While starting salaries for many others decline
Starting salary offers to the college Class of 2010 are down compared to last year at this time, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
But both finance and accounting majors saw their average salary offers rise. The average offer to finance majors rose by 1.6 percent to $50,546, and the average offer to accounting majors inched up by 0.4 percent to $48,575.
On the other hand, business administration/management grads saw their average offer fall 8 percent to $42,094. Marketing graduates’ average salary offer also fell, but not as far, to $42,710, down 2.1 percent from last year.
The Spring 2010 issue of NACE’s Salary Survey shows the overall average salary offer to a bachelor’s degree candidate is $47,673, which is 1.7 percent lower than the average offer of $48,515 made to Class of 2009 bachelor’s degree candidates.
As a group, graduates earning computer-related degrees saw their average salary offer soar in comparison to the other disciplines: Their average offer rose 5.8 percent to $58,746. And, the average offer to computer science majors increased by 4.7 percent, bringing it to $60,426.
As a group, engineering graduates saw their average salary offer increase by 1.2 percent to $59,149. Electrical engineering grads saw the largest increase of the engineering disciplines. Their average offer rose by 3 percent to $59,326. Chemical engineering graduates’ average offer is up 1.6 percent to $66,437, and civil engineering grads saw a similar increase—1.3 percent—bringing their average offer to $52,443.
Computer engineering grads, however, saw their average offer move up just a scant 0.2 percent to $61,121. Mechanical engineering graduates also saw a 0.2 percent increase, bringing their average salary offer to $58,881.
Graduates earning liberal arts degrees may be the hardest hit by the effects of the recession: Currently, their average salary offers remain well below last year’s levels—8.9 percent lower at $33,540.
