Career Focus - Economics

Industries that Employ Economics Major Graduates

Public Administration and Safety
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
Financial and Insurance Services
Education and Training
Government

Organisations that Employ Economics Major Graduates

Griffith University
Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Oxfam Australia

Job Vacancies for Economics Major Graduates

Jora: Job Search Australia

Job Titles for Economics Major Graduates

Data Analyst
Actuary
Personal Financial Advisor
Healthcare Analytics Specialist
Environmental Economist

Duties an Economics Major Graduate May Perform

Undertake research to answer a question
Conduct surveys and collect data
Analyse data using mathematical models, statistical techniques and software
Interpret and forecast market trends
Advise businesses, governments and individuals on economic topics

Skills / Attributes Required of Economics Major Graduates

Mathematics
Critical Thinking
Collecting and Organisation Information
Making Sense of Information and Ideas
Programming and Coding

Workplace reflection

Date of Interview: 12 September 2020

Name of Interviewee: Paul McGuire

Position: Senior Director

Organisation: Queensland Department of Health

Contact: 0439 757 861

The interview with Paul McGuire has given me insight into the diverseness of roles economics study may lead to. McGuire describes his job as a Senior Director with the Queensland Health Department as "not really relating to economics" and that he "would not call himself an economist". Despite this, the skills he describes as making him effective at his job, which include good technical skills such as modelling and effective written and oral communication, are very similar to an economist’s skill set. Job Outlook, which is an initiative of the Australian Government’s National Skills Commission, reports that written and oral communication and working with numbers are the most important abilities an economist possesses. Due to the commonality in skills between McGuire’s earlier job titles (Economist, Economic Advisor and Principal Economist) and his current role; I believe this means that a my future focus should be on developing skills with good transferability as it will be vital to both my career security and progression. One such way I could do this by learning a new language like Japanese, which I already have considerable interest in or by completing a short online coding course to learn R. This idea of transferable skills is supported by Robst (2007) who concluded that those in degree fields where job mismatching is common, such as economics, are less likely to be penalised due to the generalness of skills taught in university. I have yet to experience this myself as I have had the same employer since I graduated high school in 2016. However, I have noticed that job advertisements will frequently list the same or similar skills, such as experience with customer service or Microsoft software, across even different industries.

Another topic McGuire spoke about was the importance of a balance between technical skills and strategic skills such as leadership and communication. McGuire spoke of how this balance has increased his employability and enhanced his career. A 2014 study of over 2,000 Human Resources professionals by Career Builder corroborated this. The study found that 77% of those surveyed believed ‘soft’ skills to be as important as ‘hard’ skills. I have also seen this at my workplace. We have had a number of changes in professional staff while I have been employed there. Most staff changes were as a result of an imbalance between their technical and strategic skills compared to our office culture. This has shown me how vital it is to not only improve my technical skills while at university but my strategic skills as well. As part of this my goal is to improve my soft skills as I currently believe my technical skills are stronger. I can improve my strategic skills such as leadership by applying for the Griffith Business School Student Leadership Program and by attending the Griffith Library workshops to improve my time management.

Sources Cited

1. McGuire, P. (2020, 12 September). ' Telephone Interview with author.

2. National Skills Commission. (2020). ' Job Outlook. Retrieved from https://joboutlook.gov.au/occupations/occupation?occupationCode=2243

3. Robst, J. (2007). Education and job ' match: The relatedness of college ' major and work. Economics of ' Education Review, 26(4), 397-407.

4. Russo, K. (2017, December 6). Hard ' Skills vs. Soft Skills: What They ' Mean to Your Job Search and the ' Weight They Carry With HR. ' HuffPost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hard-skills-vs-soft-skill_b_8341566

The overarching issues that will be faced by today’s graduates is that of uncertainty and insecurity. Firstly – Uncertainty. This issue has a two-fold effect on graduates. The world as a whole is rapidly changing due to the never before seen advancement of technology over the last few decades. These technological advancements are anticipated to continue at an accelerated rate. This transmogrification of the workplaces in which graduates will enter, leaves them unsure if there will be opportunities in their area of specialisation and sometimes even if the field will still exist (Peters, 2016). There are virtually no areas of employment that have been unaffected by the technology revolution.

The second prong of the uncertainty issue surrounds the shifting nature of work and is directly linked to insecurity. This is the apparent approaching death of job security. Historically, unless in times of economic uncertainty an employee could feel assured of their job security. It is a different story today with the rise in non-standard employment relationships as employers seek flexibility to meet constantly changing market conditions. This creates a downward pressure on salary and wages as employees struggle to remain competitive against an increasingly casualised and outsourced workforce (McGann, White, & Moss, 2016). This job insecurity leads to long lasting consequences on non-permanent employees’ psychosocial and physical health as they are either not able or unwilling to ‘speak up’ in fear of their employment being terminated. In fact, poor job security has been linked to lower levels of occupational health and safety training; lower mental health levels caused by reduced self-esteem, loss of a sense of self-efficacy, stress, anxiety and depression and lower physical health levels which present themselves through complications such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Furthermore, another challenge as a result of the rising level of labour casualisation is that of dual market theory. This is the idea that the labour market is becoming fragmented into the highly qualified, highly paid, full-time employees and then the lesser or unqualified labour that is consistently tending towards being casualised, outsourced and paid less. Dual market theory in its extreme widens the wealth gap, increasing the difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ and creates a quasi-class system. As a newly minted entrant to the workforce, today’s graduates will usually tend towards the bottom of the employment pyramid and are therefore potentially hindered by these issues.

In addition to the issues above, today’s graduates also have to contend with increased competition for scarcer, full-time permanent roles than ever before. Firstly, the labour workforce is becoming more globalised. With the rise of easily accessible, out-sourced international ‘employees’ at a much lower cost, employers are being less incentivised to employ local graduates when they can commit the same resources to obtain a fully qualified, experienced candidate who is job-ready. Secondly, there are now more university graduates then ever before throughout Australia than ever before. The increasing prevalence of employees with higher education qualifications has led to the expectation from employers that employees must continue to differentiate themselves from the competition either through further qualifications, advanced skills or considerable experience. Finally, increased competition has arisen from the aging Australian population. As employees are working longer and the retirement age is continually increasing, the historic job vacancies left by retiring staff are stretching further into the future (Michaelis & Debus, 2011).

In conclusion, graduates are facing entering a workforce mired in uncertainty and insecurity. The increase in uncertainty and insecurity can be attributed to rapid advancements in technology, the rise of non-standard employment agreements which also leads to an increase in the relevance of dual market theory. The rise in employee uncertainty can also be attributed to the significant increase in competition because of the rise in globalisation and outsourcing in the workforce, an increase in university graduates and the ageing population.

Sources Cited

McGann, M., White, K., & Moss, J. (2016). Labour casualization and the psychosocial health of workers in Australia. Work, Employment and Society. 30(5), 766-782.

Michaelis, J., Debus, M., (2011). Wage and (un-)employment effects of an ageing workforce. Journal of Population Economics. 24 1493-1511.

Peters, M., (2016). Technological unemployment: Educating for the fourth industrial revolution. Educational Philosophy and Theory. 49(1) 1-6. DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2016.1177412