Data analyst — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Statistical Assistants · Marketing Managers · Search Marketing Strategists · Financial Risk Specialists · Operations Research Analysts · Document Management Specialists · Clinical Data Managers · Statisticians
In the official classification#
Business Intelligence Analysts
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗Data Scientists
Fit with this page: closest match, not the same job
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 15-2051.01 (Business Intelligence Analysts). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingImportant
- Systems AnalysisImportant
- Systems EvaluationImportant
- Time ManagementImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- InstructingImportant
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
Knowledge
- Computers and ElectronicsVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- Administration and ManagementImportant
- Customer and Personal ServiceImportant
- Economics and AccountingImportant
Work activities
- Analyzing Data or InformationExtremely important
- Working with ComputersExtremely important
- Processing InformationExtremely important
- Interpreting the Meaning of Information for OthersExtremely important
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Inductive ReasoningVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- Active LearningVery important
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Interview stakeholders to identify questions or problems to address through data analysis.New task · 2026-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 5 task judgements are for: 2 backed by a verified event, 3 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.