Budget Analyst
Budget Analyst scores just 6/100 on this site's structural exposure measure, one of the lowest readings on this site, reflecting how closely budget review and variance analysis resemble the structured, data-heavy work current AI systems are built to handle.
We have not ingested real-world usage data for this occupation yet. We show a band only where genuine data exists, rather than estimate one.
What a budget analyst actually does
Budget analysts examine budget estimates and proposals for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with laws and regulations, then analyze past and current budgets to develop future funding recommendations. Most work for government agencies (federal, state, and local), universities, or corporate finance departments managing internal budgets, reviewing spending requests from individual departments, consolidating them into an organization-wide budget, and tracking spending against approved levels throughout the year.
The job blends technical analysis with real institutional negotiation: a budget analyst has to explain funding decisions to department heads who wanted more money than they received, justify recommendations to senior leadership or elected officials, and navigate competing priorities across an organization with genuinely limited resources.
Analysts also monitor spending for legal and regulatory compliance, prepare reports summarizing budget status, and often testify or present directly to oversight bodies, particularly in government settings where public budget hearings are a routine part of the job.
Why it reads this way
Budget Analyst scores just 6/100 on this site's structural exposure measure, one of the lowest readings on this site, reflecting how closely budget review and variance analysis resemble the structured, data-heavy work current AI systems are built to handle.
This is disclosed honestly rather than minimized: no mandatory license protects this occupation (the Certified Government Financial Manager credential is a real, respected voluntary credential, not a legal requirement), so the verdict doesn't rest on a licensing wall the way some Safe-framed roles on this site do.
What holds the verdict up instead is genuine, current evidence that real-world AI deployment in this exact field remains shallow and concentrated on transactional tasks rather than the judgment-heavy funding-recommendation core of the job.
Industry survey data from 2025-2026 is consistent: Deloitte found only 21% of finance leaders report measurable AI ROI and just 14% have fully integrated AI agents; Bain found only 15-25% of CFOs have scaled AI across finance functions; and an FP&A Trends survey found 58% of financial-planning professionals report not using AI at all.
The one real, named, quantified case study found, a McKinsey-documented deployment at an unnamed global pharmaceutical company, reduced FP&A transactional activity by 30% and operating expenditure by 15%, real and worth disclosing honestly, but that reduction targeted variance-explanation and data-crunching work specifically, not the institutional negotiation, compliance judgment, and funding-recommendation work that makes up the core of a budget analyst's role, and no evidence was found of this translating to headcount reduction.
No named layoffs at government, university, or corporate budget offices tied to AI adoption were found in 2025 or 2026. BLS projects slower-than-average growth (1-2%, 2024-2034), a real, disclosed headwind that reflects aggregate hiring/turnover-replacement demand rather than automation displacement specifically.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$62,250–$136,660
Average: $91,640/yr
Range source: O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data via BLS OEWS, SOC 13-2031.00 'Budget Analysts'
Average source: O*NET OnLine 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage) for Budget Analysts (13-2031.00)
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Budget Analyst scores just 6/100, one of the lowest structural readings on this site, and no mandatory license protects the occupation (CGFM is a real but voluntary credential), disclosed honestly. What holds the verdict up is genuine, current evidence that real-world AI deployment in FP&A/budgeting remains shallow: 2025-2026 industry surveys (Deloitte, Bain, FP&A Trends) consistently show only 14-25% of organizations have scaled AI in finance functions, and 58% of FP&A professionals report not using AI at all. The one real, quantified case study found (McKinsey, an unnamed pharmaceutical company) reduced transactional FP&A activity by 30%, but not the judgment-heavy funding-recommendation and institutional-negotiation core of this role, and no evidence of resulting headcount reduction was found. No named layoffs at government, university, or corporate budget offices tied to AI were found. BLS projects slower-than-average growth (1-2%), reflecting hiring demand rather than task exposure, as of 2026-08-19.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-19.
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data via BLS OEWS, SOC 13-2031.00 'Budget Analysts'. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: O*NET OnLine 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage) for Budget Analysts (13-2031.00).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (13-2031.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 1-2% (2024-2034), slower than the all-occupation average, reflecting aggregate hiring/turnover-replacement demand rather than automation displacement specifically, a distinction this site draws honestly rather than treating growth as an automation proxy (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.