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September 2007
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NACE Salary Survey, Summer 2007, Volume 46, Issue 3; www.naceweb.org
Salary Survey: A study of 2006-2007 beginning offers
The Job Outlook 2007 Fall Preview survey for the Class of 2007 envisioned a good job market for new college graduates, and employers confirmed their early optimism through the Job Outlook 2007 Spring Update survey, projecting a 19.2 percent increase in college hiring for the academic year.
That survey also found that competition is on the rise: Nearly nine out of 10 employers reported that they’re seeing more competition for new college graduates than they did in the years past, and they believe that competition will continue to increase in the coming years.
To combat this looming competition, more than half of employers plan to change some of their recruiting strategies within the next year, such as increasing the focus in their efforts. But, it also appears that they may be increasing salaries to new grads. As this issue of Salary Survey shows, many disciplines have reported increases to their average starting salary offers.
Nearly all the business majors saw increases to their average salary offers. To start, accounting graduates gained 2.3 percent, bringing their average offer to $46,718. Even though their increase was a small one, these graduates have continued to watch their average offers inch up over the last several years- the last time these graduates saw a decrease in their salary offer was Fall 2002, when the decrease was a mere 0.6 percent.
Business administration/management graduates also saw an increase: Their average rose 3.9 percent to $43,701. Retail/wholesale, financial services and investment banking firms showed the most interest in business administration graduates.
Graduates earning degrees in economics (business/managerial) and finance are receiving some solid starting salary offers this year. The average offer made to economics grads in this report is $48,483, and the average offer to finance grads is $47,239. (Note: Until this year, these disciplines were reported as one; therefore, there is no historical data for comparison.)
Management information systems/business data processing graduates also fared well in this report, posting a 4.2 percent increase to their average salary offer, raising it to $46,648. Consulting firms made the largest number of offers to these graduates at an average of $50,139.
The year has been a good one for marketing graduates and their average salary offers, and these grads posted increases in both the Winter and Spring issues of Salary Survey. The trend continues for this issue, and the average offer to marketing grads is up by 6.1 percent to $40,161 over last year at this time.
The computer science disciplines posted increases across the board, and the increases are slightly higher than what has been seen in the recent past issues of Salary Survey. For example, computer science graduates posted a 4.1 percent increase in their average salary offer, compared to a 2.5 percent increase in Spring 2007 and 2.0 percent increase in the Winter 2007 issue. Their current offer now stands at $53,396.
Information sciences and systems graduates saw a 4.6 percent increase in this report, raising their average offer to $50,852. Their most recent increase in the last issue (spring 2007) was a meager 0.6 percent.
Engineering majors also posted increases across the board. Both chemical and civil engineering graduates posted 5.4 percent increases bringing their average offers to $59,361 and $48,509, respectively. Computer engineering graduates also saw their average salary offer rise by 4.8 percent to $56,201. In addition, the average salary offer to mechanical engineering graduates grew 4.6 percent, to $54,128. Electrical engineering graduates saw a 3.2 percent increase, bringing their average offer to $55,292.
Engineering services employers were most interested in the engineering disciplines, accounting for the largest number of offers to all engineering disciplines except computer engineering. Moreover, as a group, they accounted for the most offers to Class of 2007 bachelor’s degree graduates.
The news for liberal arts graduates is also good. Most of the individual liberal arts majors posted increases to their average salary offers. And as a group, the average increase bumped up 3.5 percent over last year, from $31,260 to $32,348.
Political science/government majors had the largest increase over last year, with an increase in their average offer of 5.9 percent, raising it to $34,590. English majors also fared well this year; their 5.3 percent increase brings their average offer to $32,553. Psychology majors posted a 4.7 percent increase and now average $31,631. Sociology majors gained 3.5 percent, bumping their average salary offer to $32,033, and history majors saw a 3.3 percent increase and now average $33,768.
From the results of this report, it appears that the increased hiring for new college graduates is in fact translating into higher average starting salary offers. NACE will take a final look at average starting salaries in the Fall 2007 Salary Survey report, which will be published in early August. Also to come in late summer will be the first look at employers’ hiring projections for 2008 graduates- the NACE Job Outlook 2008 Fall Preview.
