WH ERE T H E J O BS A R E
customized query can be produced by
editing the uniform resource locator
(URL) entered into a Web browser. The
simplest representation of a query for
searching within 25 miles (a reasonable
commuting distance that incorporates
a city and surrounding suburbs without
overlapping nearby areas) of Washington, D.C., (zip code 20005) looks like
this:
http://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/j?k
eywords=analytics&postalCode=20005
&countryCode=us&distance=25
While the standard user interface
only allows limited selections (e.g.,
distances of five, 10, 25, 50 and 100
miles), it is possible to customize the
search (e.g., a distance of 12 miles)
if desired. Using a few dozen lines of
Python code, this can be automated
to repeat an identical query (modifying
only the zip code) for all 569 PSAs. The
script took about an hour to run, due
to the addition of some random delays
between queries to emulate human behavior and possible LinkedIn account
suspension. While the actual number
of job listings changes from one day to
the next, and even during the course
of a day, the results included here are
likely representative of the relative job
markets applicable to those looking for
jobs in analytics.
52
|
A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G
BIGGER IS GENERALLY BETTER
On Feb. 1, 2014, there were a total
of 11,584 jobs containing the keyword
“analytics” on LinkedIn. A total of 339
of the 569 PSAs had no analytics job
listings on this day. Quants looking for
work can probably skip Fresno, Calif.;
Vernon, Texas; and a few hundred other
locations. As might be expected, larger
cities in general have more analytics
jobs than smaller towns. Table 1 shows
the 10 largest cities, their population (in
millions) and the numbers of analytics
job listings. The correlation between
population and jobs is quite high (0.85),
but even a cursory look at Table 1
shows that some large cities (e.g., Chicago and Miami) might not be “pulling
their weight” in terms of providing jobs
in analytics.
Metropolitan
Area
Population
(M)
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Washington, D.C.
San Francisco
Boston
Philadelphia
Dallas
Miami
Houston
23.3
18.2
9.9
9.3
8.4
8
7.1
7.1
6.4
6.4
Jobs
2122
512
166
660
1330
854
253
443
93
202
Table 1: Analytics jobs in the 10 largest U.S.
metropolitan areas.
W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G