Though employers report plans to hire fewer MBAs this year than last due to the global recession, they will pay a premium for those they do hire, according to new research from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
The recently released 2009 GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey revealed that recruiters expect to hire an average of six new MBAs in 2009, down from 12 last year, and that the number of firms planning to hire MBAs this year declined 9 percent compared with 2008. But when they do hire MBAs, recruiters reported they plan to pay them nearly twice as much as college grads and higher average starting salaries than people with other graduate management degrees, such as a master’s in finance.
“The fundamentals have not changed. Corporations continue to value the MBA, and they continue to pursue people with the unique mix of skills and talents that characterize business school graduates,” Dave Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC, said in a statement. “But just as employers across the economic spectrum have had to take a wait-and-see approach to their hiring plans this year, firms that hire business school graduates have been compelled to retrench in response to the downturn.”
The survey, which drew responses from 2,825 hiring managers from 2,092 companies in 63 countries, revealed uneven hiring activity across sectors of the economy. In some industries, such as consulting, healthcare and energy, demand for MBAs remains strong. In other industries, such as the nonprofit and high-technology sectors, it is weaker. But recruiters across the board value business school graduates, with 98 percent of survey respondents saying they are satisfied with their current employees who have MBAs.
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