Job Market Analysis

By: Forest Eyster

Last Updated:  3/09/2025

Introduction

Hello, welcome to my Analysis on the 2023 job market. This analysis project focuses on top-paying jobs, in-demand skills, and where high demand meets high salary for data analyst roles.

This analysis project was inspired by Luke Barousse and driven by my desire to find the top-paying and in-demand skills for myself and others to help navigate the data analysis job market.

The questions I wanted to answer through my analysis were:

  • What are the top-paying data analyst jobs?

  • What skills are required for the top-paying data analyst jobs?

  • What are the skills most in demand by a data analyst?

  • What are the top skills based on salary?

  • What are the most optimal skills to learn for a data analyst?

Tools I Used

For my analysis, I used these specific key tools to help improve my skills on my journey to become a data analyst:

  • SQL

  • PostgreSQL

  • Visual Studio Code

  • Tableau

  • Git & GitHub

The Analysis

The questions that I want to answer for this analysis are to help me navigate the job market. I'm specifically looking for data analyst jobs. Here is how I approached each question:

1) What are the top-paying data analyst jobs?

To identify the top-paying jobs, I queried the average yearly salary, and filtered the location. Once by remote jobs and second by my local location, I live in Florida.

Below are the queries:

This graph was created in Tableau to easily visualize the query

We can see that there is a wide range of salaries among positions related to data analyst. The average highest paid job is Data Analyst, coming in at $650,000 a year, dropping around to $184,000 a year. This shows there is significant salary potential. There is also a wide range of data analyst roles such as Director of Analytics, Marketing Data Analyst, and even ERM Data Analyst. There is a lot of exploring for a data analyst.

Now let's switch the filter to help me locally. To do that, I only need to change the job comparison to look for cities in Florida.

This graph was created in Tableau to easily visualize the query

For this query we have a dramatic change. The new highest yearly salary average is $375,000 to $150,000. This is because we are looking at a specified location instead of anywhere. So if I want a higher yearly salary, I would need to look outside of Florida. There is still a wide variety of jobs from the Head of Infrastructure and Management & Data Analysis to Mid-Level BI Analyst.

2) What skills are required for the top-paying data analyst jobs?

To find the required skills for the highest-paying job, I need to join more datasets. I already know the highest-paying jobs and will keep it as a subquery for my new query. I need to filter the different skills associated with these highest paying jobs.

Below are the queries:

This graph was created in Tableau to visualize the skill count for the highest paying remote jobs

We can see from the query that SQL, Python, and Tableau are the top three skills that are used for the highest-paying remote jobs. SQL is used in eight out of the top ten, and Python is used in seven out of ten. This makes SQL the most valued skill for data analysts. Following the top three skills, we have R, Snowflake, Pandas, and Excel. These are important skills, but just not as highly valued.

Now I want to change the focus of the job location to Florida.

This graph was created in Tableau to visualize the skill count for the highest paying Florida jobs

In this query, there is a fewer skill count. The top skills are SQL, Excel, Tableau, and Oracle. The following skills are Word, SQL Server, and Flow. With this, we can see a slight skill change focus by location. However, SQL and Tableau are essential skills in the highest-paying jobs in Florida.

3) What are the skills most in demand by a data analyst?

For this question I am expanding my search. I want the frequently requested skill in a job posting. To do that, I need to aggregate the skills per job.

Below is the SQL query and table:

SQL and Tableau are near the top of the list again, making these skills essential for a data analyst. We can also see Python, Excel, R, and Power BI are vital technical skills to learn.

4) What are the top skills based on salary?

For this query, I wanted to know which skills are the highest paying based on average yearly salary. I am not focusing on location again, because I want to know for the future what skills I should learn for a higher pay raise.

Below is the SQL query and table:

From the table I see a lot of skills I don’t know and a few I do know. So I had to do some internet searching. Skills like Terraform, Golang, and VMware help improve cloud storage. Datarobot and MXNet are helpful machine learning tools for analysis. SVN is the highest average salary and it is used to help organize files with a large group of developers working on a project. These skills are additive skills to help improve productivity, data sourcing, and problem-solving.

5) What are the most optimal skills to learn for a data analyst?

Now I want to combine the previous two queries to pinpoint skills that have high demand and a high salary. This will offer strategic skill development.

Below is the SQL query and table:

Now this table is organized by the demand of skills. We can still see the huge demand for SQL, Excel, Python, Tableau, and R. They range from 86,000 to 102,000. These skills are great for entry and mid-level positions. However, what skills would be beneficial for me to learn to increase my salary? For this I need to change my organizational focus to high salary and have a demand.

With the change of focus, we can see the salary raise by 20,000 or 40,000. These skills will be important to help my productivity and analytical skills when I want to increase my salary.

What I Learned

Throughout this adventure in analysis, I have mastered the basics and some advanced SQL techniques for my journey to become a data analyst.

  • Complex Query Crafting - Skillfully used Common Table Expressions to create complex queries to analyze data.

  • Joining Tables - Combined datasets to expand the initial dataset and increase my analytical prowess.

  • Data Aggregation - Got skilled with GROUP BY and HAVING clauses. Used COUNT(), ROUND(), and AVG() functions to help summarize data.

Conclusions

Insights

With the conclusion of my analysis, here are my final insights.

  • What are the top-paying data analyst jobs? There is a wide range for salaries for remote and Florida positions. However, the highest yearly average is $650,000 for a remote Data Analyst.

  • What skills are required for the top-paying data analyst jobs? SQL is utilized in the highest paying jobs as a data analyst for remote and Florida roles. Making SQL a critical skill to learn and master.

  • What are the skills most in demand by a data analyst? SQL is highly esteemed for data analyst jobs, making it prized for job seekers.

  • What are the top skills based on salary? Skills related with higher salaries require specialized or niche expertise, such as SVN, Solidity, and Couchbase.

  • What are the most optimal skills to learn for a data analyst? SQL leads in demands and holds a sufficient average yearly salary. Kafka leads in average yearly salary with a fair few demands. However, it is too low compared to SQL. Making SQL the most optimal skill for the data analyst job market.

Closing Thoughts

This analysis served as a project to enhance my expertise in SQL, Tableau, git, and analytical skills. While working on this project, I gained valuable insights into the data analyst job market. These insights reveal which skills are in high demand and offer high salaries. This will provide an advantage for me and anyone looking to enter the data analyst field.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure.