Educational Requirements

• A college degree in business administration typically serves a credit analyst well. Aspiring credit analysts may want to study accounting or finance as well. In a business administration program, courses may include financial analysis, risk assessment and financial decision making. In a finance program, courses may include statistics in business, introduction to accounting or operations management. In addition, students can earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and certification in credit analysis from a professional organization.
  
  

Salary

• A typical salary for a credit analyst with a four-year degree in the commercial banking industry in 2009 was $48,000 a year, Careers in Finance reports. While credit analysts with four-year college degrees earned between $40,000 and $60,000 a year, analysts with an MBA degree earned considerably more -- between $70,000 and $120,000 a year. Credit analysts earn roughly between $35,000 and $112,000 a year during the course of their careers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  
  

Top-Paying States

• Credit analysts earn the highest mean salaries in the nation in the state of New York, at $102,500, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wages for 2010. New York was followed by Connecticut ($94,300), Rhode Island ($92,030), Colorado ($74,840) and California ($74,470).
  
  

Best Opportunities for Employment

• Credit analysts have the best opportunity for employment in the state of New York as well, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In New York,, employment opportunities are well above the national average, and more opportunities exist per 1,000 jobs there than anywhere else in the country. Texas and Illinois follow, consecutively, with better-than-average employment opportunities. In California and Florida, employment opportunities are just below the national average, but still higher than all other states.
  
  

Highest Concentration of Jobs

• Delaware has the highest concentration of jobs in the country; three jobs exist per 1,000 opportunities. That is six times the national average. In South Dakota, employment opportunities are twice the national average, with one employment opportunity per 1,000 jobs that exist there. Nebraska, Maine and Florida, where employment opportunities exceed the national average, follow.