WA flags influx of data science jobs over next decade

The report notes Western Australia’s need for a greater number of data scientists to build on its current estimated workforce of 32,000.

The report is based on a survey of the local data science sector, with more than 90 per cent of participants highlighting the importance of data science to the future of their organisations and some expecting their data science team to double over the next five years.

This is built on the back of a 9 per cent increase in data science job advertisements from 2018 to 2019.

“Data science skills are already providing tremendous benefit to (Western Australia), whether predicting the spread of disease, distilling insights from the enormous quantities of space data coming from radio astronomy projects in the mid-west or the ongoing technological advancements in our thriving mining industry,” the Western Australian Minister for Innovation and Information and Communications Technology Dave Kelly said.

“This report reiterates the need to continue our investment in facilitating homegrown data science skills, and the need to continue working collaboratively with industry and academia to build data literacy and skills to ensure the (Western Australia) workforce is ready to capitalise on the many opportunities that data science can bring.”

Data scientists extract insights from data using scientific methods, processes and algorithms to benefit a range of sectors, including mining.

The Western Australian Government has committed $1 million in funding over four years to establish the Data Science Innovation Hub.