Career Exploration

Economics majors leave our program able to apply economic analysis within a wide variety of fields. Their ability to research and analyze data using a wide variety of tools makes our graduates attractive to a wide variety of employers in government, private sector business, non-profit work, and education. It also prepares students for a wide variety of graduate programs.

Economics majors branch off into many different venues after graduation. Students have joined the Peace Corps and worked in non-profit corporations, including the United Way. Other students have found careers in local, state, federal, and international governments. Our graduates can be found throughout the Federal Reserve system, the Foreign Service, the US Treasury Department, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of our economics majors work in banks, including Wells Fargo and US Bank. Other graduates have found work in the financial sector at places like the Chicago Board of Trade, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and investment firms like Goldman Sachs. Other graduates choose a career in consulting; firms like Deloitte Consulting find graduates with the analytical skills developed by economics majors very attractive.

An economics major is great preparation for the study of and work in law. University of Minnesota economics majors have been accepted into law schools like the University of Michigan, Seton Hall, Boston University, and the University of Minnesota. Many economics majors choose to pursue additional degrees after graduating. The preparation our economics degrees provide helps students get accepted into highly ranked masters and doctoral programs. Students have gone on to masters programs in various fields at universities like Yale, Cornell, Georgetown, and, of course, the University of Minnesota. Our majors have also entered doctoral programs in sociology and political science in highly ranked programs such as the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota.