Data scientists are in demand for employers, and job postings for the high-skilled and well-paid position continue to grow quickly, according to Indeed.com data. From January 2015 to January 2018, job postings for data scientists rose by 75%. The pace of growth has been consistent over the last two years, growing by 16% from January 2016 to January 2017, and 17% from January 2017 to January 2018. Top skills for data scientists include Python, R, Hadoop, Spark, Sas, Java, Tableau, Hive, and Matlab.

Line graph shows data scientist postings has doubled from 2014-2018.
Line graph titled “Growth in data scientist posting per million postings.” With a vertical axis of 0-700, the graph shows the growth in data scientist postings from December 2014-December 2017. There has been a steady increase, with posts doubling in number over the 3 years. Caption added post-publication.

Searches by job seekers for data scientist roles have also risen briskly, up 65% from January 2015 to January 2018. But the pace of search is slowing, up only 5% from January 2017 to January 2018, compared to 9% the year before.

Line graph shows data scientist searches has doubled from 2014-2018.
Line graph titled “Growth in data scientist searches per million searches.” With a vertical axis of 0-500, the graph shows the growth in data scientist searches from December 2014-December 2017. There has been a steady increase, with searches nearly doubling in number over the 3 years. Caption added post-publication.

Phoenix, Portland offer best bang for buck for data scientists

Data science is a highly paid job, with an average salary of almost $130,000 on Indeed.com. But where can job seekers see the biggest bang for their data scientist skills buck? While San Francisco and San Jose have the highest nominal pay for data scientists, Phoenix and Portland’s high salaries, combined with their low cost-of-living, mean that data scientists in those locations will have the greatest purchasing power. Meanwhile, data scientists in Dallas see relatively low salaries.

Table shows data scientist salaries by location in 16 US cities.
Table titled “Data scientist salaries by location”. The table compares the average salary to the salary adjusted for the cost of living for 16 US cities. Table shows that Phoenix and Portland have the highest salaries with lowest cost of living. Dallas has the lowest salary. Caption added post-publication.