Traineeship in the Business Cycle Analysis Division

Economics

11140

General Information
Type of contract Traineeship

Who can apply? EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme

Grant The trainee grant is €1,170 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)

Working time Full time

Place of work Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Closing date 29.01.2025

Your team You will be part of the Business Cycle Analysis Division in the Directorate General Economics. Our Directorate General assesses and forecasts economic developments and provides policy advice on topical economic issues relevant to the euro area economy. Our analysis is published in the ECB’s Economic Bulletin, the ECB’s Occasional Paper Series and Working Paper Series and the ECB Blog.

The Business Cycle Analysis Division analyses and forecasts real macroeconomic developments in the largest euro area countries and in the euro area as a whole. This involves monitoring business cycles, developing and using forecasting tools and analysing the main domestic demand components. The Division also assesses euro area sector accounts and produces and analyses the ECB’s Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) and Corporate Telephone Survey.

The current analytical activities of the Division relate to:

• understanding the implications of monetary policy transmission, supply and demand conditions, and uncertainty for business cycle dynamics, as well as for households’ and firms’ spending, investment and saving decisions;
• developing nowcasting tools for economic activity, using state-of-the-art AI, text mining and machine learning tools;
• investigating the heterogeneity of households and firms in driving aggregate fluctuations, the impact of recent crises on the behaviour of households and firms, and the varying impact of monetary and fiscal policies.

In your role as a trainee, you will be part of either the Data Support team or the CES team. The Data Support team is responsible for preparing charts and presentations for Executive Board members and the Directorate General’s senior management, conducting empirical analyses, and enhancing data and analytical tools. The CES team is responsible for the development of the CES, the regular reporting of the survey results, and preparing analysis and research based on the CES for Executive Board members and the Directorate General’s senior management. In both teams you will work closely with experienced economists.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Your role As a trainee you will:

• contribute to the regular work of the Division, for instance by preparing tables and charts for reports and presentations for Executive Board members and the Directorate General’s senior management in collaboration with other business areas;
• use the results of the CES to enhance the Division’s understanding of the euro area household sector and to formulate policy advice;
• process, consolidate and transform datasets, and maintain and develop databases and visualisation tools in order to monitor real economic developments, often using microdata;
• assist in adapting regular work processes and data management to changes in the data system using modern tools and technologies;
• conduct empirical analyses using data analytics and statistical and econometric tools to support policymaking bodies;
• contribute to the enhancement of analytical, econometric and forecasting tools.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to develop your quantitative skills, contribute to analytical tasks and work with experienced central bank economists on topical economic issues. It also provides you with a unique opportunity to gain insights into economic analysis and policy decision-making in a central bank. You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens.

Qualifications, experience and skills Essential:

• a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics, statistics, data science or another relevant field;
• practical experience of working with databases, including data quality validation, and preparing charts and tables for reports and presentations;
• practical experience of working with statistical/econometric software such as EViews or Stata or programming languages such as MATLAB, Python, R, SQL and VBA for Excel;
• an interest in supporting policy advice through applied economic analysis;
• a good knowledge of the MS Office package, particularly Excel and PowerPoint;
• an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Desired:

• a master’s degree in economics, statistics, data science or another relevant field
• a broad knowledge of macroeconomics;
• a solid background in econometrics (in particular, time series econometrics, the econometrics of panel data and microeconometrics) or statistics;
• knowledge of, or experience in, data science (for example, web scraping, text analysis, machine learning or big data processing);
• practical experience of using visualisation tools such as Tableau or Power BI or creating interactive web applications with R Shiny;
• a good understanding of economic issues related to the household and corporate sectors, the business cycle and the current macroeconomic climate.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the aims of this position.

Further information Initial traineeship of between 3 and 6 months, with a possible extension to up to 12 months in total. The starting dates will be from April 2025.

Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.

Application and selection process The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview.

Further information on how to apply is available on our website.

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for other traineeship positions within the ECB.