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

Is data science still the sexiest job of the 21st 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.

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%

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