2010-03-08
We have recently completed a survey of former economics students and their employers, with a view to helping our current students, improving our programs, and boosting recruitment. The results are extremely encouraging, and the data obtained is very rich.
The survey was carried out by Martina von Sabsay. She interviewed by telephone students who have graduated over the last 10 years, and succeeded in contacting 63 of 80 students; it seems that many (if not most) of the others work abroad. She also interviewed well over 50 employers across all relevant categories.
Here are some of the more striking results. A large majority of students specializing in economics have gone on to obtain relevant jobs, and most of them found jobs very easily (see data below). Students were generally happy with the education they received, but they were unhappy about the lack of information about the job market, and lack of emphasis on skills demanded of them in their future careers. Both students and employers emphasized the need for a mastery of quantitative methods (statistics, econometrics, applied modelling), and good analytical skills, while employers were also concerned about the poor writing of graduate recruits. Many respondents, both former students and employers, were very positive about the education program at the department, and keen to cooperate more with us in the future. Below follows a summary of the results about the first jobs obtained by students: what jobs were obtained, and how difficult it was to obtain the first job.
For more information, contact Rob Hart.
| First jobs | |
| Economics | 41 |
| Business | 8 |
| Other | 3 |
| PhD student | 11 |
| Economics | |
| environmental analysis/policy | 8 |
| agricultural analysis/policy | 7 |
| SLU economics | 5 |
| energy analysis/policy | 4 |
| other economics | 4 |
| local authority | 4 |
| lobbying/politics | 3 |
| transport analysis/policy | 1 |
| international trade analysis/policy | 1 |
| food | 1 |
| nature | 1 |
| environment/teaching | 1 |
| Business | |
| banking | 5 |
| other | 3 |
| Diffculty of getting first job | |
| Very easy, job directly | 25 |
| Quite easy | 6 |
| OK, no more than 6 months | 6 |
| Difficult | 6 |
| Very difficult, more than 1 year | 3 |