Jobs Simply

What do I have to do to qualify to be an Economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics?

I'm hoping someone will have some experience they can share with me. I will graduate with a degree in Economics in a year from now. I've been looking at job listings for Economists and it seems like the BLS is the biggest hirer or Economists. I've been checking out the requirements listed on the usajobs.gov website, but I read somewhere that a major qualifier for the jobs was passing an economics test and I read that they had a practice test out there. I can't find any other reference to this test or the practice test. Does anyone know if this really exists and if so, what kind of stuff is on the test. ex. would it deal more with labor markets, or would I have to worry about the money market, references or monopolies and consumer and producer surplus, FE-IS-LM curves, AD-SRAS-LRAS curves, etc.? what is the hiring process like? I plan on giving it as close to 6 months as possible, but I think I could start the process as early as 9 months. Is this too early for a federal job? I know the state government jobs here in SC take several months to get through the whole process of getting employees. I have a family and a lot of student loan debt. I need security.

Public Comments

1. What is the opportunity cost of working for the the government vs. starting your own business? I too have an economics degree, and one of the last places you would find me working for is the government. You can maybe max out at about $70,000 there. Im 24, and make 100k 1.5 years out. Jobs hold you down, especially government jobs. You have security but that is about it. And it takes about 30 years to even get to that point. So definitely think about the opportunity cost here.
2. You are already qualified. You must apply for the job..