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Data Scientist Tops 'Best Job in America for 2019' List

The position of data scientist was named the top job in America for the fourth year in a row by careers site Glassdoor, with other positions involving artificial intelligence and machine learning also making a strong showing.

"There's no question that emerging technologies designed to grow and scale business, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation are having an impact on the types of jobs employers are hiring for across the country," Glassdoor Economic Research Analyst Amanda Stansell was quoted as saying in a blog post Tuesday (Jan. 22). "As a result, we're seeing a spike in demand for highly-skilled workers in 2019. With such a healthy job market kicking off 2019, we're seeing many of these Best Jobs open for people to apply to and get hired at employers across all industries and in all areas of the country."

Glassdoor's criteria includes earnings potential, job satisfaction and number of openings.

This week's annual coronation comes shortly after U.S. News & World Report named software developer as the best job for 2019, which happened after "full stack software developer" was named the fastest-growing job of 2018, which happened just before "blockchain developer" was named the top emerging job by LinkedIn. These reports and several more reaffirm the great demand for tech talent, especially for data-based software development that can lead to business advantages.

While the U.S. News ranking saw healthcare-related positions dominating after software developer at No. 1, the Glassdoor report shows more tech- and development-related positions among the higher echelons of its 50-item list.

Top 10 of the 50 Best Jobs in America for 2019
[Click on image for larger view.] Top 10 of the 50 Best Jobs in America for 2019 (source: Glassdoor)

Data scientist was named best job on the strength of these ratings:

  • Job Score: 4.7
  • Job Satisfaction Rating: 4.3
  • Number of Job Openings: 6,510
  • Median Base Salary: $108,000

Some of the listed salaries for open data scientist positions on the Glassdoor site, however, are north of $200,000 for senior candidates. Other related positions of note on the top 50 list include:

  • Data engineer (No. 8)
  • Software engineer (No. 10)
  • Data analyst (No. 31)
  • Systems engineer (No. 39)

Glassdoor's data scientist artificial intelligence specialist jobs section shows 33 open positions as of this writing, with several showing salary ranges with high ends exceeding $200,000.

Go to "50 Best Jobs in America for 2019" for more.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.

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