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The differences between economic developers and developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a developer has an average salary of $100,076, which is higher than the $51,285 average annual salary of an economic developer.
The top three skills for an economic developer include data entry, financial statements and business community. The most important skills for a developer are javascript, python, and java.
| Economic Developer | Developer | |
| Yearly salary | $51,285 | $100,076 |
| Hourly rate | $24.66 | $48.11 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 21% |
| Number of jobs | 72,804 | 262,570 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Average age | 45 | 39 |
| Years of experience | - | 4 |
While a development specialist works on creating plans for community development, the economic developer helps implement the development strategies set forth by specialists. They help in the distribution of survey questionnaires and the collection of data, as well as the interpretation of results. The economic developer also helps in business creation, retention, and expansion. They take leads in developing a private sector-public relationship in terms of funding for project implementation. They are knowledgeable and have good communication skills.
Developers are usually system or application developers in a company who work on specific projects related to networks or applications from conception to implementation. They attend planning sessions to ensure that the program is feasible. They are responsible for designing the system through coding and basic user interface design. They also work on troubleshooting any challenges that may be met at the testing stage of the program's development. They solve challenges and ensure that minimal problems will arise upon publishing the system or application. They also manage the evaluation to ensure that the program's goals are accomplished and that the end-users are satisfied with the results.
Economic developers and developers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Economic Developer | Developer | |
| Average salary | $51,285 | $100,076 |
| Salary range | Between $37,000 And $70,000 | Between $76,000 And $131,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | - |
| Highest paying state | - | Washington |
| Best paying company | - | - |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between an economic developer and a developer in terms of educational background:
| Economic Developer | Developer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 64% | Bachelor's Degree, 71% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | Harvard University | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between economic developers' and developers' demographics:
| Economic Developer | Developer | |
| Average age | 45 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7% | Male, 74.9% Female, 25.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 11.2% White, 64.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 4.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 29.8% White, 52.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 8% | 8% |