to 19,400 data scientists in 2015, and over 50% of those roles were filled in the last four years.
A quick search for data scientist jobs in the United States on LinkedIn reveals over 13,700 open positions. Additionally, this job trends tool by Indeed, which showcases the demand for data scientists, reveals that both data scientist job listings and job seeker interest are showing no signs of slowing down.
It’s estimated there will be one million more computing jobs than employees to fill those computing jobs in the next ten years, according to Computer Science Zone. So how did the role of the data scientist rise to the top of the rankings? Let’s examine a few of the reasons and trends that led the data scientist position to claim the number one spot for the best job in America again this year.
Not only are individuals with skills in statistics and analytics highly sought-after, but those with the soft skills to match are driving demand for data scientists. Business leaders are after professionals who can not only understand the numbers but also communicate their findings effectively. Because there is a still such a shortage of talent who can combine these two skillsets, salaries for data scientists are projected to grow over 6% this year alone.
So where are all the data scientists to fill these jobs? The main answer to this question is that they’re not trained yet. While Computer science programs are on the rise, it’s still going to take some time for supply to catch up with demand. Big data and analytics courses have started making their way into the classroom only in the past couple of years so addressing the data science talent shortage won’t happen overnight. The number of job openings will certainly continue to outweigh the number of professionals with a sophisticated understanding of data and analysis to fill those openings over the next couple of years.
The role of the data scientist is evolving, and organizations desperately need professionals who can take on data organizing as well as preparing data for analysis. Data wrangling, or cleaning data and connecting tools to get the data into a usable format, is still highly in demand.
