Benchmarking Background Of Forecasters

BENCHMARKING BACKGROUND OF FORECASTERS By Chaman L. Jain, St. John’s University Before hiring a person it is important to specify the qualifications and background of a person that fit the job. Hiring for a forecasting position is no different. But since forecasting is a fairly new field it is not that simple. Theacademic degree, the field of concentration, and the business background of practicing forecasters will provide a guide about what is needed to do the forecasting job efficiently and effectively. BACKGROUND OF PROFESSIONAL FORECASTERS Degree Acquired: To get a handle on the background of professional forecasters, we asked three questions to the participants in our survey. (1) What is the highest academic degree you have acquired? (2) What was your major field of concentration in university? (3) What is your business background? The resulting data show that most of the forecasters have a Bachelor’s (52%) or a Master’s degree (41%). There is a very small percentage of forecasters that are just high school graduates. On the other extreme, there are very few forecasters who have a Ph.D. degree. (See Figure 1) Major Field of Study in University: The highest degree is one ...