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Market research analyst: what the job actually is

Finding out what people want and will pay for by surveying, studying data and reporting what the evidence actually says.

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Market research analyst: quick facts

Market research analyst salary in Ontario: the median pay is $45.64 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024). Its three-year outlook in Ontario is limited. The job usually needs a university degree.

Median pay in Ontario
$45.64 an hour
Pay range (low to high)
$30.00 to $71.79 an hour
Job outlook, 2025-2027
Limited
People working in it in Ontario
13,450
Usually needs
Usually a university degree

Source: Job Bank wages (updated 19 November 2025) and job prospects (updated 10 December 2025), NOC 41402. Pay varies by region and experience.

The work

What this job actually is

  • Answering a business question with evidence: who buys this, why, how much will they pay, and what do competitors do. You collect the data, analyse it and report what it means.
  • Job Bank files this under "Business development officers and market researchers and analysts", a broad group. Pay, outlook and headcount on this page describe the whole group, which covers economic development work as well.
  • Job Bank's requirements page says a bachelor's degree in economics, commerce, business administration or public administration is required. It lists Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP) and Certified Economic Developer (Ec.D.) as certifications that may be required, and says the group is not regulated in Canada.
  • Much of the job is deciding what the data does not show. People want a clear answer, and honest research is often less clear than they hoped.
  • Compared with marketing, this is the evidence side. A marketer decides what to say. An analyst finds out whether it will work. The marketing-specialist page covers the other side.

A Tuesday

What a normal day looks like

Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.

  1. 9:00 — Open the project brief. A client wants to know whether people would pay for a new service, and by when.
  2. 9:30 — Write survey questions. The hard part is wording them so they do not push people toward an answer.
  3. 10:30 — Check the first responses coming in. Some people clicked through without reading, and you remove them.
  4. 11:30 — Meeting with the team about what the data is likely to show, and what you will not be able to say.
  5. 12:30 — Lunch.
  6. 13:15 — Clean the dataset. This is most of the job, and it is not the part anyone describes.
  7. 14:30 — Run the analysis. The result is not what the client hoped for.
  8. 15:30 — Build the charts. Every chart has to be honest and also readable in ten seconds.
  9. 16:30 — Write two paragraphs on what you found and what you cannot claim. Reread them as a sceptic would.

Honestly

Who loves this, and who should not do it

The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.

You may like this if
  • You want to know why people do what they do, and you like checking your guess against evidence.
  • You are comfortable with numbers, charts and spreadsheets, and with writing a clear paragraph about them.
  • You can tell a client something they did not want to hear without being rude about it.
  • You enjoy long stretches of careful work on a single question.
You may hate this if
  • You dislike cleaning data. A large share of the work is checking and fixing it before it is useful.
  • You want answers that are certain. Research gives probabilities and caveats.
  • You do not want a university degree. Job Bank says a bachelor's is required for this group.
  • You dislike deadlines set by someone else's decision. Research is often wanted before a launch or a meeting.
  • Job Bank rates this group's outlook as limited, so the competition for openings can be strong.

The route in

How you actually get there in Ontario

  1. Pick a degree

    Job Bank's requirements page says a bachelor's degree in economics, commerce, business administration or public administration is required. You can search programs at ouinfo.ca.

  2. Build the skills alongside the degree

    Statistics, spreadsheets, writing and presenting are what the work uses. Co-op or summer placements in marketing, research or business teams are the usual way to get experience.

  3. Consider a professional certification

    Job Bank lists the Certified Marketing Research Professional (CMRP) and the Certified Economic Developer (Ec.D.) as certifications that may be required. Treat them as optional extras to look into, not a gate: this page did not read the bodies that award them.

  4. Start in a junior role

    Many people begin as a research or marketing assistant or analyst and build up. Job Bank does not set out a ladder for this group, so ask people in the field.

Where this comes from: Job Bank — Business development officers and market researchers and analysts requirements (Ontario) · Ontario Universities INFO — program search

The money

Market research analyst salary in Ontario

Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.

$30.00
Low (hourly)
$45.64
Median (hourly)
$71.79
High (hourly)

Ontario, NOC 41402. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.

Source: Job Bank — Market research analyst wages in Ontario

Where it is heading

The outlook for the next three years

Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.

Ontario, 2025-2027

Limited2 out of 5 stars

  • Employment growth will lead to a few new positions.
  • Several positions will become available due to retirements.
  • There are several unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.

13,450
people work in this job in Ontario
46%
are women (48% across all jobs)
13%
are self-employed (15% across all jobs)

Source: Job Bank — Business development officers and market researchers and analysts job prospects in Ontario (NOC 41402). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.

Before you leave school

Things you can do now

  • Take the senior maths, data management and business courses you can. Ask your guidance counsellor which ones fit your timetable.
  • Run a real survey at school: a short, fair one with ten answers or more, and write up what you found.
  • Learn a spreadsheet properly. Sorting, filtering and charting are everyday tools in this work.
  • Join a business or marketing club or competition if your school has one, and take the research role on the team.

Test it

Do this before you decide anything

Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.

Run a ten-question survey and report it honestly

About 120 minutes
  1. Pick a question you want answered, such as which lunch the school should serve or whether classmates would use a new app, and write ten short, neutral questions.
  2. Ask at least twenty people, using a free form or paper, and put the answers in a spreadsheet.
  3. Clean it: remove blanks, spot odd answers, count what is left.
  4. Write one paragraph of what the data says and one of what it cannot tell you, then show it to somebody sceptical.

What it tells you. If you enjoyed finding the pattern and writing what was uncertain, then analytical research might suit you. If the cleaning dragged and the caveats felt like a letdown, the job will have more of both than you would like.

Better than any article

Questions for somebody who does this job

Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.

  1. “What question are you trying to answer right now?”
  2. “How much of your week is cleaning data, and how much is analysing it?”
  3. “What do you do when the results are not what the client wanted?”
  4. “Which degree and courses actually helped the most?”
  5. “Is a certification like the CMRP worth it in practice?”
  6. “What would you tell someone starting out about how to get a first job?”

Could you own one of these?

The part other career sites never mention

Yes, as independent consulting or a small research firm, and Job Bank reports a share of this group as self-employed. You need clients, a track record and the discipline of quoting and invoicing, which usually come from some years working for someone else first.

Business 101 is free and teaches that part

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this job

How much does a market research analyst make in Ontario?

The median pay for a market research analyst in Ontario is $45.64 an hour, according to Job Bank (reference period 2023-2024, updated 19 November 2025). The range Job Bank publishes runs from $30.00 to $71.79 an hour. Pay varies by region, employer and experience.

What is the job outlook for a market research analyst in Ontario?

Job Bank rates the employment outlook for this work in Ontario as limited for 2025-2027 (updated 10 December 2025). Employment growth will lead to a few new positions. Several positions will become available due to retirements. There are several unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation. A lower rating means more competition for each opening, not that no one is hiring.

What do you need to become a market research analyst in Ontario?

Job Bank says this work usually needs a university degree. The usual route in Ontario, in order: Pick a degree; Build the skills alongside the degree; Consider a professional certification.

How many people work as a market research analyst in Ontario, and how many are women?

Job Bank counts about 13,450 people working in this job in Ontario. 46% of them are women, compared with 48% across all jobs. That describes who does the work today, not who can.

Not sure this is the right list to be reading

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Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.

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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.