Economist/Statistician (Economics)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making. The position is located in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics. This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled either as an Economist or Statistician (Economics). You must meet the Basic Requirements and the Specialized Experience to qualify for Economist/Statistician (Economics), as described below. Basic Requirement Economist, 0110: A) Degree: economics, that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus. OR B) Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in economics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Statistician, 1530: A) Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing. OR B) Combination of education and experience -- courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance. Specialized Experience In addition to the basic requirements above, applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level, GS-12, in the Federal Service. This one year of specialized experience must be in or related to the field of economics or statistics and must have equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, judgment, and technical competence in order to successfully perform the duties of the position to be filled. To be minimally qualified, applicants must demonstrate at least 2 of the experience indicators below: Independently reviewing data and performing analysis for economic reports, publications, articles, or analytical studies; Conducting economic/statistical research that produced evidence of results and yielded measurable improvements after implementation; Leading an economic team or project and/or mentoring or training a staff of professional economists/statisticians. Duties include, but are not limited to, the following: Initiate and conduct analysis on employment information and data collected in various statistical surveys and/or for publications such as the Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Occupational Outlook Quarterly and other similar issuances from OEUS Lead or independently conduct statistical tests of hypotheses formulated by Research Economists, and/or serve as team leader for special one-time or recurring projects or studies Provide guidance and direction to team members, including assigning and reviewing work products Prepare written products in final which may include: Departmental or Bureau of Labor Statistics press releases; pre-scheduled releases on labor force developments; technical reports; bulletins; analytical articles for other governmental and non-governmental publications; and responses for Congressional committees and the President's Council of Economic Advisors Act as project manager for special studies related to employment, unemployment, and hours and earnings Education Any applicant falsely claiming an academic degree from an accredited school will be subject to actions ranging from disqualification from federal employment to removal from federal service. If your education was completed at a foreign college or university, you must show comparability to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States and comparability to applicable minimum coursework requirements for this position. Click Evaluation of Foreign Education for more information.