The Data Scientist Job Outlook in 2023 – Research on 1,000 LinkedIn Job Postings

Author’s Note: This article was originally published in 2023 and offers valuable insights and perspectives based on the available knowledge at the time of its publication. You can find the most up-to-date information in our new research, The Data Scientist Job Outlook in 2024.

Is data science still the sexiest job of the 21^st century? Where do data scientists work? How much do they earn? What skills are required for a successful data science career? What are the next in-demand tools and techniques in the field?

We studied 1,000 LinkedIn job postings to answer these questions. We extracted information about the companies and industries with the most data scientist positions, the required education and skills, and other expectations. Read on to find out more about the data scientist job outlook in 2023.

The Data Scientist Job Outlook Key Findings

• The employment rate for data scientists will grow by 36% from 2021 to 2031.
• 49% of the job ads on LinkedIn are in the IT & Tech industry.
• 6% of the data scientist job offers on LinkedIn are in California.
• Only 33% of job ads specifically require a data science degree.
• The most in-demand technical skills for data science experts are Python and SQL.
• Entry-level positions account for 55% of job offers.
• The average data scientist’s salary in the US is $125,242/year.

The Data Scientist Job Outlook in 2023: Table of Contents

• Data Scientist Job Description
• Where Do Data Scientists Work?
• How to Become a Data Scientist
• How Much Do Data Scientists Make?
• What Is the Job Outlook for a Data Scientist in 2023?
• FAQs
• The Data Scientist Job Outlook in 2023: What’s Next?

Data Scientist Job Description

Data scientists create business value through informed decision-making and effective product management. The role encompasses different activities, which vary depending on the business’s needs, size, and resources.

There’s enough confusion around the tasks and responsibilities due to the broad scope and extensive overlap between data science roles. And on top of that, hiring managers often use the term loosely.

So, a job search for data science positions inevitably produces a few machine learning, data engineer, data analyst, developer, and other similar job results.

Our initial search for data scientist jobs generated over 1,000 results. All of them were for data-related positions, but we narrowed the choice to the 806 looking specifically for data scientists. The data and insights below are extracted from this sample. All statistics and percentages are calculated from the 806 data scientist job offers we studied in December 2022.

Let’s see what we found.

Where Do Data Scientists Work?

The data science job is multifaceted. What you do and how much you get paid depends on your location and the industry and company you work for. For example, a firm that relies heavily on big data for product development would be more willing to offer competitive salaries. It’d also be more likely to have a more expansive data science team and several job openings simultaneously.

So, although data science has penetrated many fields and modern businesses, you’re more likely to find a job in some places than others.

The 806 data scientist positions in our study were posted by 336 companies across 50 industries and 49 states.

Let’s see the most frequently encountered locations, industries, and companies in our study.

Top Hiring Companies

We selected the top 10 companies based on the number of openings.

• Diverse Lynx: a staffing and consulting company with 200 job offers
• Recruiting from Scratch: a recruiting service provider in the IT sector with 31 job offers
• Accenture: an IT company with 27 job offers
• SynergisticIT: a software development, IT recruiting and upskill firm with 24 job offers
• Discover Financial Services: a financial services company with 23 job offers
• Deloitte: the largest professional services network with 14 job offers (11 in Deloitte Consulting)
• Cobblestone Energy: an independent trading firm with 10 job offers
• Circle: a peer-to-peer payments technology business with 7 job offers
• Aditi Consulting: a recruitment company with 5 job offers
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: one of the US Department of Energy national laboratories with five job offers

We encountered other renowned names on the list—such as Walmart and PayPal—which had four data science job openings each. Apple offered three jobs, and TikTok and Spotify presented two each.

Looking at this list, the IT, software development, and recruiting sectors seemed predominant. So, we segmented the job search results by industry to confirm this.

Top Industries

 As mentioned, the offers span 50 sectors but are not evenly distributed.

Our study demonstrates that the most significant demand for data scientists is in IT & Tech, accounting for 49% of the job postings on LinkedIn.

The Financial Services and Staffing and Recruiting sectors are far behind, accounting for 14% and 11% of open positions, respectively.

4% of job offers are in the industrial sector and 3% in healthcare. With 18 openings, defense accounts for only 2% of the jobs in our search.

Biotech, Education, Logistics, Oil & Gas, Entertainment, Retail, Energy & Utilities, and Real Estate accounted for only around 1% of job postings each.

Still, the variety of industries looking for data scientists shows that more businesses recognize the benefits of data science. The best industry for your data science career might not be the one with the most job openings, so consider other options, too.

Top Locations

If you’re not willing to relocate, your job search will be limited by location. We searched only for jobs in the US, but not all employers specified the exact location; 72 offers did not include this information.

We created a map with the distribution of openings by state with the available data.

The following is a list of the 10 states with the most significant number of offers. We also provide the percentage of jobs in our search they accounted for.

If we compare these results to the data we obtained in a similar study from 2020, we’ll notice that nothing has drastically changed. California was still the leading state with 177 openings (15%). Next came Virginia (141, 12%), Washington (90, 7%), New York (68, 5%), etc.

The top 10 states for data scientists are the same—just in a slightly different order.

How to Become a Data Scientist

The data scientist job outlook is positive. But with the growing popularity of this career path, the competition also increases. So, you need a robust skill set to have a fighting chance.

Let’s see what employers expect from the 2023 candidate.

Required Education

What qualifications do you need to become a data scientist?

Data science is a relatively new field, so employers don’t expect every person they hire to have completed a data science degree. They do, however, prefer candidates with higher education in a related field, such as Statistics, Computer Science, or Mathematics.

Data scientists must possess technical skills and practical knowledge about their industry. Since many of the postings were for jobs in Engineering and IT departments and the financial sector, employers also value degrees in the respective fields. So, Engineering and Economics were also high on the required education list.

So, even if you don’t have a degree in data science, you can still get a job. You don’t necessarily need to invest years and a small fortune in a university degree. Obtaining a certificate from an online course might suffice. If the curriculum is comprehensive, you can learn enough to prepare an impressive portfolio.

Our Data Scientist Career Track is an excellent way to find all relevant subjects in one place and obtain an industry-recognized certificate.

How to Become a Data Scientist?

Data scientists must wear multiple hats. Most importantly, they must possess strong technical, analytical, and visualization skills. But with rapid technological development, it takes a lot of work to keep up with the newest tools and techniques.

So, what data science skills do employers look for in 2023?

Required Technical Skills

Let’s start with the programming languages and libraries you need to be familiar with.

As the graph below shows, Python and SQL lead the way. They’re a must for every data science role, even if they aren’t explicitly mentioned in the job description.

If you’re new to data science, our Introduction to Python and SQL courses are an excellent way to start learning.

The number of job ads mentioning Java and other software engineering tools is increasing because of the growing importance of data engineering and machine learning ops in the data field.

Required Data Science Techniques

Some ads also specify the required data science and machine learning techniques. The most stipulated ones are deep learning and clustering. The following is a list of the top eight techniques and the percentage of job ads that mention them.

• Deep learning – 11%
• Clustering – 11%
• Predictive modeling – 8%
• Neural networks – 5%
• Natural language processing (NLP) – 5%
• Scikit-learn – 4%
• Decision trees – 3%
• A/B testing – 2%

Again, just because they aren’t mentioned in some job postings doesn’t mean you won’t need them on the job. The data scientist requirements may vary substantially between roles. What you’ll do on the job depends mainly on the business’s needs.

The skills you’ll need for every data science job, however, are data analysis and visualization. And the most used tools to conduct these tasks include Excel, Tableau, and Power BI.

You can learn how to use all three in our Complete Data Visualization and dedicated Power BI courses. Earning a Power BI or Tableau certificate will open the door to other career opportunities, too. For example, you can become a Power BI developer or Tableau developer.

How Much Do Data Scientists Make?

Learning the skills to become a data scientist won’t be easy, but it’s well worth it.

According to Glassdoor, the average data scientist’s salary in the US is $125,242/year. Still, various factors, such as industry, education, and company size, influence the size of data science salaries.

Another major determinant is employment type. For example, an intern data scientist would average $98,242/year. Unsurprisingly, most job postings on LinkedIn are for full-time positions.

So, what about the people who prefer to work freelance? Well, they’d look for projects elsewhere for example, on Upwork. The median hourly rate for a freelance data scientist on Upwork is $35.

Data Scientist Salaries Based on Seniority Level

Naturally, data scientists’ salaries depend on their seniority level. But even if you have the experience and expertise, obtaining a high-level position is challenging. In addition to the high requirements and expectations, they are fewer than junior positions—so, the competition is tough.

• Entry-level positions account for 55% of job offers.
• 31% of offers look for mid-senior data scientists.
• Associate jobs appear in 3% of the results.
• Director positions account for 2% of the offers.
• Internships and executive roles each account for 0.1% of searches.

So, how will your earnings change as you progress in your career? The following is a breakdown of the average data science salaries in the US by seniority:

• The starting salary for a data scientist is $83,011/year.
• The mid-senior level data scientist makes $125,264/ year.
• An Associate Manager of Data Science earns $152,641/year.
• Senior data scientists earn $163,845/year.
• The average Lead data scientist makes $161,670/year.
• The title Director of Data Science comes with an annual pay of $202,148.

That’s an excellent motivation to climb the data science ladder. But will the data scientist job outlook continue to be that promising in 2023?

What Is the Job Outlook for a Data Scientist in 2023?

Is data science still the “sexiest job” of the 21^st century?

Data-driven decision-making is becoming the norm as more and more companies realize the importance of big data for business growth. With this realization comes the need for specialists to help leverage the informational gold mine small, mid-size, and big businesses sit on.

The amount of data and the need for someone to generate meaningful insights from it is likely to continue, so the data scientist job will continue to be in demand. In fact, the demand is still growing.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that the employment rate for data scientists will grow by 36% from 2021 to 2031. This is a mind-blowing increase compared to the average growth rate of 5%.

And for all those skeptics out there—sure, rapid technological development will inevitably lead to the automation of some of the data scientist functions. We see this happening for many roles—people use ChatGPT to write code, generate marketing and business strategies, and so on.

But technologies like ChatGPT are only as creative as those who use them. Learn how to take full advantage of it with our Intro to ChatGPT and Generative AI course. Leveraging new technologies can only advance your career, and adaptability is a key skill to add to your toolbox.

Besides, behind every new technology is a highly skilled team of tech and big data experts. So, the next in-demand jobs will be those involved in creating such technologies. The skills required to succeed might change, but the future of data scientists is bright.

Data and business analysts, machine learning and data engineers, and other data science roles will continue to be in demand.

With the proper training, you can become a product manager for AI, learn machine learning and deep learning to build complex models, and leverage the power of AI to meet your business goals.

FAQs

Is there a demand for data scientist specialists?

Big data fuel the world, and companies need someone to help them leverage it. As data-driven growth becomes the norm in the modern business environment, the demand for data scientists increases. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for data scientists will grow by 36% from 2021 to 2031.

Is it difficult to get a job as a data scientist?

Becoming a data scientist requires hard work and dedication, but it’s a rewarding career path. If you’re new to data science, you may feel overwhelmed by the numerous data-related roles and the long list of technical skills and business knowledge you must acquire. But with the proper training, you’ll get your foot in the door in no time. Our comprehensive beginner-friendly courses and career guides will help you navigate the data science field. Take our structured Data Scientist Career Track to get job-ready in no time.

Is data scientist a good job in 2023?

Data science careers are extremely rewarding and lucrative. As of 2023, the average salary in the US is \$125,242/year, increasing as you progress in your career path. Lead data scientists make \$161,670/year, and a Data Science Director may earn around \$202,148/ year. In addition, this profession offers excellent flexibility, a decent work/life balance, and plenty of career development opportunities.

The Data Scientist Job Outlook in 2023: What’s Next?

If you wish to pursue a career in data science, 365 Data Science is a great place to start. Explore our structured career tracks and learn how to build a successful career. Sign up and try a selection of our beginner-to-advanced courses for free.