Job Offers and Salaries Up for 2006-07 College Grads

The economic news out of the college career service offices is beginning to sound like a broken record, but few mind as the news is again good news for students searching for internships, recent graduates hunting for entry level jobs, and those who view a strong job market as being a good sign for the economy and therefore for all of us.
A recent poll by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) of its thousands of college career service offices reveals that nearly 78 percent report that their 2006-07 graduates had more and better job opportunities available to them than did 2005-06 graduates. Only eight percent believed that the prospects facing 2006-07 graduates were bleaker than those facing 2005-06 graduates.

The news was also good virtually across the board when starting salaries are broken out by business discipline:

• Accounting majors gained three percent for an average starting salary offer of $46,292.
• Business administration / management majors saw a 5.1 percent increase to $43,256.
• Economics starting salaries now average $47,782. Most earned higher as the most popular position for these grads was consulting and those positions averaged $52,740.
• Finance graduates received an average of $46,442 and the most popular position for them was financial / treasury analysis and those positions averaged $48,902.
• Management information systems (MIS) salaries were up 4.7 percent to $47,507.
• Marketing graduates saw their salaries jump 5.6 percent to $39,269. Most of these graduates are going into sales and those who do are seeing average salaries of $39,473.
• Computer science majors are seeing 4.5 percent increases to their offers with average starting salaries now at $53,051.
• Information sciences and systems graduates are faring even better with average offers up 5.9 percent to $49,966. Many of these graduates accept software design and development positions.
• Chemical engineering graduates saw average offers increase 5.2 percent to $59,218. Petroleum and coal products manufacturers paid these graduates an average of $64,294.
• Civil engineers saw offers increase 6.3 percent to $48,998.
• Electrical engineers are also doing well with average offers up 3.8 percent to $55,333. Many of these graduates are being hired by aerospace companies for an average offer of $59,087.
• Mechanical engineers were not overshadowed by their engineering brethren as they saw increases of 4.3 percent to $54,057.
• Liberal arts graduates benefited from a strong demand for sales representatives and saw average starting salaries increase by 4.6 percent to $32,717. Also, for the first time in seven years, every major within the liberal arts category saw an increase in average starting salaries.
• History majors were celebrating with average increases of 6.1 percent to $35,092.
• Political science / government majors were even happier with average increases of 6.5 percent to $35,261.
• English majors weren’t quite as happy yet the news was still positive. They saw average increases of 1.7 percent to $31,924.
• Sociology graduates received offers up by 3.4 percent to $32,161.

The career service offices also looked forward to the prospects for the Class of 2008 and reported a lot of optimism. Most expect to see more employers on-campus this fall and most employers concur.