Assistant Economist- Labour Market Analysis London, England
Job description
Details
Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Senior Executive Officer
Contract type
Business area
Type of role
Economist
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information
Location
About the job
Job summary
About HM Treasury
If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives across the country, the Treasury is the department for you! We sit at the centre of everything that the Government does and have provided advice on economic policy and decisions that affect the public finances throughout the country’s history. A Treasury career continues to offer an exciting opportunity to be part of the decision making that affects the whole of the UK.
Working at the heart of government, we collaborate with other departments to ensure public money is spent well and to drive strong and sustainable economic growth. Our work ranges from protecting customers through to the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, supporting people across the country through the COVID 19 furlough scheme and Plan for Jobs as well as helping first time buyers buy their first home.
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, gender, age ethnicity, LGBT+ identity and socio-economic status.
Job description
About the Group - Personal Tax, Welfare and Pensions
We work to create a tax and welfare system which supports the government’s goals of deficit reduction, economic growth and fairness. In doing so, we look after high profile areas including personal taxes, labour markets, welfare, tax administration, pensions, and savings. We also coordinate spending controls for both HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions. The Group also has a wider role to assess the overall impact of changes made to taxes and benefit on households across the UK.
Our work means that we are often at the centre of ministers’ decision making, and we play an important part in the Budget and the Spending Review. Our group works closely with colleagues at HMRC, DWP and the Prime Minister’s office, and with a wide variety of external stakeholders.
About the Team
The Labour Markets and Distributional Analysis team is a friendly team of outstanding analysts and policy makers. We seek to bring together an understanding of households’ living standards and position in the labour market, with key labour market policies, such as DWP’s unemployment regime and tax-free childcare.
Our part of the team is made up of around 6 economists who work closely with policy teams across HM Treasury to provide analytical support on the impacts of policies on the labour market. We lead on microeconomic analysis of earnings, and employment, as well as analysis of work incentives in the tax and welfare system, and National Living and Minimum Wage analysis.
Key Accountabilities
Your responsibilities will include:
- Conduct microeconomic analysis to drive the policy debate. We use data sources such as the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the Labour Force Survey to model the impact of policies, for example on employment. Analytical conclusions have to be presented, clearly and succinctly, including to non-economists.
- Provide advice and briefing to HM Treasury seniors and ministers. One of the roles will involve working on the analysis to support the annual uprating decision of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage and will lead on the modelling to support this. Additionally, you may support with the ongoing maintenance and use of the department’s labour supply model in order to inform tax and welfare policy decisions.
- Work with colleagues in HM Treasury, other government departments and external organisations to deliver government objectives. For example, working closely with DBT to deliver the government’s annual economic evidence to the independent Low Pay Commission to inform their decision on the National Living and Minimum wage uprating, or collaborating with DWP to understand the impact of unemployment policy on labour market outcomes.
- Help to build and communicate HM Treasury’s understanding of the wider evidence on labour markets. You will be encouraged to develop and maintain a strong grasp of the external debate, engaging with experts from academia and the think-tank community.
- Keeping up to date on a variety of labour market datasets, through working with partners across Government alongside academics.
Person specification
Required Skills, Experience and Behaviours
The below criteria will be assessed in your application form:
The lead criterion is:
- Experience of using high-quality economic and/or quantitative analysis to influence decisions, including the ability to use, or ability to learn, statistical software packages such as SAS and Stata (Technical skill).
If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the first criterion only.
We will assess the below further criteria in your application form;
- Capability to work independently and proactively, and to handle a full workload delivering to short timescales (Delivering at pace).
- Ability to work collectively with others, including those in other organisations, to build strong working relationships and deliver joint objectives (Working together).
- Ability to communicate complex analysis and economic concepts efficiently to a senior, non-technical audience. (Communicating and influencing)
Candidate Guidance on Completing your Application Form
Where will we assess success profiles across your application form:
- Behaviours – these will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per behaviour. The application form will indicate which behaviour is being assessed each time you provide a statement, and we are ideally looking for an example using the below STAR method to demonstrate this behaviour
- Technical Skills - this will be assessed individually with a 250-word statement per technical skill. You will give the answer in a separate technical skills section, and be given direct guidance on the technical skill we are looking for you to demonstrate
All elements of the success profiles will be linked to a defined criterion that demonstrates the behaviour, experience or technical skills. It is beneficial to ensure your answer focuses on the full criteria, and not just the related success profile, to give you the best chance or providing the evidence the panel wants to assess.
In your statements, it is best to focus on one example in each section to allow you to provide enough detail in your answer and use all the words you have been allocated. Examples from a range of roles across your application will demonstrate that you have the skills, experience and behaviours we are looking for. We would also advise you to use examples that best meet the criteria, even if it is a few years old.
How to Structure your Answer
Please use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach when writing your application answers.
- Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
- Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
- Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
- Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.
Notes to Candidates
- Please refer to the candidate FAQ document which is a link on the job advert – this will provide you with guidance on completing the application form. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issue accessing this document
- At HM Treasury, to maximise diversity and inclusion within our workforce, we operate a fair, open and anonymous recruitment process. This means that the sift panel will only be able to assess you on the written evidence supplied in your application answers. They will not have access to personal information.
- You may be asked to provide some CV details during your application; however these will NOT be assessed during the process, but will be used to support discussions at interview – please ensure you put all information you would like to be scored against in your behaviour, experience and technical skill statements
- You will be assessed on your skills, experience and behaviours through the online application form. When completing your application form, please outline how you meet the requirements as detailed in the ‘Essential Criteria ‘section of this job description. This will give you the best chance to provide the evidence that the panel wants to assess. More guidance can be found here – completing you application
- If we receive a large number of applications, applications will be assessed initially against the lead criterion alone. You will then be assessed against the other criteria if you have met the minimum score on the first criterion.
- Find out more about how the Civil Service assesses candidates and uses Success Profiles (opens in a new window) to test skills, experience and behaviours in applications and interviews.
- Applications are not reviewed until the closing date has passed. You will be notified of the outcome of your application as soon as the recruitment panel has reviewed all the applications.
Hiring Manager Led Candidate Drop-In Session – Microsoft Teams
We will be running a candidate drop-in session for this role to give you greater insight about the role as well as the chance to learn more about HM Treasury and the recruitment process. If you would like to join us, then use the link below to join the call at the right time.
Thursday 18th May 16:30 – 17:00: Click here to join the meeting
Recruitment Led Candidate Guidance Session – Microsoft Teams
We will be running an overview of Success Profiles and the STAR approach; top tips for the application and interview process and an opportunity to ask general questions around our recruitment practices. If you would like to join us, then use the link below to join the call at the right time.
Wednesday 24th May: 17:00 – 17:30: Click here to join the meeting
Qualifications
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Working Together
- Communicating and Influencing
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Experience of using high-quality economic and/or quantitative analysis to influence decisions, including the ability to use, or ability to learn, statistical software packages such as SAS and Stata
Benefits
- 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)
- Flexible working patterns (part-time, job-share, condensed hours)
- A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%
- Onsite restaurant and coffee bar. The London office also offers a gym, showers and prayer room
- Access to a cycle-to-work salary sacrifice scheme, season ticket advances and payroll giving
- Access to a retail discounts and cashback site
- A Rental Deposit Advance Scheme to help meet the total costs of deposits for privately rented homes
- 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)
Flexible Working Arrangements
HM Treasury views flexible working as essential in enabling us to recruit and retain talented people, ensuring that they are able to enjoy a long-lasting career with us. All employees have the right to apply for flexible working and there are a range of options available including; working from home, compressed hours and job sharing. Additionally, we operate flexitime systems, allowing employees to take up to an additional 2 days off each month, providing you work enough hours to meet business need.
We also offer a generous parental and adoption leave package.
At HM Treasury we have an incredibly broad remit; our work touches every citizen of the country. So, it’s important our employees come from the widest possible range of backgrounds, bringing us the widest possible range of perspectives and ways of thinking. We are committed to ensuring that all staff are able to realise their potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of our pre-employment security checks, if you are invited to interview and are not a current HM Treasury member of staff, you will need to bring:
- Proof of identity, e.g. your passport or driver’s licence. Documents must be in date and valid.
- Proof of address, e.g. a utility bill or bank statement issued within the past 3 months
- Proof of your National Insurance (NI) number, e.g. letter from DWP confirming your NI number, or P60
- If you do not bring a UK or EU passport, you will need to bring other documentation of your right to work in the UK, e.g. your visa, biometric residence permit or birth certificate.
- If your right to work is granted through the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside you proof of identity you will need to provide either a letter of application or status outcome letter from the Home Office. If you are successful in being appointed to the role you will also be required to provide a Right to Work Share Code
Further details regarding acceptable documents will be provided in the invitation to interview. If you cannot provide in the first instance, the above documentation required for employment checks, at interview, please contact [email protected], If you are offered the role, we will require all documentation, as this is part of the security vetting process. If you do not provide this at interview stage, this may slow down the process and delay your start date.
If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs Profile.
Eligibility Statement
Individuals appointed to the Treasury Group will be subject to National Security Vetting. To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out applicants will normally need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case by case basis using all information that can be obtained following a successful application. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks.
For many roles, security clearance is also required. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements of the role before they can be appointed. The level of security clearance required for this role is Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) .
Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you.
Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.
These short videos address common concerns and preconceptions which applicants may have about national security vetting.
If you have questions relating to security clearances, please contact [email protected].
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Recruitment team
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