Jobs for graduating MBAs return but salaries still lag

Of those MBA students who graduated in the summer of 2010, 88 per cent already had job offers in the bag, according o the latest survey data from GMAC, administrators of the GMAT test. Although 12 per cent of graduates were still looking for jobs, the statistics are a four percentage point improvement on 2009, when only 84 per cent had jobs offers as they graduated.

However, perhaps just as significant was that only 59 per cent of respondents acquired the sort of job they wanted.

The findings, from the GMAC Alumni Perspectives Survey conducted in September 2010, show that recruitment levels on graduation are back to 2008 levels. However, salaries are not. The median starting salary offered to alumni from the class of 2010 was $78,819, up from $75,000 in 2009, but below the $80,000 enjoyed by graduates in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The survey was completed by 824 alumni from the Class of 2010 at 126 business schools. More than half the respondents - some 470 - were US citizens, with 131 respondents from the Asia-Pacific region and and 91 from Europe. The class of 2010 received 1.9 job offers on average, according to the survey and 4 per cent were self-employed.

The statistics for job offers is expected to creep up to more than 90 per cent for students in employment three months after graduation - the traditional reporting deadline for business school employment statistics.

www.gmac.com

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