Careers useful as a stepping point to economic consultancies?

Hello, this question is for everyone in the economic consulting industry. I am highly interested in it and am in the process of applying but I also recognise it's a niche business in a very tough job market, so I also want to be prepared for a scenario where it doesn't work out for me to join an economic consultancy from the start of my career. Therefore, what are some alternative careers that I can do in the meantime, that might be seen as desirable by economic consultancies and would serve as a stepping stone for me to continue my career in econ consulting at a later point? Thanks in advance!

As you say, economic consulting is a fairly niche business area, however there are still a few different types of economic consultancies. Therefore, it's important to outline which sort of economic consultancies interest you - as each sort will be interested in different things, which then has implications for the sort of other roles you can pursue that these firms may see as desirable.
Just to illustrate this, the sort of other roles that might interest macro consultancies (e.g. junior macro-focused economic roles at places like the Treasury/BoE/OBR/etc), wouldn't be particularly helpful in gaining an offer from an economic consultancy that specialises in competition/industrial organisation/arbitration/etc. Equally, the inverse is also true.

Thank you for the response! I am particularly interested in competition/IO economic consultancies and the possible other roles I can pursue that would seem desirable for them.

In that case I would be looking at all the regulators - most offer economics-related summer internships and graduate positions - some specific government departments that deal with relevant areas (e.g. HMT, business & trade, etc). These are probably the only places that offer relevant roles which are easier to obtain than roles at economic consultancies.