Bright Future Ahead: Career Prospects for Economics Majors

A degree in economics offers a host of work opportunities to graduates. While the jobs don’t usually carry the title “economist,” the available positions employ the skills and expertise that economics majors have acquired during their collegiate and for some, even graduate level education.

With their skill in analyzing data and statistics and finding relationships, economics majors can find work in almost all industries today, especially with a lot of sectors now betting big on analytics. From government to retail to manufacturing, analytics has become the biggest game-changer for these industries in recent years. But if there is one industry that is truly embracing big data, then it is healthcare. A growing number of healthcare organizations are tapping analytics in their bid to reduce costs and improve care quality. Work opportunities are abundant for economic majors who want to build careers as analysts.

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Adept in contextualizing a financial situation and resolving a financial problem, economics majors are a perfect fit for the banking, insurance, and financial planning sectors. In fact, many graduates do gravitate towards financial careers. And the prospects of an enduring career and high earnings are realities in such work. The challenge now for economics graduates is to hone their skills further so that there will be more chances for them to move up the career ladder.

Of course, one of the most obvious career paths for economics majors is the business sector. Be it a startup, small business, or a big company, economics graduates, with their interest in learning news products, studying business models and strategies or finding new ways on how to grow profit, can find their niche in this sector.  


Mack Prioleau is pursuing an economics degree with minors in corporate strategy and financial economics at Vanderbilt University. A dean’s list student in three of his four completed semesters, he currently has a GPA of 3.71. For more on Mack, his studies, and his other interests, visit this website.