Benchmarking salary of forecasting professionals

BENCHMARKING SALARY OF FORECASTING PROFESSIONALS By Chaman L. Jain, St. John’s University With the increasing importance of forecasts in decision-making, more and more companies are hiring professional forecasters. In our 2005 survey, 66% of the companies hired one or more full-time forecasters during the last five years. This raises a question of what is a fair and competitive compensation for a qualified professional forecaster. This survey provides the answer. OVERALL SALARY The survey categorized forecasting positions into five distinct positions: (1) Forecast Analyst, (2) Senior Forecast Analyst, (3) Forecast Manager, (4) Director of Forecasting, and (5) Vice President of Forecasting. When all the industries are combined, the median salary of a Forecast Analyst is $50,000; Senior Forecast Analyst, $66,000; Forecast Manager, $79,000; Director of Forecasting, $111,000; and Vice President of Forecasting, $161,000. (See Figure 1) The median is the point that divides the group in half: half of the group makes more than the median salary and the other half less. When analyzing salaries, the use of median is preferable over the mean (average) because the mean can be distorted ...