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Roles and who hires economists

“Industry” is not one job. It is dozens of jobs with different titles, different days and different interviews. Knowing which one you want changes everything you do next.

4 min read · By Marc Sleiman

When students tell me they want “an industry job,” I ask which one. Usually there is a pause. That pause is the problem. A large bank, a five-person startup, a litigation consulting firm and a tech company’s pricing team all hire economics PhDs, and they want very different things. You cannot position yourself for a generic idea of a job. Pick the slice of industry that fits how you like to work, then build toward that.

The kinds of employers

Large companies and small ones

Large firms move slowly and formally. They have structured hiring, defined levels, formal training and clear titles. They also employ economists across many industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, airlines, energy, retail and logistics. Economists there may work on pricing, forecasting, experimentation, competition, strategy or market analysis.

Small firms move fast and informally. You may be the only economist in the building, which means more responsibility sooner and less support. Neither is better. The question is which pace and environment suit you.

Established firms and startups

Established firms offer stability, process and recognizable names on your resume. Startups offer speed, ambiguity and a much wider range of tasks. In a startup you may build the dashboard, run the experiment, analyze pricing and present the results to the founder in the same week.

The job title may not even be “economist.” Economists often work in analytics, strategy, product, pricing, forecasting or data science roles.

Economic and management consulting

Economic consulting firms support litigation, regulation, competition cases and mergers. Economists build models, estimate damages, analyze markets and contribute to expert reports. The work values speed and defensibility: a strong answer that can withstand scrutiny is often more useful than a theoretically perfect answer delivered too late.

Management consulting firms use economists and other quantitatively trained people on broader business problems such as pricing, market entry, growth, operations and strategy.

Government, central banks and international organizations

Federal agencies, regional Federal Reserve banks, the IMF, the World Bank and similar institutions hire many PhD economists. These roles sit between research and policy and can involve forecasting, regulation, program evaluation, macroeconomic analysis and applied research.

Many recruit through the AEA job market on roughly the same calendar as academic employers.

Data, forecasting and research organizations

Companies that sell data, forecasts, market intelligence or economic research to other organizations want people who understand both the industry and the data. These include forecasting firms, market research companies, financial-data providers and policy research organizations.

Some roles are research-heavy. Others are client-facing or sales-adjacent: you may help clients understand what the numbers mean for their business and what decisions they should make in response.

Think tanks and research institutes

Think tanks and research institutes are often the closest thing to academia outside of academia. Economists conduct original research, write papers and policy reports, present their work, attend seminars and contribute to public debates, but usually with a stronger emphasis on current policy questions and real-world relevance.

The environment is often less centered on teaching and somewhat more deadline-driven than a university. Funding may also depend on grants, donors or sponsored research. For economists who enjoy research but want their work to reach policymakers, businesses or the public more directly, think tanks can be an attractive middle ground between academia and the private sector.

The kinds of roles in tech and large corporations

Within a single company, “economist” can mean several different jobs. Here is how they usually differ.

Two warnings about titles. First, they vary by company. One firm’s “data scientist” is another firm’s “analyst,” and some firms reverse the two. Always read the description, not the title. Second, economists most often land in roles called data scientist or analyst rather than “economist.” If you only search for the word economist, you will miss most of the market.

Advisor or driver

Even in the same role, the job can feel very different depending on how your team works. In some teams you are an advisor: product managers bring you questions, you answer them and present the results. In others you are in the driver’s seat: you decide which analyses and experiments happen and you push product changes. Ask about this in every interview. It shapes your day more than the title does.

Who has hired economics PhDs

Large technology and online platform companies have become major employers of economists over the past decade, along with economic consulting firms, banks and asset managers, insurers, retailers, transportation and logistics companies, and the government and international institutions above. Some firms actively prefer PhDs. Others care much more about years of industry experience, which is exactly why building experience during the PhD matters.

Hiring changes quickly. Teams that hired dozens of economists one year have been cut the next. Treat any list of “firms that hire economists” as a starting point, and check what each one is posting right now using the method on the job postings page.

How to choose your slice

Answer three questions honestly. Do you want your work used in weeks or published in years? Do you prefer depth on one problem or variety across many? Do you want to be the expert in the room or one specialist among many? Your answers point you toward a sector and a role. Then pick three or four job families you would seriously consider, and aim everything you build at them.