Quantifying Economic and Industrial Policy Analyst

at  Department for Business and Trade

JOB SUMMARY

The Economy and Strategic Analysis (ESA) team sits in the centre of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), headed by Sravya Rao (DD). The team works to the Chief Economist / Director of Analysis Ben Cropper and is the lead analytical team for the Industrial Strategy directorate and the DBT Growth Policy Unit.

ESA’s focus is economic growth and productivity analysis. Its priorities include:

• Building DBT’s strategic narrative and evidence base on economic growth and productivity; embedding this into DBT policy, strategy, priorities, and operations
• Supporting the development and delivery of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, including policy design, analytical outputs, and the evidence base
• Supporting the DBT Growth Policy Unit to develop policy thinking on economic growth, including the Growth Mission
• Producing strategic analysis on how specific policy areas or transformational growth ideas contribute to economic growth and productivity, working closely with policy and analysis colleagues in DBT, wider Government, and externally
• Develop briefing and analysis to build DBT’s understanding of how the UK and global macroeconomy affect growth and productivity in the short- and longer-term

The UK economy has suffered weak productivity growth since the Global Financial Crisis. Reversing this decline is critical to raising living standards, ensuring the economy is resilient to shocks and transitions such as Net Zero, tackling longstanding challenges such as low investment and regional inequality, and creating the fiscal headroom to improve public services.
Growth is the core focus of DBT; we own many economic policy levers, ranging from employment regulation to trade to investment, with a particular focus on microeconomic growth policy (e.g. sectors, regions, consumers, workers, businesses).
Our team explores the root causes of and considers solutions to these complex problems, through policy-facing analysis and our own proactive strategy analytical projects. Our scope includes but is not limited to DBT policy areas

JOB DESCRIPTION

We are recruiting an analyst to develop our evidence base on the composition and delivery of policies to support the development of the Government’s Industrial Strategy. This is a permanent Grade 7 role which is open to candidates from outside the civil service and existing civil servants, including those applying on promotion.
The Industrial Strategy is the top priority of the DBT Secretary of State and is being developed at pace. It seeks to boost the performance of priority sectors, through vertical’ (i.e. sector-specific) and ‘horizontal’ (i.e. business environment) levers. It is led by DBT and HMT, drawing in expertise and policy ideas from across Government and externally. It is a crucial part of the Government’s Growth Mission, in which DBT will play a key role.
This role sits at the centre of DBT, supporting both the Industrial Strategy team and DBT Growth Policy Unit. We are seeking a postholder who could employ a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis, drawing on academic literature and conducting primary data analysis. With the opportunity to explore granular microdata from ONS / HMRC / commercial datasets as well as cross-country economic policy data such as the OECD Quantifying Industrial Strategies database).
Our goal would be to quantify and assess the effectiveness economic and industrial policies, including how they interact with one another, and using this to develop ideas for how they could be better designed and delivered. We encourage the postholder to be proactive in developing projects, exploring datasets, and developing policy ideas.
The postholder will report to a Grade 6 (Olly Bartrum) leading on economic policy analysis. They should also expect to work closely with the other Grade 6 teams in ESA – one covering UK and global macroeconomics and microdata analysis led by Dan Mawson and one covering analysis on specific thematic areas of policy led by Jacob Seager.

The postholder will be expected to:

• Develop analysis on how economic policy contributes to an overarching set of growth objectives, the challenges they face, and policy options to unlock growth – for the Industrial Strategy and the DBT Growth Unit
• Shape and deliver a set of data-driven analytical and policy projects in relation to inform policy development within DBT and wider Government as well as to improve our evidence base on growth
• Deliver analytical outputs for the Industrial Strategy (e.g. theory of change, monitoring & evaluation, international comparisons)
• Develop strong relationships with policy and analytical colleagues across Government to identify and address evidence gaps, policy interdependencies, and opportunities for collaboration
• Engage with external experts (e.g. academia, think tanks, international organisations such as the OECD) and make use of data-driven analysis to draw in the best available evidence and new policy thinking
• Proactively anticipate and respond to ad hoc requests from the Director of Analysis, DG Growth, and Permanent Secretary on economic policy analysis on economic policy analysis

This post offers the ability to work across a wide range of teams within DBT and wider Government, as well as with external stakeholders. The postholder will have exposure to the Director of Analysis, Director of Strategy and Director Industrial Strategy as well as other senior officials. The postholder’s work will be seen and used at the highest levels of DBT as well as across Government.
This role does not currently include line management responsibility, but we may consider this in the future and there may be opportunities to task manage individuals in the meantime.

QUALIFICATIONS

See reference to GES requirements in the Essential Criteria
Candidate to have a first or upper second-class honours degree in economics (or international equivalent), or a postgraduate degree in economics (If it is a joint degree, at least 50% of the course modules must be in economics.)

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Application of Knowledge (GES Competency)
• Analysis of Data (GES Competency)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,560, Department for Business and Trade contributes £15,397 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.
Please refer to the attached candidate pack for further information on our benefits.
Things you need to know

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Key success profiles for the role include:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating & Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Application of Knowledge (GES Competency)
• Analysis of Data (GES Competency