What kinds of careers can you expect with a bachelors’ in economics?

illa_nocte: What kinds of careers can you expect with a bachelors’ in economics?
I’m trying to decide between economics and communications for my second major. I know that communications has a lot of career opportunities attached, but I don’t know anything about economics.

Note: I am not planning on using my bachelors’ in economics to get into an MBA program.
Thank you both so much! I can’t pick a best answer out of these two great answers.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Capt Janeway
I know of a few friends with majors in economics and they now work in a range of interesting and highly paid careers. They are in the financial industry, in government as economic policy advisors, and accountants. These are just a few examples.

In 2005, graduates with a bachelor’s degree in economics received a higher average starting salary ($ 42,803) than that for business majors ($ 39,448) and liberal arts majors ($ 30,337).

Former economics majors work in all branches of industry and across a wide range of occupations, including Finance Analyst/Planner, Market Research Analyst, Commodities Trader, Securities Broker, Insurance Analyst and Real Estate Investor.

Economics is the second most likely undergraduate major of today’s CEOs (after engineering).

To find out more, read this:

It seems to me to be a much more valuable major to pursue than communications. Partly because it will pay more, but also because the competition is less tight since economics is a tougher major requiring some mathematical skills ( don’t let that put you off, it’s not that hard), while communication would be considered a soft option and so just about anybody can succeed in it.

Hope this helps!