A Whopping 95% Employment Rate For U.S. MBA Grads

So much for those anti-higher education naysayers who contend the MBA is a degree that has diminishing value. And so much for the few disappointed MBA holders who assert that the degree isn't worth its escalating costs.

Today a new survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that nine out of every ten MBAs in the Class of 2013 were employed in September. Overall, the employment rate for two-year MBAs hit 92%, up from 90% last year and 85% in 2009. It would have been even higher if not for some sluggishness in Europe where 18% of graduating MBAs were unemployed in September.

For U.S. citizens who graduated from two-year MBA programs, moreover, the employment rate was a whopping 95%, the highest level in the past five years and up from 91% last year.

The new GMAC report — based on responses from 915 members of the Class of 2013 from 129 business schools around the world — continues to also show widespread satisfaction with graduate business education. GMAC said that 96% of the responding Class of 2013 rate the value of their degree as outstanding, excellent, or good, and the same percentage of the class would recommend a graduate management education to others. Three of every four members of the class say they could not have obtained their job without their graduate business education, according to the GMAC survey.

The median starting annual salaries offered to U.S. citizens who graduated from a full-time, two-year MBA this year was $90,000, with a bonus and additional comp of $10,000. That’s up from a median base of $86,700 last year. Of course, these numbers are for U.S. graduates of a wider sample of business schools. Graduates of the very top business schools earned substantially more.

Stanford Graduate School of Business, for example, recently reported that its Class of 2013 MBAs earned median salaries of $125,000 – $35,000 more than the GMAC number — with median signing bonuses of $25,000 and median guaranteed bonuses of $30,000. Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina said its Class of 2013 MBAs had median pay of $100,000, with $25,000 signing bonuses and $17,000 guaranteed bonuses.

Compensation obviously varies greatly by geography, school, program, industry and work experience. U.S. citizens who graduated from part-time MBA programs reported median annual salary of $85,000, GMAC found. Citizens of India who graduated from full-time, two-year MBA programs reported a median starting salary of just $34,988. Europeans graduating from full-time, one-year MBA programs reported the highest median starting salaries in the GMAC sample: $101,093.

GMAC says the survey is based on a 19% response rate, which is fairly consistent with previous polls. It does not calculate a margin of error for the poll which asks graduates if they are employed in September, which can be between three or four months after graduation depending on when commencement was held. Employment includes MBAs who are self-employed, but not those who are no longer looking for a job.

For more detailed and complete analysis on the GMAC report, check out Poets&Quants.com:

MBA Employment: A Whopping 95% For The Class of 2013

Photo: hxdbzxy/Shutterstock.com