Data Analysts has become an important role in and a lot more companies are looking to add data analysts to their team.
But what is a data analyst and what do they do? How can you become one and is it a good career?
First we'll explain what does a data analyst do, and the data and research was done to find which industries are looking for them and the reported average salary!
What does a Data Analyst do?
A data analyst will, in general, retrieve and gather data, arrange it, and use it to draw useful conclusions. From healthcare providers to retail stores to fast-food restaurants, data analysts can help businesses in practically every industry. Employers who want to learn more about their consumers or end-user might benefit from data analysts’ insights to the table.
As a data analyst, you may be asked to respond to questions like these:
- What types of customers should a company target in its next advertising campaign?
- What age group is the most susceptible to a specific disease?
- What behavioural patterns are linked to financial fraud?
How to Become a Data Analyst?
A profession as a data analyst can take many different forms. Whether you're fresh out of school or seeking to change careers, the first step is usually evaluating what transferable talents you already have and developing the new skills you'll need in this new role.
The technical skills require a thorough knowledge of:
- Database Management tools
- Data Visualization tools
- Programming Languages
- and applied knowledge of Statistics and Math.
All these tools and knowledge can be gained by doing certifications, postgraduate diplomas in data-related fields.
You should also have problem-solving skills and the ability to analyze and predict the outcomes of your analysis which would help your company to prepare for the future.
Data Analyst: A growing industry
According to the data scraped by the ParseHub free web scraping tool, we found more than 1000 jobs for data analysts in Canada, and 80% of these jobs were posted in the last seven days.
The job postings were not only for IT companies but for other fields like logistics, medical and many more data-related job roles as well.
In 2017, IBM predicted that the number of jobs for data professionals in the U.S. alone would surge another 364,000 (to 2,720,000) before the end of 2020. Other sources confirm the trend of companies making big investments in big data according to a recent study, big data adoption in enterprise businesses surged from 17 percent in 2015 to 59 percent in 2018.
The WEF identified that by 2022, 85% of companies will have adopted big data and analytics technologies. WEF also found that 96% of companies were planning or likely to plan to hire new permanent staff with relevant skills to fill future big data analytics-related roles.
Data Analyst Vs. Data Scientist
Data Analyst and Data Scientist job titles, descriptions, and requisite abilities are frequently misunderstood. Hiring managers frequently make the mistake of considering the Data Analyst position to be a junior Data Scientist position, a stepping stone on the path to becoming a Data Scientist. Although this is a possibility, it is not always the case.
A Data Analyst is mostly concerned with the present. By examining trends and patterns, they hope to gain insights from the data in front of them. Their main goal will be to write reports based on the information acquired from trend analysis. However, certain Data Analyst positions will require predictive analytics as well.
In their day-to-day work, a Data Scientist, on the other hand, is always looking forward. They'll probably have similar abilities to a Data Analyst, but they'll also have to:
- develop new data modelling techniques
- design predictive models
- deal with algorithms
- and dabble in machine learning.
Their goal is to forecast the future using data patterns from the past.
So, a data scientist will work for the future of the company predicting a wider perspective and a data analyst to work for a present domain of work.
How much does a data analyst make?
Based on 209 salaries, an entry-level Data Analyst with less than 1 year of experience can expect to make an average total salary of C$50,656 (including tips, bonus, and overtime pay).
Based on 1,344 salaries, an early career Data Analyst with 1-4 years of experience makes an average total salary of C$57,061 per year.
Based on 159 salaries, an experienced Data Analyst with 10-19 years of experience gets an average total salary of C$71,987.
Employees with a late-career (20 years or more) earn an average total salary of C$79,618.
The typical Statistics Canada Data Analyst salary is $68,782 per year. Data Analyst salaries at Statistics Canada can range from $61,000 - $83,987 per year.
This estimate is based upon 5 Statistics Canada Data Analyst salary report(s) provided by employees or estimated based upon statistical methods. When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Data Analyst at Statistics Canada can expect to make an average total pay of $68,782 per year.
Closing thoughts
Some of the data from this research were done by scraping data using ParseHub, a free web scraping tool.
If you would like to conduct your own research like this, you can get started for free!
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