Macroeconomic Research Assistant

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives, the Treasury can offer you an exciting opportunity to influence decision making that affects the whole of the UK. Working at the heart of government, we collaborate across government to promote responsible public spending and drive strong and sustainable economic growth.

About the Team

Our team is responsible for developing HM Treasury’s thinking and advice for the Chancellor on macroeconomic policy! This includes short-term fiscal policy and monetary policy strategy. The team consists of four branches:

1. Strategy and Framework – We provide advice, analysis and briefing on the macroeconomic strategy. We also work with office of the Chief Economic Adviser to coordinate the weekly macroeconomic strategy meetings, arranging presenters and providing readouts.
2. Monetary Policy – We advise on the monetary policy framework and support Chief Economist in her role as the Treasury representative at the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings. The branch produces monetary policy analysis ahead of MPC meetings, speeches and select committee hearings. We also lead the appointment process for external members to the MPC.
3. Projects – We tackle a variety of pressing macroeconomic questions in short-term projects commissioned by seniors within HMT that typically span over a month or two. These projects can be either analytical or strategic.
4. Research – We look more deeply into analytical issues on fiscal and monetary policy including the fiscal stance and automatic stabilisers. We develop a research agenda across the team and build links with other teams, academics and external organisations on policy issues.

About the Job

This role includes:

• Supporting HM Treasury’s programme of macroeconomic analysis. This will require excellent analytical skills paired with the initiative and curiosity to undertake research into new areas to develop genuine expertise. A good understanding of public finance statistics is helpful but not crucial, provided you have a curiosity about developing your knowledge.
• Building your proficiency in macroeconomic modelling, chiefly using R and Excel. This is a technical role so a strong ability to undertake quantitative analysis in R is critical. A solid understanding of NIESR’s NiGEM macroeconomic model is helpful but not essential.
• Effective communication skills in both oral and written work. You will present your work regularly so you will need to boil down your understanding of macroeconomics and econometrics into simple and easily understandable terms for different audiences.
• Developing and maintaining effective relationships with colleagues in HMT and external bodies. Your ability as a great teammate and your enjoyment for meeting new people will help you to draw on their skills and knowledge.
• Working on a mix of projects depending on your development needs, interests and wider HMT priorities. A willingness to learn and develop knowledge of specialist topics, drawing on the understanding of colleagues you work with will be key.

About You

Working in the Research branch, you will support macroeconomic policy analysis for HMT. Our team’s work involves developing analysis to guide the policies ultimately used in the Budget.

To make sure our advice to the Chancellor draws on the best available evidence, we work closely with a broad mix of people. Our key contacts come from throughout the Treasury, the Bank, the OBR, think-tanks and academia to make use of different perspectives.

The key tool owned by the post-holder will be the ‘Bank Reaction Function’, which is central to understanding how fiscal policy decisions interact with monetary policy and the implications this has on achieving the government’s economic objectives. This analysis underpins our final recommendations on fiscal policy for the Chancellor at fiscal events.

You will need to be an effective communicator, both written and verbally. The equivalent of post-graduate level expertise in economics and some experience working in macroeconomics is desirable, but not essential.

HM Treasury is proud of a diverse and inclusive work environment, committed to fairness and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all. We know that having a range of experiences, ways of working and thinking makes us a stronger organisation, better at developing policy that is reflective of the communities we serve. We embrace different views and experiences and value the fresh perspective that people from a variety of circumstances bring to the work we do. We welcome applications from candidates who have not previously worked for the Civil Service, mid- and late-career changers with transferrable skills, people from all backgrounds and circumstances regardless of disability, ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.

Some of the Benefits our people love!

• 25 days annual leave (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus 8 public holidays and the King’s birthday (unless you have a legacy arrangement as an existing Civil Servant). Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month
• Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)
• Generous parental and adoption leave packages
• Access to a generous
• Defined Benefit pension scheme with employer contributions of 27%
• Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme and season ticket advances
• A range of active staff networks, based around interests (e.g. analysts, music society, sports and social club) and diversity (e.g. women in the Treasury, ethnic minority network, LGBT* network, faith and belief network)

For more information about the role and how to apply, please follow the apply link.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process, please tell us about this in your online application form, or speak to the recruitment team at hrrecruitment@hmtreasury.gov.uk