JOB MARKET

Fewer Charities Report Slowed Recruiting of Business-School Graduates, According to Survey

Nonprofit and government employers are more likely than other types of employers to feel that the economy's weakness has not limited their recruiting efforts, according to a new survey that measures the job market for people who hold master of business administration degrees.

The survey of 940 employers who hire M.B.A. holders was conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit organization in McLean, Va., that offers the Graduate Management Admissions Test and promotes graduate-level business education, and by the MBA Career Services Council, an association of graduate-managment career-services professionals. . Results for nonprofit, government, and educational-services employers were grouped together; of the total employers surveyed, only nine were nonprofit organizations -- three times the number of charities that responded to last year's survey.

Although nearly all of the survey's respondents -- 96 percent -- said they feel the economy is weak, the economy's effect on the job market may be lessening. Fewer nonprofit and government employers surveyed were pessimistic about the nation's economy in this year's survey than in last year's. Fifty-four percent of employers surveyed said the weak economy is restraining their recruiting efforts, compared with 71 percent who said the same in the 2002 survey.

Over all, the respondents reported that they each hired a median of three business-school graduates last year, and the employers estimated that they will each hire a median of four M.B.A. holders this year and next. Business-school graduates are the only group of new employees that employers estimated would increase in number within the overall hiring mix this year and next, compared with employees who are hired from undergraduate institutions, from other degree programs, or from elsewhere in the work force.

Nonprofit employers paid M.B.A. holders a median starting salary of $85,000, which was higher than the median starting salary for business-school graduates among all employers surveyed, $79,500.

Internships were a key to getting hired at the employers surveyed. Those employers who said they hire M.B.A. graduates as interns said that half of their full-time job offers to master's degree holders are made to their former interns, and 74 percent said they make offers to their former interns before considering outside M.B.A. candidates.

The economy did have an effect on recruiting efforts over all. Of the nine general job areas surveyed, none showed a significant increase in recruiting activity, and four -- accounting, consulting, information technology, and operations and logistics -- experienced what researchers called "statistically significant" declines in recruiting activity.

To get a free copy of the "Corporate Recruiters Survey 2002-03," download one from the Graduate Management Admission Council's Web site or write to: Tacoma Williams, c/o Graduate Management Admission Council, 1600 Tysons Boulevard, Suite 1400, McLean, Va., 22101.