Data Analyst
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Data Analyst develops computer programs to analyze large customer information databases for companies and organizations. Analyzes data to identify patterns and provide information relevant to a particular business, industry or field; analysis may be used for marketing, or to detect fraud in financial transactions, or for research. Develops computer programs to protect confidential customer information.
Job Outlook
There were 2436 Data Analyst job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 66334 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Data / Data Mining Analyst industry, which includes the Data Analyst career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Data Analyst 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 $85,949.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $86,760.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Data Analyst postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $66,471.
Education and Experience
Posted Data Analyst 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 | 66.74% |
| Master's Degree | 21.78% |
| Doctoral Degree | 3.61% |
| Other | 5.63% |
Posted Data Analyst 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 | 31.05% |
| 3 to 5 years | 50.13% |
| 6 to 8 years | 12.61% |
| 9+ years | 6.21% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Data Analyst 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 (44.5%)
- Management (32.42%)
- Problem Solving (26.9%)
- Microsoft Excel (26.43%)
- Detail Oriented (24.49%)
- Research (21.19%)
- Operations (21.05%)
- Leadership (20.5%)
- Writing (18.95%)
- Presentations (18.04%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Data Analysis (82%)
- Computer Science (27.68%)
- Data Visualization (23.18%)
- Statistics (24.77%)
- Power BI (27.21%)
- Dashboard (28.63%)
- Data Governance (13.2%)
- Python (Programming Language) (31.51%)
- Tableau (Business Intelligence Software) (30.24%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (52.87%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Statistical Analysis (8.39%)
- Workflow Management (9.65%)
- Agile Methodology (9.44%)
- Microsoft Access (8.15%)
- Big Data (6.28%)
- Microsoft Azure (5.61%)
- Business Intelligence (17.09%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (5.09%)
- Information Systems (7.34%)
- Economics (9.69%)
- Data Collection (11.23%)
- Extract Transform Load (ETL) (14.42%)
- Data Management (19.54%)
- Information Privacy (3.01%)
- Data Quality (19.63%)
- Data Mining (8.03%)
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (9.64%)
- Marketing (8.03%)
- Automation (10.49%)
- Business Requirements (9.85%)
- Auditing (8.63%)
- Data Modeling (19.1%)
- Machine Learning (9.28%)
- Business Process (9.04%)
- Data Warehousing (15.01%)
- Data Integrity (9.1%)
- Relational Databases (7.61%)
- R (Programming Language) (17.73%)
- Finance (13.45%)
- Data Engineering (7.8%)
- Project Management (17.08%)
- SAS (Software) (10.14%)
- Data Science (18.23%)
- Process Improvement (9.97%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Data Dictionary (3.47%)
- Data Cleansing (4.16%)
- Data Manipulation (5.38%)
- Data Extraction (4.4%)
- Looker Analytics (2.65%)
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.
- Data Analysis (89.75%)
- Data Governance (14.44%)
- SQL (Programming Language) (57.87%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Data Analyst skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Data Modeler
- Data Governance Analyst
- Data Analytics Engineer
- Data Analytics Intern
- Data Management Analyst
- Data and Reporting Analyst
- Lead Data Analyst
- Data Reporting Analyst
- Research Data 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.
- Business Analysis Manager
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Healthcare Analyst
- Data Specialist
- Data Quality Analyst
- Data Manager
- Business Intelligence Developer / Architect
- Decision Support Analyst
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Data Analyst jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Merit America (610)
- Meta (590)
- Insight Global (561)
- Robert Half (560)
- Randstad (495)
- Cardinal Health (468)
- Lincoln Financial Group (465)
- Sedgwick (432)
- Lumen Technologies (409)
- Public Consulting Group (387)
North Carolina
- Randstad (108)
- Wells Fargo (69)
- Motion Recruitment (48)
- The Judge Group (44)
- Collabera (40)
- Truist Financial (35)
- Insight Global (28)
- USAA (28)
- Bank of America (27)
- Shoe Carnival (26)
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!
- Applied Statistics and Data Management Graduate Certificates
- Foundations of Data Science Master's Degrees
- Geographic Information Systems Graduate Certificates
- Geospatial Information Science and Technology Master's Degrees
- Statistics Master's Degrees
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.