Ranked: Infographic of the Fortune 500 with the Most Data Scientists

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Concentration of Data Scientists

It can be helpful to understand where data science talent is concentrated across the US for a variety of reasons. For instance, it can be quite useful from a business planning perspective, for those who wish to take a data-driven approach to engage with this market. 

It may come as little surprise that the overwhelming majority of data science activity is concentrated within the technology sector, which employs more data scientists than at least the next seven leading sectors combined! And the financial sector is very much the clear runner up after technology, as it employs about as many data scientists as the next two sectors below it (retailing & healthcare) combined.

Meanwhile, even the top five companies of the Fortune 500 for various other sectors are lucky to have a single data scientist on their payroll. Clearly this is a highly skewed distribution of data science activity. What this also means, is that for all the AI hype these days, the overwhelming majority of the companies and brands we recognize and rely upon are just barely getting started with their data science practices.

As I’ve seen first-hand, they’re often at the stage where they’re just starting to become data literate, and are years away from deploying their first machine learning model into automated production. There are many reasons for this, only three of which I touched on in a previous post, The Top 3 Challenges to Operationalize Machine Learning. A topic I’ll further explore in future posts.

And what’s not shown in the infographic, is that a whopping 84 companies of the Fortune 500 don’t seem to have a single data scientist on their payroll. And 47 of them only have a single data scientist in-house! It’s early days folks.

Market Research Methodology

Fortune 500 list of companies for 2020 including their sectors 

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LinkedIn search for “Data Scientist” as the root phrase for current job title for each of the Fortune 500 

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Infographic of Fortune 500 Companies with the Most Data Scientists

Data Scientist Distribution Across Fortune 500

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Top 5 Companies in Each Fortune 500 Sector: Ranked by the Number of Data Scientists on LinkedIn

#1 — TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

44% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. IBM: 2,000+

2. Microsoft: 1,500+

3. Facebook: 1,000+

4. Booz Allen Hamilton: 603

5. Alphabet: 575

#2 — FINANCIALS SECTOR

15% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Capital One: 459

2. JPMorgan Chase: 292

3. Allstate: 193

4. Citigroup: 184

5. American Express: 184

#3 — RETAILING SECTOR

9% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Amazon: 965

2. Expedia: 151

3. Wayfair: 141

4. Walmart: 138

5. Target: 128

#4 — HEALTH CARE SECTOR

8% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. UnitedHealth: 459

2. IQVIA: 184

3. Humana: 142

4. Johnson & Johnson: 129

5. Pfizer: 118

#5 — BUSINESS SERVICES SECTOR

4% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. PayPal: 331

2. Visa: 166

3. ADP: 72

4. Mastercard: 67

5. Alliance Data Systems: 36

#6 — INDUSTRIALS SECTOR

3% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. General Electric: 236

2. Caterpillar: 153

3. Deere: 102

4. Honeywell: 89

5. Cummins: 29

#7 — ENERGY SECTOR

3% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. PG&E: 165

2. Chevron: 82

3. Exxon Mobil: 81

4. Duke Energy: 42

5. Halliburton: 42

#8 — TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR

3% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Verizon: 274

2. AT&T: 172

3. Comcast: 75

4. Lumen: 45

5. Charter: 39

#9 — MOTOR VEHICLES & PARTS SECTOR

2% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Ford: 302

2. General Motors: 93

3. Tesla: 50

4. Goodyear: 22

5. Autoliv: 3

#10 — AEROSPACE & DEFENSE SECTOR

2% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Boeing: 145

2. Northrup Grumman: 111

3. Lockheed Martin: 91

4. General Dynamics: 35

5. Raytheon: 21

#11 — FOOD, BEVERAGE, & TOBACCO SECTOR

2% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. PepsiCo: 65

2. Philip Morris: 57

3. Corteva: 43

4. General Mills: 36

5. Mondelez: 30

#12 — TRANSPORTATION SECTOR

1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. C.H. Robinson: 40

2. UPS: 35

3. XPO Logistics: 33

4. Delta Air Lines: 29

5. Southwest Airlines: 29

#13 — HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS SECTOR

1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Procter & Gamble: 165

2. Stanley Black & Decker: 26

3. Kimberly-Clark: 14

4. Colgate-Palmolive: 10

5. Newell Brands: 9

#14 — MEDIA SECTOR

1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Netflix: 96

2. Disney: 59

3. ViacomCBS: 18

4. Discovery: 11

5. Activision Blizzard: 8

#15 — APPAREL SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Nike: 111

2. Levi Strauss: 17

3. VF: 14

4. PVH: 7

5. Ralph Lauren: 5

#16 — CHEMICALS SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. 3M: 52

2. Dow: 16

3. Ecolab: 14

4. Dupont: 13

5. Air Products & Chemicals: 10

#17 — HOTELS, RESTAURANTS, & LEISURE SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Starbucks: 51

2. McDonald’s: 20

3. Marriott: 14

4. Hilton: 9

5. MGM Resorts: 3

#18 — WHOLESALERS SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Grainger: 29

2. Sysco: 17

3. Arrow Electronics: 12

4. Tech Data: 11

5. US Foods: 7

#19 — ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Jacobs: 23

2. AECOM: 12

3. Fluor: 7

4. Kiewit: 2

5. Lennar: 1

#20 — FOOD & DRUG STORES SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Walgreens: 16

2. Kroger: 10

3. Albertsons: 8

4. Publix: 3

5. Rite Aid: 1

#21 — MATERIALS SECTOR

<1% of Data Scientists in the Fortune 500

TOP 5 Companies (by number of Data Scientists)

1. Westrock: 8

2. International Paper: 7

3. Ball: 7

4. Alcoa: 4

5. United States Steel: 2

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