MBA employers see better economy ahead

Seventy percent of MBA employers polled recently by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) expect 2010 to bring relief from the difficult conditions that defined the business climate in 2009. As a result, the uncertainty surrounding many companies’ hiring plans may begin to dissipate as the year progresses, according to GMAC researchers.

More than a third of employers participating in a year-end poll conducted by GMAC said they plan to hire more recent MBA graduates in 2010 than they did in 2009, when many employers scaled back plans to hire MBAs and other recent graduates because of the rough situation. Another 45 percent plan to hire the same number of recent MBA graduates this year. Just 20 percent of the employers said they expect to reduce MBA hiring in 2010. 

“Although the economy remains challenging, the hiring environment for business school graduates is showing clear signs of improvement,” said Dave Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “As employers look to bolster their ranks with talented new employees, the value of management education is shining through.”

Despite their optimism, many employers are waiting for signs of a sustained recovery before implementing their hiring plans, according to the poll. More than 25 percent of participating employers who intend to hire recent MBA graduates this year had not solidified those plans or did not know how many positions they would need to fill when the poll was conducted during the closing weeks of 2009. Another 10 percent of the respondents indicated that salary levels for these future employees had not yet been determined.

GMAC is an international association of leading business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), used by nearly 5,000 MBA and other graduate management education programs around the world as part of the admissions process.

The poll, conducted in November, garnered responses from 317 recruiters at 287 companies that hire people with graduate management degrees. The report can be download here.