Forbes have reported a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 'poor' demand

Now I'm assuming this is in the US market as it's a US article, but why is there such low demand for an Economics degree? The report states 64% of respondents would hire someone with an Economics degree, as opposed to Accounting with 98%, Computer Science with 97%, and Finance with 91%.

It was just the other week that I was reading a BBC article saying Economics is the second highest paying degree, narrowly losing out to Medicine.

Is Economics not as highly respect in other countries?

Reply 1

richpanda

16

Original post by ImNotSuperman

Now I'm assuming this is in the US market as it's a US article, but why is there such low demand for an Economics degree? The report states 64% of respondents would hire someone with an Economics degree, as opposed to Accounting with 98%, Computer Science with 97%, and Finance with 91%.

It was just the other week that I was reading a BBC article saying Economics is the second highest paying degree, narrowly losing out to Medicine.

Is Economics not as highly respect in other countries?

too easy to get on to, and too many people do it. Why would you hire economists to do something when you could get a team of more specialised people to do it (such as a mathematician, an accountant, a comp sci graduate)

Reply 2

username738914

21

Skills and experience > degree course, every time.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 3

username1258398

19

Original post by Princepieman

Skills and experience > degree course, every time.

Posted from TSR Mobile

the thread's about the demand for Economics degrees relative to other degrees, not degrees in general relative to skills and experience

Reply 4

username738914

21

Original post by StrangeBanana

the thread's about the demand for Economics degrees relative to other degrees, not degrees in general relative to skills and experience

I know but there aren't any inherent differences say, between an Econ student and a A&F student for instance. Hiring managers ultimately want skills+experience, degrees may be a proxy for that but for the most part they aren't. Whether there's 'demand' for a degree (which isn't professional in and of itself) is not important, what is important is demand for skills amd experience.

CS might be a proxy for 'good programming skills', but if an Econ student with better programming skills and a greater array of prior experience rocks up for a software engineering job they'll edge out the CS student.

Hence: skills + experience > degree.

Reply 5

RooT_Fifteen

12

TLDR Despite Econ students being good generalists, the advantage of being a good generalist is triumphed by having a specific skill in acc/fin/maths for majority of general finance roles.

Original post by richpanda

too easy to get on to, and too many people do it. Why would you hire economists to do something when you could get a team of more specialised people to do it (such as a mathematician, an accountant, a comp sci graduate)

This isn't entirely true. Although a lot of generalist roles in finance now prefer a degree in Mathematics of A&F, there are plenty of openings for a position of Economist or researcher which requires 50%+ Economics content in one's degree. (Not sure why compsci came out in your example neither, as there is very little overlap between compscis and economists in terms of career). Furthermore the competition for top Economics courses in the UK tend to be fiercer than any of the other degrees you mentioned, so I'm not entirely sure where you got the "too easy to get on to" from.

Although I do agree there are far too many Economics undergraduates in the UK, majority of whom wish to become bankers.

Original post by ImNotSuperman

Now I'm assuming this is in the US market as it's a US article, but why is there such low demand for an Economics degree? The report states 64% of respondents would hire someone with an Economics degree, as opposed to Accounting with 98%, Computer Science with 97%, and Finance with 91%.

It was just the other week that I was reading a BBC article saying Economics is the second highest paying degree, narrowly losing out to Medicine.

Is Economics not as highly respect in other countries?

To answer the OP's question, Bachelor's degree in Economics produces very well-rounded graduates, who are able to, and do work across many different sectors.

However the problem occurs as majority of Economics graduates pursue a generalist career in finance. Clearly someone who has studied A&F is going to be at an advantage working a general role in finance, as that is what they studies over the course of their degree. Some roles in this sector (for example derivatives trading) which requires more maths will be filled with a Mathematics student rather than an Economics student, as both their knowledge in the financial sector and finance in general is likely to be similar, however the mathematician is clearly going to be better at the maths required for the role.

But, should you choose to go for a role of an Economist or work in FICC side of banking, a degree in Economics is advantageous/compulsory, so I wouldn't say a degree in Economics is considered disrespected.

(source: job hunting experience)

(edited 7 years ago)

Forbes have reported a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 'poor' demand

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