Forecasting analyst vs production analyst

The differences between forecasting analysts and production analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a forecasting analyst and a production analyst. Additionally, a forecasting analyst has an average salary of $69,708, which is higher than the $65,302 average annual salary of a production analyst.

The top three skills for a forecasting analyst include supply chain, SQL and data analysis. The most important skills for a production analyst are data entry, financial analysis, and windows.

Forecasting analyst vs production analyst overview

	Forecasting Analyst	Production Analyst
Yearly salary	$69,708	$65,302
Hourly rate	$33.51	$31.40
Growth rate	19%	19%
Number of jobs	31,811	75,978
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Average age	37	37
Years of experience	6	6

What does a forecasting analyst do?

A forecasting analyst is responsible for predicting a business's future production and financial condition by analyzing the company's current data statistics. Forecasting analysts evaluate the company's sales performance, inventory levels, production speed, and turnaround time of deliverables. They also study the latest industry trends, identifying business opportunities from consumer demands and interests to develop revenue resources to maintain the business' financial stability. A forecasting analyst must have excellent communication and analytical skills, especially on creating report models and finance measurement accuracy.

What does a production analyst do?

Production Analysts help manage the production flow of a company's goods or data. They are responsible for optimizing labor cost, volume, and efficiency of production, ensuring quality assurance, correcting equipment failure and hardware problem as well as monitoring production process proactively improving from slowdowns or bottlenecks. They also coordinate employee training or retraining on software or controls to improve efficiency. Production Analysts work with other teams to estimate production runs within the manufacturing or data process. They create production reports for customers and management.

Forecasting analyst vs production analyst salary

Forecasting analysts and production analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Forecasting Analyst	Production Analyst
Average salary	$69,708	$65,302
Salary range	Between $53,000 And $90,000	Between $46,000 And $90,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Washington	Washington
Best paying company	Apple	Apple
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Finance

Differences between forecasting analyst and production analyst education

There are a few differences between a forecasting analyst and a production analyst in terms of educational background:

	Forecasting Analyst	Production Analyst
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 65%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Forecasting analyst vs production analyst demographics

Here are the differences between forecasting analysts' and production analysts' demographics:

	Forecasting Analyst	Production Analyst
Average age	37	37
Gender ratio	Male, 55.3% Female, 44.7%	Male, 57.2% Female, 42.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 12.7% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.4% Asian, 11.0% White, 66.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between forecasting analyst and production analyst duties and responsibilities

Forecasting analyst example responsibilities.

Manage National/Global RFP project process by creating pricing models and coordinating pricing efforts of different ManpowerGroup brands.
Enter sales and freight information in company ERP software program.
Work with logistics to track shipments to distribution center and ensure customer delivery dates are met.
Develop and execute the POS and inventory forecasts and analysis for mass merchants and national /international sales accounts.
Create promotional, POS, & inventory reports for both domestic and international accounts and submit to company each week.
Utilize Nielsen data to create category reviews, new product presentations, and attend customer meetings to support customer category managers.

Production analyst example responsibilities.

Manage and order raw material inventory for active production work orders utilizing MRP system in JD Edwards.
Manage and control the mainframe and peripheral data processing infrastructure.
Manage and successfully deliver multiple customer migration efforts to allow processing moves from mainframe environments to client/server environments.
Create, run and troubleshoot UNIX and Perl scripts to prepare and process data from client hard drives.
Used OMEGAMON to investigate any potential contention or resource problem in IMS, CICS or the MVS system.
Establish new accounts, process contracts, invoices, payroll, handle all petty cash and expense reports for the shows.

Forecasting analyst vs production analyst skills

Common forecasting analyst skills

Supply Chain, 9%
SQL, 9%
Data Analysis, 7%
Strong Analytical, 6%
SAS, 5%
Demand Planning, 5%

Common production analyst skills

Data Entry, 8%
Financial Analysis, 7%
Windows, 7%
Strong Analytical, 6%
Troubleshoot, 6%
Production Process, 5%

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Forecasting Analyst
Forecasting Analyst vs Production Analyst

Updated January 8, 2025

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