Data scientists have been found to be in extremely high demand in the UK, with roles offering an average salary of in the region of £49,000 in the past 12 months.
This impressive figure is also increasing at a rate that outpaces the rate of the entire UK job market, achieving a monthly increase of three per cent as opposed to the two per cent noted generally.
Behind this analysis is Joblift, during the past year the job board has explored and recorded 8,672 Data Scientist vacancies, discovering the truly commanding position of the role.
To put this towering average salary into perspective, the analysis revealed that just seven per cent of the recorded vacancies offered potential data scientists below £30,000 a year, meaning that at least 93 per cent of the vacancies were offering above the UK average of £28,600.
In the study, Joblift said: “As to be expected, Joblift determined that knowledge of programming systems was the most requested hard skill, being mentioned in 83% of job advertisements. Delving deeper, Python, mentioned in 6,334 postings, was the most popular programming language to understand. The data also shows that previous work experience is essential for Data Scientist employers (5,537 mentions), as is post-graduate studies.”
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While this makes exciting reading for those in possession of these specialist skills, this growth will be reminder to many of the widening tech skills gap that is posing risks to the world’s progress and cybersecurity.
It is also important to mention that top qualifications are an important factor that must be combined with outstanding data science skills to secure one of these roles. In 849 instances potential candidates were expected to hold a PhD, in 1,342 a Master’s degree was required, and in 1,456 examples, a knowledge of SAS was requested.
