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Quants: The Rocket Scientists of Wall Street

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Quantitative analysts are professionals who understand the complex mathematical models that price financial securities and are able to enhance them to generate profits and reduce risk. As financial securities have become increasingly complex, demand has grown steadily for quantitative analysts , often called simply "quants," or even the colloquially affectionate "quant geeks."

Because of the challenging nature of the work—which needs to blend mathematics, finance, and computer skills effectively—quant analysts are in great demand and able to command very high salaries. Here's a look at what they do, where they work, how much they earn, and what knowledge is required, to help you decide whether this may be the career for you.  

Key Takeaways

• Quantitative analysts, or quants, combine their skills in finance, math, and computer software to analyze and predict markets, creating complex models that can be used to price and trade securities.
• They tend to work in investment banks and hedge funds, although insurance companies, commercial banks, and financial software and information providers may also hire them.
• Quants work in major financial centers in the U.S. and in London and Asia, among other places across the globe.
• Firms often look for candidates who have a master's degree or a Ph.D. in a quantitative subject, such as mathematics, economics, finance, or statistics.
• Compensation can be in the low-to-middle six figures.

What Do Quantitative Analysts Do?

Quantitative analysts design and implement complex models that allow financial firms to price and trade securities. They are employed primarily by investment banks and hedge funds, but sometimes also by commercial banks, insurance companies, and management consultancies; in addition to financial software and information providers.

Quants who work directly with traders, providing them with pricing or trading tools, are often referred to as " front-office " quants.

In the " back office ," quants validate the models, conduct research, and create new trading strategies. For banks and insurance companies, the work is focused more on risk management than trading strategies. Front-office positions are typically more stressful and demanding but are better compensated.

The high demand for quants is driven by multiple trends:

• The rapid growth of hedge funds and automated trading systems
• The increasing complexity of both liquid and illiquid securities
• The need to give traders, accountants, and sales reps access to pricing and risk models
• The ongoing search for market-neutral investment strategies 

Quantitative analyst positions are found almost exclusively in major financial centers with trading operations. In the United States, that would be New York and Chicago, and areas where hedge funds tend to cluster, such as Boston, Massachusetts, and Stamford, Connecticut.

Across the Atlantic, London dominates; in Asia, many quants are working in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney, among other regional financial centers.

Despite the heavy concentration in those cities, quants are found all over the world—after all, many global firms analyze and/or trade complex securities, which creates demand for the quant's brainpower and abilities.

But the problem that a quant working in Houston or San Francisco faces is that changing employers most likely would mean changing cities, whereas a quant working in Manhattan should be able to interview for and find a job within a mile or two of their previous one. 

What Do Quants Earn?

Compensation in the field of finance tends to be very high, and quantitative analysis follows this trend. It is not uncommon to find positions with posted salaries of $200,000 or more, and when you add in bonuses, a quant could earn over $300,000 per year.

As with most careers, the key to landing high-paying jobs is a resume filled with experience, including with well-known employers, as well as reliance on recruiting firms and professional networking for opportunities. 

The highest-paid positions are with hedge funds or other trading firms, and part of the compensation depends on the firm's earnings, also known as profit and loss (P&L) .

At the other end of the pay scale, an entry-level quant position may earn only $120,000 to $210,000, but this type of position provides a fast learning curve and plenty of room for future growth in both responsibilities and salary.

Also, some of the lower-paid quant positions likely would be primarily quant developers, which is more of a software development position where the individual is not required to have as much math and financial expertise. An excellent quant developer could certainly earn $250,000, but that's about as high as the compensation package generally would go.

Despite the high pay level, some quants do complain that they are "second-class citizens" on Wall Street and don't earn the multimillion-dollar salaries that top hedge fund managers or investment bankers command. As you can see, financial success is always relative.

The estimated median total pay of a quantitative analyst in the U.S. in 2024. Google is among the highest-paying companies for a quant, offering a median annual pay of $262,000.

Quants Skills and Education

Financial knowledge.

Many financial securities, such as options and convertibles , are easy to understand conceptually but are very difficult to model precisely. Because of this hidden complexity, the skills most valued in a quant are those related to mathematics and computation rather than finance.

It is a quant's ability to structure a complex problem that makes them valuable, not their specific knowledge of a company or market.

A quant should understand the following mathematical concepts:

• Calculus (including differential, integral, and stochastic)
• Linear algebra and differential equations
• Probability and statistics

Key financial topics include:

• Portfolio theory
• Equity and interest rate derivatives, including exotics
• Credit-risk products

Some quants will specialize in specific products, such as commodities, foreign exchange (Forex), or asset-backed securities .

Computer Competency

Software skills are also critical to job performance. C++ is typically used for high-frequency trading applications, and offline statistical analysis would be performed in MATLAB, SAS, S-PLUS, or a similar package.

Pricing knowledge may also be embedded in trading tools created with Java, .NET, or VBA , and are often integrated with Excel. Monte Carlo techniques are essential. A majority of the work is also realized in Python, as scripting-type languages are good for running lots of data and multiple scenarios.

Education and Certifications

Most firms look for at least a master's degree or preferably a Ph.D. in a quantitative subject, such as mathematics, economics, finance, or statistics. Master's degrees in financial engineering or computational finance are also effective entry points for quant careers.

Generally, an MBA is not enough by itself to obtain a quant position, unless the applicant also has a very strong mathematical or computational skill set in addition to some solid experience in the real world. 

While most financial certifications, such as the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation likely wouldn't add much value to a prospective quant's resume, one that may is the Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) —which you may earn globally via distance learning in a six-month intensive program.

Clearly, you need to have "the right stuff" to be a quantitative analyst. It requires both the intellectual ability to master complex and abstract mathematical domains and a willingness to tackle challenges that can seem insurmountable—all while under considerable pressure—which only a select few can do.

But that also doesn't mean that everyone who has the ability to be a quant should become one. The financial problems that quants face are very abstract and narrow. Unlike fundamental or qualitative analysts , quants don't read annual reports, meet with management, visit operations, prepare roadshows, or talk to shareholders. Most of their time is spent working with computer code and numbers on a screen.

Individuals with strong analytical skills are valuable in many different areas of finance, such as economic and financial analysis, for example. Having to compete against the best and brightest quants every single day may not be the quickest path through the ranks, especially for those with broader skills and interests and a desire to manage.

Another career issue to consider is that many Ph.D. quants who come from academic environments find they miss the research environment. Instead of being able to study a problem for several months, when supporting a trading desk you need to find solutions in days or hours. This usually precludes making any breakthroughs in the field. 

Do Quants Get Paid Well?

Yes, quants tend to command high salaries, in part because they are in demand. Hedge funds and other trading firms generally offer the highest compensation. Entry-level positions may earn only $120,000 to $210,000, but there is usually room for future growth in both responsibilities and salary and the ability to earn upwards of $300,000.

How Hard Is Quant Finance?

It takes advanced-level skills in finance, math, and computer programming to get into quantitative trading, and the competition for a first job can be fierce. Once someone has landed a job, it then requires long working hours, innovation, and comfort with risk to succeed.

Do You Need a Ph.D. to Be a Quant?

Having a Ph.D. in a subject like math, finance, economics, or statistics can be a definite plus for anyone wanting to become a quant. However, a master's degree in computational finance or financial engineering can also be the ticket to a career as a quantitative analyst.

Success in quantitative analysis is largely based on knowledge, talent, merit, and dedication instead of the ability to sell, network, or play politics. The quants who work in the field are there because they can do the job well—an environment that many find remarkably refreshing—and they are justly rewarded for their work.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Financial Analysts ."

Glassdoor. " Quantitative Analyst Salaries ."

Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Financial Analysts: Pay ."

Glassdoor. " How Much Does a Junior Quantitative Analyst Make? "

Glassdoor. " How Much Does a Quantitative Analyst Make? "

Bureau of Labor Statistics. " Financial Analysts: How to Become One ."

Certificate in Quantitative Finance. " Who Is It For? "

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How to Become a Market Research Analyst

By Alyciah Beavers

Published: March 19, 2024

In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, organizations strive to make informed decisions that will propel them toward success, and this is where a market research analyst role is crucial. The career suits anyone who wants to become a master of data, a sleuth of consumer behavior, and a guardian of market insights. Read on to understand what is a market research analyst and if this career might be the right choice for you.

Career Summary

Market research analyst salary.

Here is a general trajectory of market research analyst salary, according to Glassdoor.com :

• Entry Salary (US$56k)
• Median Salary (US$71k)
• Executive Salary (US$100k)

To put this into perspective, the annual average wage for all occupations in the US is $61,900 . This means that, based on your level, you can make some excellent cash as a market research analyst.

Market Research Analyst Job Description

So, what does a market research analyst do? A market research analyst collects, analyzes, and interprets data to provide insights and recommendations on market trends and consumer behavior to a business . Their main objective is to help businesses make informed decisions regarding their products, services, and marketing strategies. Additionally, a market research analyst conducts market analysis and assists companies in understanding the products people want and how to price them.

Market Research Analyst Career Progression

• Entry-Level Analyst: It is the starting point for most market research analysts. At this stage, your roles involve assisting more senior analysts in conducting research, collecting data, and analyzing market trends. Your role also entails preparing reports and presentations.
• Research Analyst: You have more independence and take on greater responsibility for designing research methodologies, managing data collection, and conducting analysis.
• Senior Analyst: You have a deeper understanding of market research methodologies, advanced analytical techniques, and industry-specific knowledge.
• Supervisor: Here, your role involves overseeing multiple research projects, managing a team of analysts, and contributing to high-level decision-making. You are responsible for resource allocation, project planning, and client management.
• Head of Market Research: You are responsible for shaping the overall research strategy, guiding the research team, and collaborating with senior executives to align research efforts with business goals. You are also involved in budgeting, business development, and fostering relationships with clients and stakeholders.

• It simulates intellectual intelligence, where you develop your critical and problem-solving skills.
• It gives you the proper industry exposure since you work with clients from diverse industries.
• The career offers continuous learning opportunities since market research is a rapidly evolving field.
• As a marketing analyst, you can comfortably tackle complex business problems.
• It offers a collaborative environment where you work as a team with other people, such as marketing professionals, statisticians, data scientists, and business executives.
• Some tasks are monotonous as they involve collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, which can sometimes be tedious.
• Market research often operates on tight deadlines, requiring analysts to work under pressure to meet project timelines.
• At times there is limited creativity, whereby some analysts may feel constrained when developing innovative solutions or exploring unconventional approaches.
• The industry is competitive, so analysts need to stay updated constantly on the trends and consumer behaviors.
• There is a lot of data overload, which is overwhelming and challenging to navigate.

Useful Skills to Have As a Market Research Analyst

As a market research analyst, several useful skills can enhance your abilities and contribute to your success in the field, including:

• Research and Analytical Skills
• Data Interpretation and Statistical Analysis
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Strong Communication Skills
• Problem-Solving Abilities
• Technological Proficiency

Popular Market Research Analyst Specialties

Market research analysts specialize in various areas depending on the industry and the specific needs of their clients or employers.

There are some popular specialties within the field of market research analysis:

• Consumer Behavior
• Market Segmentation
• Competitive Analysis
• Brand Research
• Product Development
• Market Trend Analysis

How to become a Market Research Analyst

The right way to become a market research analyst is through education, relevant work experience, and specific skills. While the exact path can vary depending on individual circumstances, here are some common steps to help you pursue a career in market research analysis.

Obtain a Degree in a Relevant Field

Do i need a degree to become a market research analyst.

While having a degree is not always a strict requirement to become a market research analyst, it can significantly enhance your prospects and competitiveness in the job market. Many employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree, particularly in fields such as market research, business administration, statistics, economics, or social sciences .

Why Is It Important to Get A Degree In Market Research or a Related Field?

While it’s not always a strict requirement, obtaining a degree offers numerous advantages. A relevant degree equips you with the foundational knowledge and analytical skills necessary for market research analysis, as well as the skills to analyze complex data sets, use statistical tools and software, and derive meaningful conclusions.

A degree program can provide a comprehensive understanding of research methodologies, statistical analysis, consumer behavior, data interpretation, and marketing principles. These skills are essential for conducting adequate market research and making informed decisions based on the collected data.

Furthermore, some employers may specifically request a degree or prefer candidates with higher qualifications for specific positions or in highly competitive job markets.

Additionally, having a degree can serve as evidence of your commitment, discipline, and ability to acquire and apply knowledge, which can be valuable to potential employers.

How Long Does It Take To Get A Degree?

The duration of a degree program in market research analysis can vary depending on several factors, including the degree level and the educational institution’s structure:

• Associate’s Degree: An associate’s degree generally takes around two years to complete . This program provides a foundational understanding of market research principles and techniques.
• Bachelor’s Degree: A bachelor’s degree typically requires four years of full-time study . Students delve deeper into market research methodologies, data analysis, and related business courses during this program.
• Master’s Degree: Pursuing a master’s degree in market research takes two years beyond the bachelor’s degree . This program focuses on advanced research techniques, data analysis, consumer behavior, and marketing strategy.
• Doctoral Degree: A Ph.D. or doctoral degree in market research analysis can take an additional four to six years of study beyond the master’s degree . The programs emphasize research, theory development, and advanced methodologies. These degrees are more suited for individuals interested in academic or research-oriented careers.

How Much Does It Cost to Study Market Research Analysis at University?

The cost of studying market research analysis at a university can vary widely depending on factors such as the country, the specific university, the level of study, undergraduate or postgraduate. Additionally, tuition fees can change over time, so it’s essential to check with the specific university or college for the most accurate and up-to-date information. Here is a breakdown as of 2022:

• Undergraduate marketing research program tuition for an in-state student is US$12,020, while an out-of-state student pays US$28,345.
• A graduate market research in-state student pays US$13,864, while an out-of-state student pays US$24,560.

Can I become a Market Research Analyst Through Online Education?

Yes, online education makes it possible to become a market research analyst . The web offers numerous resources and programs in multiple fields, including market research, with flexible learning hours.

Look for accredited online courses, certificate programs , or degree programs in market research, marketing, business, statistics, or related fields. Ensure that the program you choose is from a reputable institution.

Gain Practical Experience

Practical experience complements theoretical knowledge and helps you demonstrate your skills and abilities to potential employers. Seeking opportunities to apply your knowledge and skills in realistic settings and continuously striving to expand your expertise through hands-on experience in market research is the only way to go. Some ways involve volunteering and interning in different corporations to gain hands-on experience.

What are Internship Opportunities for A Market Research Analyst?

As a market research analyst, several internship opportunities are available to gain practical experience and develop your skills.

Here are some potential avenues to explore:

• Market Research Firms: Many market research companies offer internship programs tailored explicitly for aspiring analysts. These firms research for various clients and industries, exposing interns to multiple projects and methodologies.
• Corporate Internships: Numerous companies, especially larger ones, have in-house market research departments. These organizations often offer internships to support their research activities, allowing you to work directly with their marketing teams and gain industry-specific insights.
• Advertising and Marketing Agencies: Advertising and marketing agencies frequently require market research to inform their strategies and campaigns. Interning with such agencies can expose you to diverse projects and clients, enhancing your understanding of how research drives marketing decisions.
• Technology Companies: Tech companies, particularly those involved in data analytics and consumer insights, often offer internships for market research analysts. These opportunities can provide exposure to innovative tools, techniques, and datasets, allowing you to develop skills in the intersection of technology and market research.
• Consulting Firms: Consulting firms may have market research divisions or projects to which interns can contribute. These firms work with clients to provide strategic advice; market research is critical to their decision-making processes.
• Government Agencies: Government agencies often conduct market research to inform policy decisions, public campaigns, and program evaluations. Interning with a government agency can provide insights into the unique challenges and considerations of conducting research within the public sector.

To find internship opportunities , consider exploring online job boards, company websites, and professional networking platforms and contacting your university’s career services department. Networking with professionals in the field, attending industry events, and joining relevant market research associations or groups can also help you discover internship opportunities.

What Skills Will I Learn As A Market Research Analyst?

As a market research analyst, you will develop various skills to effectively gather, analyze, and interpret data to support business decision-making.

Here are some essential skills you can expect to learn and enhance in this role:

• Research Design: You will learn how to design research studies and formulate appropriate research questions and objectives.
• Data Collection: You will acquire skills in collecting data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observational studies. This includes developing questionnaires, conducting interviews, and managing data collection processes.
• Data Analysis: You will gain proficiency in analyzing data using statistical techniques, data visualization tools, and software packages like Excel, SPSS , or R . This involves interpreting quantitative and qualitative data, identifying patterns and trends, and drawing meaningful insights.
• Market Analysis: You will learn to assess market trends, customer behavior, and competitive landscapes. This includes conducting competitor analyses, market segmentation, and identifying target markets.
• Report Writing: You will develop strong written communication skills to effectively communicate research findings and insights through reports, presentations, and visualizations. This involves summarizing complex data into clear and actionable recommendations.
• Critical Thinking: You will enhance your ability to think critically and analytically, evaluate research methodologies, assess data quality, and identify potential biases or limitations in research findings.
• Problem-Solving: As a market research analyst, you will learn to identify business problems, formulate research objectives, and develop strategic solutions based on data-driven insights.
• Collaboration: You will develop teamwork and collaboration skills, as market research often involves working with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and clients to understand their needs and deliver actionable results.
• Technology and Tools: You will become proficient in utilizing market research tools, software, and technologies to enhance data collection, analysis, and reporting. This may include data analytics platforms, survey software, CRM systems , and visualization tools.
• Industry Knowledge: You will gain deep knowledge and understanding of the industry or market you are researching, including key trends, regulations, and emerging opportunities.

What are Some Web Resources to Learn Skills to Become a Market Research Analyst?

Several web resources can help you acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.

Here are some useful platforms and websites you can explore:

• MarketResearch.com : This website offers various market research reports and articles covering multiple industries. It can help you understand different research methodologies, industry trends, and analysis techniques.
• GreenBook : GreenBook provides a platform for market research professionals and offers industry news, reports, webinars, and online resources. It covers topics such as research techniques, data analysis, and emerging trends in the field.
• American Marketing Association (AMA) : The AMA website provides valuable resources and tools for marketers, including market research-related content. It offers articles, white papers, webinars, and events that enhance your understanding of market research concepts and practices.
• Research Association (ESOMAR) : ESOMAR is a global association for market, opinion, and social research professionals. Their website offers a comprehensive library of resources, including industry reports, webinars, and guidelines for conducting market research.
• Quirks : Quirks is a website that offers market research articles, case studies, and industry news. It covers various topics like survey design, data analysis, and emerging methodologies. They also have a directory of market research vendors and services.
• Research World : Research World is an online publication covering recent trends and developments in the market research industry. It provides articles, case studies, and insights from industry experts, which can be valuable for learning and staying updated.

Obtain Certifications

Consider pursuing additional certifications or courses in market research, data analysis, or relevant areas to enhance your knowledge and marketability.  While there is no single universal certification for market research analysts, several reputable organizations offer certifications that can enhance your credentials.

Some popular certifications include:  

• Certified Market Research Professional (CMRP) : This is a widely recognized certification that demonstrates a market research analyst’s expertise in research methodologies, ethics, and data analysis. It signifies a commitment to high professional standards and best practices in the field. Earning the CMRP can enhance your credibility, increase your chances of landing job opportunities, and potentially lead to higher earning potential.
• Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) : The PRC certification validates a market researcher’s knowledge, skills, and ethical practices. It covers a broad range of market research topics, including research design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Holding the PRC designation demonstrates your commitment to professional excellence and adherence to industry standards.
• Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) : While not specific to market research, the GAIQ certification is highly relevant for market research analysts who deal with website data and analytics. It showcases proficiency in using Google Analytics, a widely used tool for analyzing website traffic and user behavior. GAIQ certification can be valuable in demonstrating your ability to interpret web data, track consumer interactions, and optimize online marketing strategies.

It’s important to note that, to take the exam and become certified, you must meet eligibility requirements. Some might require a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as marketing, business, or statistics and a specific number of years of experience working in market research or a related area.

What’s the Career Outlook for Market Research Analysts?

As of 2021, the career outlook for market research analysts is generally positive, and the field will continue to experience steady growth. Researchers estimate that there will be a 19% growth from 2021 to 2031, which is way faster than any other occupation.

However, please note that economic and industry trends can change over time, so it’s always a good idea to consult up-to-date sources and labor market data for the most accurate information.

Some of the factors contributing to the positive career outlook for market research analysts include:

• Increasing Demand: With the rise of technology and data-driven decision-making, there is a growing need for skilled professionals who can interpret and analyze market data. Businesses across various industries rely on market research to gain a competitive edge, expand their customer base, and identify new market opportunities.
• Globalization and International Markets: As companies expand their operations globally, understanding diverse markets and consumer behaviors becomes crucial. Market research analysts with expertise in international markets and cultural nuances can offer valuable insights and are in high demand.
• Emphasis on Data-Driven Decision-Making: Organizations increasingly rely on data to drive their strategies in today’s data-driven business landscape. Companies seek market research analysts who can effectively collect, analyze, and interpret data using advanced analytical tools and techniques.
• Technological Advancements: Advancements in technology, such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, are revolutionizing the field of market research. Professionals who can adapt to these technological changes and utilize them to extract actionable insights will likely have strong career prospects.

What Are The Job Opportunities Of A Market Research Analyst?

Market research analysts have a wide range of job opportunities across various industries. Their primary responsibility is to gather and analyze data to help organizations make informed business decisions.

Luckily, there are many other job opportunities within the field of market research analysis that a market research analyst can do:

• Market Research Analyst: This is the primary role of a market research analyst where they collect and analyze data to identify market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive landscape. They design surveys, conduct interviews, and use statistical techniques to interpret the data and generate actionable insights for decision-making.
• Market Intelligence Specialist: In this role, you would focus on gathering and analyzing data related to the industry, competitors, and market conditions. You would monitor market trends, track competitor activities, and provide strategic recommendations to support business development, product positioning, and market entry strategies.
• Consumer Insights Analyst: As a consumer insights analyst, you would delve into understanding consumer behavior, preferences, and attitudes. You would employ various research methods such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather data and then analyze it to uncover consumer insights. These insights help companies develop effective marketing strategies and refine product offerings.
• Data Analyst : Data analysis is an essential aspect of market research, and as a data analyst, you would specialize in processing, organizing, and interpreting large datasets. You would use statistical techniques, data mining, and visualization tools to extract meaningful patterns and trends. Your findings would assist in making informed business decisions and optimizing marketing campaigns.
• Market Research Consultant: In a consulting role, you would work with clients from different industries to provide expert market research guidance. You would conduct comprehensive market studies, assess competitive landscapes, and deliver strategic recommendations based on your analysis. Consultants often work on a project basis and collaborate closely with clients to address specific business challenges.
• Brand Strategist: Brand strategists combine market research insights with creative thinking to develop and implement effective branding strategies. You would analyze consumer perceptions, market positioning, and competitive landscape to define brand identities, messaging, and marketing campaigns that resonate with target audiences.

What Type Of Companies Hire A Market Research Analyst?

Market research analysts are in demand across various industries and sectors.

Some of the companies that hire market research analysts include:

• Market Research Firms: These specialized firms conduct market research for clients across different industries.
• Consumer Goods Companies: Companies that produce and sell consumer goods often employ market research analysts to gather insights on consumer preferences, market trends, and product performance.
• Technology Companies: Technology companies, especially those involved in software development, electronics, and telecommunications, rely on market research analysts to understand customer needs, evaluate competition, and assess market potential.
• Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Companies: These companies require market research analysts to study patient demographics, evaluate the efficacy of drugs, analyze healthcare trends, and assess market opportunities.
• Financial Institutions: Banks, insurance companies, and investment firms hire market research analysts to analyze market trends, identify investment opportunities, and assess customer preferences.
• Advertising and Marketing Agencies: Agencies that offer advertising, branding, and marketing services often have market research analysts on their teams to provide insights for developing effective strategies and campaigns.
• Retail Companies: Retailers employ market research analysts to understand consumer behavior, analyze purchasing patterns, and identify market opportunities.
• Media and Entertainment Companies: Media companies, including television networks, film studios, and streaming platforms, use market research analysts to understand audience preferences, gauge viewership, and identify potential content opportunities.

What Is The Work-Life Balance Of A Market Research Analyst?

A market research analyst’s work-life balance can vary depending on company culture , industry, workload, and personal preferences. Generally, market research analysts strive to maintain a balanced lifestyle, but the actual balance achieved can differ from person to person.

The working hours of market research analysts involve standard office hours, 9 am to 5 pm, or similar. However, there may be times when they need to perform additional hours to meet project deadlines or during busy periods. Therefore, this affects how these individuals maintain their work and social life.

However, there is also a lot of flexibility in this job. Depending on the company and specific job requirements, market research analysts may have some flexibility in their work arrangements. This could include options for remote work , flexible schedules, or compressed work weeks. Flexibility can contribute positively to achieving a better work-life balance.

The workload varies based on the organization’s demands and the projects involved at different quarters of the year. There may be periods with high-intensity work where you should meet the deadlines, which could affect your work-life balance. However, there may also be quieter periods with a more manageable workload. Balancing workload, managing deadlines, and effectively communicating with stakeholders can help alleviate stress and improve work-life balance.

Personal factors such as individual preferences, commitments, and priorities significantly affect work-life balance. Some market research analysts may prioritize their personal lives, hobbies, or family time more, while others may focus more on their careers. Individuals must assess and prioritize their needs to achieve the desired work-life balance.

Ultimately, achieving a good work-life balance as a market research analyst involves finding a suitable position with a supportive company culture, managing workload and stress effectively, and establishing personal boundaries to ensure time for personal life outside of work.

Should I become a Market Research Analyst?

If you have a passion for market research, understanding market trends, and delving into the factors that influence consumers’ life decisions, this is the perfect career for you. It’s important to make an informed decision based on your interests, skills, and long-term goals. Notably, there will be over 99,800 job openings for market research analysts each year for the next decade leading to this job increase. Therefore, if you’re looking to invest in a promising career for the future, this is the ideal path to pursue.

Careers Related to Market Research Analyst

• Business Analyst
• Data Analyst
• Marketing Manager
• Product Manager
• Sales Manager

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Market research analyst: responsibilities and skills

Jul 20th, 2023

What is a market research analyst?

Market research analyst responsibilities, market research analyst skills and background, how to find the right market research analyst.

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Modern businesses use data and statistics to inform pricing decisions, determine target demographics and personalize consumer experiences. Companies perform in-depth studies to examine potential sales of products and services, stay ahead of the competition, and monitor changing market conditions and customer preferences.

Turning the gathered data into useful recommendations requires a certain set of skills in various fields, including data science, marketing, business administration, and psychology. Therefore, businesses need a specific person with these skills who will be responsible for conducting research and interpreting the results. This role is assigned to a market research analyst.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , market research analyst employment is predicted to increase by 19% between 2021 and 2031, much higher than the average for all professions. As a result, over the next ten years, there are expected to be, on average, 99,800 new jobs for market research specialists. In this article, we will tell about the specifics of this profession, key requirements, duties, and skills that should be listed in the job description.

A market research analyst is a specialist who studies consumer preferences, economic circumstances, and other factors to predict potential sales of a product or service. A professional helps businesses understand customer needs and determine the prices consumers are ready to pay for various competing offers. A specialist also helps companies develop the most effective product marketing strategies to increase potential sales.

A market research analyst monitors and forecasts market, sales, and advertising trends, gathers and examines data on consumers and rivals, and evaluates the performance of marketing initiatives and opportunities. Then a specialist creates reports, tables, and diagrams to turn complex data into actionable insights. Finally, a market research analyst presents these findings to company executives, marketing leaders, and other stakeholders.

A specialist is often involved in a product’s entire life cycle, from the initial stages of research and development to the point of sale and beyond. Market research analysts study sales and market trends to find correlations. It might include identifying the season during which a particular product is in high demand or planning out rivals’ pricing strategies .

Now we will dwell more on a market research analyst’s primary responsibilities, skills, and background. 

Market research analyst responsibilities cover a wide range of tasks that help convert raw data into valuable insights for business. This role typically includes the activities we will list below. 

Collecting quantitative and qualitative data

The daily responsibilities of research analysts include collecting information from internal and external sources, such as accounting and sales systems. Specialists also use secondary research data, such as statistics on the sector released by trade groups, government organizations, and consulting companies, that may help gain an overview of rivals and potential customers.

Market research analysts employ traditional and digital means to collect the data necessary to come to practical conclusions about the products and services they are examining. Traditional data collection methods include focus groups, opinion polls, surveys, and questionnaires, while common digital means for gathering information are keyword research and social media listening.

At the collection stage, data is typically unprocessed. The analyst’s task is to check the accuracy and ensure it conveys crucial information. Moreover, a professional creates and assesses data collection methods. This entails establishing focus groups, developing and conducting polls, and distributing questionnaires to participants.

Analyzing information

Once market research analysts obtain the necessary data, they use statistical, analytical, and mathematical models to uncover relevant information. These procedures usually require the use of computers and specific software. Data analysis enables specialists to divide consumers into more focused, smaller groups that are more likely to react similarly to particular marketing techniques.

The information may reveal problems in the way a business interacts with clients, leading to negative experiences. Research analysts use the collected data to help companies make more informed business decisions that involve product development, sales, and marketing. With data analysis, professionals can identify patterns, evaluate the success of marketing initiatives, and forecast future sales and marketing trends.

Interpreting data

While most of the time, market research analysts study consumer behavior and examine competitors, they also need to take a step back and interpret their findings. The analyst creates a picture of the company's position in the market and designs a course to get from point A to point B while taking into account the client company's broad objectives. They translate statistical and qualitative research results so that company decision-makers can understand them.

Market research analysts interpret the data they gather using sophisticated software and statistical methods. They organize this information into reports and tables to present what they’ve learned and discuss its importance from a business standpoint. Specialists create forecasts, reports, graphs, and other visual aids to convey their findings to the company’s executives and stakeholders. Professionals visually represent market trends and rivals’ activities so businesses can forecast how well their goods and services will perform.

Presenting the findings

Then specialists present the data to the team members involved in product and package design, marketing, and advertising. Reporting implies demonstrating the findings using dashboards, white papers , and presentations. Finally, market research analysts report their results to senior research staff and executives and provide recommendations concerning research and development, product and service updates, advertising campaigns, and other marketing issues.

In addition, a business must maintain market research data for future use. Marketing specialists can use gathered data as a source of precise information for market research. The analyst’s task is to create and keep a market and competitor information database. Moreover, market research analysts often develop strategies and techniques for collecting, storing, and managing data. The other critical aspect of the job is to ensure proper data management, protection, and governance through collaboration with data security professionals.

Collaborating with other team members

Finally, market research analysts measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. They work with sales representatives, customer service, and other sales support departments to determine how the suggested changes have affected purchases, comments, reviews, and other post-sale contacts with target customers.

In addition to these activities, specialists help implement analytics tools, a critical component in developing the business analytics sector. The usual step in this tool selection process is identifying the technologies that best meet the company’s demands. A few well-known tools include Apache Zeppelin , Matomo , and BIRT .

The tasks and responsibilities of research analysts vary across different businesses and industries. Analysts collect valuable information to help companies achieve objectives, from increasing performance to reducing costs using data-driven mathematical models.

This job requires a mix of experience and education. Let us discuss the essential skills and experiences the hiring manager should look for in the ideal market analyst candidate. 

Bachelor’s degree in market research

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , a candidate for this position requires a bachelor's degree in market research or communications. A degree provides systematic knowledge that is crucial for the field. However, a candidate for a market research analyst’s role can have a background in business administration, mathematics, statistics, or social sciences, such as sociology or psychology.

A market research analyst should have a thorough grasp of human behavior and psychology to predict how consumers will behave and react to a company’s products and marketing activities. This is because not all business questions can be answered by market research. 

Data analysis and research skills

Data analysis is the core component of this specialist’s job. Therefore, a professional should be familiar with the following four forms of data analysis: descriptive, predictive, diagnostic, and prescriptive data analysis. Moreover, a specialist should possess an excellent knowledge of statistical tools, such as SPSS , R , MATLAB , and Minitab .

The other crucial skill for a market researcher is called coding . It is the method of classifying open-ended survey responses to simplify data analysis. Research can address several areas, such as consumer research, including primary and secondary , examining present and potential markets, studying rival products, and evaluating your target market's perceptions of advertising throughout the marketing campaign.

Experience in conducting surveys and interviews

Although market research analysts often deal with data that companies already have, in some cases, they should collect new information. Thus, they must be proficient in several data collection methods . Analysts should have excellent interview skills, know how to create surveys and manage collected data. In addition, professionals should know how to use social media platforms to conduct surveys, identify target markets and connect with a larger audience.

Perfect communication skills

Discovering business insights to improve marketing and sales strategies is one of the main goals of market research. However, in a corporate setting, data isn't always sufficient. Therefore, a market research analyst requires perfect communication skills to present findings to designers, sales, and marketing teams. Additionally, they communicate with senior stakeholders and members of top management. Therefore being able to explain complicated ideas and concepts to a broad audience is useful to them. 

Data visualization skills

Besides communication skills, a market research analyst should be able to produce data visualizations. These are visual depictions of datasets that emphasize important patterns or conclusions from the data. A specialist should be familiar with data visualization programs like QlikView and Tableau that help organize and communicate information to non-experts. They enable stakeholders with little or no experience in data analysis to understand the job carried out by market research analysts.

In the following section of this article, we will describe the steps you need to take to find the ideal candidate for this role.

After learning about a market research analyst’s responsibilities, skills, and background, it is time to focus on hiring the best specialist for this position.

Step 1. Create a compelling job description

Although a specialist’s responsibilities typically vary depending on the company, a general outline should include: keeping track of and predicting sales trends, evaluating the success of marketing initiatives and sales tactics, coordinating with the marketing and sales teams to establish promotional goals, creating and distributing surveys and opinion polls. Besides, a professional’s day-to-day duties should also include analyzing the findings of various polls and surveys, researching rivals and assessing the effectiveness of their tactics, and evaluating consumer preferences.

We have already described the list of necessary skills but do not underestimate the value of soft skills for your market research analyst. These are organizational and time management, leadership, empathy, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.

Step 2. Pay attention to relevant education

When considering CVs and interviewing candidates, look for a bachelor’s degree in marketing or statistics and two or three years of experience. Nevertheless, a master's degree may be necessary for senior-level positions.

If a candidate has a recognized marketing analyst certificate, it is a beneficial advantage. For example, The Certified Market Research Analysis title is given by IIMRA to specialists who have completed at least three years of study in a marketing degree program. However, we advise you to employ experienced marketing analysts even if they don't have formal degrees or certifications. They can prove their proficiency in the position through a skills exam or provide testimonials or references from a previous employer.

Step 3. Consider relevant experience and skills

Ask a potential candidate about their experience conducting primary research for your specific industry or with the same target audience that will participate in the market research for your business. Focus on the work they have completed during the last two years.

Then describe a problem your company is trying to solve and ask what approaches they might suggest. A candidate can tell about a comparable study that used the same method to achieve the same goal. 

Step 4. Keep in mind your business goals

It is crucial to find the right candidate who will tailor the activities to address specific research questions for your company and help you achieve the objectives. To get the best results, choose someone who can work with your research question and your budget to identify the finest methodology.

We hope you found our advice on hiring the right market research analyst practical, as it can be challenging unless you have extensive expertise in the position. Once you find the best candidate, you will be able to improve your communication with customers, develop more effective data-driven marketing strategies , spot new trends, and identify growth opportunities.

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In today's competitive global economy, market research is an essential tool. It's what helps entrepreneurs refine their startup ideas to have the best odds of success. And it's also what established businesses use to explore the viability of new products and services. In short, modern businesses rarely make a move without doing market research first.

That makes the skills of market research analysts quite valuable in today's job market. But learning how to be a market research analyst isn't as straightforward as you might think. And that's because it's a discipline that's part science and part art form – meaning you'll need to develop a diverse skill set to be good at the job.

Here are the essential skills of a market research analyst.

Data Analysis Skills

At its heart, market research involves the collection of large amounts of data , which you then mine for useful insights about a given line of business or industry. And that means that data analysis is the most important part of the job of a market research analyst.

Specifically, market research analysts must understand four specific data analysis types, which are:

Descriptive Data Analysis – Techniques to organize and categorize historical data to identify existing trends. This is often used to quantify the results of past business practices in raw terms (like the number of sales, products manufactured, site visits, etc.).

Diagnostic Data Analysis – Techniques to compare data sets that help identify causal relationships. For example, if a descriptive analysis revealed increasing sales over a given period, a diagnostic analysis would seek the reason for the change (such as a marketing campaign, a price change, or an external trend).

Predictive Data Analysis – Techniques that use existing data to forecast future trends and outcomes. This often involves complex mathematical models and the application of machine learning algorithms to extract meaningful predictions from available data sets.

Prescriptive Data Analysis – A more advanced form of predictive analysis, prescriptive analysis attempts to forecast potential outcomes that result from hypothetical changes to business practices. An existing business might use this to determine if ending production of a particular product might have unintended consequences, or if the launch of a new product might make others redundant.

Data Collection Skills

Even though market research analysts often work with data that businesses already have on hand, they're frequently called upon to collect new data, as well. And that means they need to be skilled in a variety of data collection techniques, too. These include:

Interpersonal and Interview Skills – Market research analysts often use focus groups and customer interviews to collect specific data to use in their work. But getting usable data means having a high level of interpersonal skills and interview skills . This is critical to extract usable information that's free of potential biases.

Survey Creation – Market research analysts must know how to create scientifically valid surveys to focus in on the information they're hoping to gather. They also have to be familiar with using form builder software to create and publish digital versions of the surveys they create.

Data Curation – This refers to the skills needed to manage collected data and distill it down to what's useful for market research purposes. In other words, it means knowing how to eliminate irrelevant data and prepare what's left for the process of market research.

Communication Skills

One of the major purposes of market research is to uncover business insights that inform strategy. But data alone isn't always enough in a business context. And that's why a market research analyst needs strong communication skills , too. This allows them to communicate the significance of their findings to stakeholders, who may then use them in their decision-making processes. Without those skills, they'd be unable to function effectively within a business's hierarchy.

Data Visualization Skills

In addition to communication skills, market research analysts must understand how to create compelling data visualizations that aid in communicating their findings to others. Data visualizations are graphic representations of datasets, aimed at highlighting relevant trends or takeaways from the data. They make it possible for stakeholders without a background in data analysis to see and understand the work that a market research analyst does.

Knowledge of Human Behavior and Psychology

Since the role of a market research analyst is to understand how consumers will act and react to products, services, and business strategies, they need a deep understanding of human behavior and psychology. This is because market research doesn't always yield clear answers to every business question. And that's where the role of a market research analyst comes much closer to being an art form than a science.

Market research analysts have to use their knowledge of psychology to design appropriate investigations that will yield useful insight. This means they need a sharp sense of intuition and insight into consumer behavior. Otherwise, there would be no way to narrow down possible areas of inquiry. The knowledge provides valuable context and allows the market researcher to make baseline assumptions that guide their work.

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The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, the role of a market research analyst revolves around data. And that's what makes data analysis skills so crucial to the job. But unlike the role of a data scientist , a market research analyst must also know how to collect useful data through field research and direct consumer contact. They also have to understand the mind of the consumer. In other words, they must know their subjects as more than just raw numbers and data points.

All these skills allow market research analysts to provide the valuable insights that modern businesses now depend on. They reduce the number of costly errors that businesses make when they approach decisions without the appropriate information. And they deliver better and more relevant products and experiences to consumers. That said, it should be no wonder that market research analysts are so in demand in today's job market. And now you know exactly what skills to develop if you want to be one of them.

About the Author

Philip Piletic closely follows the impact of technology on education, and its evolution from traditional to modern methods that include e-learning, courses, gamification, and others. He has also helped the Sydney-based IT & Business school in developing their IT courses.

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See also: Stakeholder Analysis Essential Skills to Become a Successful Outreach Specialist 7 Must-Have Skills of a Great Prospect Researcher

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Market Research Analyst

Market research analysts study consumer preferences, business conditions, and other factors to assess potential sales of a product or service. They help companies understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price.

Market research analysts typically do the following:

• Monitor and forecast marketing and sales trends
• Measure the effectiveness of marketing programs and strategies
• Devise and evaluate methods for collecting data, such as surveys, questionnaires, and opinion polls
• Gather data on consumers, competitors, and market conditions
• Analyze data using statistical software
• Convert data and findings into tables, graphs, and written reports
• Prepare reports and present results to clients and management

Market research analysts gather data and study other information to help a company promote its products or services. They gather data on consumer buying habits, demographics, needs, and preferences. They collect data and information using a variety of methods, such as focus groups, interviews, literature reviews, market analysis surveys, public opinion polls, and questionnaires.

Analysts help determine a company’s position in the marketplace by researching their competitors and studying their marketing methods, prices, and sales. Using this information, analysts may determine potential markets, product demand, and pricing. Their knowledge of the targeted consumer enables analysts to develop advertising brochures and commercials, product promotions, and sales plans.

Market research analysts evaluate data using statistical techniques and software. They must interpret what the data mean for their client, and they may forecast future trends. They often make charts, graphs, infographics, and other visual aids to present the results of their research.

Workers who design and conduct surveys that market research analysts use are survey researchers.

Market research analysts held about 792,500 jobs in 2021. The largest employers of market research analysts were as follows:

Because most industries use market research, these analysts are employed throughout the economy.

Market research analysts work individually or as part of a team, collecting, analyzing, and presenting data. For example, some analysts work with graphic designers and artists to create charts, graphs, and infographics summarizing their research and findings.

Work Schedules

Most market research analysts work full time during regular business hours.

Market research analysts typically need a bachelor’s degree. Some employers require or prefer that job candidates have a master’s degree. Strong research and analytical skills are essential.

Market research analysts typically need a bachelor's degree in market research or a related business, communications, or social science field.

Courses in statistics, research methods, and marketing are important for prospective analysts. Courses in communications and social sciences, such as economics or consumer behavior, are also helpful.

Some employers of market research analysts require or prefer a master’s degree. Several schools offer graduate programs in marketing research, but analysts may choose to complete a bachelor’s degree in another field, such as statistics and marketing, and earn a master’s degree in business administration (MBA). A master’s degree is often required for leadership positions or positions that perform more technical research.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

Analysts may pursue certification, which is voluntary, to demonstrate a level of professional competency. The  Insights Association  offers several certifications for market research analysts, including the IPC Principal and the IPC Masters. Candidates qualify based on industry experience and passing an exam.

Other Experience

Completing an internship while in school may be helpful. Prospective analysts also may gain experience by volunteering for an organization and helping with market research or related projects.

Employers may prefer to hire candidates who have experience in other positions that require collecting and analyzing data or writing reports to summarize research. 

Market research analysts typically have an interest in the Thinking, Persuading and Organizing interest areas, according to the Holland Code framework. The Thinking interest area indicates a focus on researching, investigating, and increasing the understanding of natural laws. The Persuading interest area indicates a focus on influencing, motivating, and selling to other people. The Organizing interest area indicates a focus on working with information and processes to keep things arranged in orderly systems.

If you are not sure whether you have a Thinking or Persuading or Organizing interest which might fit with a career as a market research analyst, you can take a career test to measure your interests.

Market research analysts should also possess the following specific qualities:

Analytical skills. Market research analysts must be able to understand large amounts of data and information. 

Communication skills. Market research analysts need strong communication skills when gathering information, interpreting data, and presenting results to clients. 

Critical-thinking skills. Market research analysts must assess all available information to determine what marketing strategy would work best for a company.

Detail oriented. Market research analysts must be detail oriented because they often do precise data analysis.

The median annual wage for market research analysts was $63,920 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $37,570, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $128,320.

In May 2021, the median annual wages for market research analysts in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Employment of market research analysts is projected to grow 19 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations.

About 99,800 openings for market research analysts are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. 

Employment growth will be driven by an increasing use of data and market research across many industries. These workers will be needed to help understand the needs and wants of customers, measure the effectiveness of marketing and business strategies, and identify the factors affecting product demand.

The increase in the collection and analyses of big data—extremely large sets of information, such as social media comments or online product reviews—can provide insight on consumer behaviors and preferences. Businesses will need market research analysts to conduct analyses of the data and information.

For more information about market research analysts, visit

Insights Association

For resources and information about qualitative research, visit

Qualitative Research Consultants Association  (QRCA)

Where does this information come from?

The career information above is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook . This excellent resource for occupational data is published by the U.S. Department of Labor every two years. Truity periodically updates our site with information from the BLS database.

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What Does a Market Research Analyst Do?

Understanding the Numbers When reviewing job growth and salary information, it’s important to remember that actual numbers can vary due to many different factors — like years of experience in the role, industry of employment, geographic location, worker skill and economic conditions. Cited projections do not guarantee actual salary or job growth.

Big data is big business.

That's why there's a need for employees who can work with data. And there are plenty of job titles in the workforce for people who take on this work. One of them? Market research analysts.

So who are these people?

White teaches at the graduate level at SNHU, guiding students through Advanced Marketing Research and Analytics as well as their capstone course. Before he made the shift to higher education, he was director of operations — which involved a considerable amount of market needs assessment research — for one of the largest fast-food restaurant chains in the country.

In studying the data, White says, you attempt to uncover customer needs and wants in an attempt to understand the products or services that the target market wants.

What Does a Market Research Analyst Do on a Daily Basis? 

"The market research analyst is responsible for monitoring and forecasting various trends in order to gauge the effectiveness of marketing campaigns," said Dr. Lester Wills , an SNHU adjunct instructor.

Wills previously managed the marketing divisions of several multinational corporations in Australia, where he and his teams conducted market research as an integral part of marketing programs. He also has led several research programs and headed up a task force for the main financial services industry body in Australia. Today, Wills teaches several graduate-level marketing courses at SNHU, including Market Research, Advanced Market Research and Analytics, and Ethical and Legal Issues in Marketing. 

So what exactly can you expect in an analyst role?

The median market research analyst salary in May 2022 was $68,230 , according to the BLS: That's 47% more than the median wages for all workers across the U.S.*

(It's good to note that the BLS states that the highest 10% received more than $131,850 as a median salary in 2022 — earning 6 figures is possible in this field.)*

And 3 industries each had median salaries above the median for all market research analysts, according to the BLS:

• Management of companies and enterprises*
• Information*
• Finance and insurance*

What Qualifications Do You Need to Be a Market Analyst?

There's one question that you might have when considering the career: "Do market research analysts use math?" 

Great news if you're not a fan:

"Good math skills are certainly helpful, because the market research analyst is heavily involved in statistical analysis of data," White said. "However, today’s modern statistical software performs all of the mathematical calculations for you."

Wills agreed.

"Given there are both quantitative and qualitative aspects  to the role, a mix of skills is essential," he said. "You do not need to be good at math to be able to conduct qualitative research. However, some basic math skills are required for the quantitative research."

If a number of skills are needed to analyze market research, what should you study? 

Fortunately, there are a number of college degree programs that can help you achieve your goal. Between White and Wills, their suggestions for bachelor's degrees  and focused courses include:

• Business Administration

An undergraduate degree can help you get the job, though you'll want to note that some employers may require a master's degree, Wills said.

Plus, BLS states that market research analysts are in demand — so when you graduate, you could see more openings here than in a number of other fields.*

According to the BLS, over 115,000 new jobs are projected to be added to the workforce through 2032.* (That's a 13% increase in roles, over 4 times the average growth rate for all occupations!)*

White confirms that analysts are sought-after roles: "Companies continue to need knowledge regarding customer behavior in order to gain or maintain their competitive advantage in the marketplace," he said.

Find Your Program

What is the difference between market research and market analysis.

In your job search, you may see "market research" and "market analysis" as separate functions. And that's because they are.

"Market research primarily focuses on data directly from the market and customers," Wills said. "It looks to utilize consumer behavior and economic trends to confirm business ideas. It is focused on primary research."

It can work hand in hand with the analysis tasks.

"Market analysis is a form of secondary research and tends to be focused on a particular sector or niche in the market to try and answer specific questions," Wills said. "The research can be used to gain an understanding of how particular products and services are likely to perform in a certain environment."

Is a Market Research Analyst a Good Job?

Choosing to become a market research analyst can be an exciting decision — and one that can allow you to have an impact in your company.

"You have the opportunity to interface directly with consumers in the marketplace, collect and analyze data," White said. "And you get to report the results of your data and recommendations to marketing decision-makers within an organization."

Wills shared this view.

"If you love trying to understand consumer behavior and/or predict trends in the market, it can be a great role, since an analyst will help companies make important decisions," he said.

A degree can change your life. Find the SNHU business program  that can best help you meet your goals.

*Cited job growth projections may not reflect local and/or short-term economic or job conditions and do not guarantee actual job growth. Actual salaries and/or earning potential may be the result of a combination of factors including, but not limited to: years of experience, industry of employment, geographic location, and worker skill.

Deidre Ashe was 9 years old when she launched her professional writing career. While spending a day at work with her dad, she penned her first book, illustrated it and sent it off to a publishing company – after finding the address on the copyright page of one of her paperbacks. While the story never made it to the shelves of libraries, the editors wrote back, encouraging her to continue pursuing her writing passion. (Yes, she still has that letter.)

After earning a bachelor’s in journalism, Ashe spent a decade working in the media industry. She then transitioned into marketing, later getting her MA in Communication from Southern New Hampshire University in 2018.

Ashe serves as senior copy director at SNHU. She and her family live in New Hampshire. Connect with Ashe on LinkedIn .

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About southern new hampshire university.

SNHU is a nonprofit, accredited university with a mission to make high-quality education more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Founded in 1932, and online since 1995, we’ve helped countless students reach their goals with flexible, career-focused programs . Our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH is home to over 3,000 students, and we serve over 135,000 students online. Visit our about SNHU  page to learn more about our mission, accreditations, leadership team, national recognitions and awards.

What does a market research analyst do?

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What is a Market Research Analyst?

A market research analyst specializes in studying market conditions to identify potential sales opportunities for a product or service. They collect and analyze data on consumers' preferences, buying habits, and economic trends to help companies make informed decisions about their products and marketing strategies.

Market research analysts employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and statistical analysis, to gather relevant data. By evaluating market trends and consumer behavior, they provide valuable insights to businesses, enabling them to understand their target audience better and anticipate changes in demand. These professionals play an important role in shaping marketing campaigns, product development, and overall business strategies, ensuring that companies stay competitive in the market.

What does a Market Research Analyst do?

Duties and Responsibilities Market research analysts play a vital role in helping companies understand market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive landscapes. Their duties and responsibilities encompass a wide range of tasks aimed at gathering and analyzing data to provide actionable insights for strategic decision-making. Here are the key duties and responsibilities of a market research analyst:

• Data Collection: Market research analysts collect data through various methods such as surveys, interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups. They may also use tools to gather data from social media, online platforms, and public records.
• Data Analysis: Analysts use statistical software and techniques to analyze collected data. They interpret numerical data and transform it into meaningful insights, identifying patterns, trends, and correlations.
• Market Trends Analysis: Analysts study market trends, including consumer preferences, buying behaviors, and economic indicators. They assess the potential demand for products or services, helping businesses anticipate market changes.
• Competitor Analysis: Market research analysts analyze competitors' strategies, products, and market positioning. They identify strengths and weaknesses, providing companies with a competitive advantage by understanding the market landscape.
• Consumer Behavior Research: Analysts delve into consumer motivations, perceptions, and preferences. They evaluate factors influencing purchasing decisions, allowing businesses to tailor their products and marketing strategies to target audiences effectively.
• Report Generation: Analysts prepare detailed reports and presentations summarizing research findings. These reports often include visualizations such as charts and graphs to communicate complex data in a clear and understandable manner.
• Strategic Recommendations: Based on their analyses, market research analysts provide strategic recommendations to businesses. They offer insights on product development, pricing strategies, marketing campaigns, and market entry or expansion plans.
• Client Consultation: In consultancy roles, market research analysts engage with clients to understand their research needs. They design research methodologies, present findings, and offer actionable insights tailored to specific client objectives.
• Industry Analysis: Analysts assess broader industry trends, regulations, and technological advancements. They evaluate how these factors impact the market and provide industry-specific insights to businesses operating within that sector.

Types of Market Research Analysts Market research analysts can specialize in various fields and industries, each requiring unique skills and expertise. Here are some common types of market research analysts based on their areas of specialization:

• Consumer Market Research Analysts: These analysts focus on understanding consumer behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. They conduct surveys, interviews, and observational studies to gather insights into consumers' attitudes toward products and services.
• Product Market Research Analysts: Product-focused analysts research specific products or services to assess market demand, pricing strategies, and potential improvements. They analyze existing products, evaluate competitors, and identify opportunities for product enhancements.
• Advertising and Marketing Research Analysts: Analysts in this category study the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns. They assess consumer responses to advertisements, analyze market trends, and provide recommendations for optimizing marketing strategies.
• Social and Opinion Research Analysts: These analysts focus on public opinion and social issues. They conduct surveys and polls to gather data on public attitudes, political preferences, social behaviors, and cultural trends. Their findings are often used by governments, nonprofits, and advocacy groups.
• Financial Market Research Analysts: Financial analysts specializing in market research assess financial markets, stocks, bonds, commodities, and investment opportunities. They analyze market trends, economic indicators, and company financial statements to provide insights to investors and financial institutions.
• Healthcare Market Research Analysts: Analysts in the healthcare sector study market trends related to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare services, and patient preferences. They analyze healthcare data to assist pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and healthcare providers in making strategic decisions.
• Technology Market Research Analysts: Technology analysts research trends in the technology industry, including software, hardware, and emerging technologies. They assess consumer demand, competitor products, and industry innovations to provide insights for technology companies.
• International Market Research Analysts: Analysts specializing in international markets assess global market trends, cultural differences, and regulatory environments. They provide insights to companies looking to expand their operations internationally, helping them adapt their products and marketing strategies to different regions.
• Environmental Market Research Analysts: These analysts study market trends related to environmental issues, sustainable products, and green technologies. They assess consumer attitudes toward eco-friendly products and help businesses develop environmentally conscious strategies.
• Real Estate Market Research Analysts: Analysts in this field study real estate market trends, property values, and consumer preferences. They analyze data related to housing markets, commercial real estate, and property development to assist real estate agencies, developers, and investors.

Are you suited to be a market research analyst?

Market research analysts have distinct personalities . They tend to be investigative individuals, which means they’re intellectual, introspective, and inquisitive. They are curious, methodical, rational, analytical, and logical. Some of them are also enterprising, meaning they’re adventurous, ambitious, assertive, extroverted, energetic, enthusiastic, confident, and optimistic.

Does this sound like you? Take our free career test to find out if market research analyst is one of your top career matches.

What is the workplace of a Market Research Analyst like?

The workplace of a market research analyst is diverse and can vary based on the industry, the specific focus of research, and the type of organization they work for. Market research analysts are employed in various sectors, including market research firms, advertising agencies, consulting companies, corporate organizations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Here's an overview of what the workplace environment for a market research analyst might entail:

Office Environment: Market research analysts typically spend a significant amount of time in office settings, especially during tasks related to data analysis, report generation, and client consultations. In these environments, they work with computers, utilizing specialized software for data analysis, statistical modeling, and creating visually appealing presentations. Offices are often equipped with the necessary tools and technology to conduct research, such as survey software, databases, and communication systems.

Client Meetings and Consultations: Market research analysts frequently engage with clients to understand their research needs and present findings. These meetings can occur both in the analyst's office and at the client's location. During these consultations, analysts discuss research methodologies, data collection strategies, and the interpretation of results. Effective communication skills are crucial as analysts need to convey complex data and insights in a clear and understandable manner.

Fieldwork and Data Collection: Depending on the nature of the research project, market research analysts might conduct fieldwork to gather primary data. This could involve organizing focus group discussions, conducting surveys, or interviewing respondents. Fieldwork allows analysts to interact directly with consumers or participants, providing valuable qualitative insights that complement quantitative data.

Collaboration and Teamwork: Market research projects often require collaboration among a team of researchers, data analysts, and sometimes specialists from other disciplines. Analysts work closely with colleagues to design research studies, collect and analyze data, and develop comprehensive reports. Teamwork is essential for brainstorming ideas, validating research methodologies, and ensuring the accuracy of findings.

Remote Work and Flexibility: In recent years, the workplace of market research analysts has increasingly embraced remote work options, allowing professionals to work from home or other locations. This flexibility is particularly beneficial during data analysis and report writing stages, where analysts can focus on tasks without the distractions of a busy office environment. Remote work also enables collaboration through virtual meetings and communication tools.

Travel: For market research analysts involved in projects that require on-site data collection or client meetings, travel might be a component of their work. Analysts may need to visit focus group locations, attend industry conferences, or meet with clients in different cities or countries.

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Home / Careers / Market Research Analyst

How to Become a Market Research Analyst: Job Description & Salary

If you enjoy studying people’s behaviors and have a penchant for numbers, a market research analyst might be the job for you. Market research analysts play a role in helping clients learn about their consumers, specifically their wants, preferences, needs and willingness to pay for them. When considering how to become a market research analyst, it’s important to keep up with industry trends, sales trends, consumer opinions and buying habits in order to gauge consumer behavior. Market research analysts are looking for why certain people buy the products they do by collecting and analyzing data.

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Here are five steps to consider for becoming a market research analyst:

Step 1. Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Market Research of Related Field Step 2. Opt into More Essential Courses in Market Research Step 3. Consider Internship Opportunities Step 4. Practice Research Skills and Pursue Certifications Step 5. Consider an Advanced Degree in a Related Field

Steps to Become a Market Research Analyst

If you’re wondering how to become a market research analyst, there are common steps you can take in your educational pathway to achieve this. Strong analytical skills are important in this career field.

Step 1. Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Market Research

The Bureau of Labor Statistics  reports that most market research analyst positions require a bachelor’s degree  in market research, business or communications. Roughly  57% of market research analysts hold a bachelor’s degree , according to O*NET OnLine.

Students who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree can choose their major in market research or a related business, communications, statistics, or a social science field. Others have a background in business administration or social science, such as psychology or sociology. Bachelor’s degrees can also provide systematic knowledge that is fundamental to the field.

Step 2. Opt into More Essential Courses in Market Research

While pursuing the bachelor’s degree, prospective market research analysts can opt in more essential courses if they are not part of core courses required. Courses such asg market research, economics, business administration,  marketing , research methods and  statistics  are important to market research analysts because it equips them with the analytical and technical skills to be able to process different types of data to gauge consumer behaviors. You can also take courses in social sciences, such as psychology or sociology, in order to better understand human thinking and behavior.

Step 3. Consider Internship Opportunities

College internships are a common way to enter the workforce in a field where college alone may not prepare a student for every skill needed for a certain position. Internships may help students to combine their college-taught skills with specific job-based skills and develop a strong aptitude as a market research analyst even before graduation. Sometimes, strong internship candidates are offered full-time positions with employers upon graduation.

Step 4. Practice Research Skills and Pursue Certifications

There are specific skills you can learn to better prepare for a market research analyst position, such as research skills and data analysis. While not mandatory, you can pursue certifications in market research, such as the  Insights Professional Certification (IPC) . This certification focuses on ethics, latest techniques and technologies, and measurement of knowledge and expertise in market research. You can earn it by taking and passing the exam; the certification must be renewed every two years. Aside from the exam, you must have at least three years’ experience working in market research and complete 12 hours of industry-related courses.

To gain more experience in data analytics, you can also complete a  bootcamp in data analytics . Additionally,  online bootcamps in digital marketing  and  UX/UI bootcamps  also cover market research.

Step 5. Consider an Advanced Degree in Related Field

Although a higher degree is not required, approximately 39% of market research analysts hold a master’s degree. Advanced degrees may be required for a leadership role.  Master’s degrees can help specialize your niche within market research depending on what you chose. Having a higher education degree such as a  master’s in business analytics  can help sharpen your proficiency in market research because it can aid data-driven decisions. Students can consider pursuing a degree virtually as well by obtaining an  online master’s in business analytics . Pursuing a higher degree bridges the gap between  big data , statistical methods and predictive tools and the corporate world, economy and financial markets.

What Does a Market Research Analyst Do?

The responsibilities of a market research analyst include preparing reports of findings in an easy-to-understand format, collecting and analyzing data on consumer demographics and identifying areas that affect product demand, reports O*NET. Market research analysts also help develop marketing strategies and find new ways to study the market through surveys or opinion polls.

The daily job duties of a market research analyst could vary greatly depending on the job scope and title. The general job description of market research analysts, according to the BLS, would include studying markets in an effort to provide business direction to increase sales of a product or service. What that actually means, though, is that an analyst may sift through large datasets to find trends.

They may create surveys, distribute them and analyze their data. They may research past sales and marketing metrics of their company or competitor companies in hopes of finding useful data to present to clients and managers.

The research process may take part in a small, very focused area of research that may go through the entire process in a few hours or a day, or it may be a longitudinal process that takes months; it depends on the scope.

Regardless of how an analyst goes about their day, they help contribute valuable information to various business departments that may lead to major organizational decisions.

Important Skills for Market Research Analysts

Market research analysts possess both hard and soft skills, some of which include:

• Analytical skills in collecting and analyzing information extracted from data. This may require statistical skills and high-level math.
• Critical thinking in being able to define a problem and develop a research plan that helps guide decision making based on collected/analyzed data.
• Communication skills in presenting findings from the data and making informed decisions. It’s important to clearly present data findings to clients in writing, visually or orally.
• Detail-oriented in finding solutions and understanding human behavior, since most of the daily work of a market research analyst is very detail-specific.

Market Research vs. Marketing Research

Is there really much of a difference in market research vs. marketing research? Yes. In the simplest of explanations, market research is much more narrow in scope and is even considered a component of marketing research. Market research focuses primarily on where and when the audience will access the product or service.

For example, a clothing company wants to run internet ads for their new sweater. A manager asks someone to research if the company should spend their money targeting iPhone users, Android users or a combination of both. That person may look at sales figures for similar products, build a questionnaire for past customers to see if they use iPhones or Android phones and examine how they shop online. After research is conducted, a decision is made as to which would render a better return on investment, or ROI.

This is an example of a very specific situation where market research was conducted.

Marketing research, however, is very broad. Marketing research includes all of the  four Ps of marketing —product, price, place and promotion—and it includes every component of market research as well.  Marketing research encompasses large chunks of data  covering customers, advertising, products, sales, trends and distribution of entire industries, as well as trends in other industries to decide if any of those could be relatable elsewhere.

As an example: Someone performing marketing research for a clothing company may research clothing sales, distribution channels, price points of sales, demographics, trends in the clothing industry as well as other industries and more. They will then take that data and send it to clients and managers who may make decisions for any number of areas of business.

In short, market research focuses on the “market” part of the term—researching a specific market or component of a market. Marketing research focuses on the “research” part of the term—researching every possible area and extrapolating that data to find areas of improvement, even if they may seem unrelated at first glance.

If you are interested in  becoming a marketing analyst , then explore our guide.

Market Research Analyst Salary and Job Outlook

With the internet, social media, phone and computer applications becoming more prevalent throughout our daily lives, more and more data is being shared and collected. As a result, companies may want to know more about customers by way of their digital footprint. Companies may use digital information about consumers in order to better serve their customers’ needs, especially as more and more commerce is handled online rather than in person. Because of this, the  job outlook and salary for market research analysts  are expected to continue to rise, according to the BLS. Employment of market research analysts is projected to grow 22 percent from 2020 to 2030, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. This includes about 96,000 job openings per year for market research analysts during that time period.

Per the BLS, here is a summary of projected job growth and salary as of January 2022:

Number of jobs (2020): 740,900

Expected Growth (2020-2030): 22%

Median Annual Wage (2021): $63,920

Median Hourly Wage (2020): $30.73

FAQs About Market Research Analysts

When deciding whether or not a market research analyst career is right for you, it’s important to consider how far you can advance in the field, key terminology and the day-to-day tasks.

Market research analysts require strong analytical, critical thinking and communication skills in order to grow in the role. These skills can help market research analysts to better assess and measure consumer buying behavior, as well as conveying those insights to a client or manager. It’s important to gain relevant coursework or experience in business, statistics, math and marketing.

No, a market research analyst is not the same as a marketing analyst. Market research analysts focus on researching a specific market or industry, while marketing analysts emphasize finding areas of improvement. A market research analyst looks at industry trends and decides how they can be relatable in other markets or areas.

Market research analysts benefit from their quantitative sides that research and analyze numbers and data as well as their qualitative aspects such as being attuned to human emotion. Both aid market research analyst decision making, and can make a difference in how to better understand consumer behavior. Market research analysts also have a higher than average projected job growth, creating more future opportunities.

Market research analysts measure the effectiveness of marketing and track industry trends and statistics to measure customer and employee satisfaction. They typically use customer relationship management software, business intelligence and data analysis software as well as analytical software in their daily operations. Their tasks may vary in scope, ranging from long-term projects to a variety of short-term projects.

This page includes information from  O*NET OnLine  by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the  CC BY 4.0  license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

Last updated April 2022

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Thinking of Pursuing a PhD in Economics? Info on Graduate School and Beyond

Kasey Chatterji-Len and Anna Kovner

Becoming a PhD economist can provide a fulfilling and financially secure career path. However, getting started in the field can be daunting if you don’t know much about the preparation you’ll need and the available job opportunities. If you’re wondering what it means to be an economics researcher or how to become one, please read on. We’ll review how to prepare for a career in economics research, what an economics PhD program entails, and what types of opportunities it might bring. Economic education is a core component of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s mission to serve the community. To empower would-be economists, this post provides information for students who seek a career in economics research. We hope this information will be helpful to students interested in economics, regardless of their background and economic situation.  This information is most applicable to students applying to programs in the United States.  

The Breadth of Economics Research  

Academic disciplines conduct research in different ways, so it’s important to have a basic understanding of the types of questions economists ask and how they approach answering them. There are many definitions of economics, but a broadly useful one is the study of how people, organizations, and governments make decisions under different constraints, and how those decisions may affect their outcomes. 

When answering these questions, economists seek to ground their analyses in models and to be quantitatively precise about the effects they assign to any given cause. The range of topics economists can study is wide, but the accepted approaches to answering questions are stricter. Some examples of what economists might ask: 

• How do different public housing programs affect the children who live there? 
• Does a certain type of law encourage businesses to innovate? 
• How will a change in the interest rate affect inflation and unemployment rates? 
• How much does affordable health insurance improve people’s health? 
• How can poor countries eradicate poverty? 

There are many different subfields within economics, including, but not limited to behavioral, econometrics, energy/environmental, development, financial, international, monetary, public, and urban economics. You can familiarize yourself with the latest work in economics by subscribing to working paper series, such as NBER’s New This Week or the New York Fed’s Staff Reports . To get an idea of the breadth of questions economists can answer, you could listen to Stephen Dubner’s “ Freakonomics Radio ” podcast. You may also want to explore the Journal of Economic Perspectives , the New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics blog, VoxDev , or VoxEU .  

What Is a PhD Program Like?    

Economics PhD programs typically last five to seven years. Unlike masters programs, they are often fully funded with a stipend, though most require students to complete teaching assistant and/or research assistant (RA) work as part of their funding package. In the first two years, students take classes, many of which are mathematically demanding. The rest of the program can include additional classes but is primarily devoted to original research with the aim of producing publishable papers that will constitute the dissertation.  

Faculty advisors are a central part of PhD programs, as students look to them for guidance during the research process. Economics PhD programs are offered within university economics departments, but there are similar programs in public policy and business schools. You can look at their websites to understand any differences in coursework and subsequent job placements. 

What Can You Do with an Economics PhD?  

Upon graduation, students can obtain jobs in a variety of industries. Many PhD students hope to become university professors. Governments and public policy-related institutions such as the Federal Reserve System, the U.S. federal government, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also hire economists to work on policy, lead programs, and conduct research. Finally, economics PhD graduates can also find employment at a variety of private sector companies, including banks, economic consulting firms, and big tech companies. The pay for these different positions can vary. According to the American Economics Association (AEA), the average starting salary for economics assistant professors in 2022-23 was approximately $140,000 at PhD granting institutions and $98,000 at BA granting institutions. 

Programs often publish the placements of their PhD graduates, so you can look online to see specific employment outcomes. See, for example, the University of Maryland’s placements . Ultimately, economists are highly regarded as authorities on a variety of topics. Governments, nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, financial institutions, and non-financial businesses all look to economists to answer important questions about how to best achieve their goals. Thus, earning an economics Ph.D. can potentially help you to influence issues that are important to you. 

Preparing for an Economics PhD Program  

There are several components to an economics PhD program application: college transcripts, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. Please download the Appendix linked below to learn more about transcripts and letters of recommendation. The Appendix details ways in which you can select coursework, obtain research experience, and develop relationships to position yourself for success as a PhD applicant.  

If you feel that you are too far along in your academic career to take enough of the classes described in the Appendix, this does not necessarily preclude you from pursuing an economics PhD. For example, it’s possible to take some of these classes through a master’s program, or through a pre-doctoral RA job. Some pre-doctoral RA jobs, such as the one here at the New York Fed , may enable you to take classes in preparation for graduate school. If you are concerned about your transcript, reach out to an economist at your university for advice; program standards for coursework and grades vary, and it’s a good idea to get more personalized advice. 

Research Experience   

If you’re interested in becoming an economics researcher and applying to PhD programs, it’s best to get research experience as soon as possible. Working as an RA is a great way to learn how to conduct research and get a better idea of whether it’s the right career path for you. Additionally, it can help you obtain a letter of recommendation for graduate school applications and improve your qualifications.  

All types of academic research can be enriching, but it’s beneficial to gain experience working directly with an economist. To find a position, you can reach out to professors whose work you find interesting or find an RA program at your school. Typical RA tasks may involve data collection and cleaning, as well as running analyses and creating charts to represent results. This is where coding skills become crucial; having taken math, statistics, and econometrics courses will also enable you to take on more responsibilities. 

You may also have the opportunity to conduct your own research, possibly under the supervision of a professor at your university. This research could be self-initiated or part of a course such as a thesis workshop. Self-directed research is a great opportunity to learn about all stages of the research process. It’s also an excellent opportunity to create a writing sample for graduate school applications. Ultimately, though, your motivation for conducting your own research project should be that you want to answer a question.  One thing economists have in common is a love of answering questions using data and theory. 

Research experience is also often obtained after completing an undergraduate or master’s degree. Taking on a full-time RA position before applying to PhD programs is very common and can make you a more competitive applicant. You may either get an RA job working for a professor or participate in a pre-doctoral RA program.  

Research assistant programs are more structured than positions with individual professors or projects, which could be helpful. Universities, parts of the government, think tanks, research organizations, and the Federal Reserve System are all good places to look for research assistant programs. To help you decide which opportunities are most desirable, you may want to ask potential employers : Where do people in this program tend to go afterward? Will I be working directly with an economist? How much of my time will be spent on academic research work? Will I be able to take classes as part of this program? Considering whether an economist will be able to evaluate your performance is an important factor for recommendation letters. The ability to take classes, either through tuition reimbursement or waivers, can also be an important benefit. 

The Research Analyst program here at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one example of these programs and you should check it out here . The Federal Reserve Board of Governors also has a large program, and many other regional Federal Reserve Banks have similar programs. In addition, the PREDOC website and the  NBER post listings of RA opportunities. J-PAL and IPA also tend to recruit RAs for economic development projects. Another source of RA opportunities is the @econ_ra account on X. 

Who Should Get a PhD in Economics?  

A PhD may not be for everyone, but it is for anyone—people of all genders, religions, ethnicities, races, and national origins have PhDs in economics. Many economists majored in economics, but others majored in math, physics, or chemistry. Because economics is such an integral part of policymaking, it is important that economists come from a wide range of backgrounds so policy can be stronger and more effective. The inclusion of differing perspectives helps ensure that the contribution of economists to work in public policy, academia, and beyond effectively serves the broadest range of society. 

• Coursework Appendix

Kasey Chatterji-Len is a research analyst in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group.

Anna Kovner  is the director of Financial Stability Policy Research in the Bank’s Research and Statistics Group.

How to cite this post: Kasey Chatterji-Len and Anna Kovner, “Thinking of Pursuing a PhD in Economics? Info on Graduate School and Beyond,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics , May 31, 2024, https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2024/05/thinking-of-pursuing-a-phd-in-economics-info-on-graduate-school-and-beyond/.

You may also be interested in: AEA: Resources for Students

PREDOC: Guidance for Undergraduates

RA Positions-Not at the NBER

Disclaimer The views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the author(s).

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More From Forbes

Nvidia matures its ai, while amd plays catchup at computex.

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Nvidia broadens its reach to ensure that AI delivers on its promises. AMD is building faster chips, faster. The Market appears to prefers the former: Nvidia is up nearly 5%, while AMD is down ~2.5% today.

Which is better? Well Elon Musk said Sunday on X that his xAI start-up will build computing infrastructure to train AI using 100,000 of Nvidia’s H100 chips, which he said would be online “in a few months.” He also said that the “Next big step would probably be ~300k B200s with CX8 networking next summer.” At perhaps $40,000 (a low estimate) each, that would be $12B.

Of course, not everyone is so bullish on AI. An article Sunday in a major media platform says, in brief, that “the pace of innovation in AI is slowing, its usefulness is limited, and the cost of running it remains exorbitant.” The author goes on to build his case that “AI is in a massive bubble, a ton of startups will fail, a lot of the value of big tech companies is going to be destroyed, and this level of revenue for NVIDIA is not sustainable.”

I’m not going to argue his points, but I will say that Nvidia’s announcements at Computex are intended to broaden the value AI can deliver to more customers using more applications with faster, more affordable hardware. All this will increase Nvidia’s wallet share of what the company says will become a multi-trillion dollar market.

What Did Nvidia Announce?

While the black-leather-clad Tech Superstar did not announce any breakthrough products, he did paint a picture of a maturing ecosystem of partners and developers that will take AI to the next level, enabling PCs, robots, industrial applications, and collaboration platforms that will undeniably improve productivity. And improved productivity leads to improved profits.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s speech before the Computex event in Taiwan laid out new software, new partners, and plans for post-Blackwell hardware. In his keynote, Mr. Huang announced that the company is enabling the next industrial revolution, that the company’s ecosystem is broadening to reach new users and use cases. While Jensen did not directly address affordability, the new Broadwell architecture will reduce the cost of AI processing by over ten fold, and cut the amount of energy required to power it.

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“The next industrial revolution has begun. Companies and countries are partnering with NVIDIA to shift the trillion-dollar traditional data centers to accelerated computing and build a new type of data center — AI factories — to produce a new commodity: artificial intelligence,” said Huang. “From server, networking and infrastructure manufacturers to software developers, the whole industry is gearing up for Blackwell to accelerate AI-powered innovation for every field.”

For starters, Nvidia wants everyone to realize that the “AI PC” is not a new thing. They have been shipping GeForce RTX for over six years, enabling over 100 million PCs to run over 500 AI games and applications.

Not wanting to be outdone by Arm and x86 players, Nvidia reminds us all that the company has been in ... [+] the AI PC space for years.

Next, Nvidia is doubling down on NIMS, the Nvidia Inference Micro Services it announced at GTC in March. NIMS not only makes it easier to deploy AI in minutes instead of months, they form building blocks from which customers can create new applications and solve new problems. If adopted, NIMS will help accelerate innovation and speed time to value.

Nvidia announced that NIM is now generally available for downloading on ai.nvidia.com and from Hugging Face, and is being integrated into tools for developers and infrastructure. Nvidia also announced that NIMS are now free for developers and researchers. Deploying NIMS in production requires an AI Enterprise license at $4500 per GPU

Nvidia shared these three examples of applications which are built by combining NIMS.

Huang pointed to the new vendors supporting Nvidia GPUs, with nearly twenty vendors featuring the Blackwell-Grace designs, and over 20 OEMs now supporting the Spectrum X networking solutions, which is now available. Nvidia also introduced a new Grace-Blackwell design, called the GB200 NVL2 for mainstream LLMs, providing a more affordable entry-point for Blackwell development and adoption.

There was a lot of emphasis on robotic factories, and Nvidia highlighted four customer deployments, including Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn.

Nvidia announced four partnerships using Nvidia AI and Omnniverse 3D collaboration using digital ... [+] twin models.

As for new hardware, Jensen announced that the Blackwell successor, called Rubin, should ship in 2026. No details were provided. This would also be paired with the second generation Nvidia Arm CPU, called Vera. Again, no details on Vera were announced.

In summary, Nvidia announced a slew of new technologies and partnerships, including:

• RTX accelerates new AI Laptops, Project G-Assist, NVIDIA ACE on-device NIMs and more generative AI tools
• Top computer manufacturers unveil Blackwell-powered systems, featuring Grace CPUs New NVIDIA GB200 NVL2 single-node, scale-out systems for mainstream LLMs and data processing
• NVIDIA NIM now available, NVIDIA Developer Program members can access NIM for free for research, development and testing
• NVIDIA delivers next-generation Ethernet for massive AI workloads with Spectrum-X
• Robotic factories accelerate industrial digitalization with NVIDIA AI and Omniverse
• NVIDIA Isaac adopted by industry leaders for development of AI-powered robots
• New enterprise software support for NVIDIA IGX with Holoscan accelerates real-time AI at the industrial edge

AMD Responds

Nvidia’s increased pace of development, from a 2-year cadence to a yearly calendar, is forcing its rivals to react. AMD CEO Lisa Su announced an entire portfolio of new and upcoming products, from PCs to Laptops, to the edges, and data center CPUs and GPus.

Dr. Lisa Su announced new CPUs for PCs, Laptops, and Servers, as well as the upcoming MI325X for AI ... [+] and HPC.

Dr. Su announced a new Instinct GPU roadmap, with the MI325X accelerator by the end of this year. Notably, it will support 288GB of HBM3E fast memory. Following that, the MI350 series will debut in 2025, and is expected to perform up to 35 times better in inference compared with the current MI300 series. That will be followed by the MI400 series in 2026. The bottom line, at best, the MI350 will compare with the Nvidia Blackwell GPU about one year after Blackwell NVL72 is expected to ship. At which point Nvidia will be moving on to Rubin.

The new AMD GPU roadmap looks good, but remains behind Nvidia.

One piece of technology caught my attention: Block FP16, which can double the performance of floating point math without the quantization work required to use FP8. Looks very promising. And the 5th-gen EPYC, which now commands over 30% share of server CPUs, looks incredible.

AMD is announcing the 5th generation EPYC server CPU, with 192 cores. No availability was disclosed.

Conclusions

While AMD has come a long way with its GPU for AI, the company is still trying to just catch up with Nvidia hardware. Never mind the massive gap in the ecosystem Nvidia enjoys. Yes, AMD sees adding more HBM as a differentiator, but thats not enough to compete with Nvidia’s system-level differentiation. Dr. Su did talk up the Nvidia-free Ultra Accelerator Link consortium, but there is no evidence it will compete with NVLink 5.0, which enables the incredible performance promised with Blackwell.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is driving AI adoption with advancements built on top of CUDA in robotics, manufacturing, 3D collaboration, drug discovery, healthcare, gaming, and enterprise applications.

The hardware battle has just begun, but we don’t see anything outside Google TPU that can really compete with Nvidia.

Disclosures : This article expresses the author's opinions and

should not be taken as advice to purchase from or invest in the companies mentioned. Cambrian-AI Research is fortunate to have many, if not most, semiconductor firms as our clients, including Blaize, BrainChip, Cadence Design, Cerebras, D-Matrix, Eliyan, Esperanto, GML, Groq, IBM, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm Technologies, Si-Five, SiMa.ai, Synopsys, Ventana Microsystems, Tenstorrent and scores of investment clients. We have no investment positions in any of the companies mentioned in this article and do not plan to initiate any in the near future. For more information, please visit our website at https://cambrian-AI.com .

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Here's what could slow Nvidia's momentum

By Mark Hulbert

Nvidia needs to grow by 70% a year to support its stock price

Nvidia's stock is unlikely to produce the return that exuberant investors are expecting.

Nvidia (NVDA) shareholders need a reality check. Nvidia's stock price is currently trading on the implicit assumption of faster growth than even the most optimistic Wall Street analyst is projecting. Nvidia's stock is unlikely to produce the return that exuberant investors are expecting.

Pointing this out is not a criticism of the company, whose performance has been nothing short of phenomenal. It's a matter of simple math: How fast must Nvidia grow to support its stock price?

The answer depends on two key points:

What the stock's return will be over the next five years: It would be unrealistic to assume Nvidia's stock will appreciate at the same fantastic rate it has over the past 12 months (176%) or the past five years (100% annualized). Growth rates inevitably come down as companies grow. To be conservative, let's assume the stock grows at a 50% annualized rate over the next five years, even though many exuberant investors currently are extrapolating the triple-digit returns over the last several years.What Nvidia's P/E ratio will be in five years: The stock's P/E currently is 93, based on latest fiscal year earnings. Sky-high P/E ratios don't stay that way forever, so Nvidia's P/E almost certainly will be lower in mid-2029. Let's assume that the company's P/E in five years will be 50. That's also conservative, since the largest semiconductor companies have P/E ratios lower than 50, and the required EPS growth rate goes up as the assuming P/E ratio goes down.

Given these two assumptions, Nvidia's earnings per share must grow at a 70% annualized rate over the next five years. That's more than double the consensus expectation of Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet, which is a five-year annualized growth rate of 30%.

Historically, Wall Street analysts have been too optimistic on average. But even if we assume the consensus expectation of Nvidia's five-year earnings growth is right, holding everything else in my illustration constant, the stock's growth rate between now and mid-2029 will be 15.2% annualized. That's nothing to sneeze at, but much lower than what most Nvidia's investors are expecting.

Be my guest playing around with these numbers. You'll be hard-pressed to come up with reasonable assumptions that support the inflated expectations of Nvidia's more exuberant investors.

Qualcomm teaches a lesson

A helpful analogy is Qualcomm (QCOM), one of the highest-flying companies of the dot-com era. Its stock rose 26-fold in 1999 alone. Upon focusing only on how much the company's earnings have grown since then, you might conclude that the high stock price at year-end 1999 was justified. Research Affiliates recently pointed out that, since 1999, "Qualcomm's business growth has been stupendous. In the following 23 years, its sales and profits per share grew by 14% and 19%, compounded per annum. Qualcomm's profits are now 60 times as large as they were at its peak in 2000."

Yet the performance of Qualcomm's stock since 1999 has been disappointing. The Research Affiliates study calculates its return from 1999 through the end of 2022 to be just 2.8% on an annualized basis - less than half the S&P 500's SPX return.

How could a stock with "stupendous" sales and profit growth lag the market by so much? The answer, according to the Research Affiliates study: "The good news was [already] fully reflected in share prices!"

The same appears to be true about Nvidia stock today. In order for it to live up to investors' exuberant expectations, the company's earnings will have to grow even faster than the good news that is already being discounted. That's a tall order.

Growth-rate reality

This skeptical conclusion applies even assuming that Nvidia's earnings per share will grow at the 30% annualized pace Wall Street expects. But most likely this assumption is itself overly optimistic. That's the implication of a landmark study, which found that, historically, it's very rare for companies' earnings to grow at a faster-than-median pace for more than a couple of years in a row. Beating the median is a far lower bar over which to jump than 30% annualized.

The study, published two decades ago, was entitled "The Level and Persistence of Growth Rates." It was conducted by Louis K. C. Chan of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Jason Karceski and Josef Lakonishok of LSV Asset Management. The researchers analyzed all publicly traded U.S. stocks back to the 1950s, searching for those that had above-median sales growth for several years in a row. They found that the number of companies hurdling this low bar was no higher than what you'd expect on the assumption of pure chance. A subsequent study by Verdad Research, analyzing the two decades since the Chan/Lakonishok/Karceski was published, reached identical results.

The bottom line? The odds that Nvidia's earnings can continue growing at their recent pace appear to be no greater than those associated with flipping a coin. And even if Nvidia can beat those odds, as Wall Street analysts are expecting, the company's stock price still is unlikely to continue rising at its recent blistering pace.

Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. He can be reached at [email protected]

More: Nvidia speeds up its AI-chip roadmap, next-generation Rubin platform coming in 2026

Also read: Big Tech's 'fake-it-till-you-make-it' hype is now infecting AI

-Mark Hulbert

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-03-24 1639ET

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