In May 2018, a team of British scientists conducted a case
study and found out that spending on a data scientist (or analyst experts) in the UK increased significantly. We decided to understand the situation and give a brief overview.
/ photo by Nic McPhee CC BY-SAWhat's the matter
The purpose of the study is to determine the role that “data scientists” play in the public sector, and to identify areas of activity where there is an increased demand for such specialists. To implement the idea, representatives of five ministries were interviewed: labor, transport, health, construction and the Ministry for the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union.
For example, in the Ministry of Labor, the staff of “data scientists” increased by 400% in the last 3 years: from 6 to 30 employees; and 69 specialists are already working in the Ministry of Construction, receiving a total of £ 3.725 thousand per year. Interestingly, there were no “data scientists” at all at the Ministry for the Exit of Great Britain from the EU.
In general, according to scientists, by 2020, data scientists will add £ 241 billion to British GDP and create 157,000 new jobs in this and related fields. Note that in the commercial sector, the need for hiring "data scientists" is not so high: only 18% of British companies work with Big Data.
What others
Other studies confirm that interest in “data scientists” is growing. IBM
predicts that by 2020 the demand for experts on analytical data will increase by 28%. This is 700 thousand vacancies annually. At the same time 19% of them will be in the field of finance and insurance.
If we talk about the skillset, then IBM allocate the ability to work with MapReduce, Apache Pig, Apache Hive and Apache Hadoop. For example, in the USA, an expert on MapReduce
earns an average of $ 116 thousand a year. In Europe, the salary of such specialists varies from € 30 to € 99 thousand per year (for Junior and Senior, respectively).
As they say in Rusbase, Russian companies need not only
data scientists , but also
data engineers . However, the earnings of such specialists in Russia are lower than in Europe or America: if you look at HeadHunter, the monthly salary of data scientists in Moscow varies from 50 to 200 thousand rubles.
Not so fast
In 2018, Kyvos Insights
surveyed 300 American enterprises and found out that there was a shortage of professional staff in the industry: 52% of respondents stated that they faced a shortage of specialists for projects involving work with Big Data. At the same time, only 29% of surveyed companies are already making a profit from investments in this area.
Vin Vashishta, founder and leading data expert at V-Squared Data Strategy Consulting,
believes that the problem lies in the complexity and length of training for such specialists. It takes 6-8 years before university graduates can find a decent job, and brief training sessions and boot camps do not allow people to get enough knowledge.
/ photo Universitat Pompeu Fabra CC BY-NDThe director of the Institute of Coding (distance education sites)
notes that “if the problem of the lack of data scientists is not resolved, in the future this will lead to disastrous consequences for the entire industry.”
In order to solve the problem, scientists from the UK
suggest the government to deploy a state program for the development of data science, raise salaries for specialists in this field and not “tie” them to a specific ministry. However, if we talk about the world as a whole,
in addition to loud statements , no one has yet proposed a state program.
PS What else do we write to our blog about IaaS:
PPS Our materials on Habré: