OECD Research Internship in Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Apply by 4 September 2026

Overview

The OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs is offering a research internship in its Jobs and Income Division for a motivated student with a background in economics or applied social sciences. The intern works alongside economists on a new project examining why labour shortages persist in certain occupations and sectors and how workers value different job characteristics. The project relies on an original survey that includes a discrete choice experiment. Depending on team priorities and the intern's skills, work may also touch on working time across countries, job quality and labour market transitions.

Tasks can include developing the survey and questionnaire, testing it through cognitive interviews and a soft launch, liaising with a survey company on scripting, translation, sampling, quality control and fieldwork monitoring, and analysing data by building tables and figures and running robustness checks. Interns also take part in OECD seminars and expert discussions.

Who can apply

Applicants must be nationals of an OECD member country and enrolled in a full-time graduate programme in economics or a closely related field throughout the internship, such as PhD candidates or final-year master's students. They need to be available for at least four months, have excellent English, strong writing and quantitative skills, familiarity with Stata, R or Python, and comfort in a multicultural setting. Knowledge of German, survey design, discrete choice models, empirical research and large datasets is an advantage.

What you get

The internship pays an allowance of EUR 1,000 per month. It lasts at least four months, can be extended up to six months, and is preferably full-time at about 40 hours per week. It is based at OECD headquarters in Paris, France, in person with partial remote work possibly allowed.

How to apply

Applicants submit a CV stating their nationality, a recent empirical writing sample in English, preferably sole-authored, and a short cover letter. Shortlisted candidates may take part in a technical discussion about their sample and research and may be asked for a reference letter.

Key dates

The deadline is Friday, 4 September 2026, and the internship is expected to start in mid- to late October 2026 or as soon as possible afterwards.