The job scene International MBA - GMAC survey

Dear All,

GMAC has released its annual employer survey on May 18, 2014. The survey group included 565 employers from 44 countries was conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT exam. The job market research, including 32 of the top 100 companies in the FT 500 and 36 of the Fortune 100, was conducted in February and March. The survey shows that worldwide more companies plan to hire MBAs and other business school graduates in 2014.  Key takeaways from the survey include:

·         80% of business school recruiters plan to employ MBAs in 2014, up seven percentage points from last year and 30 percentage points higher than 2009 (the heart of the economic crisis)
·         86% of U.S. employers said they plan to hire MBAs in 2014, up from an already high 81% last year - Hiring companies also expect to pay median starting salaries of $95,000 for MBAs in the U.S. About 45%  of the hiring companies will increase base pay to MBA’s this year. Some 27% of the responding companies said they plan to increase base pay at the rate of inflation, while another 18% expect to increase starting pay at levels above the inflation rate.
·         Hiring demand for this year’s crop of MBA graduates, moreover, has increased in every single industry, from consulting and finance to health care and technology.
·         The biggest year-over-year increases appear to be in consulting, where 84% of employers plan to hire MBAs, up 13 percentage points from 71% last year.
·         For healthcare and pharma , 90% of the companies expect to hire MBA grads this year, up 19 percentage points from 81% in 2013.
·         Finance and accounting appears to be in a strong rebound. Some 82% of employers in finance and accounting expect to hire MBAs in 2014, up six percentage points from 76% in 2012. 
·         In the technology sector 74% of the firms plan to hire, as compared to 73% last year.
·         The area of the world with the greatest growth rates in hiring business school graduates this year is Asia Pacific - some 83% of responding companies in Asia Pacific plan to hire MBAs this year, up from only 70% in 2013.
·         Some 68% of Asian Pacific employers expect to hire Masters in Management grads, up from 52% last year. 
·         62% of companies in the Asia Pacific said they plan to increase base salaries for MBA hires this year.  In contrast to the $95K median in the U.S., GMAC said the median base MBA salary for this region of the world is expected to be $21,340, a result of much lower per capita income in India and the Philippines where a major of the responding companies were located. Per capital income in India is $4,307 and in the Philippines it is $4,962.
·         In Europe, it’s also a positive story. Some 61% of companies–much lower than the 86% in the U.S.–expect to hire MBAs this year. But that percentage is far healthier than last year’s 52% level. MBA graduates in Europe this year can expect median starting base salaries of $69,000. The expected median MBA salary reported by employers located in the 13 countries of Western Europe is $83,000. The majority of European companies (64%) told GMAC they plan to maintain their MBA pay in 2014 with last year’s salary levels.
·         Finally many of the big, mainstream employers of MBA graduates, ranging from McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group to Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Google and Amazon, have stated that they are looking at hiring  international graduates of the highly ranked business schools.