By country

Economics graduates are employable in varying degrees, depending on the regional economic scenario and labour market conditions at the time for a given country. Apart from the specific understanding of the subject, employers value the skills of numeracy and analysis, the ability to communicate and the capacity to grasp broad issues which the graduates acquire at the university or college. Whilst only a few economics graduates may be expected to become professional economists, many find it a base for entry into a career in finance – including accounting, insurance, tax and banking, or management. A number of economics graduates from around the world have been successful in obtaining employment in a variety of major national and international firms in the financial and commercial sectors, and in manufacturing, retailing and IT, as well as in the public sector – for example, in the health and education sectors, or in government and politics. Small numbers go on to undertake postgraduate studies, either in economics, research, teacher training or further qualifications in specialist areas.

According to the United States Department of Labor, there were around 15,000 non-academic economists in the United States in 2008, with a median salary of roughly $83,000, and with the top ten percent earning more than $149,000 annually. About 135 colleges and universities grant about 900 new Ph.D.s in economics each year. The type of academic degree — bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree — has significant influence on an individual's job outlook and salary. Incomes are highest for those in the private sector, followed by the federal government, with academia paying the lowest incomes. Median salaries range from $45,000 for those with a bachelor's to $85,000 for those with a Ph.D. in economics. A recent and continuous study by PayScale.com showed economic consultants with a Ph.D. had the overall highest median income for any group, at $116,250; the median salary for an assistant professor was $63,500, for an associate professor $67,000, and for a full professor $85,000. The overall median income for doctorates in academia was $75,000 compared to $125,000 in consulting and $87,000 in banking.

Policy advising and analyzing of economic current trends are among the main responsibilities of economists in the United States. A recent survey of U.S. economists by Daniel B. Klein and Charlotta Stern found that most economists are supporters of safety regulations, public schooling, and anti-discrimination laws. They are evenly mixed on personal choice issues, military action, and the minimum wage. Most economists oppose government ownership of enterprise and tariffs.

United Kingdom

The largest single professional grouping of economists in the UK are the more than 1000 members of the Government Economic Service, who work in 30 government departments and agencies.

Analysis of destination surveys for economics graduates from a number of selected top schools of economics in the United Kingdom (ranging from Newcastle University to the London School of Economics), shows nearly 80 per cent in employment six months after graduation – with a wide range of roles and employers, including regional, national and international organisations, across many sectors. This figure compares very favourably with the national picture, with 64 per cent of economics graduates in employment.

In the 18th century, one of the first economic writers was Richard Cantillon (1680—1734), who wrote the treatise Essai Sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. Early founders of economic concepts included the Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, David Hume (1711–1776), and the so-called "classical economists": English demographer and political economist Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834), political economist David Ricardo (1772–1823), and the Scottish moral philosopher and political economist Adam Smith (1723–1790). Other early developers of economic concepts include the British philosopher, political economist John Stuart Mill (1806–1873); French economist and free trade advocate Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832); Prussian philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary Karl Marx (1818–1883); French classical liberal theorist and political economist, Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850); and English economist and logician William Stanley Jevons (1835–1882).

Founders of important economic concepts who were alive during the 20th century include the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851–1914); the founder of the Austrian School of economics, Carl Menger (1840–1921); British economist, developer of Keynesian economics, and influential founder of modern theoretical macroeconomics John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946); American economist, health campaigner, and eugenicist Irving Fisher (1867–1947); German economist and proponent of the social market economy, Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966); Canadian-American economist, popularizer of economics John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006); American economist, Nobel Prize Laureate and proponent of the Tobit model, James Tobin (1918–2002); American economist, nobel laureate and founder of modern growth theory Robert Solow; Austrian-British member of the Austrian School of economics Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992); American economist, public intellectual, and laissez-faire capitalism advocate Milton Friedman (1912–2006); and Romanian mathematician, statistician, economist, protégé of the renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter and father of Ecological economics and other fields of economics Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1906-1994).

Current well-known economists include 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner Paul Krugman, a public intellectual and advocate of modern liberal policies; Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve; Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve; Joseph Stiglitz, an American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics winner, critic of inequality and the governance of globalization, and Chief Economist of the World Bank.