Financial analyst
$60,000 – $95,000
The most common landing
Degree guide
what can i do with an economics degree?
The quiet workhorse degree: broad enough for banking, government and tech, rigorous enough to be taken seriously in all three. Its grads are everywhere; its name is on almost no doors.
Nobody posts jobs titled 'economist' — and econ grads are hired constantly
The degree signals quantitative reasoning with real-world judgment, which is why banks, governments, consultancies and tech analytics teams all recruit from it. The lever is math: econ with strong stats/econometrics competes with math grads; econ without it competes with everyone.
Jobs and salary context
Typical Canadian ranges from Job Bank medians, checked Oct 2026. Actual outcomes vary by role, location, experience, and employer.
Government economist / policy analyst
$65,000 – $100,000
Federal EC stream — pensioned and underrated
Data analyst
$60,000 – $90,000
Econometrics is analytics with better theory
Management consultant
$70,000 – $110,000
Case-interview culture loves econ
Banking / credit analyst
$60,000 – $100,000
Commercial banking's steady ladder
Economist (with master's)
$80,000 – $120,000
The title itself mostly lives behind grad school
FAQ
Economics vs business degree?
Econ carries more analytical prestige and better grad-school doors; business carries more direct-to-job polish (accounting, marketing tracks). For banking and consulting they compete equally. The honest tiebreaker: econ if you like the theory, business if you want the co-op machine.
Is economics a hard degree?
Harder than its arts classification implies — the upper years are math in disguise. That difficulty is precisely what the job market pays for, so leaning into the quantitative courses is leaning into the salary.
Do I need a master's in economics?
Only for the actual 'economist' title and research roles. The analyst jobs above hire at bachelor's, especially with econometrics and a data-tools portfolio.