College Business Grads Take Salary Cut

Posted by: Louis Lavelle on April 08, 2010

More bad news for college graduates overall and business graduates in particular: The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is reporting today that salary offers are down. Again.

Back in July, NACE reported that overall salaries for the Class of 2009 were basically flat, and salaries for business majors were up less than 1%. Business administration majors, however, saw their offers slip 2.1%. Ouch.

Now the Class of 2010 appears to be in for more of the same. NACE reports that overall offers to college grads are down 1.7%, from $48,515 for the Class of 2009 to $47,673. Marketing grads saw their offers fall 2.1% to $42,710. And business administration grads saw their offers fall 8% to $42,094. Ouch again.

The news wasn’t all bad, though. Finance and accounting majors fared fairly well—with average salary offers increasing 1.6% to $50,546 for the former and 0.4% to $48,575 for the latter.

Computer science majors and engineering students both did far better. In fact, the only major that business students can claim to beat hands down is liberal arts, where grads saw their average salary offer drop by 8.9% to $33,540.

What does a business student do in this kind of environment? Change majors? Move back in with mom and dad? Hold on for dear life?

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