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Job Market Remains Favorable for Business School Graduates in 2015
0What turned out to be a strong job market for business school and management degree graduates in 2014, is projected to continue into 2015, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council‘s (GMAC) Year-End Poll of Employers released today.
This year’s hiring outlook holds steady for 2015 graduates as nine out of ten employers planning to hire business school graduates expect to maintain or increase the number of job openings for these hires compared with 2014. A forecast strengthened by findings from the poll such as, 96 percent of employers worldwide concurring that graduate business school hires create value for their companies.
“The solid job prospects for B-school talent seen over the past several years and again reflected in this poll, give prospective students good reason to consider pursuing these degrees as part of a strategy to drive their career goals,” said Rebecca Estrada Worthington, GMAC’s Survey Research Manager.
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“Our data show that even in the depths of the recession, business and management degrees can provide a measure of job protection and opportunity. Today, in a recovering global economy, management degrees can be a powerful driver of confidence and provide fuel for an individual’s career growth,” Estrada Worthington added.
The poll of 169 employers in 33 countries, conducted in late 2014, serves as an early view into the 2015 job market for MBA, master of management, accounting, finance, and other specialized business master degree-holders.
The greatest hiring demand for B-School talent remains recent MBA graduates (who typically average 4-5 years work experience), while the largest increase in hiring demand is projected to be for Master in Management (management programmes for candidates with 0-3 years work experience) talent, as reflected in the eleven percentage point increase in firms who hired this category of graduates in 2014.
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A majority of employers plan to increase starting annual base salaries in 2015 at or above the rate of inflation for new MBA and business master’s hires.
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Corroborating reports of an economic recovery, nearly two-thirds of employers categorize the current direction of their company as expanding or growing. These companies expect to hire a greater share of recent graduate business students in 2015 compared with those who are overcoming challenges or maintaining their current position.
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Changing Hiring Trends
In general, the bulk of a company’s hiring plans center around two candidate types—experienced direct from-industry hires (those already in the workforce) and bachelor’s degree-holders. These candidate groups typically are in the greatest demand for hiring, but are likely to experience different trends in the
coming year.
In 2014, 84 percent of employer poll respondents hired experienced direct-from-industry candidates. This level of hiring is projected to hold steady in 2015 as 85 percent of firms expect to make such hires in the coming year. In comparison, employer plans to hire newly-minted bachelor’s candidates are projected to be slightly lower in 2015 compared with actual hiring in 2014, with 78 percent of employers planning to hire these graduates versus 82 percent that did so in 2014.
Compensation
Compensation offered to a majority of newly hired candidates in 2015 is expected to meet or exceed the rate of inflation (between 54% and 74% of employers). About a third of companies plan to keep starting salaries flat and only three percent or fewer employers plan to decrease base starting salaries for any candidate type (Figure 2). In 2014, by comparison, between 39 percent and 51 percent of employers expected to keep salaries even with 2013 levels and upwards of six percent of employers planned to reduce starting salaries for new hires.
Internships
In 2015, a majority (87%) of employers plan to offer internships to students, most commonly to bachelor’s graduates (73%). More than half of companies (55%) will offer MBAs internships, and a much smaller proportion of employers will offer internships to master-level accounting (16%), finance (16%), or management (19%) students.
Among the employers who plan to offer internships in 2015, most expect to offer as many or more internship spots than they did in 2014 (Figure 3):
• 16 percent of employers plan to expand their internship program for MBA candidates in 2015 and 33 percent will maintain the number of MBA interns at 2014 levels.
• 23 percent of employers plan to increase the number of bachelor’s-degree interns in 2015 compared with 2014 and 42 percent will maintain 2014 levels.
• Although a smaller share of employers offer internships to other master-level program candidates, those that do are likely to offer as many or more internships in 2015, compared with 2014.
Participant Profile
Cover Image Courtesy Mashable.com