# Computer Systems Analysts

US SOC code 15-1211. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/15-1211

Also called: Systems analyst, Business systems analyst, IT systems analyst, Sr systems analyst, Senior systems analyst.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **519,530** US computer systems analysts, with median pay of **$105,850** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is [a Census count](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/occ1970.shtml) of **100,000** from 1970, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for computer systems analysts: Cloud platforms and SaaS integration, 2015 to 2022.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 7.9% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=15-1211&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **47.1%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

## Computer Systems Analysts employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1963
- Latest US employment: 519,530 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $105,850 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [15]
- Outlook: +7.9% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [36]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **Canada** (NOC 21222)
  - Employment, 2020: 131,890. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [8]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 21222 Information systems specialists, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
  - Median pay, 2020: C$89,000. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [19]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 21222 Information systems specialists, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.
- **United Kingdom** (UK SOC 2133)
  - Employment, 2025: 168,000. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [11]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14): employee jobs in SOC 2133 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, United Kingdom, 2025 (ASHE "number of jobs", thousands x1000; excludes self-employment). Open Government Licence v3.0.
  - Median pay, 2025: £59,593. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [22]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14.7a): median gross annual pay for all employee jobs in SOC 2133 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, United Kingdom, 2025. Open Government Licence v3.0.
- **Australia** (ANZSCO 2611)
  - Employment, 2025: 45,800. Source: ABS Labour Force Survey [12]. ABS Labour Force Survey (Detailed), table EQ08: employed persons in ANZSCO 2611 ICT Business and Systems Analysts, national (summed across sex and state/territory), annual average of 4 quarterly estimates.
  - Median pay, 2025: A$140,244. Source: ABS Employee Earnings May 2025 [23]. Annualised (x52) from A$2,697 median weekly earnings. ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025: median pay for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, before tax. Surfaced via the Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profile.

### All 11 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1970 | 100,000 | n/a | Decennial Census 1970 [1] |
| 1980 | 243,000 | n/a | BLS CPS 1981 [2] |
| 1990 | 455,000 | $37,000 | Decennial Census 1990 (employment) [3]; BLS historical bulletin (pay) [13] |
| 2000 | 463,300 | $57,000 | BLS OEWS 2000 (employment) [4]; BLS historical bulletin (pay) [14] |
| 2019 | 589,060 | $90,920 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 574,450 | $93,730 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 505,150 | $99,270 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 505,210 | $102,240 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 498,810 | $103,800 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 497,800 | $103,790 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 519,530 | $105,850 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (76)

### Employment series

1. [IPUMS USA — Occupation and Industry Codes, 1970 Census: computer specialists classification (OCC 1970 code 003)](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/occ1970.shtml), IPUMS / University of Minnesota
2. [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1982-83 Edition (Bulletin 2200), computer-occupations chapter (same data reprinted as BLS Bulletin 2101, 'Employment Trends in Computer Occupations', Oct 1981): systems analysts employment reported at 243,000 in 1980.](https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/occupational-outlook-handbook-3964/occupational-outlook-handbook-1982-83-edition-530767/fulltext), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. [US Census Bureau EEO Supplementary Reports — 1990 Census of Population: occupation "computer systems analysts and scientists" (EEO-1 occupation group)](https://www.census.gov/topics/employment/equal-employment-opportunity-tabulation/about.html), US Census Bureau
4. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
6. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
7. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
8. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada
9. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2135, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip)
10. [ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2133, United Kingdom, 2022. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), Office for National Statistics
11. [ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2133, United Kingdom, 2025. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip), Office for National Statistics
12. [ABS: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, table EQ08 (Employed persons by Occupation unit group, ANZSCO 2013), latest release](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release), Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Wage series

13. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook 1990-91 edition (via FRASER) — computer systems analysts earnings: ~$37,000](https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/occupational-outlook-handbook-3964), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (FRASER, St. Louis Fed)
14. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook 2002-03 edition (via FRASER) — computer systems analysts: median annual earnings ~$57,000](https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/occupational-outlook-handbook-3964/occupational-outlook-handbook-2002-03-edition-583138), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (FRASER, St. Louis Fed)
15. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
16. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
17. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
18. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
19. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada
20. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2135, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip)
21. [ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2133, United Kingdom, 2022. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), Office for National Statistics
22. [ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 2133, United Kingdom, 2025. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip), Office for National Statistics
23. [Jobs and Skills Australia: ICT Business and Systems Analysts (ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025)](https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/data/occupation-and-industry-profiles/occupations/2611-ict-business-and-systems-analysts), Jobs and Skills Australia / Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Tool eras

24. [Miami University CEC — "Systems Analysis: An Early History of Computing at Miami" (1963 program founding, paper-based design methods)](https://web.archive.org/web/20210117125127/https://www.miamioh.edu/cec/news/2017/08/systems-analysis-history.html), Miami University
25. [IBM — "The IBM System/360": the mainframe platform that created demand for business systems analysts in the 1960s](https://www.ibm.com/history/system-360), IBM
26. [Wikipedia — Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM): background on DeMarco, Yourdon, and DFD methodology development from 1979](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_systems_analysis_and_design_method), Wikipedia
27. [IEEE Annals of the History of Computing — "Software in the 1960s" (context for structured methods emergence)](https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/SoftwareIn60s.pdf), IEEE
28. [Wikipedia — Enterprise resource planning (history section): SAP R/3 client-server launch 1992, 1990s ERP wave in Fortune 500](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning), Wikipedia
29. [Wikipedia — Agile software development (history section): Agile Manifesto 2001, Scrum methodology, impact on requirements practices](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development), Wikipedia
30. [Wikipedia — Representational state transfer (REST): Roy Fielding 2000 dissertation, REST API proliferation and integration impact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST), Wikipedia
31. [Wikipedia — MuleSoft: Salesforce acquisition for $6.5 billion in 2018; context for iPaaS market growth and SaaS integration workload](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MuleSoft), Wikipedia
32. [Gartner — 40% of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents by end of 2026 (context: SaaS platform evolution)](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-08-26-gartner-predicts-40-percent-of-enterprise-apps-will-feature-task-specific-ai-agents-by-2026-up-from-less-than-5-percent-in-2025), Gartner
33. [SAP Sapphire 2026 — SAP unveils Autonomous Enterprise: 40+ Joule agents, 2,400+ Joule Skills across S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, Ariba, Analytics Cloud](https://news.sap.com/2026/05/sap-sapphire-sap-unveils-autonomous-enterprise/), SAP
34. [ArgonDigital — "How We Use AI to Write Requirements": approximately 50% reduction in document creation time; human validation still essential (2025)](https://argondigital.com/blog/general/how-we-use-ai-to-write-requirements/), ArgonDigital
35. [BLS National Employment Matrix 2024-2034: 15-1211 Computer Systems Analysts projected 8.7% growth, from 521,100 to 566,500](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=15-1211&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Forecasts and exposure studies

36. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 15-1211 Computer systems analysts (2025: 544.4 thousand; 2035: 587.2 thousand; +7.9%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=15-1211&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
37. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 15-1211.00, human-rated β 0.471)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

38. [Miami University CEC — "Systems Analysis: An Early History of Computing at Miami" (1963 program founding)](https://web.archive.org/web/20210117125127/https://www.miamioh.edu/cec/news/2017/08/systems-analysis-history.html), Miami University
39. [IBM History — "The IBM System/360": mainframe announcement April 7, 1964; creation of the IBM Systems Engineer role](https://www.ibm.com/history/system-360), IBM
40. [Wikipedia — Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method: Tom DeMarco "Structured Analysis" 1979, DFD notation, and its impact on the analyst profession](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_systems_analysis_and_design_method), Wikipedia
41. [Wikipedia — Enterprise resource planning: SAP R/3 client-server 1992 launch; ERP wave employment impact on systems analysts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning), Wikipedia
42. [Wikipedia — Year 2000 problem (Y2K): remediation effort scale, end-of-project employment effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem), Wikipedia
43. [Wikipedia — Sarbanes-Oxley Act: signed July 30, 2002; SOX IT compliance requirements drove sustained demand for systems analysts from 2002-2005](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes%E2%80%93Oxley_Act), Wikipedia
44. [BLS — 2018 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system: computer occupations revisions, new code 15-1211](https://www.bls.gov/soc/2018/soc_structure_2018.pdf), Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Predecessors & successors

45. [RAND Corporation — INFORMS history: RAND pioneered systems analysis and OR in the 1950s-60s, seeding the civilian corporate analyst role](https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Non-Academic-Institutions/RAND-Corporation), INFORMS

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Computer Systems Analysts (15-1211.00): tasks, wages $103,790, employment 521,100, growth 7%+](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1211.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Gartner — 40% of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents by end of 2026, up from less than 5% in 2025](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-08-26-gartner-predicts-40-percent-of-enterprise-apps-will-feature-task-specific-ai-agents-by-2026-up-from-less-than-5-percent-in-2025), accessed 2026-05-24
- [SAP Sapphire 2026 — Autonomous Enterprise keynote: 40+ Joule agents, 2,400+ Joule Skills; Joule Studio no-code agent builder GA](https://news.sap.com/2026/05/sap-sapphire-sap-unveils-autonomous-enterprise/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Salesforce Agentforce 2026 — CRM automation guide: pre-built agent templates for sales, service, marketing, commerce deployed without-human-intervention](https://www.digitalapplied.com/blog/salesforce-agentforce-2026-crm-automation-guide), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Atlassian Rovo — AI agents in Jira generate PRDs in Confluence, break them into epics/issues, support devs through execution (2026)](https://www.atlassian.com/software/rovo), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Celonis — Forrester Wave: Process Intelligence Software, Q3 2025 Leader; MCP server for process intelligence feeds AI agents with operational context](https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/04/celonis-feeds-ai-agents-process-intelligence-data-enhance-operational-context/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [ArgonDigital — How We Use AI to Write Requirements: ~50% reduction in document creation time, AI extracts requirements from interviews and notes (2025)](https://argondigital.com/blog/general/how-we-use-ai-to-write-requirements/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Jama Software — Leveraging AI in Requirements Management: NLP extracts requirements from emails, meeting notes, and documents automatically (2026)](https://www.jamasoftware.com/blog/leveraging-artificial-intelligence-in-requirements-management/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Prolifics — SAP Joule Agentic AI 2026: autonomous ERP agents for cash reconciliation (80% manual time reduction), production planning, procurement](https://prolifics.ai/resource-center/blog/sap-joule-agentic-ai), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of LLMs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [McKinsey State of AI 2025 — AI agents moving from hype to utility in software engineering and operations; workflow redesign is the critical bottleneck](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Celonis — Forrester Wave: Process Intelligence Software Q3 2025 Leader; platform auto-discovers process execution from event logs, identifies bottlenecks, surfaces remediation actions in real time](https://www.celonis.com/blog/ai-enhanced-process-mining), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Lucidchart — AI-assisted diagram generation from prompts, AI-powered refinement for process maps and structured business diagrams (2026)](https://www.lucidchart.com/pages), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Atlassian Rovo — Agents in Jira help generate PRDs in Confluence, break them into epics and issues in Jira, then support devs through execution (2026)](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/ai), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Atlassian — Rovo provides business analysts with requirement breakdowns and structured documentation; integrates with 50+ third-party tools including GitHub, Google Drive, Slack](https://support.atlassian.com/rovo/docs/agents/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Atlassian Rovo — Product Requirements Guide agent helps create or review PRDs so teams establish clear requirements faster (2026)](https://www.atlassian.com/software/rovo/use-cases/agent-product-requirements-expert), accessed 2026-05-24

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.