The Arizona Commerce Authority is seeking an economic research analyst to join its top-notch research team in Phoenix. The ACA’s mission is to grow and strengthen Arizona’s economy and facilitate the creation of quality jobs in the state by supporting and attracting businesses in targeted, high-value base sectors. The research team compiles and analyzes economic data to assist in business attraction, business development and business retention.
Job Summary
An ACA economic research analyst gathers information about Arizona’s economy and the state’s competitiveness, relative to other states. This information is organized into reports and presentations for internal and external use.
Essential Job Functions
The position entails:
- Gathering and analyzing statistical information from sources including the Census Bureau, BLS, BEA, Arizona Department of Revenue and Arizona Department of Administration.
- Using data sources such as EMSI, Wanted Analytics, GTIS, FDI Markets and FDI Benchmark in sophisticated ways to gather information about companies, workforce availability and investments.
- Computing cost comparisons that require comfort and a high skill level in working with complex tax information.
- Analyzing and synthesizing information and organizing it into reports for a range of audiences.
- Keeping data organized for long-term use and maintenance.
Qualifications
A qualified applicant must have:
- At least two years of experience in financial/economic research.
- At least a bachelor’s degree in a relevant major, such as economics, statistics, mathematics or urban/regional planning.
- Experience with economic forecasting or data modeling.
- Extensive experience writing clear, concise reports with technical elements, such as financial data.
- Excellent, advanced skills in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, including strong graphing skills.
- At least basic competence in SPSS.
- The ability to work collaboratively, but also to take control of a project and see it through to completion independently.
- The ability to work on more than one project at a time, often on tight deadlines.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including oral presentation and telephone skills.
- Extreme attention to detail.
A highly qualified applicant would also have:
- Professional experience in a government or economic development setting.
- Experience in industry research.
- Familiarity not just with using existing data but with collecting new data through surveys and other methods.
- Project management experience.
To learn more about the ACA, see www.azcommerce.com. Benefit information available upon request.
To apply, please send the following documents (in Word or PDF format) by email to Kimberly Barzar at kimb@azcommerce.com:
- Your resume.
- A cover letter that highlights your qualifications for the position and includes a description of a research challenge you have successfully tackled as part of your professional duties—a difficult question you answered, a complicated project you completed on deadline, etc.
- Two writing samples of no more than 800 words apiece. These should demonstrate your ability to synthesize and organize factual information. Include a description of no more than one paragraph about for each writing sample, describing the origin of the sample and its audience. (Note: the description word count does not count toward the 800 word limit.)
Please be sure your name is on all documents and submit all materials as attachments to a single email by no later than midnight (Mountain Standard Time) on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Submissions that do not include all requested documents will not be considered.
Contact Shawn Neidorf, (ACA Director, Research) with questions about the position at shawnn@azcommerce.com.