Jobs for Economics Majors

Jobs for Economics Majors

Economics is integral to everything in society. It plays a part in crime, government, marriage, and sports, among other things. Majoring in economics can also take you into business, insurance, and finance. You will be responsible for breaking the world down into chunks of data. How great is that? You get to indulge your destructive side.

What’s the value of economics?

Economics compiles data and predicts future trends. It studies the allocation of resources to produce goods and services, monitoring things like inflation, interest rates, spending, and energy costs. You’ll arrange data at your fingertips, using it in charts, research reports, to calculate insurance premiums, and other visual or written structures. And of course, economics is a crystal ball for predicting the future. Your ‘psychic’ powers of math and statistics will make you invaluable to government, corporations, or banks.
Who are you to major in economics?

It’s not for you just because you love math. Of course you must gain a solid understanding of numbers, statistics, and probably some basic calculus functions. However, it’s not molecular physics or rocket science. You don’t need to worry about not being a math whiz. What you will need is to be organized, detailed, precise, and it helps if you’re familiar with computers and data structures. A bachelor’s degree is a starting point, which grants access to quite a few jobs, but to really tap the potential of economics, a master’s or Ph.D. is recommended. Courses may include econometrics, statistics, introductory calculus, computer science, sampling theory, and macro/micro economics. Narrow your education to a target area, like in sports or advertising or politics, etc. Even if your ambition is to change the world, economics can be applied to aid developing countries.

Some Economics Jobs

Jobs for economics majors include financial analyst, trust officer, managing consultant, market researcher, public policy consultant, stockbroker, and actuary. You may choose to work in various areas. For example, microeconomists look into supply and demand, the decisions of people and companies and what consumers want. International economists study the global market, trade policies, and currencies. With economics, you may get into health, education, law, history, the environment, agriculture, or others. Overall, median wage is $83,600, and the high end earns as much as or more than $150,000. You’ll get a substantial paycheck, but more importantly, work satisfaction when you choose a career in economics because you enjoy it. Then economics will help you again to manage your own money, so you’ll enjoy quite a comfortable life.

Some Economics Employers

A few employers are Ameriprise, GEICO, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Northrop Grumman, and PFPC Worldwide. Not excited about these? Two other websites you could visit are the National Association for Business Economists’ page at www.nabe.com and American Economic Association at www.aeaweb.org, the last of which has job listings for economists. Still shaking your head? Do your own research, talk to friends, think of places you’d like to work, and whether they’re likely to have an economics department. Microsoft, Apple, Hollywood, CIA, ESPN, and Disney are just a few target employers for your dream job.