Data scientists, IT specialists who conduct high-level data analyses and apply it to business projections and modeling, are in high demand in cities across the North America, as organizations grappled with an ever-increasing amount of information gathered from customers from social media sites, email and other platforms. San Francisco leads the pack when it comes to offering the best opportunities for a career in big data, according to a report based on internal data from IT recruiting and staffing specialist Modis branch network across the United States and Canada.
The City by the Bay, with its sizable presence of companies in the retail industry, insurance, health care and e-commerce, came in first. The report noted companies in these sectors typically run large analytics on their customers in how they use their services and products and as a result they need to hire individuals who can dissect the data in numerous ways. The rankings provide a glimpse into the opportunities for data scientists, data analysts, business intelligence (BI) specialists and professionals working in data modeling.
With a strong commercial and government jobs presence that leads to high demand for IT talent, the Washington D.C., metropolitan area, in particular McLean, Va., took second place on the list due to its array of commercial- and government-related data center operations, which fuel demand for data processing experts. With the abundance of facilities in the area related to the U.S. government as well as government integrators with federal IT contractors, there is a natural demand for IT talent across the board, but database and data management positions are a sizable piece of that market, the report stated.
Boston, New Englands largest city, placed third in the rankings due to the large number of banking and bio/pharmaceutical industries, which are looking for analysis and reports of large amounts of data that are detailed and complex in nature. These rapidly growing industries require that information to be dissected in order to better reach target audiences, boost the business, and tap into the wealth of data provided by social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others, as well as improving product offerings and the marketing that supports them.
Following in fourth place was the Gateway City, St. Louis, home to a variety of research universities, in addition to a handful of pharmaceutical and bioresearch firms that drive demand in data analyst or scientist roles. Rounding out the top five was the only Canadian city on the list, Toronto, where risk-averse financial institutions require BI solutions to help determine a companys operating costs, customer habits, spending habits and patterns, and liabilities. The major benefit of business intelligence and big data is its ability to view information from a diminutive standpoint, the report concluded. Overall business intelligence provides extremely valuable information that allows organizations to make well-informed decisions on issues that have a major impact on their bottom line.