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Business Intelligence Analysts

Business Intelligence Analysts: Career Profile

Produce financial and market intelligence by querying data repositories and generating periodic reports. Devise methods for identifying data patterns and trends in available information sources.

What Do Business Intelligence Analysts Take On?

Typical responsibilities of business intelligence analysts include:

  • Generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders.
  • Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods.
  • Manage timely flow of business intelligence information to users.
  • Provide technical support for existing reports, dashboards, or other tools.
  • Identify and analyze industry or geographic trends with business strategy implications.
  • Document specifications for business intelligence or information technology reports, dashboards, or other outputs.
  • Create business intelligence tools or systems, including design of related databases, spreadsheets, or outputs.
  • Collect business intelligence data from available industry reports, public information, field reports, or purchased sources.

Key Skills and Knowledge

Successful business intelligence analysts draw on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

These are the skills that matter most in this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Reading Comprehension  4.0 / 5
0
5
Active Listening  3.9 / 5
0
5
Critical Thinking  3.9 / 5
0
5
Active Learning  3.9 / 5
0
5
Speaking  3.9 / 5
0
5
Writing  3.8 / 5
0
5

Knowledge Areas

Computers and Electronics  4.3 / 5
0
5
Mathematics  3.8 / 5
0
5
English Language  3.8 / 5
0
5
Administration and Management  3.1 / 5
0
5
Customer and Personal Service  3.1 / 5
0
5
Economics and Accounting  3.0 / 5
0
5

This career also goes by job titles like:

  • Analytical Data Miner
  • Business Analyst
  • Business Consultant
  • Business Data Analyst
  • Business Database Analyst
  • Business Information Analyst
  • Business Intelligence Analyst (BI Analyst)
  • Business Intelligence Consultant (BI Consultant)

Job Outlook

There are roughly 578,177 business intelligence analysts working in the United States today. Employment is projected to grow by +1.3% over the projection horizon.

Forecasted number of jobs for Business Intelligence Analysts

Business Intelligence Analysts Pay

Statistic Value
Annual median $143,840
Hourly median $69.15
10th percentile $102,614
25th percentile $123,227
75th percentile $164,454
90th percentile $185,067

Wages vary widely based on experience, location, and industry.

Salary ranges for Business Intelligence Analysts

How Much Do Business Intelligence Analysts Make in Different U.S. States?

State Annual median salary
Washington $158,760
District of Columbia $137,120
California $136,800
Massachusetts $132,250
New Jersey $130,370
Virginia $126,070
New York $125,400
Maryland $124,340
Hawaii $123,880
Vermont $120,670
Minnesota $117,840
Utah $116,420
North Carolina $115,380
Rhode Island $114,390
Illinois $113,490
Kansas $110,320
Connecticut $109,960
Idaho $109,340
Montana $106,860
Texas $106,540
Colorado $106,500
Oregon $106,100
Arizona $106,080
Florida $105,820
Alabama $105,410
Tennessee $104,700
Arkansas $104,320
Georgia $102,630
Pennsylvania $100,320
Wisconsin $100,020
Michigan $99,470
New Hampshire $98,970
Ohio $98,620
Iowa $97,980
Nebraska $96,470
North Dakota $96,230
Wyoming $95,840
West Virginia $95,760
Maine $94,350
Kentucky $93,490
Nevada $93,310
South Dakota $92,000
South Carolina $90,660
Missouri $85,570
New Mexico $85,040
Indiana $84,050
Oklahoma $80,380
Alaska $77,400
Puerto Rico $70,690
Louisiana $70,530
Mississippi $69,430

Where Business Intelligence Analysts Earn the Most

Compensation for business intelligence analysts shift depending on where you work. Top regions by median wage:

Region Median annual wage Share of U.S. jobs Location quotient
Far Western US $137,283 21.0% 1.32
New England $123,650 6.4% 1.54
Middle Atlantic $119,433 18.7% 1.38
Rocky Mountains $110,478 5.4% 1.58
Southeast $107,591 18.9% 0.91
Southwest $104,241 12.9% 1.05
Great Lakes $101,492 11.1% 0.80
Plains States $99,118 5.5% 0.92

Top Metro Areas

Metro area State Median annual wage Employment
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA CA $173,160 6,570
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA CA $166,300 9,350
Idaho Falls, ID ID $164,030 220
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA WA $157,290 6,100
Naples-Marco Island, FL FL $145,030 50
Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT CT $139,660 370
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV DC $135,190 8,530
Bellingham, WA WA $134,530 40

Top Industries Employing Business Intelligence Analysts

The bulk of business intelligence analysts are found across these industries:

Industry Employment Median annual wage
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 69,410 $117,020
Finance and Insurance 41,020 $123,570
Information 26,840 $137,600
Management of Companies and Enterprises 26,100 $126,940
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 14,390 $100,780
Health Care and Social Assistance 13,070 $87,870
Manufacturing 9,240 $118,080
Educational Services 8,700 $79,310
Business Intelligence Analysts sectors

Below are examples of industries where business intelligence analysts work:

Business Intelligence Analysts industries

Tools and Technology

  • Document management software: Adobe Acrobat (hot technology)
  • Web platform development software: AJAX (hot technology)
  • Business intelligence and data analysis software: Alteryx software (hot technology)
  • Data base management system software: Amazon DynamoDB (hot technology)
  • Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2 (hot technology)
  • Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Redshift (hot technology)
  • Data base user interface and query software: Amazon Web Services AWS software (hot technology)
  • Data base management system software: Apache Cassandra (hot technology)
  • Data base management system software: Apache Hadoop (hot technology)
  • Data base management system software: Apache Hive (hot technology)
  • Development environment software: Apache Kafka (hot technology)
  • Business intelligence and data analysis software: Apache Spark (hot technology)

What the Workplace Is Like

The work environment for business intelligence analysts is shaped by the following characteristics:

  • E-Mail
  • Spend Time Sitting
  • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
  • Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled

Education and Training

Typical business intelligence analysts positions require a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry-level education. This career aligns with Considerable Preparation Needed (Job Zone 4), indicating the level of preparation typically expected.

Similar Occupations

Where to Study

Future business intelligence analysts commonly pursue programs in:

Mathematics and Statistics

12 programs across 5 majors

Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies

11 programs across 6 majors

Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services

5 programs across 3 majors

Biological and Biomedical Sciences

3 programs across 1 majors

2 programs across 1 majors

Social Sciences

1 programs across 1 majors

Sources

Statistics shown above are sourced from the following authoritative sources:

  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
  • BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
  • O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 15-2051.01 (Data Scientists).

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