People with degrees in statistics can pursue a variety of careers in this field. Though statisticians with an undergraduate degree can find work in some places, those with advanced degrees are in higher demand and are often better prepared for one or more of the various positions available. Statisticians work in a variety of industries, but the most common statistics jobs are in business and industry, health care, and government agencies. In order to better prepare themselves for these various types of careers, statisticians often specialize in a specific area of statistics.
Statistics jobs can be found in a variety of fields in business and industry, including manufacturing, finance, insurance, and computer science. These statisticians may conduct studies or experiments to determine how well a new product will be received in a particular market. They may also look at trends to see if there are any potential growth areas in a company. In the insurance industry, statisticians use complex equations to develop insurance rates based on past patterns of behavior. In the business world, statisticians may create algorithms to predict which investments will be profitable.
Many statistics careers are available in the field of health and medicine. Clinical trials employ statistics to determine the efficacy of new drugs, and statisticians may be involved in both the design and interpretation of the results. They could also work in psychology, studying and quantifying various aspects of human behavior. Many of these statisticians will have specialized in medical or biological statistics, taking classes related to both of these fields, because these types of careers frequently require knowledge of both statistics and medicine or psychology.
Statisticians are used in a variety of ways by government agencies. They could be experts who provide advice or interpret data, or pollsters who determine public opinion trends. Statisticians are frequently employed in jobs that require them to make predictions based on a variety of variables, including past behavior of specific populations. Social and economic behaviors can also be statistically analyzed to see if two different events have a cause and effect relationship. Many statisticians work on projects that evaluate the current or future state of the environment in a given area, and many statisticians work on projects that evaluate the current or future state of the environment in a given area.