Economics and Statistics

Have a look at Prospects and targetjobs to find out what roles in this sector involve and how to get into them. These are some of the job profiles available:  

• Actuarial analyst
• Chartered accountant
• Compliance officer
• Data analyst
• Economist
• External auditor
• Investment analyst
• Political risk analyst
• Risk manager
• Statistician
• Stockbroker
• Civil Service fast streamer
• Data scientist
• Financial risk analyst
• Market researcher
• Operational researcher

• excellent verbal and written communication skills
• the ability to analyse and explain complex information
• strong research skills 
• organisational and time management skills
• the ability to prioritise tasks, work under pressure and meet deadlines
• the ability to work well in a team and build good working relationships
• high levels of accuracy and attention to detail
• good problem-solving skills
• an excellent understanding of business and economics (for economics roles)
• excellent statistical, analytical, mathematical and IT skills (for statistics roles)

You can expect quite high salaries in an economics career, with an average salary being £43,077 across all professionals, according to UCAS.

According to Prospects, starting salaries can range from £25,000, and can reach up to £75,000 for experienced professionals.

To get an idea of typical starting salaries use the following resources: 

• our Discover your Earning Potential Pathway offers access to The Pay Index. This shows you how salaries vary across different roles, industries and locations 
• job profiles, such as those listed on Prospects or targetjobs 
• vacancy sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn 

For information about how to negotiate a salary, visit Handling job offers.

• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed
• use LinkedIn’s Alumni tool to find out what Newcastle graduates are doing now. You could ask to connect with them, to gain advice and insights into their career. See Newcastle Alumni on LinkedIn to help you get started or watch our quick tutorial on Getting inspiration from others [3:13]
• attend alumni events, such as Newcastle Develop, to hear directly from our graduates
• sign up for mentoring support with Graduate Mentor and The 1 Hour Project. These aim to match students with industry professionals who can provide invaluable insights. Register to be connected for a one-hour meeting
• attend events, including recruitment fairs and employer and sector insights. Hear about graduate jobs, placement schemes, build your network and ask questions

Searching for reviews online can be a useful way to get an idea of what to expect from certain roles or employers. Reviews are written by employees with different opinions about what makes a good employer.

Use the following review sites for inspiration and insight into the recruitment process:

• RateMyPlacement placement year reviews written by students.
• The Job Crowd – graduate job reviews
• Glassdoor – company reviews from employees

Read career guides for this sector, such as:

• Prospects: what can I do with an economics degree? 
• Prospects: what can I do with a statistics degree? 
• Bright Network: What can I do with an Economics degree?
• RSS - Career development

Use online magazines and journals to follow news from your industry. Reading about trends and developments is important for applications and interviews.

Examples include:

• The Economist
• Financial Times
• Royal Statistical Society
• Economics | Business | The Guardian

Attend events to hear directly from professionals in the industry.

See our Events and workshops page for upcoming events, including recruitment fairs and employer and sector insights. 

Join economics-specific student societies, such as the economics society.

Use social media to find industry insights

Join sector-specific groups on LinkedIn to keep up to date. Posts often include news, events and opportunities. You can also find useful insights on careers on X and TikTok. Treat these with caution, as not all content may be accurate.

Find out more about how to use social media for your career.

Consider joining a relevant professional body/industry network

Professional bodies often:

• run networking events
• have specialist groups you could join
• post vacancies on behalf of their members
• have member directories, useful for speculative applications

Key organisations include:

• Society of Professional Economists
• Royal Economic Society
• Royal Statistical Society
• Association for Clinical Data Management

Finding professional bodies worldwide

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of professional bodies. Find them under ‘Professional and Personal Networking’ on each individual country guide.

Apply for advertised opportunities as early as possible.

UK applications typically open early in the academic year from September or October. Some close as early as November-December. Many employers close applications as soon as their places are filled.

Use our resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for internships and placements in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Internships, placements & shadowing - links to vacancy sites
• Global work experience - for internships or placements abroad

Search the following external sites for internships and placement opportunities in economics:

• Bank of England offers a range of work experience opportunities, including industrial placements, first year and penultimate year internships and PhD internships
• Bright Network
• Gradcracker – search for summer internships in economics and statistics
• Civil service summer internship
• Government Economic Service Summer Scheme
• Think tanks – lists internships at think tanks and policy institutes including Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank which has internships

The Careers Service runs flexible term-time and summer internships with local employers and on campus. NCL internships are aimed at all students, from any stage

Search for these under Vacancies on MyCareer. Type in ‘NCL internship’ into the text search box.

You can find these advertised throughout the academic year. Full-time summer opportunities are advertised from around March.

Access GoinGlobal for internships in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

If you’re looking for inspiration, try searching our NU Work Experience Directory. You can see where our students have had internships and placements in the last five years. To see all results in a search category, keep the search field blank.

The resources in this section advertise both graduate jobs and graduate schemes. See our graduate jobs page to understand the difference between them.

For graduate schemes, apply as early as possible.

UK applications typically open early in the academic year from September or October. Some close as early as November-December. Many employers close applications as soon as their places are filled.

Graduate jobs tend to be immediate start positions which can be available all year round. You are more likely to apply for these towards the end of your studies.

Use our resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for graduate schemes and graduate jobs in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Graduate Jobs – lists graduate vacancy sites

Search the external sites below:

• Gradcracker
• Government Economic Service
• Civil Service Jobs
• Bank of England
• EconomistJobs– includes PhD studentships and international vacancies

• Gradcracker - jobs accepting statistics graduates
• StatsJobs
• Careers in Risk
• NHS Jobs - medical statistician or economics jobs
• Jobs.ac.uk - statistics vacancies, post-doc positions and PhD studentships
• Working for the Office for National Statistics

See International jobs for details of overseas vacancy sites.

Access GoinGlobal for job adverts in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

Start by identifying organisations you are interested in. Our guide to finding organisations below can help. Then use the following steps to approach them speculatively about possible opportunities:

1. Identify a contact name to address your cover letter to. Call or email to find out who handles recruitment within the organisation. Or, find a key contact in the department you want to work in.
2. Send them a tailored CV and cover letter. Express your enthusiasm for the sector. Show that you have researched the company.
3. Follow up your speculative application with a phone call, or email, around a week later. This shows you are serious and motivated.
4. If your application was unsuccessful, ask for feedback or advice, and keep trying!

You can use this approach at any point in the year. We recommend that you:

• start your research as early as possible to gather relevant contacts
• contact organisations around three months before you want the opportunity to begin

• find organisations on MyCareer. Select ‘search' then 'organisations’
• use the business directories and databases on our Researching employers page
• search for companies on LinkedIn. The Find Alumni tool shows you where Newcastle graduates are currently working
• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed

• targetjobs - search employers by sector, eg software engineering or technology
• Professional body websites sometimes include member directories, which are helpful for finding employers.
• Society of Professional Economists: Member directory
• PSI: How to find a job – scroll down to view companies working within the pharmaceutical industry
• ABPI: Pharmaceutical Recruiters
• PharmiWeb.jobs: list of companies
• Find organisations on MyCareer - click on ‘search organisations’ under the Vacancies tab
• international organisations, such as NGOs and global economic groups
• media, including financial newspapers and websites. The Economist offers paid internships

Search GoinGlobal’s employer directory for company information in 196 countries. Their country guides list professional bodies around the world.

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of recruitment agencies in specific countries. They are listed under the following headings:

• staffing agencies and temporary help firms
• executive recruiters and search firms

Recruitment agencies may not operate in the same way in different countries. In the UK agencies are free for job seekers, but this may not be the case elsewhere. Explore the terms and conditions of an agency before signing up to use them.