Dive Brief:

• Postings on Indeed for data science jobs grew 29% year-over-year in December — and increased 344% compared to five years prior — as more employers look for data scientists, according to an Indeed report by Andrew Flowers. 
• Searches for data science jobs increased 14% last year, with peaks in the spring likely corresponding to college students and graduates searching for jobs, according to the report. But an increase in the number of computer science majors is still not enough to meet the demand for data science talent, which requires "a mixture of rigorous theory and software craft," from computer science, statistics and quantitative social science to technical languages such as Python, R, AWS, Spark and BigQuery. 
• Adjusted for cost of living expenses, the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas, area is the best city for data scientists in terms of salary, bringing in an average of $123,010. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue followed with $121,193 and $119,941, respectively.

Dive Insight:

Indeed's 2018 report sang a similar tune: Data science interest is increasing for job seekers and employers, and data scientists are routinely pulling in six-figure salaries across the nation. 

Last year, Pheonix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon/Washington were the top cities for salaries, adjusted for cost of living. Neither area made the list for 2019. 

While tech companies tend to pay the most for data science talent, as more businesses digitally enable their platforms with data at the core, other sectors are driving demand and prices up. 

With human capital limited, many organizations are injecting artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into their data science stacks. Automation can help companies clean and structure data more efficiently and open data scientists up from repetitive, manual tasks to bigger-picture projects.