The MBA continues to be one of the surest pathways to employment, with 90 per cent of 2013 business school graduates currently in a job.
A survey of 2013 business school graduates by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) found 85 per cent of Asia-Pacific respondents were employed, 87 per cent of Indians, 82 per cent of Europeans, and 95 per cent of US graduates.
The global figure is six percentage points above the employment rate in 2009, when 84 per cent of those queried were employed in September, but down slightly from the 92 per cent of last year’s graduates employed by September 2012.
READ: EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK IMPROVES FOR ASIA-PACIFIC MBAs
Despite continued economic uncertainty, 74 percent of the class of 2013 alumni who landed jobs said they could not have gotten it without their graduate management education.
“Despite the slow, uneven economic recovery around the world, the job outlook for business degree-holders is holding fairly steady,” said Gregg Schoenfeld, Director of Management Education Research at GMAC. “Regardless of employment status, the vast majority of alumni from the class of 2013 believe their education developed their skills, expanded their network, and prepared them for the job market.”
The poll is a follow-up to the GMAC Global Management Education Graduate Survey, an exit survey of graduate business students conducted in February and March. Some 915 alumni from 129 business schools worldwide responded to the poll in September.
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Survey Fast Facts
- Ninety-two percent of full-time two-year MBA alumni were employed at the time of the follow-up alumni poll—the highest level reported since the class of 2009.
- The technology sector is drawing 15 percent of the class of 2013 graduates, up from 12 percent in 2009.
- MBAs and other business master’s degree-holders continue to find opportunities in a variety of industries, with a total of 57 percent employed in the products and services, finance and accounting, and consulting sectors.
- 58 percent of alumni from Asia-Pacific countries work for multinational organizations. A quarter of citizens of Asia-Pacific countries work outside their country of citizenship and the majority (80 percent) work outside the Asia-Pacific region.
- Five percent of the class of 2013 alumni reported themselves as entrepreneurs/self-employed. A majority (78 percent) of self-employed alumni expect to hire a median of three employees in the next 12 months.
- The majority of 2013 alumni feel their education developed their quantitative (95 percent), and qualitative (92 percent) skills, expanded their network (90 percent) and prepared them for the job market (90 percent.
