????雖然美國失業率持續在高位徘徊（7月份為9.1%），但技術界產生了一種新銳的需要高超技能的職位：數據科學家，各公司都在大力網羅此類人才。

????數據科學家幫助各公司理解其每日搜集的海量數據信息，從內部作出的銷售報告，到客戶發布的Twitter消息，無所不包。數據科學家們需要獲取、分類整理并弄清哪些數據是有用的，他們需要同時扮演統計學家、鑒證專員以及黑客的角色。數據存儲公司EMC負責營銷的副總裁理查德?斯內稱：“數據科學家不會僅僅看一個數據集就停止挖掘。他們需要找出數據背后的事實真相，然后向商業決策者們解釋這些事實。”

????谷歌（Google）和亞馬遜（Amazon）等網絡公司常年設置有這個職位。但近來包括沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）和地理定位網站Foursquare在內的各類機構都在招聘能分析全部數據并提供情報，幫助優化商業決策或新產品的計算機科學專家。舉例來說，希拉里?梅森是網址縮略服務提供商Bitly的首席科學家，他在幫助該公司將其海量數據打包進一個度量工具，Bitly的客戶可以利用該工具跟蹤了解自己的內容在網上進展如何。

????EMC今年5月在拉斯維加斯召開了首屆數據科學家峰會（有300人參加），此后，數據科學就變得異常火爆起來。該行業擁有不少業內博客，Bitly的梅森創建的Dataists.com就是其中之一。斯坦福大學（Stanford University）開辦的數據挖掘課程現在也很熱門，去年超過120名學生注冊了這門課。5年前該課程首次開放時，僅僅招攬到20名學生。

????數據挖掘課程任課老師安娜得?拉賈羅曼稱：“你能從中看到大規模數據挖掘的發展情況以及大家的興趣。許多公司都需要這樣的人才，如果學生能學會這些技能，他們將非常搶手。”拉賈羅曼是沃爾瑪實驗室（@WalmartLabs）的負責人。該實驗室隸屬于沃爾瑪，目前正在尋找途徑，利用電子商務數據為沃爾瑪零售店增加移動和社交購物功能。

????雖然目前無人知曉業界究竟有多少數據科學家，也沒人清楚還需要多少，但大家一致認為，對該職業的需求將會非常強勁。最近麥肯錫全球研究所（McKinsey Global Institute）發布報告稱，到2018年，美國市場對擁有數據分析技能人才的需求缺口將達19萬人。商務社交網站LinkedIn產品負責人迪普?尼沙爾稱：“目前市場上招聘數據工程師的難度已經超過搜索工程師。”數據科學家的工作量顯然很大：IDC預計，到今年年底，個人消費者及公司將創造1.8千萬億兆字節（zettabytes）（1千萬億兆字節相當于1萬億千兆字節）數字信息。沒有人能忽略如此海量的數據。

????譯者：項航

????The unemployment rate in the U.S. continues to be abysmal (9.1% in July), but the tech world has spawned a new kind of highly skilled, nerdy-cool job that companies are scrambling to fill: data scientist.

????A data scientist helps companies make sense of the massive streams of digital information they collect every day, everything from internally generated sales reports to customer tweets. The gig which requires the specialist to capture, sort, and figure out what data are relevant is one part statistician, one part forensic scientist, and one part hacker. "A data scientist doesn't only look at one data set and then stop digging," says Richard Snee, a vice president of marketing at EMC (EMC), the data-storage company. "They need to find nuggets of truth in data and then explain it to the business leaders."

????Data scientists have been a fixture at online companies like Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) for years. But these days organizations as diverse as Wal-Mart (WMT) and Foursquare are hiring computer science experts who can analyze all their data and provide intelligence that leads to better business decisions or new products. At Bitly, the URL-shortening service, for example, chief scientist Hilary Mason is helping the company package some of its massive volume of data into a measurement tool that Bitly customers can use to track how their content is faring online.

????Data science has become such a hot field that EMC convened the first-ever data scientist summit in Las Vegas in May (300 people attended). The profession has its own blogs, including Dataists.com, founded by Bitly's Mason. And Stanford University's course on data mining is packed: More than 120 students registered last year; when it was first offered five years ago, just 20 signed up.

????"That shows you the growth and interest in large-scale data mining," says course instructor Anand Rajaraman, who also runs @WalmartLabs, a division of Wal-Mart that is looking at ways to use e-commerce data to add mobile and social shopping features at its retail locations. "Companies want these people, and they become more attractive if they learn the skills."

????No one currently tracks exactly how many data scientists there are, or how many will be needed, but by all accounts demand will be high. A recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute says that by 2018 the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 190,000 workers with analytical skills. "Data engineers are already harder to find than search engineers, and that's a sign of the times," says Deep Nishar, head of product at LinkedIn (LNKD). There's certainly plenty for data scientists to work with: IDC estimates consumers and companies will create 1.8 zettabytes (equal to a trillion gigabytes) of digital information by the end of the year. And that's a data point too big to ignore.