Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.

“Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.” is a core task performed by Economists. Among the occupation's 13 rated tasks, workers place it 13th by importance (#1 most important). About 100% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Maintain current knowledge in area of expertise. in Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T2.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.009% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• Most common interaction: learning
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.3 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 97% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Compile, analyze, and report data to explain economic phenomena and forecast market trends, applying mathematical models and statistical techniques. · importance 4.3
• Study the socioeconomic impacts of new public policies, such as proposed legislation, taxes, services, and regulations. · importance 4.2
• Explain economic impact of policies to the public. · importance 4.0
• Provide advice and consultation on economic relationships to businesses, public and private agencies, and other employers. · importance 4.0
• Formulate recommendations, policies, or plans to solve economic problems or to interpret markets. · importance 3.9
• Conduct research on economic issues, and disseminate research findings through technical reports or scientific articles in journals. · importance 3.8
• Supervise research projects and students' study projects. · importance 3.8
• Develop economic guidelines and standards, and prepare points of view used in forecasting trends and formulating economic policy. · importance 3.8
• Teach theories, principles, and methods of economics. · importance 3.5
• Testify at regulatory or legislative hearings concerning the estimated effects of changes in legislation or public policy, and present recommendations based on cost-benefit analyses. · importance 3.3
• Provide litigation support, such as writing reports for expert testimony or testifying as an expert witness. · importance 3.2
• Forecast production and consumption of renewable resources and supply, consumption, and depletion of non-renewable resources. · importance 2.8

See all tasks on the Economists page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-7536,
  title  = {Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-7536}
}