Placement Scheme 2025 – 2026

Our Cities team helps organisations understand the structure of city and regional economies, how they might develop in the future, and the implications for their business and strategy. We do this via our subscription services and bespoke consultancy projects. Our global client base includes firms in the real estate sector, financial services and B2C companies, think tanks, government and public sector organisations.

Our subscription services provide data, forecasts and analysis for 8,000 cities, regions, and local economies across the world, covering a broad range of economic, demographic, income, and spending indicators. As a placement student in the Cities team, you will assist in producing these forecasts and support our economists in developing the breadth and depth of our services. This could include contributing to written reports or exploring novel approaches to data estimation, such as using satellite imagery to estimate regional activity.

Economists in our Cities team use our proprietary data and forecasts to undertake many bespoke consultancy projects. These range from estimating the impact of an investment or economic development policy on a city to undertaking detailed socioeconomic analysis for a local economy or supporting local economic planning and strategic analysis. As a placement student in the Cities team, you will contribute to all aspects of this project work, including developing methodologies, data collection and collation, modelling and report writing.

As a placement student in the Cities team, you will gain a deeper understanding of regional economics, why the economic performance of cities varies from national economies, and the drivers of urban development. You will develop technical skills across a range of software, including the MS Office suite, Eviews and other modelling packages, and mapping software such as QGIS.

Key responsibilities include:

• Updating and maintaining economic datasets
• Analysing and forecasting city economies
• Data analysis and report drafting
• Supporting ongoing or new city-level research projects

Testimonial

“I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year in the Cities team at Oxford Economics. Through working on a wide variety of projects for clients around the globe, I developed my understanding of real-world economics and improved my data analysis, mapping, and writing skills. Most importantly, it was an excellent launch pad for my career as I returned to the Cities team after graduating.” Andrew Graham, former placement student

Placement Students on the Belfast Macro Consulting team typically work on multiple projects at any one time—from quantifying the economic impact of some of the world’s largest companies to valuing the social contribution of charities—helping our economists with data collection, data analysis, and report drafting. Placement Students are expected to manage their own time commitments across different projects to meet deadlines.

By joining our team, you will gain valuable and practical knowledge of the application of economics to real-world questions. You will also develop your skills with Microsoft Office, mapping software, statistical software, and other data software.

Key responsibilities include:

• assisting our economists with data collection, data analysis, and report drafting
• modelling under the supervision of economists
• managing time commitments across different projects to meet deadlines

We have 3 fantastic opportunities for hard-working economics students to join our team in London on a one-year industrial placement. Positions are available within the Global Macro, Macro Strategy and Emerging Markets, Real Estate and Eurozone teams in our award-winning Macro and Investor Services division. You should have a particular interest in macroeconomics, quantitative analysis and financial markets. More details on the positions can be found below.

Global Macro – the team is responsible for producing global research and helping set the regional teams’ agenda. The team’s placement student will assist with the research production, taking more responsibility as the year progresses. Research topics that placement students have contributed to or led in the past have included: producing cross-country indicators of financial conditions; assessing countries’ fiscal positions post-COVID; and the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on countries’ terms of trade. Students also have the chance to produce country economic forecasts and write associated reports, alongside responsibilities in recurring weekly and monthly projects.

Eurozone Macro – the team is responsible for producing macroeconomic research and forecasts for the eurozone and its member states. The team’s placement student will help us build and analyse our forecasts and assist in our research publications. Previous placement students in the team have been involved in a wide range of topics, such as recovery from the pandemic, the impact of rising energy prices, and building tools to examine the evolution of our forecasts. As the year progresses, the placement student will have opportunities to help write data responses and take a more active role in producing research. Students also have the opportunity to produce country economic forecasts and write associated reports, alongside responsibilities in recurring weekly and monthly projects.

Strategy and Emerging Markets – the team combines Oxford Economics’ macroeconomic forecasts with their own market expertise to produce asset allocation and investment strategy analysis for multiple asset classes for tactical and long-term investors. The team’s placement student will help us build macro tools (e.g. asset valuation models, leading indicators) using R, Python & Macrobond, conducting in-depth fundamental analysis on various countries and assisting with portfolio optimisation exercises.

Real Estate – the team is responsible for producing research and forecasts at country and sector levels, primarily by flowing through the implications from our macroeconomic forecasts and asset price views. The team’s placement student will assist with the collection and analysis of real estate data, as well as the production of research outputs. The position offers the opportunity to gain further insights into the real estate sector and how geopolitical, macroeconomic, and structural factors impact the sector. As the year progresses, the placement student will have opportunities to draft segments of our regional chartbooks, country reports and research briefings, along with ad hoc research projects.

Key responsibilities include:

• Forecasting (under the supervision of our economists)
• Assisting with macroeconomic and financial research
• Updating and maintaining economic datasets
• Building and maintaining macro tools

What our past students say:

“My time as a placement student in the Global Macro/EM team at Oxford Economics helped me strengthen my understanding of economics and develop interpersonal and workplace skills. I was able to work on research on various topical macroeconomic issues, which enabled me to understand better economic channels and how countries react to changes in the economic atmosphere. Drafting research briefings and other publications taught me a different style of writing from what we learn at university, Overall, it was a wonderful experience and a great insight of what one would do if they chose to be an economist.”  Yash, placement student 2021/2022

You will provide support for the development and maintenance of systems to create our economic datasets.  As the year progresses, successful candidates will be able to gain experience within areas related to their degree subject. Our students work closely with our experienced team of economists and take on some responsibility for analysis, country forecasting and econometrics.  Our students have undertaken various projects in the past, such as setting up economic models from scratch, working on data projects with economists and automating procedures.  This role requires close attention to detail.

Key responsibilities include:

• Running and helping to troubleshoot problems with our industry and macroeconomic databases
• Assisting economists with document production
• Setting up project deliveries on an ad hoc basis
• Maintenance of ongoing systems
• Forecasting (under the supervision of our economists) minor economies

What our past students say:

“I would encourage future students to apply because I have had an interesting and intriguing year where almost every day is different. I have learnt a vast amount of new skills that I will definitely apply to a future career path. Everyone at the company is extremely welcoming and makes you feel like a valued member of the team.”

“My placement year in the data team has been great! You are given responsibility early on with client projects and are closely engaged with economists around the world. This is an ideal opportunity for anyone interested in economic modelling/forecasting and how various data platforms can be used to assess relevant business decisions.”

We show the social, environmental, and economic impact of our clients’ activities and help communicate these to key stakeholders. Our work ranges from in-depth modelling and quantification of the effects of economic policy changes for governments to detailed quantification of the footprint of companies on particular communities.

We have three roles available in the wider Economic Impact team: one in the core Economic Impact team, one in the Econometrics team and one in the Applied Economics team. As a placement student, you will have the opportunity to assist all team members on a wide range of projects. The tasks undertaken will vary according to the nature of the projects.

Key responsibilities include:

• Desk research, including literature reviews of academic and corporate articles
• Data collection
• Analysis and visualisation of results
• Support in report writing

Our Global Industry team has a fantastic opportunity for a hard-working economics student on a one-year industrial placement.

Our team comprises 25 economists (some of whom are former placement students), each focused on a particular sector, such as energy generation and renewables, across the 77 countries we cover.

There are two placement student roles on our team. The students will provide support to the economists, forecast their own industries and contribute to monthly and quarterly reports. As the year progresses, placement students are given more interesting work, including forecasting some small macroeconomic countries, so long as they perform well in producing work and supporting the economists with work that has great attention to detail.

The placement students are assigned a sector to forecast every quarter, and they contribute with write-ups about their sector in our monthly and quarterly publications. The student also supports the commodities team in producing regular monthly reports. The industry team is involved in several regular and bespoke consultancy projects for a range of large industrial firms and trade associations, and our placement student is typically required to help with report writing and analysis. For example, previous placement students made a significant contribution in supporting our economists for our flagship Global Construction reports and were cited within the publication, while others have been able to write the front-page piece of our monthly documents.

The learning curve can be steep in using our Global Economic and Global Industry models, but we provide training and support throughout the placement year. In addition, we encourage our placement students to learn as many new skills as possible, such as Python. This will give the chosen placement student valuable and practical knowledge related to the application of economics to real-world questions.

Key responsibilities include:

• Updating and maintaining economic datasets
• Forecasting (under the supervision of our economists)
• Data analysis and report drafting
• Supporting ongoing or new projects

What our past students say:

“The placement programme in the Global Industry team was excellent. I was able to apply my economic theory from my degree to real-life markets in both a micro and macro-economic landscape and learn the fundamentals behind forecasting, which is a highly valuable skill. The opportunities I was provided with to learn and work on a variety of projects were great. This ranged from coding to consulting experiences to writing research reports that were used by clients. The team was very friendly and very encouraging in supporting my personal development and placement experience.”

As a Scenarios and Macro Modelling team placement student, you will gain broad exposure to economic consulting and modelling work. Most of the team’s projects involve working with the Oxford Economics Global Economic Model (GEM), the world’s most widely used commercial large-scale macroeconomic model, to develop bespoke scenarios.

Scenarios are a necessary tool to help clients understand the potential economic impacts of real-world events, and through this, you will have the opportunity to develop your knowledge and application of economics to real-world questions.

What does the team do? The team is responsible for:

• The Global Scenario Service, which uses scenario analysis to explore the implications of key risks to the world economy, such as the cost of living crisis
• The Global Climate Service, which includes producing regular briefings on climate-related issues and developing long-term climate scenarios covering a wide range of potential climate risks facing the world today
• Expanding regulatory stress tests such as that published by the Prudential Regulation Authority
• Generating statistical scenarios designed for IFRS 9 and CECL accounting standards
• Developing bespoke scenarios for purposes such as strategic or business planning
• Improving the properties of the Global Economic Model with recent additions, including climate policy levers and updated government bond yield equations.
• Producing the forecast for a few smaller economies to support the Global Macro Service

Most of the team’s projects involve working with the Oxford Economics Global Economic Model (GEM), the world’s most widely used commercial large-scale macroeconomic model, to develop bespoke scenarios.

As a placement student, you will gain broad exposure to economic consulting and modelling work. You will take on a range of tasks to enhance the team’s data analysis and charting capabilities, gathering data and reviewing literature for the team’s research, maintaining data projects and developing Excel tools to support the teams’ deliverables.

You will be given more responsibility as you develop your skills and knowledge. As the year progresses, you will take on a larger role in the production of economic scenarios for our flagship scenario reports and bespoke client projects.

Throughout, you will gain valuable practical experience with Microsoft Office, mapping, statistical and other data software such as EViews, PowerBI, and Python.

The team sits in both our Oxford and London offices, and you may join either office.

Key responsibilities include:

• Assisting our economists with the publication of the Global Scenarios Service and Global Climate Service flagship reports. This involves data collection, data analysis, and report drafting
• Independently forecasting two small countries. This entails building and analysing the forecast for different macroeconomic indicators, applying economic theory, and considering recent economic developments. Students will also be tasked with writing the country economic outlook report, which will be sent to our clients, and they will field client queries on their economies
• Expanding model equations on the GEM under the supervision of economists; manipulation, application of programs or formulas to automate tasks and engagement with forecasters or scenario runners
• Managing a variety of client data projects.

What our past students say:

“I learned something new every day and have applied what I have learned from my degree in ways I never thought possible. I cannot recommend a placement at OE enough, especially in the Scenarios and Modelling team. You learn a multitude of new skills, apply your degree every day and are a very much valued member of the team.” – Morgan, Scenarios and Modelling Placement 2021-22

The team is responsible for delivering global travel data sets with the broadest set of country, city, and state coverage available. We produce travel forecasts directly linked to origins and destinations’ economic and demographic outlook. We also work on economic impact analysis highlighting visitors’ value, events, developments, and industry segments. The team’s placement student will help build and analyse our forecasts and assist in our research publications. Throughout the placement, they will help update key datasets before each model update and be directly involved with client work.

Key responsibilities include:

• Collecting, collating and verifying key data inputs into our core services
• Researching key economic and tourism trends which complement the tourism forecasts
• Data analysis and report drafting
• Supporting client projects where needed