Business and finance

Market Research Analyst in the United States

35 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 35 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

Bachelor's DegreeAccredited institution
17%
6 of 35 postingsAccredited institution →
Master's DegreeAccredited institution
6%
2 of 35 postingsAccredited institution →
CFA Level ICFA Institute
3%
1 of 35 postings$1,290 exam · fee checked 2026-08~300 hrs prepCFA Institute →
CPAAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy
3%
1 of 35 postings$1,500 exam · fee checked 2026-08~400 hrs prepAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy →

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own

$1,290CFA Level I · ~300 hrs

asked for in 1 of 35 postings — 3%

If you earned all 2 of them

$2,790

fees checked 2026-08

700 hrs

700 hours — over a year at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution; Master's Degree — cost varies by institution.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job

57%reported bachelor’s degree

Bachelor’s degree57%
Master’s degree39%
Post-baccalaureate certificate4%

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

O*NET 13-1161.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$43,390

10th percentile

$78,760

median

$155,480

90th percentile

Every credential above costs $2,790 — about 9 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

NielsenIQ · Collabera · AccuWeather · Braze · Culture Amp · Current · Datadog · Fanatics Commerce · FanDuel · Fivetran · Infojini Inc · Klaviyo · Lyft · Rocket Money · Supabase · Twilio · Wynn Resorts