General Information

• Type of contract: Traineeship
• Who can apply?: EU nationals eligible for our traineeship programme
• Grant: The trainee grant is €1,170 per month plus an accommodation allowance (see further information section)
• Working time: Full time
• Place of work: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• Closing date: 13.01.2025

Your team

We are seeking recent graduates for our 2025 traineeship programme. You will be assigned to the Prices and Costs Division in the Directorate General Economics.

The Prices and Costs Division monitors, analyses and forecasts inflation for the euro area as a whole as well as for individual countries and sectors, and assesses cyclical and structural drivers. It also assesses inflationary pressures from the external environment and domestic wage and profit developments, as well as the associated prospects, risks and uncertainties. The Division provides input into internal decision-making processes and external communication on inflation, as well as contributing to the Price-setting Microdata Analysis (PRISMA) Network, which aims to deepen understanding of price-setting behaviour and inflation dynamics in the EU. 

You will join the Division’s data team, where you will be responsible for preparing presentations, conducting empirical analysis and enhancing analytical tools, working closely with our experienced economists.

Recent trainees in our data team have co-authored the following output of the Division: 

“The impact of the recent rise in inflation on low-income households”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 7, ECB, 2022

“Wage developments and their determinants since the start of the pandemic”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 8, ECB, 2022

“Underlying inflation measures: an analytical guide for the euro area”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 5, ECB, 2023

“A forward-looking tracker of negotiated wages in the euro area”, Occasional Paper Series, No 338, ECB, 2024

“Tracking euro area wages in exceptional times”, The ECB Blog, 23 May 2024

“Selling price expectations for services: what do they tell us about consumer price pressures?”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 5, ECB, 2024

“Recent developments in wages and the role of wage drift”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 6, ECB, 2024

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: 

• contribute to the Division’s regular internal and external products (including the Economic Bulletin and macroeconomic projections), for instance by preparing tables and charts for reports or PowerPoint presentations, in collaboration with other business areas;
• process, consolidate and transform datasets, maintain and develop databases and visualisation tools, and use microdata, in order to monitor inflation and real economic developments;
• support policy decision-making by conducting empirical analyses using data analysis and statistical and econometric tools;
• contribute to enhancing analytical, econometric and forecasting tools;
• support analysis of wage and price inflation, for example by contributing to further development of the ECB’s wage tracker (building on micro-level data on wage agreements) and/or  helping to analyse price-setting, working with large datasets based on different sources (including web scraping).

This position offers you excellent opportunities to enhance your quantitative and programming skills, work on analytical tasks and collaborate with experienced central bank economists. It is also a unique opportunity to gain insight into analysis and policy within a central bank, which will be of great value in your future career. 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, statistics, econometrics, mathematics, data science or another relevant field;
• practical experience of working with complex datasets, including experience of preparing charts and tables for reports and presentations, and ensuring the quality of data;
• practical experience of statistical and econometric analysis using programming languages such as MATLAB, R, Python or statistical and econometric software such as Stata;
• a good knowledge of MS Office applications, particularly Excel and PowerPoint;
• 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 in economics, statistics, econometrics, mathematics, data science or another relevant field; 
• a broad knowledge of macroeconomics and economic issues relating to wage and price developments;
• a solid background in econometrics (in particular, time series econometrics, panel data econometrics and microeconometrics) or statistics and data science (for example, web scraping, text analysis and machine learning);
• practical experience of working with microdata;
• practical experience of working with relational databases using SQL and/or big data analytics tools using Spark or similar big data frameworks;
• practical experience of using visualisation tools, for example creating interactive web applications using products such as R Shiny or Tableau;
• knowledge of version control software such as Git.

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 aims of this position.

Further information

Initial traineeship of 6 months, with a possible extension of up to 12 months in total, starting 1 July 2025 at the earliest.

Other details on the conditions applicable to traineeships at the ECB can be found on our website.

Application and selection process

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

Further information on how to apply is available on our website.

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 other traineeship positions within the ECB.