Social Scientist

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Social Scientist carries out and facilitates social science research to better understand human behavior. Involves activities such as analysis of laboratory results, quality control, data management, and presentations of findings. May utilize statistic or other data analysis software such as SPSS, STATA or SAS.

Job Outlook

There were 88 Social Scientist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4508 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Social Science Researcher industry, which includes the Social Scientist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2016:

Salary

Many new Social Scientist 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 $90,248.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $92,790.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Social Scientist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $70,392.

Education and Experience

Posted Social Scientist 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	38.07%
Master's Degree	32.59%
Doctoral Degree	29.46%
Other	2.46%

Posted Social Scientist 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	38.6%
3 to 5 years	44.7%
6 to 8 years	8.2%
9+ years	8.51%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Social Scientist 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.

Research (76.6%)
Writing (41.5%)
Communication (34.41%)
Presentations (20.98%)
Management (19.01%)
Planning (14.86%)
Leadership (14.35%)
Detail Oriented (14.29%)
Verbal Communication Skills (10.76%)
Coordinating (10.76%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Political Sciences (27.27%)
Poverty Reduction (5.76%)
Social Sciences (42.73%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Statistical Analysis (8.24%)
Data Analysis (23.59%)
Anthropology (10.84%)
Behavioral Science (8.41%)
Data Collection (18.45%)
Social Work (6.7%)
R (Programming Language) (11.52%)
Economics (23.45%)
Research Methodologies (14.97%)
Psychology (19.54%)
Python (Programming Language) (8.78%)
Focus Group (8.47%)
International Relations (12.46%)
Project Management (13.89%)
Quantitative Research (8.3%)
Public Policies (14.8%)
Sociology (20.22%)
Statistics (15.86%)
Qualitative Research (8.64%)
Research Experiences (10.15%)
Surveys (11.84%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Political Economy (1.54%)

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.

Poverty Reduction (100%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Social Scientist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Political Affairs Intern
Postdoctoral Fellow
Social Science Research Assistant
Social Science Research Analyst
Behavioral Scientist
Government Affairs Analyst
Anthropologist
Postdoctoral Researcher
Academic Intern

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.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Social Scientist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

The Borgen Project (201)
United States Department of the Treasury (87)
The University of Texas at Austin (68)
Pennsylvania State University (65)
University of Chicago (63)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (59)
Stanford University (54)
Cengage Learning (52)
Princeton University (45)
United States Government (35)

North Carolina

University of North Carolina (8)
The Borgen Project (7)
Wake Forest Baptist Health (5)
RTI International (3)
Atrium Health Floyd (2)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2)
University of North Carolina Wilmington (2)
American Institutes For Research (2)
National Park Service (2)
North Carolina Central University (2)

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!

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.

Science and Research