Is it that economists only work for the government, universities, or companies within the financial sector?

[asianfreak]

Please give me an honest answer here. I wonder if this is truth or a myth.

[kholland65]

Well being an economist is a very universal term. It's like stating someone is a doctor or a lawyer. There title doesn't dictate where they work. A doctor could be self employed, work at hospital, or even work for a sports team.

All the things you listed are very viable places for an economist to be employed. I'm sure there are plenty other areas in which they can be employed. Maybe a magazine or newspaper that has a section or who's theme is financially based. Maybe they work for a market research firm who sells their info the subscribing companies. Some maybe work for insurances companies. Some write blogs. Some serve in other capacities but do it on the side. For instance, I'm a financial adviser and work for a small family firm. There is a guy who has his own financial advisory firm, who is well known around the world for also being a top economist. He writes news letters ever day that people subscribe to and he charges a fee for that, where he does an analysis of all things financial and economic.

So yes, economists do work at those places, but not only just those places.

[kheserthorpe]

There are economists working in forecasting out of those areas. There are some people who call themselves economists who work for unions :D

I'm a little confused by the way you've phrased it though. Like 'is it true they only work for governments, in research or the largest and most lucrative sectors of the economy'.

Yeah, its a nightmare.

It might be worth clarifying whether you mean people with an economics background or people whose job title would be 'economist'. A number of people at my firm (myself included) have economics degrees.

[RedSmartie]

I'm double majoring in business and economics, and from what I've gathered, most economists do work in those fields as well as news and media organizations. I plan on doing financial advising for companies.

[Anonymous]

they work for the people paying them. So they can skew up just about anything to favor corporations. Not all of them are that way but fox 5 news economists?