130,000 reasons why Australia needs input from data and analytics professionals

SYDNEY, Australia 21 August 2017 - The Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia (IAPA) annual skills and salary survey is now open. The 2017 survey will help to determine if the recent attention on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data has impacted last year’s $130,000 median salary for analytics professionals.

The IAPA annual Skills & Salary survey offers an insight into industry trends, employment opportunities, education, experience, skills and salary ranges of analytics professionals from a variety of industries across the country. 

Key themes from the 2016 report included:

·         The biggest challenge is building capability with developing new skills (50%) and time for innovation (46%) nominated as  the greatest challenges;

·         The impact of AI is expected to be felt in two to three years;

·         Entry level analytics salaries rose 11 percent – putting the median salary of graduates, and those in the bottom salary  decile, equal to the Australian median salary;

·         Close to half of all analytics teams are gender balanced, however, a 9 percent pay gap still exists (compared to 16.2 percent  pay gap overall in Australia);

·         67 percent of managers say applicants are under skilled, rising to 93 percent of those managers who say analytics hiring is  harder than a year ago; and

·         Recruitment is overwhelmingly subjective with the top two ways to judge skill level unable to be independently verified.

As the analytics sector matures, the speed of change makes for an exciting period for business and analytics professionals. The insights generated from the IAPA annual Skills & Salary Survey will help organisations to leverage these changes for better insight-driven business.

The survey can be accessed at https://www.research.net/r/2017IAPASurvey. The deadline for responses by data and analytics professionals in the industry is 31 August.

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