Career impact for Applied Economics

Your applied economics career prospects

Bath’s online MSc in Applied Economics can help you thrive in all types of economics careers. With this course, you can progress in your current career or change your profession to economics. Every very component of the course gives you the foundational macro-and microeconomic theory and knowledge, applied econometrics skills, and quantitative tools necessary to succeed in landing or advancing a career in economics, finance, banking, consulting firms, government organisations, research institutions, or PhD courses.

You could take on any of the following roles that are common for applied economics graduates in the UK and internationally:

• Applied economist
• Civil servant
• Analytical consultant
• Financial analyst / director
• Investment banker
• Risk analyst
• Loan manager
• Data miner

Apply your potential

The applied nature of Bath’s economics MSc means that you will gain hands-on experience with the skills and tools that today’s jobs require. According to Burning Glass, the top Applied Economics roles posted by UK employers for the 12 months ending in June 2022 were financial manager and financial analyst, which had a combined total of 2,888 openings.¹ And these careers are growing fast—the total UK market demand for AE-related positions grew 65% between 2020 and 2021.¹

Prepare for these competitive opportunities by developing your software skills and soft skills. During the Applied Economics course, you can access software tool packages including the statistical software programmes Stata and R. Target the career you want most by individualising your master’s project, the culmination of your course. The master’s project allows you to collaborate with a faculty member, explore a topic most relevant to you, and hone your soft skills. The final project, with its real-world policy briefs and video presentations, allows you to demonstrate how well you can apply quantitative research methods and tools. Your final project experience will show potential employers that you are prepared for the demands of your chosen career path.

Build your network

The MSc in Applied Economics encourages online communication and interaction through discussion forums, which often form part of your weekly activities. You will study alongside students from all around the world, representing over 56 countries. Many students and graduates of this MSc course are from the United Kingdom, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, China, Canada, the United States, Malta, Germany, Switzerland, Uganda, Nigeria, and more. Through high levels of interaction with your peers, you will be able to build your network and make lifelong connections.

Students currently undertaking our course are from a mixture of backgrounds including approximately 14% who are analysts, 11% who work in finance, 8% who are managers, 5% who are working as traders, and a variety of others work in auditing, risk-analysis, and sales. The professional experiences of our online students add great depth to our applied economics master’s because you can learn from the experiences of those around you in addition to our faculty and the course content.