Sharp Rise in Demand for Data Scientists
Demand for data scientists is higher than ever, and data scientists in the United States can expect a median salary of USD164,500 in 2020, according to a 2021 survey by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This is up 8% from the median salary of USD152,500 in 2019.
As reported by Fortune Education, those graduating with a master’s degree are already fielding job offers months ahead of graduation, with salaries reportedly starting from 112,000. And in 71% of cases, organizations have also offered an average signing on bonus of USD12,000.
And based on data from job search engine Indeed.com, the average salary of a data scientist in the United States is USD109,000, which is exceptionally high considering that data scientist is still a relatively new job title.
The same report also cited high salaries from well-known brands, with salaries that range from USD161,000 at LinkedIn to USD180,000 at Apple. Top industries are typically e-commerce, banking, and cybersecurity, though others such as healthcare and biomedical are also starting to hire data scientists.
High demand for data scientists
Though the U.S. salaries might not necessarily translate to the Asia Pacific, the sky-high remuneration does underscore the growing importance of data scientists – and the potential for a meteoric rise in pay of data professionals as they gain the requisite experience.
Indeed, developer screening and interview platform DevSkiller says there is an almost three-fold (295%) increase in the number of data science-related tasks recruiters were setting for candidates in the interview process during 2021.
Specifically, the DevSkiller Top IT Skills Report 2022 found that data science was the fastest-growing skill in 2021, beating categories such as “Python” (154%) and even Cybersecurity (69%), both of which are ranked in the top five skills as identified by DevSkiller.
“The rise in popularity of Data Science comes as little surprise given how valuable data has become to companies across the globe. Companies are spending big on building the right teams of data scientists who can help them grow more dynamically,” the report notes.
DevSkiller also ranked the top data science skill sets for data scientists curious about future areas to develop. According to the report, data analysis came in first at 32.6%, followed by machine learning (24.0%) in second place. This is followed by software libraries such as Pandas (16.8%), PySpark (10.5%), and NumPy (9.6%).
Image credit: iStockphoto/Tomwang112
