Job market reports · September 2026
Data Analyst job market report
What 1,660 live US Data Analyst postings actually ask for, read from employers’ own careers pages in September 2026. Updated monthly.
Which skills postings mention
Share of the 552 Data Analyst postings we have read that name each skill. Ranked by how often it appears, not by how important anyone thinks it is.
These are mentions, not requirements. Our extraction returns one list per posting and does not separate “5+ years required” from “a plus”, so both are counted here. Read a percentage as how often a skill comes up, never as how often it is mandatory.
From 556 postings (33.5% of this role) whose full description we have read. That subset was selected by our job-matching system rather than at random, so treat this as describing the subset rather than the whole market. Why.
- 1sql62.9%
- 2python44.6%
- 3tableau36.2%
- 4data analysis33.7%
- 5data visualization30.6%
- 6power bi25.4%
- 7r21.2%
- 8data modeling19.9%
- 9excel18.3%
- 10dbt17%
- 11looker16.8%
- 12snowflake16.1%
- 13reporting12.1%
- 14data quality10.1%
- 15etl10%
- 16business intelligence9.8%
- 17business analysis9.2%
- 18dashboards8.7%
- 19data governance8.7%
- 20a/b testing8.2%
- 21automation8%
- 22bigquery8%
- 23dashboarding7.8%
- 24project management7.8%
- 25agile7.4%
sql leads at 62.9%, then python at 44.6% and tableau at 36.2%. A skill appearing in a third of postings is worth learning; one appearing in 5% is worth knowing exists.
How much experience is expected
The seniority mix below covers all 1,660 postings. Among the ones we have read, half of those stating a number ask for 4+ years, and the middle 50% sit between 3 and 5.
- 1No level in title58.5%
- 2Senior27.6%
- 3Entry level / junior4%
- 4Lead3.3%
- 5Internship2.7%
- 6Staff1.7%
- 7Principal1%
- 8Manager0.9%
- 9Director+0.4%
6.7% of Data Analyst postings are open to entry level. That is 111 postings out of 1,660. This is the number most career guides leave out, and it is the one that should shape how you apply: the ceiling on a new graduate’s search is not effort, it is how few of these roles are open to them at all. Volume of applications matters more here than it does at senior level, and so does applying to the postings that are genuinely entry level rather than the ones that merely sound it.
What it pays
Annual base ranges as stated by employers. Read the caveats at the bottom before quoting any of these — the disclosing minority is not a random sample.
Not enough disclosed salaries to publish a band — only 14 of these postings state one. We would rather show nothing than a median built on a handful of rows.
From 556 postings (33.5% of this role) whose full description we have read. That subset was selected by our job-matching system rather than at random, so treat this as describing the subset rather than the whole market. Why.
Where the jobs are
Share of postings by metro. Postings we could not place to a metro are not counted here, so these shares describe the located subset.
- 1Remote14.3%
- 2Washington, DC6.7%
- 3New York, NY6.5%
- 4Other — CA3.7%
- 5Other — VA3.3%
- 6Dallas, TX2.3%
- 7San Francisco, CA2.1%
- 8Chicago, IL1.6%
- 9Austin, TX1.6%
- 10Boston, MA1.4%
- 11Other — TX1.4%
- 12Other — WA1.4%
- 13Los Angeles, CA1.3%
- 14Seattle, WA1.3%
- 15Houston, TX1.3%
Remote, hybrid or on-site
26.6% of these postings are explicitly remote and 17.3% are explicitly on-site. A large "not stated" share is normal — many descriptions simply never say.
- 1Not stated36.3%
- 2Remote26.6%
- 3Hybrid19.8%
- 4On-site17.3%
From 556 postings (33.5% of this role) whose full description we have read. That subset was selected by our job-matching system rather than at random, so treat this as describing the subset rather than the whole market. Why.
Who is hiring
Employers with the most open Data Analyst postings this month. The number beside each is their posting count.
Visa sponsorship
17.8% of Data Analyst postings sit at employers that appear in US government H-1B approval records for the last three fiscal years. That is a property of the employer, not a promise about this role.
Employers hiring most for this role who appear in those filings:
- Inadev21
- 10 BTI Solutions, Inc.8
- The Campbell's Company8
- RMD VillageHealth DM, LLC8
- Cisco Systems, Inc.7
- AssistRx5
- Blend3605
- CarGurus4
- Clearwater Analytics, LLC4
- Veeva Systems4
- A-TEK, Inc.3
- AvePoint3
A further 3.1% of these postings are at employers whose job descriptions state that they sponsor, but which we could not find in the approval records. That is a weaker signal, so we count it separately rather than adding it to the figure above. It may simply mean the employer sponsors under a different legal name.
Separately, 15.5% of these postings require a security clearance, which in practice means US citizenship. If you need sponsorship, that slice of the market is closed to you regardless of the employer’s history — worth filtering out early rather than discovering at the final stage.
How to prepare, based on the above
Nothing in this section is generic advice. Every line is read off this month's numbers for this role.
- Learn sql, python, tableau first. They appear in 62.9%, 44.6% and 36.2% of postings respectively. Anything below roughly 10% on the list above is a differentiator, not a prerequisite — useful once the top of the list is solid, and a poor use of your time before that.
- Expect to be asked for 4 years. A stated minimum is a filter, not a rule, and the 3-year figure at the 25th percentile is the realistic target for the most reachable quarter of this market. Apply to those before the ones asking 5+.
- Apply to far more postings than feels reasonable. With 6.7% of postings open to entry level, the addressable market for a new graduate this month is roughly 111 postings nationally. That is a volume problem before it is a quality problem.
- Anchor on $103k–$160k when pay comes up — the middle half of disclosed ranges. Below the 10th percentile of $86k you are being underpaid relative to what employers in this corpus publish for the role.
How we counted
668,970 live US postings read directly from 79,892 employers’ own careers pages in September 2026 — not from a jobs aggregator, so a role reposted across several sites is counted once. Counts, seniority, locations and sponsorship cover all of them. Skills, pay and years of experience cover 556 postings (33.5%) whose full description we have read — a subset assembled by our job-matching system rather than drawn at random, so read those as describing the subset. Full methodology, limitations and external checks.
Reusing these figures? Please cite the month and link back to this page — the numbers move every month, and an undated statistic about hiring is worse than none. All reports.