Professionals · code 2631
Economists
AI can run the models. Telling a government what they mean is still an economist.
AI could take a fair chunk of ten of the twelve tasks, led by analysing labour market and economic data. Forecasting and researching market conditions are mostly out of its reach.
What they actually do (and what else they get called)
Economists conduct research, monitor data, analyse information and prepare reports and plans to resolve economic and business problems and develop models to analyse, explain and forecast economic behaviour and patterns. They provide advice to business, interest groups and governments to formulate solutions to present or projected economic and business problems. Tasks include - (a) forecasting changes in the economic environment for short-term budgeting, long-term planning and investment evaluation; (b) formulating recommendations, policies and plans for the economy, corporate strategies and investment, and undertaking feasibility studies for projects; (c) monitoring economic data to assess the effectiveness, and advise on the appropriateness, of monetary and fiscal policies; (d) forecasting production and consumption of specific products and services based on records of past production and consumption and general economic and industry-specific conditions; (e) preparing forecasts of income and expenditure, interest rates and exchange rates; (f) analysing factors that determine labour force participation, employment, wages, unemployment and other labour market outcomes; (g) applying mathematical formulae and statistical techniques to test economic theories and devise solutions to economic problems; (h) compiling, analysing and interpreting economic data using economic theory and a variety of statistical and other techniques; (i) evaluating the outcome of political decisions concerning public economy and finances, and advising on economic policy and possible courses of action in the light of past, present and projected economic factors and trends; (j) preparing scholarly papers and reports; (k) examining problems related to the economic activities of individual companies; (l) conducting research on market conditions in local, regional or national areas to set sales and pricing levels for goods and services, to assess market potential and future trends and to develop business strategies. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Econometrician - Economic adviser - Economic analyst - Economist - Labour economist Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Statistician - 2120
- economist
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
45 / 100
Changing significantly
AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.
Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.
The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 3
399 of 427 for holding up against AI
Not quite your week? Make it yours ↓
Why this score?
The ILO rated each of this job's 12 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 55.5 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 55.5 = 44.5.
That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 3”: Most of the tasks are affected.
This job rates 2.7 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
Man v Bot · compare
Who holds up better?
Economists 45
vGo on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.
Man v Bot
Where the bot helps, and where the human wins
Bot
What AI takes
The routine stuff. You may not miss it.
- Data analysis and modelling.
- Forecasts.
- Writing papers and reports.
Man
What people still do better
Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.
- Advising on policy.
- Interpreting uncertain results.
- Explaining economics to decision-makers.
Both
What's arriving
New work that only exists because the AI does.
- Studying AI's effect on jobs and growth.
- Real-time data.
- AI in forecasting.
Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.
Meet your two rivals
They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.
The AI
Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.
Threat level: Medium
51 could do without you
It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 75 of 100.
The robot
The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.
How much it matters here: Lower
3 how hands-on
Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.
So could a robot do the physical part?
Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.
Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 3 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.
hands-on
and cramped
Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on
The small print
They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.
From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .
finger skill 8.1 · hand skill 0 · cramped spaces 0 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50
estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
The job, task by task
Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.
AI's favourite task here scores 65, against an average of 56. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.
- 65
Analysing factors that determine labour force participation, employment, wages, unemployment and other labour market outcomes
Medium - 64
Compiling, analysing and interpreting economic data using economic theory and a variety of statistical and other techniques
Medium - 62
Preparing forecasts of income and expenditure, interest rates and exchange rates
Medium - 58
Formulating recommendations, policies and plans for the economy, corporate strategies and investment, and undertaking feasibility studies for projects
Medium - 57
Applying mathematical formulae and statistical techniques and apply to test economic theories and devise solutions to economic problems
Medium - 57
Evaluating the outcome of political decisions concerning public economy and finances and advising on economic policy and possible courses of action in the light of past, present and projected economic factors and trends
Medium - 57
Monitoring economic data to assess the effectiveness, and advise on the appropriateness, of monetary and fiscal policies
Medium - 56
Examining problems related to the economic activities of individual companies
Medium - 54
Forecasting production and consumption of specific products and services based on records of past production and consumption and general economic and industry-specific conditions
Medium - 54
Preparing scholarly papers and reports
Medium - 47
Forecasting changes in the economic environment for short-term budgeting, long-term planning and investment evaluation
Low - 35
Conducting research on market conditions in local, regional or national areas to set sales and pricing levels for goods and services, to assess market potential and future trends and to develop business strategies.
Low
12 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
New · the weekly task audit
Your week, your score
The score above assumes economists spend the same time on every task. You don't. Slide each task to how much of your week it takes, and we'll re-weight the same ILO ratings to fit your job.
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
- Some
Your score
45 / 100
Same as the job as a whole, so far.
Move the sliders to make it yours.
The job as a whole: 45 / 100
Link copied.
Nothing you enter leaves your browser. The link just carries your slider positions.
Sidekick or replacement?
A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.
- AI helps you
- 75
- AI does it for you
- 51
Sidekick wins, by 24 points.
How good a match is this?
2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2243, 2245
Meanwhile, in real life…
Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?
Out of every 100 conversations
worked through it together handed it over
The small print
Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 0.21% of the conversations.
The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 2 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.
These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.
observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product
So, should economists be worried?
Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.
Parts of the job are changing. Labour markets, data analysis, forecasts, recommendations, modelling, policy evaluation, company analysis and papers are rated Medium; business forecasting and market research are Low. AI speeds up analysis; judgement and advice stay human.
Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.
Where this job could lead
None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →
How are the neighbours doing?
There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 62. This one is below the family average.
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- Secondary education teachers 70
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- Electrical engineers 69