Careers & Internships in Economics
Department Internship Coordinator: Dr. Julia Paxton Pagan
Individualized Career Coaching for Arts & Sciences Students
College of Arts & Sciences students can take advantage of individualized career coaching, with many resources to help them prepare for successful lives. Students with liberal arts degrees are highly sought after because they are educated to think critically and become problem solvers for 21st century issues. Make an appointment with OHIO's Career Leadership and Development Center, by logging into Handshake!
What Is Economics?
Economics studies choices. Many of these choices have to do with money, but in many cases money is not the central issue! If you are gathering information on different majors and considering the pros and cons of each major to find the best match for your needs and desires, you are doing economics right now! We call these "pros" benefits and the "cons" are costs.
What Do Economists Study?
Economists study choices relating to:
- Charitable giving
- Education
- Financial markets
- Crime
- Labor decisions
- The environment
- The law
- Terrorism
- Sports
- Money and banking
- Strategic interactions among firms/individuals
- Health markets
- Prostitution
- Family decisions
- Poverty
- Economic growth
- International trade
- The formation of cities
- Corruption
- Inflation
- Violence
- And many other topics
What Jobs Do Economics Majors Get?
General Business
- Business analyst
- Marketing analyst
- Business forecaster
- Auditor
Government
- Researcher
- Analyst
- Speechwriter
- Forecaster
Financial Services
- Broker
- Financial analyst
- Investment banker
Banking
- Credit analyst
- Loan officer
- Investment analyst
Education
- College professor
- Researcher
Journalism
- Economic analyst
- Industry analyst
Other
- Business consultant
- Think tank analyst
Does It Pay to Major in Economics?
Money should not be the only thing to be taken into consideration when you choose a major, but we all worry about our financial health. The best way to answer the above question is to look at the data. Economics is featured among the top 10 majors leading to high salaries along with several engineering and other quantitative majors.
According to the 2023 College Salary Report by Payscale, majors with a bachelor’s degree in economics can expect
an early career pay of $70,500 and a mid-career pay of $130,200.
When Do Most Students in Your Major Get Internships or Research Experience?
Economics majors have many experiential learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom. Examples include working with local nonprofits and government agencies to solve real-world problems. Outside of the classroom students are encouraged to participate in internships, clubs and speaking events.
Typically, economics majors get their internships in their Junior or Senior years. Once approved by the department’s internship committee, students can get college credit for their internship. Our
Economics Majors group in Teams constantly posts internship announcements related to economics.
Recent internships by our majors:
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Ohio Office of Budget and Management
- Policy Matters, Ohio
- Ohio Southeast Economic Development
- PREDOC: Using Big Data to Solve Economic Problems (taught by Harvard professors)
- Summer undergraduate research experience at University of Nebraska
- Hocking County Auditor’s Office
- Nutanix
- Principle Business Enterprises
- Tidy White Company
Fact or Fiction?
The Economics major requires a lot of math. Fiction!
The math you will encounter in economics is very manageable and includes basic algebra, interpretation of graphs, basic statistics and basic calculus. (Graduate studies in economics are a different story and require more math—you should take additional math classes if you plan to take that route).
Economics is like business, but less marketable. Fiction!
Economics and business have a lot in common, but economics looks at a variety of topics not usually analyzed in business majors. Market data show that the top undergraduate majors in the job market are engineering and economics. Higher wages in part reflect the demand for the economics major and the appreciation of the skills economists possess.
Economists are very conservative people, and I don't want to become one of them. Fiction!
Another fiction! Economists are like anybody else, and you will find the whole spectrum of personalities and political positions among them. Good economists do try to organize their thinking when analyzing social problems and embrace conclusions brought about by reason and intellectual honesty. You can often be delighted to see how open-minded and accepting of new ideas and differences good economists tend to be.