It also depends on which graduate school. In many fields, an MA/MS is helpful in getting higher pay and a wider range of jobs, like in environmental sciences or engineering. In some fields, like biology, jobs with only a BS/BA are pretty low paying and limited in scope, so going to grad school is generally the rule for people who stay to work in the field. Of course, one should always check whether employers prefer hiring people with masters who also have a number of years experience, so that they get a more experienced employee for the higher pay that comes with a masters degree. In that case, a few years of work between undergrad and graduate school is useful. This is also useful for checking whether this is the right career. Although in all of these fields, a masters degree is generally the most cost-effective degree, going straight to a masters and only then discovering that you don’t really like the field is a distinct possibility.
Degrees like an MBA can also be a particularly expensive mistake. It is almost always out of pocket (some universities do have financial support for masters students in other fields), it is one of the most expensive degrees out there, and most MBAs do not make enough to justify the cost of the MBA.
That is actually a relative large number who are in an academic career track. In general, only around half of all Economics PhDs go to academia. It may be because Chicago has enough of a reputation in the field that academic jobs are as attractive and as available as non-academic jobs.