What can you do with an Economics degree?

What jobs can you get with an Economics degree?

Graduates commonly start as economic research assistant, data analyst, policy analyst (entry) or graduate economist. Economics also builds skills that employers outside the obvious routes ask for, so many graduates move into roles that do not name the subject at all.

• Economic research assistant

  Supports senior economists with data pulls, robustness checks, and briefing notes.

  Skills these adverts often ask for

  • literature reviews
  • cleaning datasets
  • charts

  Search economic research assistant vacancies

• Data analyst

  Skills these adverts often ask for

  • SQL
  • regression basics
  • dashboards

  Search data analyst vacancies

• Policy analyst (entry)

  Skills these adverts often ask for

  • consultation responses
  • cost notes
  • stakeholder maps

  Search policy analyst (entry) vacancies

• Graduate economist

  Skills these adverts often ask for

  • forecast tables
  • scenario notes
  • quality assurance

  Search graduate economist vacancies

Role examples and skills are CourseToJob editorial guidance, not a guarantee of a job. Pay for individual roles varies by employer and location; we do not attach a salary to a role unless an official source publishes one.

Where do Economics graduates work?

Five years after graduating, the largest employer sectors for Economics graduates in UK employment were finance and insurance (28.6%), professional, scientific and technical services (25%) and information and communication (10.3%). One year after graduating, the most common sector was finance and insurance (28.1%).

Most common specific industries

1. Monetary intermediation — 10.9% of graduates in work, median £70,600
2. Accounting; bookkeeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy — 10.6% of graduates in work, median £55,300
3. Management consultancy activities — 7.6% of graduates in work, median £56,000
4. Computer programming; consultancy and related activities — 6.2% of graduates in work, median £56,000
5. Activities auxiliary to financial services; except insurance and pension funding — 5.7% of graduates in work, median £65,900
6. Administration of the State and the economic and social policy of the community — 5.4% of graduates in work, median £45,000

Economics graduates had median earnings of £30,700 one year after graduating and £51,200 five years after graduating in the 2023–24 tax year. The median across all first-degree graduates of GB higher education institutions was £33,700 at five years.

How one-year earnings have changed

Which universities have the highest-earning Economics graduates?

Among universities in our index with at least 50 Economics graduates measured, University of Cambridge had the highest median earnings five years after graduating (£105,000), followed by London School of Economics (£79,800) and University of Bath (£72,800).

Research-assistant and analyst interviews usually test whether you can handle a dataset and explain a trade-off in plain English. These prompts are editorial illustrations.

1. A chart shows a sharp rise. What else would you want to know before writing a headline?

   What it tests. Base, seasonality, definition changes, and not overclaiming causation.

2. Explain opportunity cost to someone setting a local-authority budget.

   What it tests. Applied micro without jargon for its own sake.

3. Two sources give different unemployment rates. How do you reconcile them?

   What it tests. Definitions, coverage, and documenting the choice.

4. You have a day to produce a briefing. What do you cut?

   What it tests. Prioritising the decision-maker’s question over a literature review dump.

5. When would you not use an average to describe a wage distribution?

   What it tests. Skew, outliers, and why a median might be the honest figure — conceptually, not a recalled LEO cell.

Most Economics courses do not use a standard admissions interview. If a university invites you, it will say so — see UCAS on undergraduate interview invitations.

Illustrative question types for the roles above, not questions from a named employer.

Prepare your application with graduate cv examples, student cv examples, the free CV builder and the application tracker.

Research exact university programmes

These intake-specific records have been checked against official course pages. They are separate from the broader editorial subject links.

• Economics BSc at University of Bath — September 2027

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An editorial provision index, not a live UCAS catalogue: confirm current courses on UCAS. CourseToJob is not UCAS.Open Economics in the full university explorer.

Related subjects

Graduate salaries for every subject · How to interpret graduate salary data · How to choose a degree

Skilled Worker visas

Sponsorship depends on the job's occupation code and the current Skilled Worker rules, not on a subject's median pay. A Skilled Worker decision uses the higher of the general threshold and the SOC going rate. Subject LEO medians are not sufficient. Read the Skilled Worker job rules on GOV.UK.