Business Intelligence Analysts: Job Description
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.
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The Daily Work of Business Intelligence Analysts Do?
The day-to-day responsibilities of business intelligence analysts cover:
- 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.
Skills and Knowledge
Top business intelligence analysts draw on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.
Top Skills
These are the skills that matter most in this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:
Core Knowledge
Related Job Titles
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. This occupation is expected to grow by +1.3% over the projection horizon.
Salary for Business Intelligence Analysts
| 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 |
Pay can vary substantially based on experience, location, and industry.
Business Intelligence Analysts Salary by State
| 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 |
Top-Paying U.S. Regions
Pay for business intelligence analysts vary by region. These regions lead on median pay:
| 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 |
Industry Breakdown
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 |
The table below shows some of the most common industries where those employed in this career field work.
Tech Stack
- 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
Daily working conditions for business intelligence analysts tends to involve the following characteristics:
- Spend Time Sitting
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
- Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals
- Indoors, Environmentally Controlled
Getting Started in This Career
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), reflecting the level of preparation typically expected.
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- Search Marketing Strategists (Primary-Long)
- Financial Risk Specialists (Primary-Long)
- Financial Quantitative Analysts (Supplemental)
- Computer Systems Analysts (Primary-Short)
- Database Administrators (Supplemental)
Degree Programs
Students preparing for business intelligence analysts commonly pursue programs in:
Mathematics and Statistics
12 programs across 5 majors
Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies
11 programs across 6 majors
- Data Analytics
- Data Science
- Computational Science
- Mathematics & Computer Science
- Economics and Computer Science
- Linguistics and Computer Science
Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services
5 programs across 3 majors
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
3 programs across 1 majors
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services
2 programs across 1 majors
Social Sciences
1 programs across 1 majors
References
Data on this page comes 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).