Nevada workers and businesses created a total economic value of nearly $170 billion in 2018 as measured by the state’s gross domestic product. That number has risen steadily over the better part of the past decade, climbing every year for the past nine straight years. Since the depths of the Great Recession in 2009, the Nevada economy has expanded by nearly 40%.
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Just over 65,000 employer firms are open for business across Nevada, and more than 1.4 million people are employed in a diverse range of sectors. The leisure and hospitality sector is Nevada’s largest, accounting for 1 in 4 jobs, followed by trade, transportation and utilities (18%), and professional and business services (14%).
A total of nine Nevada-headquartered companies are listed on the Fortune 1,000 list of biggest U.S. companies, and startups in the state have drawn millions in investment dollars over the past several years.
All of these metrics are great news for people who are into, well, metrics. That’s because they bode well for a future career in business analytics, which is a broad field that covers the use of data to make organizational decisions, whether it’s deciding if your for-profit business should open a new branch or determining which community projects your nonprofit should fund.
What can business analytics professionals expect to earn in Nevada, how vibrant is the business analytics educational landscape here, and what are some examples of actual employers seeking out business analytics experts?
Business Analytics Salaries in Nevada
The field of business analytics is a broad one, to be sure, but it essentially comes down to the use of numbers to guide organizational decision-making. Jobs can be highly technical and involve the use of programming languages and computer code, or they can have a more traditional feel and focus on getting buy-in for data-driven decisions.
So what are some possible business analytics job titles in Nevada? Here are a few of the main examples:
- Data Scientist
- Management Consultant
- Financial Analyst
- Market Research Analyst
- Budget Analyst
- Business Intelligence Specialist
- Insights Analyst
- Marketing Engagement Analyst
- Research Executive
- Decision Engineer
- Quantitative Modeler
- Operations Research Analyst
What do jobs like these pay here in Nevada, what is the state of employment now, and what does the future hold? To understand those topics and more, we’ll examine federal data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for five specific job roles within business analytics.
SEE ALSO: Masters in Business Analytics Salary Outlook
All five of our sample business analytics jobs pay a bit lower wages in Nevada than in the U.S. overall, though mostly, the jobs are quite close to the U.S. median. Not only are they somewhat close to the U.S. median for each job, but in all five cases, the typical salary is considerably higher than the median annual full-time wage for all Nevada occupations, $35,547.
Median annual wage, Nevada vs. U.S.
| Job Title | Nevada | U.S. |
| Budget Analyst | $67,330 | $76,220 |
| Financial Analyst | $76,760 | $85,660 |
| Management Analyst | $72,920 | $83,610 |
| Market Research Analyst | $57,170 | $63,120 |
| Operations Research Analyst | $82,970 | $83,390 |
Nevada wages for business analytics may lag slightly behind the U.S. as a whole, but the state offers some of the better wages in the West. For instance, outside of Hawaii, which skews the data in this case, Nevada has the fifth-highest Operations Research Analyst wage among all Western states.
Median annual wage, Operations Research Analyst, Western states
| Hawaii | $107,370 |
| California | $92,130 |
| Washington | $91,840 |
| Colorado | $84,420 |
| New Mexico | $83,170 |
| Nevada | $82,970 |
| Oregon | $80,330 |
| Arizona | $72,840 |
| Alaska | $69,570 |
| Utah | $69,210 |
| Idaho | $67,330 |
| Montana | $62,830 |
| Wyoming | — |
In addition to good wages, Nevada business analytics professionals can expect to see major increases in job openings in the coming years. For some of these jobs, Nevada is among the national leaders in growth projections. For instance, Market Research Analyst job openings are expected to increase by 10.7% for the four-year period ending in 2020; this is the highest growth rate in the nation.
Market Research Analyst short-term job opening growth rate, top 10
| Nevada | 10.7% |
| Utah | 10.6% |
| Arizona | 9.2% |
| Georgia | 8.1% |
| North Carolina | 7.8% |
| Florida | 7.8% |
| Washington | 6.9% |
| District of Columbia | 6.9% |
| Texas | 6.8% |
| California | 6.8% |
All five business analytics jobs are expected to become more common in Nevada over the next several years, and huge growth is projected through 2026 in all five job titles.
Nevada job opening growth rate, short- and long-term
| Job Title | Short-term | Long-term |
| Budget Analyst | 3.2% | 20.0% |
| Financial Analyst | 4.6% | 21.5% |
| Management Analyst | 4.7% | 25.0% |
| Market Research Analyst | 10.7% | 44.9% |
| Operations Research Analyst | 7.7% | 48.6% |
Note: Short-term 2016-2020; long-term 2016-2026
The range of salaries is broad across the state of Nevada, and in the case of all five of the jobs, there’s at least one metro area or city with a median wage that’s higher than the state’s median.
Median annual wage, Nevada vs. select cities
| Job Title | Nevada | Carson City | Las Vegas | Reno |
| Budget Analyst | $67,330 | $67,870 | $66,420 | $74,460 |
| Financial Analyst | $76,760 | — | $77,790 | $71,530 |
| Management Analyst | $72,920 | $60,780 | $74,890 | $76,400 |
| Market Research Analyst | $57,170 | $51,130 | $58,020 | $54,010 |
| Operations Research Analyst | $82,970 | — | $96,310 | — |
Nevada Business Analytics Degree Programs
Across the country, more and more business schools are embracing a curriculum focused on data science and business analytics, and the same is true here in Nevada.
Here’s a look at some of Nevada colleges and universities that offer degrees and programs in business analytics or related fields:
Business Analytics Degree Jobs in Nevada
We’ve explored the employment data behind business analytics jobs here in Nevada, but that only tells a portion of the story. The nature of slow-moving federal agencies means that while those numbers are interesting, they are already somewhat outdated. We also combed through thousands of actual job openings in Nevada in December 2019 to see what employers were looking to hire business analytics professionals.
Here are just a handful of the real-life employers:
- Renown Health
- Bridgetek Communications
- Nevada Gold Mines
- Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
- Allegiant Travel Co.
- Preferred Mortgage Services
- Las Vegas Sands Corp.
- University Medical Center of Southern Nevada
- Diamond Resorts
- Caesars Las Vegas
- American Express Global Business Travel
- Tesla
- Uplift
- S. Air Force
- University of Nevada Las Vegas
- LegalMatch
- State of Nevada
- City of Reno
Conclusion
Whether they want to get their hands dirty writing computer code or they’re more comfortable selling a good idea to others, professionals with a background in business analytics should find no shortage of exciting career opportunities. Particularly for those with advanced degrees, such as a Master of Business Analytics, the future looks bright indeed.
References
Note: Information on recent job openings was gathered from Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com in late 2019.
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economy at a Glance, Nevada. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.nv.htm
PWC/CB Insights, MoneyTree Report, Q3 2019. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/moneytree-report/assets/moneytree-report-q3-2019.pdf
U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics Query System, Custom Tables. (Undated). Accessed from https://data.bls.gov/oes/#/home
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Total Gross Domestic Product for Nevada. (2019). Retrieved from https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NVNGSP
U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, Nevada. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/NV/PST045218