Undergraduates in general, and undergraduate business students in particular, have reason to rejoice. New surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) show that employers are planning to increase their college hiring by double digits this year, and that salaries are up for the first time since 2008.
Employers responding to NACE surveys reported plans to increase hiring from the Class of 2011 by 13.5 percent over the prior year. The latest poll, in January, showed that 51.5 percent of respondents planned to increase hiring, the first time in 18 months that a majority reported such plans.
In the latest salary survey, the average salary offer to a Class of 2011 graduate was $50,034, up 3.5 percent year over year, with increases reported for two thirds of academic disciplines.
Business majors as a group had the biggest increase, with salaries increasing nearly 2 percent to $48,089. Accounting majors saw salaries surge 2.2 percent to $49,022, while salaries for finance majors increased 1.9 percent to $50,535. Business administration and marketing majors weren’t so lucky. Salaries for business administration majors were down 2.3 percent to $44,171 and salaries for marketing majors were down 1.3 percent to $41,948.
The real money was in electrical engineering (up 4.4 percent to $61,690) and mechanical engineering (up 3.8 percent to $60,598). Civil engineers, meanwhile, took the biggest hit: salaries declined 7.1 percent to $48,885.
Read the full article: Salaries, Job Offers Up for Business Undergrads