Also called: Race Caller, Election Night Analyst
Crunches live vote counts on election night to decide when it is safe for a TV network or news service to declare a winner.
For months you build models of every county's past voting. On election night you sit in a crowded room as results stream in, comparing early counts with what your models expected. When the math says a race can't flip, you recommend the call, and millions see it on screen minutes later.
Many desks hire seasonal analysts; full-time staff are few.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in statistics, political science or data science; some have a master's.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Statistics, Political Science, Data Science, Economics.
Growing about average. Small and cyclical: busiest in even-numbered years.
Medium risk for 10 years. Models do the math, but deciding when the evidence is strong enough to call a race is a high-stakes human judgment.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP Government, Computer science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-2041.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.