• Machine Learning Engineers, Data Scientists, and Big Data Engineers rank among the top emerging jobs on LinkedIn.
  • Data scientist roles have grown over 650% since 2012, but currently, 35,000 people in the US have data science skills, while hundreds of companies are hiring for those roles.
  • There are currently 1,829 open Machine Learning Engineering positions on LinkedIn.
  • Job growth in the next decade is expected to outstrip growth during the previous decade, creating 11.5M jobs by 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These and many other insights are from the recently released LinkedIn 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report. LinkedIn has provided an overview of the methodology in their post, The Fastest-Growing Jobs in the U.S. Based on LinkedIn Data. “Emerging jobs” refers to the job titles that saw the largest growth in frequency over that five year period. LinkedIn reports that based on their analysis, the job market in the U.S. is brimming right now with fresh and exciting opportunities for professionals in a range of emerging roles.

Key takeaways from the study include the following:

  • There are 9.8 times more Machine Learning Engineers working today than five years ago based on LinkedIn’s research, with 1,829 open positions listed on the site today. There are 6.5 times more Data Scientists than five years ago, and 5.5 times more Big Data Developers. The following graphic illustrates the rapid growth of key data scient, machine leanring, big data and full stack developers in addition to sales development and customer success managers.

  • Software engineering is a common starting point for professionals who are in the top five fasting growing jobs today. The career path to Machine Learning Engineer and Big Data Developer begins with a solid software engineering background. The top five highest growth job typical career paths are shown below:

  • The skills most strongly represented across the 20 fastest growing jobs include management, sales, communication, and marketing. Additional skills represented across the highest growing jobs include marketing expertise (analytics and marketing automation), start-ups, Python, software development, analytics, cloud computing and knowledge of retail systems.
  • LinkedIn interviewed 1,200 hiring managers to determine which soft skills are most in-demand and adaptability came out on top. Additional soft skills include culture fit, collaboration, leadership, growth potential, and prioritization.

Sources:

LinkedIn Blog: The Fastest-Growing Jobs in the U.S. Based on LinkedIn Data

LinkedIn’s 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report