Economic Analyst

To most people, the economy is always present, yet totally intangible. They know vaguely what it is — and they know that it’s important — but they’d be hard-pressed to describe what it looks like, how it works, or why it behaves the way it does.

To those people, the economy is a species of animal whose roar they can hear, but that they don’t know how to hunt. As an Economic Analyst, therefore, you’re like an economic Zoologist: You’re hired to study the economy’s anatomy and interpret its behavior for those who need to understand it, but don’t.

Employed by governments, nonprofits, and private corporations, you’re an Economist who’s paid to examine the economy — locally, nationally, and globally — and make predictions based on your analysis, which takes into account data about Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation, employment, housing, tax revenue, exchange rates, and stock prices, among other things. Your goal as an Economic Analyst: To help your employer make smart business decisions — about expansion, investments, hiring, real estate, etc. — based on economic expectations.

Case in point: When the housing market contracts, Economic Analysts like you examine home values, sales, and foreclosures in order to give construction companies an idea about how they can best survive the downturn, perhaps by laying off workers, closing offices, or reducing their overhead.

Your nitty-gritty duties include collecting data, interpreting it, and reporting it in the form of written, visual, and verbal forecasts. Ultimately, though, you’re expected to be your employer’s financial soothsayer: You help it stay afloat today by making accurate predictions about tomorrow.