According to Nunzio Quacquarelli of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, MBA hiring is on the rise and will probably continue to grow. Quacquarelli is interviewed in a recent Businessweek article, “Global MBA Job Market Turns Positive,” on which this article is based.
Based on data from TopMBA.com’s recent Jobs and Salary Trends Report and the Global 200 Top Business Schools Report, Quacquarelli notes that the downward impact of the “shocking credit crunch” was actually short-lived, and that most countries have reported significant bounce-backs in terms of MBA hiring. Regions with the most impressive pick-ups include Russia with a 22% increase in MBA hiring and the Asia Pacific region with a 30% increase in MBA jobs. (The U.S. bounced back only 9%, and Europe increased hiring by only 3%.)
Quacquarelli attributes this surge in hiring in the emerging markets to GDP growth and the fact that “multinational companies are expanding their operations in these markets, and they are bringing MBAs in to do the job.”
While the recent reports showed Asia as the hot-spot for hiring, Europe still leads when it comes to salaries. Quacquarelli attributes this to the extra three years, on average, of work experience that European MBAs have over their U.S. peers. Having six or seven years of work experience compared to four or five puts Europeans in a position to demand (and receive) higher salaries.
And according to Quacquarelli, the number of years of work experience is at the top of the list for key qualifications sought by recruiters. Quacquarelli does point out, however, that bonuses tend to be higher among candidates from top-tier business schools in the U.S. than in Europe.
So what is Quacquarelli’s prediction for the future of U.S. and international business schools?
There’s no doubt that U.S. business schools have amazing strength and depth in their faculty and resources, and that’s not going to change. The European business schools have been playing catch-up for the past 20 years. Asia Pacific and other regions are a long way behind, and it will take many years for those schools to catch up in overall strengths and depth. The point is that employers are becoming active in other regions, and they’re not just recruiting from top international schools. They’re also recruiting from local business schools.
Quacquarelli concludes with a few words on the future of the value of the MBA, which he believes is unwavering. “[W]ith globalization and companies looking to expand their businesses overseas, the MBA remains the natural qualification for management-level roles,” he says. “That’s fueling growth in MBA demand. As long as borders are open and you have global trade in a buoyant state, I think companies are going to hire MBAs.”
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Read the full article: MBA Hiring Trends
