About the job

Job summary

The Competition and Markets Authority has a number of exciting Economic Intern opportunities for enthusiastic economics graduates and students who are keen to develop their knowledge, technical skills and experience within a diverse, inclusive and international organisation dedicated to promoting competition for the benefit of consumers.

Economics is at the heart of the CMA’s work and the work of our economists really matters and makes a difference to people’s everyday lives. Recent cases have included:

• Assessing the potential impact on consumers of high profile mergers such as Microsoft/Activision and Veolia/Suez;
• Taking action against drug companies accused of imposing unfair prices to the NHS;
• Undertaking major market studies into the cloud services market and the market for housebuilding;
• Investigating concerns over misleading green claims and unit pricing in the groceries sector.

Job description

The CMA’s responsibilities are rapidly expanding. The CMA is home to the Digital Markets Unit; a new body established by the UK government to promote greater competition and innovation in fast-moving digital markets. CMA economists also ensure the competition implications of policies are considered through the work of the Subsidy Advice Unit and the Office for the Internal Market. The CMA has also recently established the Microeconomics Unit, located at the Darlington Economic Campus, to lead economic research into competition, innovation, productivity and related issues.

The Microeconomics Unit in Darlington, will advertise separately in January their own Economics Intern roles. Sign up to Civil Service Jobs for job alerts.

A demonstrable interest in microeconomics, industrial organisation or competition economics will stand you in good stead to work on a variety of different cases and projects across the CMA. With the support of senior economists in their team, our Economics Interns have the opportunity to provide critical inputs for the CMA decision-making process by developing economic theories to assess competitive effects in markets, testing these theories through the analysis of a wide range of evidence and drawing conclusions from this analysis to present them to colleagues and decision-makers.

The CMA prides itself on being a great place to work and strives to ensure that staff have the opportunity to grow and expand their skills portfolio. Economics Interns are encouraged to take part in a wide range of learning and development opportunities available to the economics community, which includes training courses, lunchtime seminars and discussion groups on economics topics. We will also support you to develop your communication and drafting skills while at the CMA. This is a good opportunity to gain unique experience, giving Economics Interns useful tools to go on to apply for future permanent positions within the CMA, as has been the case for many Interns in the past.

We welcome applications from candidates that have, or are in their final year on track to graduate with an upper second-class undergraduate degree with a strong microeconomics component or a postgraduate economics qualification, as well as students in the penultimate year of their undergraduate degree interested in a summer internship or placement as part of their sandwich course.

In return the CMA is a hugely diverse, rewarding and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. We offer a range of flexible working options (including part-time and compressed hours) and, like many other organisations, operate a hybrid working model with a mix of office and home working. We believe this supports us to deliver our best work while allowing the flexibility to maintain balanced and healthy lives.

To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, please see below and click on the APPLY button.

Further details on the CMA can be found on the CMA’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

Application closing date: 11.55pm on Monday 8th January 2024.

Person specification

Key responsibilities will include the following:

• Engage with senior economists to develop the economic analysis in their projects, including developing economic theories to explain how competition can be affected and gathering appropriate evidence (such as drafting data or other information requests and survey questionnaires).
• Support the delivery of high quality and timely economic analysis under the guidance of more senior economists. This may include: carrying out industry research, compiling datasets and analysing them; critically assessing and interpreting evidence and submissions; identifying relevant academic papers or other publicly available sources.
• Manage own time effectively to ensure work is delivered to the agreed timescale, ensuring managers are kept informed of relevant analysis and potential risks or limitations.
• Establish effective working relationships with colleagues across different professions in the CMA and with external stakeholders (such as parties to the investigation/inquiry).
• Provide economic support on your project and present analysis clearly and accurately, both orally and in writing, to teams that may include a non-technical audience.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £23,199, Competition & Markets Authority contributes £6,263 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and an online application form. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The selection process will comprise of the sift (CV & application review) and an interview. Arrangements for the interview will be enclosed in the invitation sent when you schedule your interview slot.

Interviews will he held either at a CMA office in Edinburgh or London, or if unable to attend in-person, a virtual interview via MS Teams may be made available.

An initial sift based on lead criteria 1 and 2 may be held if a large number of applications are received. If your application then progresses to a full sift, all elements of the essential criteria listed under Person Specification of the role profile will then be considered.

Please note that it is essential that your personal statement is aligned to provide evidence that you have the knowledge and recent practical experience for each of the following selection criteria in your application:

1)  At least an upper second-class undergraduate degree with a strong microeconomics component (or to be in your penultimate year of your undergraduate course and on track to graduate with an upper-second class undergraduate degree) (Lead Criteria).

2)  Demonstrable interest, knowledge and understanding of microeconomics, industrial organisation or competition economics (Lead Criteria).

#2 To be answered and scored using the technical economics question within the application.

3)  Ability to research, design, develop and deliver economic analysis to tight deadlines with experience of gathering, summarising and presenting information to a high standard.

4)  Sound verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to produce documents that can be tailored to non-technical audiences.

5)  Experience or demonstrated ability to establish and manage working relationships and to work in teams to deliver successful outcomes. 

The sifting dates are Tuesday 9th January – Tuesday 16th January 2024.

If your application is successful, you will be invited to attend an interview. 
You will be notified via email to log-in to your Civil Service Account to book your interview slot. You will then be sent an email with full details of your arrangements for interview.

Interviews will be held from the week beginning Monday 22nd January 2024.

As part of the interview process you will be sent a case study to review. You will then be asked to give a short presentation based on the case study, at the beginning of the interview. You will then start your Panel interview. The panel interview will be approximately 45 minutes - 1 hour in length where you will be asked questions based on Behaviours, Technical skills and Experience outlined in the role profile.

If you have any inquiries relating to your application, you can email recruitment@cma.gov.uk.

Reasonable adjustments:

In order for a person with disabilities not to be put at a disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process.
For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you are deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.