Economists in general do not consider Matlab their preferred choice of software. In part this is due to Matlab’s peculiar licencing scheme for its toolboxes. That said, for some applications, it is still a very useful piece of software.
Those interested in Machine Learning would certainly be interested in this new Matlab’s e-book. It is a basic tutorial on ML using Matlab. To download this e-book you need to go to this website and fill out a form, which will probably reduce your interest in using Matlab.