Big Tech companies are hiring Army’s of PhD Economists

Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Microsoft), are hiring army’s of PHD Economists. Why?

Could this be the beginning of the end for ‘Data Scientists’ ?

Economists training lends itself very well to analysing data sets in a commercial way, spotting trends, identifying correlation & causation.

Economists are trained to understand market forces & the levers that affect them, and are often very good at understanding what data can be used to improve operational efficiencies & optimise logistics & supply chain.

Big Tech have realised that Economists possess both the commercial & analytics skills that businesses have been crying out for.

Economists are ‘Unicorns’ !

So where does this leave Data Scientists ?

Will Economists just become Data Scientists ?

Probably not.  Traditional Machine Learning & Data Science experts will still be doing work on “predictive” topics that might not be best suited to an Economists skillset, who is likely to come more into their own on strategic “what if” questions.