2021 Research Computing and Data Workforce Survey

The CaRCC Research Computing and Data (RCD) Professionalization working group conducted a survey of RCD professionals in summer 2021.  The visualizations below present the results of that survey.

Survey questions are available at: DOI

The survey received 563 valid, unique responses that were included in the analysis; 539 respondents are currently employed in a position with RCD responsibilities.  452 respondents work for an academic institution.  For context, the professionalization working group estimates there are at least 5,000 RCD professionals working at academic institutions.

Results regarding the workforce demographics are published in: Christina Maimone, Scott Yockel, Timothy Middelkoop, Ashley Stauffer, and Chris Reidy. 2022. Characterizing the US Research Computing and Data (RCD) Workforce. In Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC ’22), July 10–14, 2022, Boston, MA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 7 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491418.3530289

Data is available at: DOI

Result regarding compensation is published in: Christina Maimone, Carrie Brown, Kimberly Grash, Chris Reidy, and Ashley Stauffer. 2023. Compensation of Academic Research Computing and Data Professionals. In Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 145–152. https://doi.org/10.1145/3569951.3593599

Data is available at: DOI

Data visualizations are licensed CC BY-NC-SA (attribution is already part of the image files), or download the data and create your own.

Additional data from the survey is still being analyzed. 

Demographics

  • Bar plot of age
  • Bar plot of race/ethnicity distribution
  • Bar plot of gender distribution
  • Bar plot of sexual orientation distribution
  • Bar plot of disability status
  • Bar plot of US residency status

Download Chart: Age | Race/Ethn. | Gender | Sex.Orient. | Disability | U.S. Res.

Education

  • Bar plot of educational attainment
  • Bar plot of education fields of RCD professionals
  • Bar plot of reported relevance of education field to current position
  • Bar plot of how related education is to current position by education field

Download Chart: Edu. Dist. | Edu. Fields | Edu. Fields: PhDs | Rel. to Pos. | Rel. to Pos. by Field

Work Experience

  • Histogram of years of work experience
  • Histogram of years of RCD experience
  • Histogram of proportion of work experience in the RCD field

Download Chart: Work Exp. Yrs | RCD Work Exp. Yrs | RCD Work Exp. % | Exp. by Pos.

Current Position

Bar plot of distribution of RCD professionals' employer types

Download Chart: Employer Type

Experience with RCD Field and Position​

  • Bar Plot: Included in RCD Field
  • Bar Chart of Inclusion by Group
  • Bar Plot: Future in RCD Field
  • Bar Plot: Opportunities
  • Bar Plot: Satisfaction with RCD Field
  • Bar Plot: Recommend Current Position
  • Bar Plot: Last Applied Another Position

Download Chart: Feel Welcome | Welcome by Groups | Have Future | Opportunities | Satisfied w/ Field | Satisfied w/ Pos. | Recommend | Applied | Valued