Data Science Job Market - March 2023 Update

The data science job market is gradually recovering after being affected by the recession.

Big Tech hiring stabilized after dropping for several months, and overall job openings continue to grow month over month. Business and analytics-oriented positions drive the current growth.

We examined March’s numbers to analyze the current trends in the data science job market.

• Job Openings Grew 11% In March: Openings for data positions grew 11% across the board month over month and 13.3% year over year, primarily due to the rise of data analytics.
• Openings At FAANG Stabilized, Slowly Recovering: After 2022’s steep fall, FAANG job openings reached their lowest point in January 2023 and have been growing since then.
• Tech Layoffs Continue To Decline: The number of employees laid off dropped 5.6% month over month, while the number of companies with layoffs fell 32.6% month over month.
• Breakdown of Positions Driving Growth: The position with the highest monthly growth in job openings was AI and machine learning research at 32.0%, followed by growth analytics at 19.8%, business analytics at 15.8%, and business intelligence at 11%.

Job openings for data positions (ranging from business Intelligence to AI research) grew 11% monthly across the board in March 2023.

Compared to March 2022, they grew 13.3% year over year, driven by the growth in business-oriented roles like data engineering and data analytics.

Over the last year, Data Analyst jobs consistently had the highest demand, peaking at around 134% of their current value in mid-2022. The numbers declined towards the end of the year but have been rising since then.

Data Engineering job postings followed a fluctuating trend, with an initial surge in demand that peaked around the third quarter of 2022. However, this demand eventually subsided, reaching a low of about 88% of their current value in early 2023 before starting to recover.

Lastly, Data Scientist job postings saw a steady decline throughout the year. Starting strong in March 2022, the postings gradually decreased month-over-month, hitting their lowest point in March 2023.

Over the past month, Data Engineer jobs saw the most significant growth, with a 13.6% increase in job postings. Data Analyst jobs also experienced growth, with an 8.0% increase. Meanwhile, ML Engineer jobs declined by 3.9%, and Data Scientist jobs faced a more substantial decrease of 7.0%.

Data Analytics was the only position that showed yearly growth in job postings, increasing by 5.1%. In contrast, Data Engineer jobs decreased by 23.5%, and Data Scientist jobs saw a more drastic decline of 55.0% in the same time period. The most significant decrease occurred in ML Engineer job postings, with a 58.1% drop.

Over the past year, the job market has seen a growing preference for data analysts, reaching 51.4% of all data job postings in March 2023. Meanwhile, the share of data science job postings experienced a consistent decline. The share of data engineering job postings fluctuated, peaking at 37.6% in December 2022, declining at the start of 2023, and rising back in March 2023 to 32.0%.

FAANG job openings reached their lowest point in January 2023 after a sharp decline in 2022. Since then, they have been on the rise.

However, the share of data science jobs provided by FAANG has dropped tenfold compared to a year ago, from 6.24% to 0.63%. This decrease accelerated during the layoffs in November 2022 and then stabilized in 2023.

In March 2023, data science job openings at big tech firms grew by 1.9% month over month, while non-FAANG companies experienced a more significant 7.9% growth.

The recession hit big tech hiring hardest, causing a shift of data science jobs away from these companies. FAANG data science job postings plummeted 90% year over year, while non-FAANG postings grew by 7%.

The growth in data science job postings within FAANG since early 2023 varied across major companies.

Microsoft, Google, and Amazon increased their openings, with Amazon showing consistent growth and Google experiencing a sharp rise in March. In contrast, Facebook saw a sharp decrease in job openings.

In March 2023, Amazon ranked among the top five companies with the most data science job openings. This marked the first time since the November layoffs that a big tech company appeared in the top five - and contrasted Amazon’s March layoffs of 9000 employees.

Other companies in this group were from the health, finance, and government contractor industries, which have been more resilient during the recession.

In March 2023, the number of tech companies conducting layoffs dropped by 33% month over month, while the number of employees laid off decreased by 6%. Tech layoffs have been in decline since January 2023.

The companies with the most layoffs in March were Meta, which laid off 10,000 employees, and Amazon, which let go of 9,000 workers.

Other companies with significant layoffs included real estate firm Better.com (3,000 employees), human resources company Indeed (2,200 employees), and online food delivery service Just Eat (1,700 employees) (layoffs.fyi).

According to a CNBC article, the recent layoffs at Amazon affected the company’s cloud computing, human resources, and advertising divisions, as well as Twitch live streaming, which has not met revenue and user expectations.

In a memo, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the company would reduce hiring and downsize several teams throughout 2023. The recent layoffs primarily targeted recruiting teams due to the expected decrease in hiring for the upcoming year. Meta plans to announce additional restructuring and layoffs for tech groups in late April and business groups in late May.

Zuckerberg’s memo emphasized the goal of developing AI tools to automate workloads, increase efficiency, and reduce the workforce. He also mentioned the importance of identifying and phasing out obsolete processes.

The 11% monthly growth in data science job openings was driven by various positions within the field.

AI and machine learning research experienced the highest monthly growth at 32.0%. However, due to its specialized nature, the absolute number of openings in this area remains relatively small.

Other positions contributing to the overall growth included business analytics, with a 19.8% increase; data analytics, at 15.8%, and business intelligence, with an 11% rise. These roles, focusing on analytics and business-oriented tasks, played a significant part in the expansion of data science job opportunities.