Economist

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

An Economist studies the economy, develops theories and predictions about economic trends, and uses economic analysis to address issues affecting people, businesses and society. Follows a specific economic sector, industry or market, or studies monetary and fiscal policy, government policy or international economics.

Job Outlook

There were 94 Economist job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4455 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Economist industry, which includes the Economist career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Economist jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $108,644.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $95,670.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Economist postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $69,955.

Education and Experience

Posted Economist jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	1.5%
Bachelor's Degree	50.21%
Master's Degree	45.66%
Doctoral Degree	35.89%
Other	3.12%

Posted Economist jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	39.67%
3 to 5 years	39.5%
6 to 8 years	10.94%
9+ years	9.88%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Economist positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Research (64.09%)
Communication (41.12%)
Management (37.8%)
Writing (33.42%)
Presentations (28.55%)
Planning (25.86%)
Leadership (24.42%)
Forecasting (19.21%)
Microsoft Excel (18.77%)
Operations (17.13%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Data Analysis (24.29%)
Economic Analysis (17.06%)
Economics (88.25%)
Economic Research (17.82%)
Econometrics (24.46%)
Economic Development (14.18%)
Economic Modeling (8.97%)
Statistics (30.88%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Policy Analysis (6.57%)
Business Development (7.54%)
Python (Programming Language) (18.23%)
Stata (14.51%)
Marketing (13.75%)
Statistical Analysis (8.99%)
Public Policies (10.78%)
Accounting (22.01%)
SAS (Software) (15.68%)
Social Sciences (6%)
SQL (Programming Language) (15.94%)
R (Programming Language) (21.41%)
Project Management (13.18%)
Impact Assessment (0.93%)
Health Economics (2.43%)
Policy Development (4.19%)
Financial Analysis (9.59%)
Finance (29.6%)
Calculus (10.8%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

Microeconomics (4.31%)
Applied Economics (3.76%)
Economic Policy (3.9%)
Econometric Modeling (7.19%)
Economic Theories (6.76%)
International Economics (1.17%)
Environmental Economics (1.4%)
Economic Forecasting (3.02%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

Economic Modeling (17.85%)
Applied Economics (7.48%)
Econometrics (48.67%)
Econometric Modeling (14.3%)
Statistics (61.46%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Economist skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Lead Economist
Economic Analyst
Healthcare Economics Analyst
Medical Economics Analyst
Economic Development Specialist
Health Economist
Labor Economist
Research Economist
Home Economist

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Economist jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

Amazon (170)
UnitedHealth Group (157)
United States Department of the Treasury (134)
United States Government (67)
University Beyond (66)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (63)
The World Bank Group (60)
Berkeley Research Group (59)
Nutanix (58)
S&P Global (56)

North Carolina

Research Triangle Institute (22)
UnitedHealth Group (7)
Wells Fargo (4)
Federal Reserve Bank (3)
ICF International (3)
American Institutes For Research (2)
RTI International (2)
North Carolina State University (2)
Nutanix (2)
State of North Carolina (2)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Planning and Analysis