Careers in Economics: Where the Money and Jobs Are

An economics degree is one of the most flexible career credentials in the labor market. Federal Reserve data on degree-to-occupation matching shows economics majors clustering into five career paths: finance (the biggest by volume), consulting, corporate strategy and operations, data and analytics, and policy or government work. The median starting salary for an econ bachelor's hovers around $70,000 according to NACE 2025 figures, but the spread is huge. Investment-banking analysts at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley start at $110,000 base plus $80,000 to $120,000 in bonus, putting first-year total comp near $200,000. Federal economics analysts at the BLS or a Federal Reserve bank start around $65,000 to $85,000 GS-9 or GS-11. Same degree, three to four times the pay, different tracks.

This page breaks down the real career paths an economics degree opens, the companies that hire heavily for each, the salary ranges that are actually achievable, and the fastest way to land an interview without joining the cold-application stack.

Finance careers: the highest-paying path

Finance is the single largest destination for economics majors, and it pays the most at entry-level. Three subtracks dominate.

Investment banking. The bulge-bracket banks (JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America, Barclays) run two-year analyst programs that take 80% to 90% of their hires from a small pool of target schools, but they recruit econ, finance, and adjacent majors. The boutiques (Evercore, Lazard, Centerview, PJT, Moelis, Houlihan Lokey, Greenhill) hire smaller cohorts and pay top of market. Entry-level total comp runs $180,000 to $220,000 in NYC. Career progression goes analyst (years 1 to 2) → associate (3 to 5) → VP (6 to 9) → director or MD (10+).

Equity research and asset management. BlackRock, Fidelity, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Wellington hire econ majors for research analyst tracks. Pay starts lower than IB ($90,000 to $130,000 first-year total) but the hours are humane and the long-term ceiling is high.

Hedge funds and quantitative trading. Citadel, Two Sigma, Bridgewater, Millennium, Point72, and Jane Street recruit econ majors with strong quantitative or programming backgrounds. Entry-level total comp can reach $250,000+ for highly competitive roles. These firms typically require a referral or a research internship to break in.

Consulting careers

Consulting is the second-largest destination for econ majors. The breakdown by firm type:

Firm type	Examples	Entry-level base
MBB strategy	McKinsey, Bain, BCG	$112,000+ bonus
Big Four advisory	Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG	$78,000 to $95,000
Strategy boutiques	L.E.K., Oliver Wyman, Strategy&, Roland Berger	$95,000 to $105,000
Economic consulting	Cornerstone Research, Analysis Group, NERA, Charles River, Brattle	$85,000 to $105,000
Implementation and tech	Accenture, Slalom, IBM Consulting	$80,000 to $95,000

Economic consulting (Cornerstone, Analysis Group, NERA, Brattle) is the one consulting subtrack where an econ background is a genuine prerequisite, not just a nice-to-have. These firms work on antitrust, securities litigation, transfer pricing, and damages estimation. Most analysts go on to a top PhD program or business school after two to three years.

Corporate strategy, RevOps, and operations

Corporate roles at tech and finance companies are the fastest-growing destination for econ majors over the past five years. Three function types absorb most of the volume.

Corporate strategy. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, and Stripe all run BizOps or corporate strategy teams that hire from MBB and Big Four consulting alumni, plus direct from undergrad for analyst tracks. The work overlaps heavily with what strategy consultants do, but pay is comparable or higher, and the hours are usually better. Stripe's Strategy and Operations associate role and Amazon's Pathways Manager program are two well-known entry points.

Revenue operations. The fastest-growing corporate function. RevOps teams sit between sales, marketing, and finance to model pipeline, set quotas, and forecast revenue. The skills (clean data work, financial modeling, statistical reasoning) map directly onto an econ undergraduate education. Median RevOps analyst comp in major US metros runs $85,000 to $120,000 base plus bonus. We track 1,900+ active RevOps openings at any given time, with concentration in San Francisco, New York, Austin, and Boston.

Marketing analytics and growth. Companies like Stripe, Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and most VC-backed Series B-plus SaaS firms have growth and marketing-science teams that hire econ majors for causal-inference work, marketing-mix modeling, and incrementality testing. Pay parallels RevOps. Browse open analyst and operations roles by city to see who is hiring now.

Policy, government, and central banking

The Federal Reserve System (12 regional banks plus the Board of Governors), the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Congressional Budget Office, and Treasury are the largest federal employers of economists. Entry-level Research Assistant roles at a Fed bank pay around $65,000 to $85,000 (location-dependent) and are widely used as a feeder for top PhD programs. The federal hiring process is slow and structured, with most openings posted on usajobs.gov.

State-level work (state Treasurer's offices, departments of revenue, attorney general offices for antitrust) and think tanks (Brookings, RAND, Urban Institute, AEI, Cato) round out the policy track. Think tanks pay less than the private sector but offer faster intellectual progression.

How to break in: warm intros beat cold applications

For most of the companies above, the resume goes to a single recruiter who screens it against 200 to 1,000 other applicants. A referral changes the math. Internal-referral hires happen at roughly 40% of qualified applications, versus 3% to 5% for cold applications. The same person, the same resume, an 8x to 13x swing in odds.

Three moves matter most for an econ undergrad or recent grad:

1. Pick 20 target firms. Mix big and small. Don't make the list 20 bulge brackets. Include three or four boutiques, three or four mid-size consulting firms, and three or four tech BizOps teams.
2. Audit your network. Export your LinkedIn connections and check them against your 20 targets. Most econ majors are surprised how many alumni from their program are already inside their target firms.
3. Ask for a 15-minute call, not a job. An informational interview is a much higher-success ask than asking someone to forward your resume. The conversation itself produces the referral about 30% of the time when you do it well.

If you want the full playbook on warm intros, read why the best jobs never get posted and how to use your alumni network in a job search.

Frequently asked questions