Demand for MBA graduates is growing globally, with more than 4 in 5 employers planning to hire business school grads in 2015, according to a survey of corporate recruiters.
The hiring outlook is even brighter in the United States, where 92% of survey respondents said they would recruit recent Master of Business Administration grads, a 15% jump over the number of firms that hired grads during the previous year.
Worldwide, nearly 60% of companies expect to boost the number of MBA holders on their payrolls this year.
“More employers are planning to hire more business school graduates than in the past,” the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) noted in its Corporate Recruiters Survey.
The 84% of firms globally that plan to hire MBA grads in 2015 continues an upward trajectory of hiring projections that began in 2012. That year, 71% of companies reported recruiting business school graduates, according to GMAC.
Recruitment is expected to increase across industry sectors, including in healthcare, technology and finance/accounting, with the largest segment of new hires (65%) likely to land mid-level positions, the survey found.
Just more than half of survey respondents said they will raise starting salaries for MBA grads by at least the rate of inflation in 2015. A median base salary of $100,000 is projected for new hires in the United States.
Worldwide, companies place most value on communication skills when considering business school grads for employment, GMAC previously reported. They expect new hires to be able to speak and write effectively, listen well and present information clearly.
In fact, communication skills were ranked as twice as important on average than managerial skills.
Technical skills are also growing more necessary for business school grads in an increasingly digital world. In particular, demand for new hires who are adept at data analysis continues to grow, with 51% of companies planning to place new hires in data analytics functions, the 2015 Corporate Recruiters Survey found.
That’s up from 44% the previous year and an indication of the “burgeoning interest” in the use of big data in the business world.
