Business Analyst (General)
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Business Analyst provides strategic management consulting to companies and businesses. Advises on ways to improve operations, increase efficiency, reduce costs and increase revenues; may recommend systems or organizational change. May specialize in an area of business practice or a specific industry; may also specialize in consulting with government agencies.
Job Outlook
There were 3152 Business Analyst (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 84170 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Business / Management Analyst industry, which includes the Business Analyst (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Business Analyst (General) jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $94,751.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $96,120.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Business Analyst (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $82,702.
Education and Experience
Posted Business Analyst (General) jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 70.83% |
| Master's Degree | 12.85% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.12% |
| Other | 5.15% |
Posted Business Analyst (General) jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 22.68% |
| 3 to 5 years | 53.44% |
| 6 to 8 years | 16.05% |
| 9+ years | 7.83% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Business Analyst (General) positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (51.56%)
- Management (37.94%)
- Problem Solving (31.6%)
- Operations (25.62%)
- Microsoft Excel (24.91%)
- Leadership (22.05%)
- Detail Oriented (20.23%)
- Writing (19.78%)
- Planning (19.15%)
- Research (18.16%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) (10.89%)
- Agile Methodology (24.06%)
- Data Analysis (31.04%)
- Business Analysis (25.51%)
- Business Requirements (30.68%)
- Requirements Elicitation (11.91%)
- Business Process (36.48%)
- Project Management (34.83%)
- User Story (14.67%)
- Process Mapping (4.9%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Business Operations (10.44%)
- Workflow Management (20.53%)
- Change Management (8.74%)
- JIRA (11.9%)
- Business Intelligence (7.33%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (8.26%)
- Information Systems (9.33%)
- Computer Science (17.86%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (8.7%)
- Functional Requirement (9.77%)
- Automation (9%)
- Data Modeling (5.71%)
- Auditing (8.19%)
- Accounting (9.69%)
- Systems Development Life Cycle (9.69%)
- Financial Services (4.65%)
- Power BI (12.08%)
- Dashboard (12.04%)
- Test Planning (8.73%)
- Stakeholder Management (2.56%)
- Finance (17.94%)
- Microsoft Visio (11.97%)
- Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (10.78%)
- Scrum (Software Development) (12.53%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (23.21%)
- Process Improvement (20.08%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Business Requirements Documentation (3.53%)
- Acceptance Testing (7.23%)
- Business Process Modeling (3.32%)
- Business Process Reengineering (3.29%)
- Requirements Analysis (6.47%)
- Reengineering (2.38%)
- Functional Specification (6.58%)
- Gap Analysis (4.14%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) (16.1%)
- Business Requirements Documentation (5.23%)
- Process Mapping (7.24%)
- Acceptance Testing (10.68%)
- Data Analysis (45.89%)
- Business Process Reengineering (4.87%)
- Business Process Mapping (2.29%)
- Business Process (53.95%)
- Business Process Modeling (4.91%)
- Functional Specification (9.73%)
- Gap Analysis (6.12%)
- Reengineering (3.51%)
- Requirements Analysis (9.57%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Business Analyst (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Business Analyst
- IT Business Analyst
- Business Data Analyst
- Business Process Analyst
- Business Operations Analyst
- Salesforce Business Analyst
- Business Services Analyst
- Lead Business Analyst
- Business Applications Analyst
- Business Solutions Analyst
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Systems Analyst
- Business Analysis Manager
- Business / Management Consultant
- Operations Analyst (General)
- Healthcare Analyst
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Business Analyst (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Randstad (943)
- Insight Global (794)
- Elevance Health (793)
- Amazon (704)
- Kforce (680)
- Robert Half (641)
- Lincoln Financial Group (634)
- Public Consulting Group (616)
- Prime Therapeutics (587)
- Intermountain Health (504)
North Carolina
- Randstad (74)
- Truist Financial (57)
- First Citizens Bank (56)
- Genesis10 (54)
- Bank of America (47)
- Cape Fear Valley Health System (46)
- Allegis Group (42)
- Motion Recruitment (31)
- TEKsystems (30)
- Wells Fargo (29)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Business Administration Master's Degrees
- Business Sustainability Graduate Certificates
- Operations Research Master's Degrees
- Professional Communication and Managerial Skills Graduate Certificates
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.