Jobs / Science and research / 19-3011.00
Economists
Conduct research, prepare reports, or formulate plans to address economic problems related to the production and distribution of goods and services or monetary and fiscal policy. May collect and process economic and statistical data using sampling techniques and econometric methods.
- US jobs
- 17,790
- Median wage
- $124,720 a year
- Job family
- Science and research
Can agents do the work of economists?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Science and research:
- Task levelPartialThin evidence. CORE-Bench asks agents to reproduce the results of published papers in computer science, social science, and medicine from the authors' code and data. Princeton's HAL team declared it solved in December 2025: Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.5 scored 95.5% after manual regrading. No benchmark in our collection tests new experiments or lab work.
- Project levelNot yetThin evidence. On PaperBench, where agents replicate machine learning papers from scratch, the best official result is 26.0% (o1, April 2025). On a small subset, ML PhDs scored 41.4% against o1's 26.6%. No newer official results exist, and no benchmark tests research projects in other sciences.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in science and research, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 95.5%Claude Code + Claude Opus 4.5 (after manual regrading) · 3 Dec 2025Solved
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.
- Compile, analyze, and report data to explain economic phenomena and forecast market trends, applying mathematical models and statistical techniques.
- Study the socioeconomic impacts of new public policies, such as proposed legislation, taxes, services, and regulations.
- Explain economic impact of policies to the public.
- Review documents written by others.
- Provide advice and consultation on economic relationships to businesses, public and private agencies, and other employers.
- Formulate recommendations, policies, or plans to solve economic problems or to interpret markets.
- Supervise research projects and students' study projects.
- Conduct research on economic issues, and disseminate research findings through technical reports or scientific articles in journals.
- Develop economic guidelines and standards, and prepare points of view used in forecasting trends and formulating economic policy.
- Teach theories, principles, and methods of economics.
- Testify at regulatory or legislative hearings concerning the estimated effects of changes in legislation or public policy, and present recommendations based on cost-benefit analyses.
Other job titles for this occupation (40)
Economic Advisor · Economic Analyst · Economic Consultant · Economic Development Specialist · Economist · Forensic Economist · Project Economist · Research Economist · Revenue Research Analyst · Tax Economist · Agricultural Economist · Business Economist · Consultant Economist · Econometrician · Economic Developer · Economic Development Manager · Economic Research Analyst · Economic Specialist · Environmental Economist · Financial Economist · Fiscal Economist · Forecast Analyst · Forest Economist · Health Economics Consultant · Health Economist · Healthcare Economics Analyst · Healthcare Economics Consultant · Home Economist · Industrial Economist · International Trade Specialist · Labor Economist · Medical Economics Analyst · Medical Economics Consultant · Policy Advisor · Policy Officer · Price Economist · Research Analyst · Resource Planning Analyst · Social Economist · Trade Economist