The European Central Bank has launched: Traineeship in the Euro Area External Sector and Euro Adoption Division.

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Your team

You will be part of the Euro Area External Sector and Euro Adoption Division in the Directorate General Economics. The Directorate General monitors and analyses the economies of the euro area as a whole, the individual euro area countries and the non-euro area EU Member States. Its output includes articles and studies published in, for example, the ECB’s Economic Bulletin, Annual Report, Occasional Paper Series and Working Paper Series.

Our Division is responsible for analysing, forecasting and conducting studies on trade, the balance of payments and the international investment position, as well as the price and non-price competitiveness of the euro area and EU Member States. In addition, it monitors, analyses and forecasts macroeconomic developments in the non-euro area EU Member States and the euro area countries in central and eastern Europe, while also developing tools for those purposes.

Trainees will be expected to focus on one or more of the Division’s areas of competence: (1) trade and competitiveness in the euro area; (2) the current and financial account of the euro area; (3) the forecasting and surveillance of non-euro area EU Member States, as well as the euro area countries in central and eastern Europe; and (4) the collection and treatment of relevant data.

The ECB is an inclusive employer and we strive to reflect the diversity of the population we serve. We encourage you to apply irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other characteristics.

Your role

As a trainee you will:

• support the team in collecting, processing and visualising data;
• contribute to maintaining and enhancing analytical, econometric and forecasting tools in the fields of trade, balance of payments and country analysis;
• conduct quantitative analyses for the economic and policy assessment;
• process, consolidate and transform datasets, as well as maintain and develop database infrastructures in order to monitor economic developments;
• contribute to the Economic Bulletin and other regular internal and external publications of the Directorate General Economics in collaboration with other business areas within the ECB.

The position offers you excellent opportunities to work closely with the Division’s economists and research analysts, and to contribute to both longer-term projects and short-term tasks. You will work in a group with other trainees and will be assigned a supervisor, but will be expected to complete tasks autonomously and using your own initiative. You will have access to the ECB’s library, as well as to computing and statistical resources. You will be part of a multicultural team that strives for continuous innovation to make a positive impact on the lives of European citizens. 

Qualifications, experience and skills

Essential: 

• a bachelor’s degree or higher in economics or a related field;
• practical experience with one or more of the following types of economic data: macroeconomic data, financial market data, firm-level and/or other microeconomic data;
• a good understanding of the economic issues covered by the Division and of the institutional framework of the ECB and the Eurosystem;
• a working knowledge of applied econometrics, especially time series econometrics, econometrics of panel data or microeconometrics;
• a high level of computer literacy and the ability to use various software applications, including a good working knowledge of the MS Office package, in particular PowerPoint and Excel;
• practical experience in working with statistical and econometric packages, such as Stata, EViews or MATLAB, or with programming languages such as R or Python;
• an advanced (C1) command of English and an intermediate (B1) command of at least one other official language of the EU, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Desired: 

• a master’s degree or higher in economics or a related field, or studies towards such a qualification with the prospect of graduation in the near future;
• experience with using market data services such as Bloomberg or Haver Analytics;
• practical experience with designing and programming automated reports and/or creating web applications with R Shiny;
• experience in building and maintaining databases, and in making databases interact with external sources, e.g. via web APIs or by applying web scraping skills.

You are curious and eager to learn, and want to further develop your ability to analyse complex information. You are keen to collaborate with others, pursue team goals and learn from other people’s diverse perspectives. You strive to know and anticipate stakeholder needs, and will signal any need for change and propose alternative solutions.

You are motivated to contribute to the ECB’s mission, to serve the citizens of the EU as a member of a public institution and to work with colleagues from all over Europe. You are keen to be part of our team and to use your skills and competencies to achieve the objectives of this position.

Who can apply:

EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme.

All candidates should:

• be a national of a Member State of the EU or of an acceding country;

• be at least 18 years old;
• have completed at least a first cycle qualification (minimum bachelor’s degree);
• be fluent in English and in another official language of the EU.

Following their most recent qualification candidates should:

• have a maximum of 12 months’ professional experience;
• have been a trainee for no more than six months;
• not have been an ECB trainee or have worked for the ECB previously.

Closing date: 12.04.2022

Further information

Traineeship of between 6 and 12 months in total.

Application and selection process

Further information on how to join us is available on our website.

The recruitment process for this position will include an online interview. 

If you are not selected for this position but are still considered suitable, you will be placed on a reserve list for 12 months from the closing date for applications, from which you might be considered for similar positions within the ECB.