SDS 070: The Quant Crunch

So just recently this year, IBM released a report called “The Quant Crunch.” And the subtitle is “Demand for data science skills is disrupting the job market.” This is a report that I would love for you to have a look at and actually go through in detail because it will help you understand where your data science career is taking you and what to expect from the future, in what industries data science is going to be most in demand, how it’s growing, what type of data science roles are driving the change in the employment market.

And today we’re going to go through some of the insights. So, if you want some additional information, definitely check out the report. A quick synopsis of the report you can find on Forbes. They have an article about this report which was published in May, it’s called “IBM Predicts Demand for Data Scientists Will Soar 28% by 2020.” And now we’re just going to go through a couple of these insights just to give you a taste for what you can find in this amazing report.

So, first things first. Jobs requiring machine learning skills are paying an average of $114,000; and advertised data scientist jobs pay an average of $105,000; and advertised data engineering jobs pay an average of $117,000. This is a quote directly from Forbes and from the report. So, as you can see, salaries are huge, over $100,000. Those are just advertised salaries, plus of course you can negotiate higher salaries because there is so much demand for these skills.

Next one is an interesting stat, that 59% of the demand for all Data Science and Analytics (DSA) jobs is in the finance and insurance, professional services and IT areas. So, the takeaway there is that if you are interested in finance and insurance, or professional services, or IT, then there’s a huge opportunity for you there because nearly 60% of the demand for data science skills is there. At the same time, I wouldn’t say that you should be worried or concerned if you’re not in those industries or if you’re not looking to get into those industries, if you’re interested in other industries, like health, or education, or food, or retail, or anything. There is still tons of demand in those industries as well. Just these are the highest in demand areas, but at the same time you can still find opportunities in other areas as well as these ones that we mentioned.

Next one is annual demand for the fast-growing new roles of data scientists, data developers, and data engineers will reach nearly 700,000 openings by 2020. That shows you how quickly the demand for these roles is growing. And the next one is similar: by 2020, the number of jobs for all US data science professionals will increase by 360,000 openings to close to 2.7 million jobs. So, as you can imagine, 2.7 million jobs in the space of data science and data analytics by 2020. That’s a huge number. 2.7 million is close to 1% of the population of the USA. The population of the USA is 321 million, so 2.7 is not really at 1%, but that’s really getting close to 1% of the whole population of the US. That’s the number of jobs that the country’s going to have in data science and analytics.

Data science and analytics next stat: very interesting as well. DSA jobs remain open an average of 45 days, which is 5 days longer than the market average. This is like the opposite side of the scale. So up to now, we were talking about the demand for those jobs. Now we’re talking about the supply. If jobs are left open 5 days longer than average, which is 45 vs 40 days, which is more than 10% longer than the average. If jobs on average remain open for 40 days, these are 45, so that’s more than 10% longer. It takes 10% more time to fill those jobs. That just means that there isn’t a lot of supply.

And that’s the key point, one of the key takeaways here, that even though the demand is growing immensely, it’s still very hard to fill those jobs and the supply isn’t that high, meaning that if you are getting into data science, and if you are interested in this field, this is an indication that there are opportunities, there is potential here, because there’s over demand and under supply. So, you can add to that supply and therefore, if you have the right skills, it should be, generally speaking, you should have the opportunities available to you in order to find the right career that you’re looking for.

So those are just some takeaways from this report, and hopefully that’s inspiring. Definitely have a look because it’s got some great tables which you can look into, and it breaks things down by industry and by type of role. For example, it tells you that Analytics Manager positions, specifically in professional services, they actually take 53 days to fill. So that’s one of the hardest roles to fill in the space of data science. So there, demand is even higher, and supply is even lower, and that’s something you could look into if you’re a manager, or if you’re looking to become a manager in the space of analytics, then professional services is where it’s the hardest for recruiters to find the people that they’re looking for.

And also, it’s got great charts, it’s got charts on roles, it’s got charts on tools, and things like that. So, a report that you definitely need to look into if you are interested in a career in data science, even if you have a career and you’re not actively looking in the job market, it’s always good to understand where you’re sitting and where this whole world of data science is going.

So, there we go. Hopefully that was exciting. To find the report, either go to our website and check this episode at www.superdatascience.com/70, or you can also just google “The Quant Crunch by IBM”. And I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, happy analyzing.