Economist

The GLA Economics team provides expert advice and analysis on London’s economy and related issues facing the Mayor of London. We aim to be an authoritative and highly regarded source of information and data for anyone with an interest in London’s economy.

We:

Provide monitoring and forecasting of key economic variables.

Undertake analysis to inform investment decisions, large-scale service delivery and key policy strategies.

Support the economic appraisal and evaluation of GLA projects and programmes to ensure effective decision making and spending.

The team sits within the GLA’s City Intelligence Unit, a multidisciplinary unit comprising analysts, social and opinion researchers, demographers and data scientists.

About the role

The GLA requires high quality economic analysis and advice to ensure that the strategies and policies we develop and the investment decisions we take are based on sound evidence.

We are recruiting an Economist in the Appraisal and Evaluation sub-team of GLA Economics. You’ll be applying your knowledge of economics in a variety of different settings: helping to develop business cases, carrying out options appraisal and cost-benefit analysis, helping to identify data sources and indicators for monitoring and reporting, or supporting the design and delivery of economic impact evaluation. This is a varied and interesting role working across an array of different policy areas such as economic development, housing, culture, and the environment, helping to advise and support teams with the production of high-quality analysis to inform decision-making.

You will have a professional qualification in Economics or a related subject and ideally have experience of economic appraisal and evaluation techniques using central Government guidance. The varied nature of the role means a broad understanding of Mayoral policy areas and priorities for London is desirable. You should be confident working with people and teams, providing high-quality advice and guidance that draws on your professional skills as an economist.

What your day will look like

Working across a range of policy areas, you’ll be applying your expertise in economic appraisal and evaluation to a variety of different projects from day-to-day. This could include:

Helping to prepare a business case for internal or external funding, such as aspects of the strategic or economic case, undertaking options appraisal, cost benefit analysis or other forms of value for money assessment.

Advising on the methodology for a project or policy evaluation, helping to draft a specification, reviewing the outputs of external evaluators, or carrying out an evaluation yourself.

Designing and delivering training on aspects of appraisal and evaluation methodologies, such as Logic Models/Theories of Change, or expanding our internal Evaluation & Appraisal network, in order to build organisational capacity.

Identifying data sources and indicators or writing up succinct analysis about a particular trend or issue facing London’s economy, for publications such as the State of London.

Supporting teams and stakeholders to identify how best to monitor the performance of their project or programme for corporate reporting purposes.

Skills, knowledge and experience

To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:

A degree or professional qualification in economics or a related subject, preferably to post-graduate level, or an ability to demonstrate the equivalent level of knowledge through experience in economics or a related field.

Knowledge and experience, or demonstrated capacity to acquire expertise in, the field of economic appraisal and evaluation. Knowledge and experience in the application of Government guidance including the Green and Magenta Books highly desirable.

A demonstrated capacity to develop and deliver high quality analytical projects to inform and influence policy development through evidence.

Broad knowledge of, or demonstrated capacity to acquire expertise in, policy areas relevant to the work of the GLA Group, such as economic development, regeneration, land use planning, transport, housing and environmental policy for example.

Strong numeracy skills, including experience of technical/economic modelling, and an ability to find creative and workable solution to analytical problems.

Evidence of computer literacy including proficiency in using Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Teams