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Economic development specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

C. Jeffrey Waddoups Ph.D.,

Brian Collins Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical economic development specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for economic development specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 12.3% of economic development specialist resumes contained medicaid as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an economic development specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 economic development specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Medicaid

Here's how economic development specialists use medicaid:

Conducted client interviews to determine public assistance eligibility utilizing Federal policy for Food Stamps, Welfare, and Medicaid programs.
Determined eligibility for Food Stamps and Medicaid, primarily for the elderly and/or disabled.

2. Economic Development

Economic development refers to an increase of creation of wealth that overall benefits a community. This may occur when a community, city, or country produces more goods to sell or when a job program is developed. By increasing the wealth of a community, the economy is stimulated and the quality of life for that population also increases.

Here's how economic development specialists use economic development:

Involved in community programs aimed at achieving greater regional cooperation among economic development professionals: public entities and pro business organizations.
Served as branch manager and sole operator of the economic development division office aiding socially and economically disadvantaged business clientele.

3. Strong Work Ethic

Here's how economic development specialists use strong work ethic:

Display a strong work ethic and positive attitude.

5. Public Assistance Programs

Public Assistance Programs are programs designed to improve the lives of members of the public by offering them the assistance they need either in cash or in-kind like foods, clothes, and everyday items. These programs are often offered by the government to alleviate poverty in the populace. NGOs are also involved in providing public assistance programs.

Here's how economic development specialists use public assistance programs:

Determine eligibility pursuant to the federal standards and criteria and/or obtain necessary information for proper application processing/budgeting for public assistance programs.
Evaluated applicants' eligibility for public assistance programs under complex policy and adherence guidelines utilizing interactive confidential system applications.

6. Eligibility System

Here's how economic development specialists use eligibility system:

Analyzed a broad range of documentation and entering data into a computer-based eligibility system while adhering to time sensitive agency deadlines.
Process broad range of paperwork and entering information into a computer-based eligibility system with very time sensitive agency and legal deadlines.

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7. Technical Assistance

Technical assistance is the non-financial assistance provided by local or international specialists. The purpose of technical assistance is to maximize the project's implementation and quality of the final product. Technical assistance consists of sharing information, the transmission of working knowledge, and other transfer of technical data which would aid the administration, management team and help build the project. The technical assistance focuses on particular needs identified by the beneficiary country and is delivered in the form of missions.

Here's how economic development specialists use technical assistance:

Provided technical assistance and training to community groups and/or local government officials on community, economic and business development concerns.
Developed and provided technical assistance in preparing marketing plans and programs to businesses and communities through workshops and conferences.

8. State Regulations

State regulations are the rules made by the state authorities under a specific Act. When a government intervenes in the private market to implements policies, they are known as state regulations. These policies help in achieving the economic, political, and social targets which might not be able to achieve otherwise.

Here's how economic development specialists use state regulations:

Verify data for discrepancies and proper application of state regulations

9. Computer Screens

Here's how economic development specialists use computer screens:

Navigated through multiple computer screens simultaneously to review documents and accurately compute data.
Navigate through computer screens and complete and review computer documents and other forms.

10. Program Eligibility

Here's how economic development specialists use program eligibility:

Assist customers on completing with consistency the required state and federal forms including determining their program eligibility.
Determine public assistance program eligibility in accordance with current regulations, state and federal policies.

11. Community Development

Community development refers to the process where community members are being supported by agencies to identify or take collective action on issues that are important to them.

Here's how economic development specialists use community development:

Conducted marketing analyses, prepared commercial evaluations and revitalization programs, and designed community development grant programs for underdeveloped communities.
Prepared short-range community development strategies for federal grant programs for communities.

12. Verbal Data

Here's how economic development specialists use verbal data:

Evaluated numerical and verbal data.
Analyze and interpret written, numerical, and verbal data from various sources.

13. Current Regulations

Here's how economic development specialists use current regulations:

Determine client eligibility in accordance with current regulations.

14. Policy Directives

Here's how economic development specialists use policy directives:

Read, understood and applied complicated detailed regulations, procedures and policy directives at a fast pace.
Read, understood, applied complicated and detailed regulations, and policy directives.

15. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how economic development specialists use business development:

Provided direct assistance to customers seeking to access community-based business development, housing, educational, after-school and other assistance.
Created a system to manage community members in business education and consult community members in business development and growth.

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What skills help Economic Development Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on economic development specialist resumes?

C. Jeffrey Waddoups Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

Workers must be able to communicate clearly and professionally, and in an era of remote work, this suggests that writing skills are particularly important. Economics graduates are often expected to be good with data and numbers. The pandemic has not changed this.

What soft skills should all economic development specialists possess?

Brian Collins Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair & Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy, Ohio University

Intercultural competency and critical thinking are absolutely essential to dealing with our increasingly diverse and fragmented society.

What hard/technical skills are most important for economic development specialists?

Brian Collins Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Chair & Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy, Ohio University

Communicating your ideas clearly and concisely is a vital skill that we try to develop in religious studies programs.

What economic development specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Chad Miller Ph.D.

Professor of Economic Development, Website

For those entering the field having GIS mapping skills and graphic design/data visualization skills are great assets to get your foot in the door. Typically, salaries and opportunities increase dramatically with 2-3 years of economic development experience.

What type of skills will young economic development specialists need?

Johannes Moenius Ph.D.

William R. and S. Sue Johnson Endowed Chair of Spatial Economic Analysis and Regional Planning and Director of the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA) at the University of Redlands School of Business, University of Redlands

Everyone talks about STEM, soft skills, high levels of expertise, and management. Our own analysis shows that this is likely not going to be correct across the board. Street math (i.e., addition, subtracting, etc.) is already done by calculators everywhere. Not all jobs require higher levels of math. Our research has especially shown that there is substantial regional variation in skill requirements, so there is no one size fits all. However, there are some sets of skills that ranked first in our research almost across the board, specifically, fundamental skills like reading comprehension and writing. Combined with communication skills and entrepreneurial attitudes, these are workforce skills and traits that will be almost universal.

Do you want to know more?

List of economic development specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an economic development specialist resume and required skills for an economic development specialist to have include:

Medicaid
Economic Development
Strong Work Ethic
Social Work
Public Assistance Programs
Eligibility System
Technical Assistance
State Regulations
Computer Screens
Program Eligibility
Community Development
Verbal Data
Current Regulations
Policy Directives
Business Development

Food Assistance
DCF
Mathematical Computations
Computer System
Corrective Action
Community Resources
Process Applications
Federal Regulations
Processing Timeliness
Regional Planning
Household Composition
Reading Comprehension
Government Agencies
Business Retention
Eligibility Determination

Gathering Data
Phone Interviews
Press Releases
Public Assistance Benefits
SBA
Federal Agencies
Medical Assistance
CDBG
Grant Administration
Process Changes
ESS
Local Businesses
Business Administration
Child Support
Pending Cases

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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