Raul Amoros, Director of Content Development at howmuch.net, a cost information website, published an analysis of The Best Jobs in the U.S. for 2018 based on salary and opportunity. Who’s on top? Machine Learning Engineer at $136K average base salary and 166% growth over the past three years. Number 2? Data Scientist at an average salary of $133K and 106% growth.
The data was gathered from Indeed with two additional criteria. First, the base salary must be at least $75K, and, second, the jobs must be in a high-growth sector with lots of opportunities to enter the field. They discovered that most of the highest-paying jobs have also been the fastest growing. This makes a certain amount of sense since employers seeking highly skilled workers are forced to pay a premium for their labor, especially if the number of openings exceed the number of qualified applicants. Workers in these industries and positions clearly have the upper hand.
They also noted that many of the highest-paying jobs are in the technology sector. Machine learning engineers ($136K), data scientists ($133K), computer vision engineers ($131K), and full stack developers ($112K) all work on cutting edge technology. When you see a field with 6-figure average salaries and almost 200% job growth, that’s a clear indication of a technical skills gap.
Howmuch.net and Raul’s big takeaway from this analysis is that if you want a high paying job with lots of professional growth opportunities, you should definitely consider getting a degree in computer science with a specialty in engineering or data science. These positions are primed for substantial expansion in both wages and opportunity in the years ahead.
