MBAs Earn More Despite Economy.

MBAs continue to earn higher salaries compared to others in the work force despite the current economic climate, according to the recently released 2002 Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Corporate Recruiters Survey. Recruiters say they are offering an average base salary of $75,000, compared with $50,000 for other graduate programs and $41,000 for typical undergraduate degrees. Sixty-nine percent indicate they will be offering signing bonuses.

Ninety-nine percent of the 550 recruitment professionals, representing 423 companies, participating in the GMAC survey (complete results available at http://www.gmac.com ) said they consider the economy to be weak and more than two-thirds (68 percent) indicated that this has created a “buyer’s market” for their firms. Even so, recruiters still estimate that 30 percent of their 2002 hires will be MBAs, increasing to 35 percent in 2003.

The survey found large U.S. corporations act like small companies in a weak economy, and are more likely to control risk by hiring such “known quantities” as interns and previous strong performing employees, according to the recruiting professionals.

Internship and related work experience were considered the most important criteria in MBA selection by 70 percent of those surveyed. Other key criteria included the candidate’s history of increased job responsibility (66 percent); industry-related internship or work experience (61 percent); MBA concentration of study (61 percent); reputation of MBA school (59 percent) and history of leading teams (55 percent).

Other findings in the GMAC survey showed:

— Finance is the top job track for MBA graduates, with more than half (52 percent) of the recruiters seeking MBAs for finance careers. Marketing is a distant second (31 percent), followed by IT/MIS (25 percent) and consulting (24 percent).

— Most recruiters (65 percent) in the health care and pharmaceutical industries say they have not altered their hiring plans. The economy’s impact was felt most by recruiters for the consulting industry (86 percent); manufacturing (79 percent); energy and utilities (71 percent) and technology (69 percent).

— Three quarters of recruiters said they did not rescind offers, lay off new MBA hires, delay job starts or move MBA hires into different departments in 2001.

— Only four percent of recruiters rescinded offers this year.

— The number of recruiters for U.S. companies making job offers to MBAs three months or more prior to graduation dropped 10 percent in 2002. The number offering jobs within weeks of graduation rose slightly.

— A majority of respondents (76 percent) said the most important criteria in selecting schools at which to recruit are the school’s reputation and their existing relationships at the school.

— Other school recruitment factors included the retention history of previous hires (50 percent) and a sufficiently large candidate pool (50 percent).

Respondents to the GMAC survey represent more than 400 companies in 50 different industries grouped under eight broad categories, including consulting, finance/accounting, products and services, manufacturing, technology, health care, energy and utilities and other (government, military, education, not-for-profit). For purposes of the survey, large companies are identified as those with annual revenues of $10 billion or more; mid-size companies as those earning from $500 million to $10 billion and small companies as those earning less than $500 million.

The Graduate Management Admission Council is a not-for-profit education organization of leading graduate business schools worldwide, dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education. The organization sponsors the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) used as part of the admissions process by graduate management programs around the world.

For more information at http://www.gmac.com