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LinkedIn Data Scientist Job Postings Stabilizing: Is Recovery Around the Corner?

Posted
June 16, 2020

Back in March, as states began implementing shutdowns and travel restrictions, we began collecting data on LinkedIn job postings to observe the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic was having on the quantitative hiring market.In April we posted our initial data, which showed a steep decline in Data Scientist job postings on both Indeed and LinkedIn, and also reflected the wider trend of declining job postings as a result of the crisis. Speaking to students and academic programs, we found that data science & analytics graduates were also widely affected by the freeze in analytics hiring.

Decline in LinkedIn Job Postings Stabilizing?

As one way of tracking hiring market impact, in March we began conducting daily searches on LinkedIn for postings containing or relevant to the term “Data Scientist”, “Data Engineer”, and “Market Research”. While LinkedIn’s search tools are not a perfect marker for the availability of all quantitative job openings, we viewed this as a rough indicator of market activity.You can see how there was a sharp decline across all of these areas initially (which we reported back in April), but that has since leveled out.

LinkedIn Data Scientist Job Postings Down Almost 40%

Below you can see additional data on just how much Data Scientist job postings have declined over the past two months. Although things appear to be steady at the moment, the number of job postings on LinkedIn decreased from 21,444 on March 27th to 13,446 on June 12th, or roughly 37%. In the last 3 weeks, changes have remained under 5%, which can be accounted for by weekly job posting cycles.

Data Scientist Job Postings: Recovery on the Horizon?

Most recently, our latest Analytics Impact survey with the IIA, as well as the May jobs report, seem to indicate that the worst of the employment impacts may be behind us, and that a recovery may be on the horizon.While we understand that LinkedIn job postings are only one measure of hiring activity, we’re continuing to collect data since we thought it would be of interest to the community.At Burtch Works, we’ve noticed a recent increase in client calls and more companies reopening their hiring processes, which is always a good sign. It may be some time for the broader quantitative hiring market to bounce back, and it will likely vary widely by industry, but we’re hopeful that these are the first steps in a positive direction.We’ve been posting a variety of COVID-19 impact research on our blog throughout the past few months, so keep an eye out for future updates!

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Want to learn more our 2020 data science & analytics report, including salaries, COVID-19 impacts on the analytics community, and other developing trends? Check out the webinar recording below!