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203: There’s No More Data Analyst Jobs
Episode 20324th March 2026 • Data Career Podcast: Helping You Land a Data Analyst Job FAST • Avery Smith - Data Career Coach
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Everyone says data analyst jobs are gone. Here's the actual evidence that proves them wrong.

💌 Join 30k+ aspiring data analysts & get my tips in your inbox weekly 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/newsletter

🆘 Feeling stuck in your data journey? Come to my next free "How to Land Your First Data Job" training 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/training

👩‍💻 Want to land a data job in less than 90 days? 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/daa

👔 Ace The Interview with Confidence 👉 https://datacareerjumpstart.com/interviewsimulator

⌚ TIMESTAMPS

00:21 – Who's lying to you

03:32 – 180 million job postings

06:03 – Jobs are actually growing

07:32 – Top jobs of the next 5 years

08:14 – 4th fastest growing career

10:02 – Even software jobs bounced back

11:08 – They said this in 2013 too

14:06 – Don't panic


📚 SOURCES

📊 Bloomberg – I Analyzed 180M Jobs to See What AI Is Actually Replacing (Jan 2023–Oct 2025): https://bloomberry.com/blog/i-analyzed-180m-jobs-to-see-what-jobs-ai-is-actually-replacing-today/#bullet1

📈 Live Data Technologies: https://livedatatechnologies.com

🌍 World Economic Forum – Fastest Growing & Declining Jobs: https://euronews.com/business/2025/02/01/jobs-market-at-a-crossroads-which-are-the-fastest-growing-and-declining-jobs

🏛️ Bureau of Labor Statistics – Data Scientists, 4th Fastest Growing Occupation: https://bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm#tab-6

✍️ Is Data Science Dead in 10 Years? (2021): https://medium.com/data-science/is-data-science-dead-in-10-years-3cde3963552

🔮 Gartner – More Than 40% of Data Science Tasks Will Be Automated by 2020 (2017): https://gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2017-01-16-gartner-says-more-than-40-percent-of-data-science-tasks-will-be-automated-by-2020

💬 Is Data Science Getting Overcrowded? Reddit (2016): https://reddit.com/r/datascience/comments/781wwu/is_data_science_getting_overcrowded/

🤖 Will Data Scientists Be Automated by 2025? (2015): https://kdnuggets.com/2015/05/data-scientists-automated-2025.html

💥 The Bursting of the Big Data Bubble (2013): https://mathbabe.org/2013/09/20/the-bursting-of-the-big-data-bubble/


🔗 CONNECT WITH AVERY

🎥 YouTube Channel

🤝 LinkedIn

📸 Instagram

🎵 TikTok

💻 Website

Mentioned in this episode:

🚀 March Cohort — Data Analyst Bootcamp (Starts March 9th)

Ready to break into data analytics? Our March cohort kicks off with a live call on March 9th at 7pm ET where you'll meet your peers and mentors on day one. Save 20% when you enroll now, plus get two free bonuses: 6 months of Data Fairy (your AI co-pilot through the bootcamp) and a bonus course — "The AI-Proof Analyst: Why Thinking Still Wins." Claim Your Spot → https://datacareerjumpstart.com/daa

https://datacareerjumpstart.com/daa

Transcripts

Speaker:

Avery Smith-1: There's no

more data analyst jobs left.

2

:

That's what I keep hearing, especially

on YouTube, but that is a complete lie.

3

:

In today's episode, I'm gonna show

you why I think there's actually

4

:

a lot of data analyst jobs left

and why you should not panic.

5

:

But if you're new here,

my name is Avery Smith.

6

:

I'm a senior data analyst, and I

make content about how to thrive

7

:

in your data career, especially

if you're just getting started.

8

:

The real question is who is

saying that data jobs are dead?

9

:

Who's saying that there's no

more data analyst jobs left.

10

:

And really I think it comes

down to, there's three different

11

:

groups that are sharing this

narrative all over the internet.

12

:

The first group is YouTubers who are like

me, and they are carrying this narrative

13

:

around that data analyst jobs are dead.

14

:

There's a great data analyst crash

that has occurred or is coming,

15

:

that there's no more data jobs.

16

:

And I'll be honest, I've even been

complicit in some of my titles and

17

:

thumbnail choices here on YouTube.

18

:

So why are YouTubers creating these titles

and these contents, why are they spreading

19

:

this message around if it is a lie?

20

:

Well, honestly, it's because

you guys click on those videos.

21

:

I shared this in a recent

episode, but I actually AB

22

:

tested two different thumbnails.

23

:

One that was positive, like there's

lots of data jobs in the future,

24

:

and one that's negative, that

there's no data jobs in the future.

25

:

The video content stayed the exact same.

26

:

The thumbnail stayed the

same, and the negativity won.

27

:

Everyone wanted to

click on the negativity.

28

:

It actually won by two times.

29

:

So basically two times more

of you guys clicked on that

30

:

video than the positive one.

31

:

So it just really goes to show, especially

on YouTube, that negativity wins.

32

:

But we've already known that because

that's why the news is negative.

33

:

Like we as humans, for some reason,

just love negativity and for YouTubers,

34

:

Hey, if we can create videos that

you guys love, then we wanna do it.

35

:

But personally, I want to be honest,

I'd rather be honest than be negative.

36

:

I'm an optimistic person, so I try to make

my episodes as optimistic as possible.

37

:

Of course, with keeping it realistic,

I don't wanna just gaslight you guys

38

:

and tell you that there's lots of

data jobs left if there are none.

39

:

But I wanna keep it honest and optimistic.

40

:

Now, sometimes I might use a title or

a thumbnail that might be more negative

41

:

so I can get more people to click.

42

:

But I justify that because my message

is honest and uplifting and optimistic,

43

:

and in order for more people to get

that message of, Hey, there is lots of

44

:

data jobs, you can actually do this.

45

:

We might need to lure them in

with some sort of negativity.

46

:

The second group who is saying there's

no more data jobs left are job seekers.

47

:

And this actually makes sense because

if you're trying to land a data job

48

:

right now, it can feel like there's no

data jobs left because you're applying.

49

:

To hundreds of data jobs probably,

and not getting any calls back,

50

:

not getting any interviews, and

that can be really frustrating.

51

:

And so you can be like, oh my

gosh, there's no data jobs left.

52

:

I can't land the role, I

can't land an interview.

53

:

This sucks this, you know,

industry, this career isn't for me.

54

:

But it's important to highlight that

these job seekers, although their

55

:

experiences are lived and true.

56

:

It's not really data driven, it's

not really analytical, it's just

57

:

more of an experience they've lived.

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:

There's no actual data or truth behind it.

59

:

But look, I get it.

60

:

There's ghost jobs out there.

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:

There's fake jobs out there.

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:

There's scam jobs out there, and

landing a real job feels impossible.

63

:

So I totally get if your job secret

and you feel like there's no data jobs

64

:

left, because that's how it feels.

65

:

It makes sense.

66

:

The third group that is

sharing this message across

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:

the internet are AI maximalist.

68

:

And these are people who really believe

in ai, that it's the future, that there's

69

:

going to be a GI, that robots and, uh,

AI agents are gonna rule the world.

70

:

And of course they think if they

think that they're gonna think there's

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:

no more data jobs, nevertheless,

no more any jobs that these agents

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:

will just take all of the jobs.

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:

So those are the three groups

that I think are really spreading

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:

this message across the internet.

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:

And as a bonus fourth group, I would just

say pessimists in in general, people who

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:

who see the cup as half empty instead

of half full will think that there's

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:

no jobs, that everything's doom and

gloom, that everything's going to end.

78

:

If you're one of these pessimists or

people who think there is no more data

79

:

jobs, or that data jobs won't exist in

the future, I hope that I will be able to

80

:

change your opinion during this episode.

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:

What is the evidence?

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:

Well, I'm gonna show you six real

pieces of evidence that data jobs aren't

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:

dead and they even might be thriving.

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:

The first piece of evidence I want to

show you comes from a research study

85

:

done by Bloomberg where they basically

analyzed 180 million global job postings

86

:

from January, 2023 to October, 2025.

87

:

This was all scraped from RA and

they found some really interesting

88

:

things I wanna share with you.

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:

One of their key takeaways

was that data related jobs are

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:

holding up despite AI tools.

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:

So basically despite what you might

be thinking AI tools can do to replace

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:

a data analyst, data scientist, we

don't see that in industry yet, and

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:

those roles are actually growing.

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:

It basically says that even though

AI tools can write SQL queries or

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:

write Python code, that the data

analyst or the person actually using

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:

those tools is still very valuable.

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:

Despite these AI tools, knowing what

questions to ask still really important.

98

:

Knowing if you can trust data

or if you could, what data's

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:

clean and what data's not clean.

100

:

Still really important.

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:

Knowing how the data and the analysis

that you find ties into the business and

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:

being able to convince stakeholders and

non-technical people of your findings

103

:

still really important and really needs

a human to do all of those things.

104

:

One of the things it also mentions

is you can kind of use software

105

:

engineering and software development

jobs as a proxy for data jobs.

106

:

'cause they're very closely related.

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:

They're both very technically focused.

108

:

They're a little bit different.

109

:

But you can kind of see some

similarities in software development

110

:

and data analytics and data scientists

and all those different things.

111

:

And that's really key because one of

the things that actually found in this

112

:

study was that software engineering

jobs have stayed really resilient.

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:

Of course, we've seen some

decrease in front air engineering

114

:

and mobile engineering as

that's gotten easier and easier.

115

:

But other things like machine learning,

engineering, data engineer, backend

116

:

engineer, data scientists, and

honestly, these aren't really even

117

:

software engineering jobs almost.

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:

These are data jobs.

119

:

So like software engineering is

doing well if it's data related.

120

:

And all the things that we're talking

about on this channel is all data related.

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:

So basically with ai.

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:

AI is just so dependent on data

and we are the best people fit for

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:

talking about data, thinking about

data processing data, analyzing data,

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:

structuring data, shipping data.

125

:

That's us.

126

:

And the best place to start for any data

role is a data analyst, because it's

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:

one of the lowest on the totem pool.

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:

It can get, obviously very senior as

you go on, but it's like a really good

129

:

entry point where you could become a

data scientist later down the road.

130

:

You could become a DevOps

engineer down the road.

131

:

You could become, you know, a

data engineer down the road.

132

:

This is like the entry point of

the data world, and this data

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:

family, this data role kingdom

that we play in is the number one.

134

:

Kingdom, the number one job family

for handling ai, maybe other than

135

:

software developers, but you could

argue that we know a little bit

136

:

more about data than they do.

137

:

The second piece of evidence I want

to present to you is from live data

138

:

Technologies, and they use a special

proprietary software to basically

139

:

figure out how many different data

analysts are there in the world.

140

:

How many different lawyers are there in

the world, how many different, you know,

141

:

real estate agents are there in the world.

142

:

And we can actually see that

data analytics, data analyst

143

:

jobs have grown since 2021.

144

:

Uh, about 12%.

145

:

Now, has it been stagnant

in the last two years?

146

:

Uh, maybe.

147

:

But you have to remember that

in:

148

:

There was a lot of over hiring

going on, so the fact that it really

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:

hasn't gone down is a good sign.

150

:

I think this year we'll start

to see this grow a little bit

151

:

more like data engineering.

152

:

I think data engineering has really

exploded because once again, in

153

:

order for AI models to be good,

you need good data engineering.

154

:

In order to have good data engineering,

you need to have good data engineers.

155

:

And honestly, I don't really

ever see people just starting

156

:

from zero to data engineer.

157

:

They always start in some different role.

158

:

For instance, like a software

engineer or the second most common

159

:

one I think is a data analyst.

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:

You go from data analyst, data engineer.

161

:

So if you want to ultimately work

in data engineering, a data analyst

162

:

is a really first good landing place

because it's way easier to become a

163

:

data analyst than as a data engineer.

164

:

There's a lot less tech that you

have to know, a lot less programming,

165

:

and you can start to get paid to

learn data engineering on the job.

166

:

So once again, no evidence here

that data analyst jobs are dead.

167

:

The third piece of evidence I wanna

look at actually comes from the World

168

:

Economic Forum, and they did this

big study to try to figure out what

169

:

they think the top growing jobs are

going to be in the next five years,

170

:

even with all this AI disruption.

171

:

And if you check out this graph that Euro

News made of their data, you'll actually

172

:

see something that's quite promising.

173

:

A good chunk of these top

jobs are very data related.

174

:

Now, of course, you're not gonna see data

analysts necessarily in the top five.

175

:

You think it's number

eight or number nine.

176

:

But big data specialists, like

big data specialists start their

177

:

careers as data analysts, AI and

machine learning specialists.

178

:

Once again, if you want to become

that, that's gonna take like three

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:

years to learn all that stuff.

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:

So start small as a data analyst.

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:

Data warehousing specialists.

182

:

That's basically data analysts.

183

:

Data engineers, data analytics, engineers.

184

:

And what these bars or these numbers

represent is the percent that they're

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gonna grow over the next five years or so.

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:

So we are seeing a lot of growth in

these jobs over the next five years,

187

:

according to, you know, one of the most

prestigious organizations in the world.

188

:

So I don't think they think

that data analyst jobs are dead.

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:

My fourth piece of evidence comes

from another really prestigious

190

:

organization, and that's the Bureau of

Labor Statistics from the United States.

191

:

This is one of the biggest organizations

actually tracking employment

192

:

and job statistics over time.

193

:

And what do they think about data jobs.

194

:

Now they don't actually specifically

analyze data analyst jobs as a job

195

:

role or job family, but they do

data scientist jobs and let's see

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:

how they do over the next 10 years.

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:

The BLS basically predicts that the data

scientist job will grow 34%, and that's

198

:

actually the fourth fastest growing

job family in their entire report.

199

:

So honestly, if you want a career that

is growing over the next 10 years,

200

:

the BLS thinks that this data science

world that you can play in is one of

201

:

the best places you could possibly be.

202

:

And you can actually look at

this graph and see how that

203

:

compares to what they think all

occupations will grow in on average.

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And that is just 3%.

205

:

So like literally, this is one

of the best places you could.

206

:

And not only is it data scientist

jobs, it's like really all data jobs.

207

:

They said this tied to the increased

use of AI is this massive increase in

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:

the volume of data generated, which

is expected to fuel job growth among

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many mathematical science occupations.

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:

Relevant occupations include data

scientists, actuaries, and operations

211

:

research analysts, all of which are

projected to see job growth of at

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least 20% between 2024 and 2034.

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:

Placing them all in the top 15

fastest growing occupation lists.

214

:

And I actually created a little bit

of a table for you that shows that

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computer and info research scientists,

statisticians, market research analysts,

216

:

and database admins and architects are

all supposed to grow quite a bit more

217

:

than average over the next 10 years.

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Once again, this prestigious organization.

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Not really indicating that

there's no more data jobs.

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If anything, there's gonna

be a lot more data jobs

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now in the world and that is X or Twitter.

222

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Put your political leanings aside.

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X is still used as one of the places

to get up to date information and

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there's been a huge growth in automatic.

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Coding, basically programming, coding

over the last six months where it's

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like, oh, software jobs are dead.

227

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You know, Claude code, it's so good,

it's gonna replace, you know, my, my

228

:

software developers and there's gonna

be no more software engineering jobs.

229

:

I'm sure those videos exist,

uh, on YouTube as well.

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And we've seen a really weird twist in

the last few weeks where there's actually

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a lot more software development jobs.

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They're growing.

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So software jobs aren't dead.

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They're growing and if there's one

thing we know about software jobs is

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they kind of mirror these data roles.

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There is a little bit difference

between the two, right?

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Where obviously data people aren't

really creating software and software

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aren't really analyzing data.

239

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But there is a lot of overlap and a

lot of similarities and I think AI will

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enhance or disrupt them almost equally.

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Maybe not quite, but we can learn a lot

of lessons from software engineering.

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'cause I do think they're about one to

two years ahead of the data industry

243

:

in terms of using and utilizing ai.

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So in the future we might see a

similar trend where maybe there is a

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:

little bit less data jobs, who knows?

246

:

But then I think it will

bounce back as well.

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And to be honest, that's every

market, for every history of time,

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there's gonna be ebbs and flows

on the number of jobs available.

249

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No matter if you're a firefighter, no

matter if you're a teacher, no matter

250

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if you're a nurse, there's gonna

be ups and there's gonna be data.

251

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My sixth piece of evidence is that this

isn't actually a new question, although

252

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there's a lot of people saying that

data jobs are dead or questioning if

253

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data jobs are gonna die right now in

:

254

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This actually isn't a new question as

almost existed as long as the term data

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:

analytics and data science has existed.

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Let me actually show you a few examples.

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So in 2021, before chat, GPT even

existed, my good friend Ken G,

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wrote a medium article asking,

is data science dead in 10 years?

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That was really before all of

this, you know, LLMs and generative

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AI had really taken off, and

he was asking that question.

261

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We're about exactly halfway through

that mark, and of course, we're

262

:

still yet to see, but so far

there's still a lot of data jobs.

263

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In fact, there hasn't

been really a decrease.

264

:

As I showed you guys earlier, uh,

there's really just been either a

265

:

stagnation or a slight increase in 2017.

266

:

One of the most trusted data

organizations, Gartner, that

267

:

is like consulting and software

evaluations and stuff like that.

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They had a headline that says.

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More than 40% of data science

tasks will be automated by:

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Well, guys, we're six years past 2020.

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I definitely don't think 40% of data

science tasks have been automated.

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Now you can say they were just early

on their prediction, or you can

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say that they're flat out wrong.

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In the 2010s, there was a lot of

hype on no-code tools in general

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and things like DataRobot and

Alteryx and all these different like

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no-code, uh, analytics platforms.

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And those were gonna take

all of the jobs back then.

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Well, it's not really true.

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Those just created more jobs and we still

have lots of data jobs more than ever.

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Actually in 2016, people were

on subreddits asking, is data

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science getting overcrowded?

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People think it's overcrowded

today, people thought it was

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overcrowded 10 years ago.

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If they could see today,

they'd have no idea how.

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Under crowded.

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It was at the time, who knows, in 2036

we might be saying the exact same thing.

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Is data science overcrowded?

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And we didn't know how good, uh,

you know, that we had it in:

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how good it was going to be in 2036.

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In 20 15, 1 of the biggest data blogs

ever, Katy Nuggets actually ran a

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poll that asked, will data science

tasks be automated by:

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And a lot of people thought

it was going to be automated,

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everything was gonna be gone.

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And guess what?

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We've passed that.

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It's not automated.

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There's still lots of jobs, there's

lots of opportunities for us.

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So, you know, even 10 years

ago people were thinking this.

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And as early as in 2013, a really

popular data author wrote a blog

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post titled The Bursting of the Big

Data Bubble Guys, that was in:

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I don't think the big

data bubble has burst yet.

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It's only grown bigger

and bigger and bigger.

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So if in 2013 they thought

they were in a bubble.

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How big is the bubble today?

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How much bigger is data today

than it was in:

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thought it was gonna be over.

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But my advice to you at this

point so far is don't panic.

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Don't freak out.

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Don't give up, because it seems like

there's gonna be no data jobs left.

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There's gonna be data

jobs left, I promise.

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Personally, I think you should

live by this quote, which actually

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came out of a Matt Schumer article

that went really viral on X,

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called Something Big is Happening.

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It's kind of an AI doomsday type article,

but he said something really important at

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the end about a lawyer speaking about his

lawyer friend that has just dabbled in ai.

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He said if it stays on this trajectory,

it being ai, he expects it will

317

:

be able to do most of what he does

before long, and he's a managing

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:

partner with decades of experience.

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He's not panicking, but he's

paying very close attention.

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And that's my recommendation to you

guys is don't panic, but pay close

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:

attention to all this AI things.

322

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Start to integrate AI learning and

everything that you're doing on top

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of your data analytics learning.

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And that's something I'm gonna

be trying to do on this channel,

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:

specifically on my newsletter as well.

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I'm gonna start to try

to help you become an.

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AI native data analyst or

an AI fluent data analyst.

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So if that sounds interesting to you and

you actually want those tips delivered

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:

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