Starting salary offers to new college graduates continue to climb, extending a trend seen throughout the 2005-06 academic year, according to a new salary report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
The Summer 2006 Salary Survey report shows that starting salary offers are up for many disciplines at the bachelor's degree level.
"Overall, the college Class of 2006 is doing very well in terms of starting salaries," says Camille Luckenbaugh, NACE research director. "We began reporting on their salary offers in January and we've seen salaries continue to rise since that time. Employers expected to face more competition for new college graduates this year, and that competition is translating into higher salaries."
All of the business disciplines experienced salary increases. The average offer to accounting grads is $45,656梪p 5.5 percent from last year at this time. Business administration/management graduates also fared well; their average salary offer jumped by 6.3 percent to $42,048. A large number of offers made to these graduates came from investment banking firms, who offered on average, salaries of $53,277, well in excess of the overall average.
The average salary offer to economics/finance graduates rose to $45,112, a solid 5.1 percent increase. Financial services employers and investment banking firms provided a hefty share of the offers reported for these graduates.
Management information systems (MIS) graduates and marketing graduates also posted increases, although much more modest than those earned by many of the other business disciplines. The average offer to MIS grads rose by 2.9 percent to $45,724, while the average offer to marketing graduates inched up 0.9 percent to $37,851.
Graduates with degrees in the computer sciences also posted increases across the board. The average offer to computer science graduates rose just 1 percent to a healthy $51,305. Information sciences and systems graduates saw a more substantial increase, gaining 8.5 percent to bring their average offer to $48,593.