Economist — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Environmental Economists · Economics Teachers, Postsecondary · Political Scientists · Business Teachers, Postsecondary · Investment Fund Managers · Financial Risk Specialists
In the official classification#
Economists
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 5: extensive preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗In Europe, internationally and in Singapore
Economists
Fit with this page: same job
Economist
Fit with this page: same job
What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 19-3011.00 (Economists). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Judgment and Decision MakingVery important
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- InstructingImportant
- Systems EvaluationImportant
- Systems AnalysisImportant
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- PersuasionImportant
Knowledge
- MathematicsExtremely important
- Economics and AccountingVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- Computers and ElectronicsVery important
- Education and TrainingImportant
- Communications and MediaImportant
Work activities
- Analyzing Data or InformationExtremely important
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Working with ComputersExtremely important
- Processing InformationExtremely important
- Interpreting the Meaning of Information for OthersVery important
- Updating and Using Relevant KnowledgeVery important
Abilities
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Inductive ReasoningVery important
- Mathematical ReasoningVery important
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
Essential skills
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
- Active ListeningVery important
- WritingVery important
Each task in O*NET's terms#
O*NET describes work as detailed activities. Each of this page's 4 tasks is matched only against the activities O*NET lists for this occupation, with a stated fit; 3 match at least one. 1 are not in O*NET's list for this occupation. The alignment and its fit are this site's judgement, made task by task by its AI agent (Claude) on 2026-09-26; O*NET does not align tasks like ours. The activity names are O*NET's, the translations ours.
- Forecasting and nowcastingForecast economic, political, or social trends.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Analyzing Data or Information · O*NET 31.0
- Data work and modellingNone of the activities O*NET lists for this occupation covers this task.
- Policy analysis and adviceAdvise others on matters of public policy.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Providing Consultation and Advice to Others · O*NET 31.0Advise others on business or operational matters.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Providing Consultation and Advice to Others · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Urban planner · Management consultant
- Research and writingConduct research on social issues.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Getting Information · O*NET 31.0Prepare scientific or technical reports or presentations.the closest O*NET has, not the same · Documenting/Recording Information · O*NET 31.0The same activity in: Urban planner
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Construct and manage economic datasets.New task · 2024-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
- Present research at seminars and conferences.New task · 2024-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
- Review documents written by others, such as referee reports.Revised wording of an existing task · 2024-08 · from occupational experts · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 4 task judgements are for: 3 backed by a verified event, 1 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Each block says where it comes from: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, the European ESCO classification and its official crosswalk to O*NET, the ILO's ISCO-08, Singapore's SSOC 2024, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- The ESCO and ISCO-08 fits are derived mechanically from the official ESCO–O*NET crosswalk; where we override it, we say why in our data (for example, the crosswalk pairs radiologists with radiographers, which is a different job). The SSOC 2024 fit is our reading of the Singapore Department of Statistics' own titles and definitions. Official names are shown as their publishers write them; we do not translate them.
- Each task is matched only against the detailed work activities O*NET lists for the codes this page maps to. Where nothing fits, the page says why instead of forcing a match: work O*NET does not describe yet (used only for tasks we judge to be emerging), or nothing in O*NET's list for this occupation. An alignment never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- Rules are read only from this site's verified records. A rule's official name must appear word for word in a record that reads it, so no name is made up; a policy mandate is read only as 'must', 'must not' or 'funds', because 'should' and 'in principle' are not a mandate. Reading a rule never changes a task's direction, its basis or the impact index.
- How these pieces fit together — objects, links and the actions that change them — is drawn as one diagram: The VOLO ontology
- ESCO (European Commission), occupation records from the ESCO API; CC BY 4.0. ESCO–O*NET crosswalk, ESCO Secretariat with the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA, version 1 (Sep 2022), O*NET-SOC 2019 ↔ ESCO v1.1.0; CC BY 4.0. Singapore Department of Statistics, Singapore Standard Occupational Classification 2024 and its correspondence with ISCO-08.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.