Is the Job Market Good for MBA Graduates? Early Reports Show Challenges
Credit: Douglas Sacha | Getty Images- MBA graduates’ salaries and job placement rates are down slightly in the first 2024 MBA class employment reports.
- The drops come after record years at Georgia Tech, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt.
- Average starting salaries remain around $150,000 or more.
- Employment rates also average around 90% or higher at the three early schools.
Early signs point to a slightly tougher job market for master of business administration (MBA) graduates in the class of 2024, although outcomes still point to a positive return on investment.
2023 saw a number of top business schools announce record-breaking salaries and employment outcomes for their MBA graduates, but a trio of early employment reports shows that 2024 might not follow the same trend.
The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Scheller College of Business, the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, and the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management all reported slight drops in employment outcomes and average salaries for their graduates.
That doesn’t mean the degrees aren’t worth it or that graduates aren’t landing good jobs. The three programs all reported average base salaries of around $150,000 or more and very strong employment outcomes.
Here’s what you need to know about why salaries declined slightly at each of these major institutions.
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business
Georgia Tech is coming off a banner year. Its 2023 MBA class scored a 96% employment rate within three months of graduation and an average starting salary of $154,679.
That average starting salary was a record for the school.
2024 didn’t meet those same lofty numbers, although graduates still saw positive employment figures and salaries. The 2024 MBA class had an average starting salary of $146,260 and an employment rate of 88.4% three months after graduation.
Not every data point was negative year over year. The class of 2024 saw an average signing bonus of $29,405, an increase compared to $28,245 in 2023.
Key differences between the two classes start to emerge in where they went to work. Both the 2023 and 2024 MBA classes at Scheller mostly went to work in consulting, tech, and financial services, but at very different levels.
Forty-three percent of the class of 2024 went into consulting, compared with 58% of the class of 2023. Consulting tends to be the one of the most lucrative industries for MBA graduates and has long been the bread and butter of MBA programs.
The 2024 MBA class saw more graduates head into the tech industry: 21% landed a tech job compared to 11% in the class of 2023.
The class of 2023 also saw 9% of graduates head into the high-paying financial services industry, whereas the class of 2024 graduates instead headed into the manufacturing, energy, and nonprofit or education sectors.
Scheller’s high technology numbers come alongside a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) focus. The college gained a STEM designation for its MBA program in 2022, reflecting its focus on business analytics and emerging technologies.
University of Virginia Darden School of Business
Darden is another school coming off a record-setting year. The Darden MBA class of 2023 earned the highest average starting salary in school history at $167,899.
That was the fifth consecutive year of record-setting average starting salaries. That trend wasn’t going to carry on forever, and the class of 2024 saw the first decline in average starting salaries in years.
Darden’s starting average salary fell slightly to $163,710. The school maintained a median base salary of $175,000.
The Darden MBA class of 2024 also saw a slight decrease in average starting bonuses. The average signing bonus was $37,588 in 2023 with 89.9% reporting receiving a bonus, but, in 2024, that average bonus figure fell to $34,562. The median signing bonus was $30,000 for both years.
Like Georgia Tech, Darden’s year-over-year differences at least partly reflect a change in where graduates sought employment.
“This drop reflects an increased diversity of industry and functional representation in students’ post-MBA career choices,” a press release from the school reads.
“Graduates entered general management and marketing roles at a higher level than in past years and are also expanding their influence in the energy, retail, and healthcare industries.”
In 2023, 46.3% of Darden MBA graduates went into consulting. Another 26.2% went into financial services, and 10.5% went into technology. The rest went into diverse industries like retail, healthcare, and consumer goods.
2024 saw 42.5% of MBA graduates go into consulting, 26.5% land jobs in financial services, and 8.8% of graduates go into technology. More graduates went into healthcare, consumer goods, retail, and transportation or logistics compared to 2023.
Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management
Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management followed the same lines as Darden and Scheller: Lower salaries and fewer graduates heading into consulting.
The average base salary of the Owen class of 2024 was $150,246. That represented a drop from $154,052 in 2023.
The median salary saw a more steep year-over-year drop: The median salary was $150,000 in 2024, a fall from $165,550 in 2023.
The MBA class of 2024 had an average signing bonus of $34,849. The median was $30,000. That represents a slight bump in the average from $34,591 in 2023, although the median signing bonus held steady.
The class of 2024 also had a slightly lower job placement rate than the class of 2023. An overwhelming 97% of the class of 2023 had received a job offer within three months of graduation, but that figure was 91% for Vanderbilt’s MBA class of 2024.
“The results were lower than our record-breaking results in 2023, as employers continued to deal with economic uncertainty,” Emily Anderson, executive director of the Owen Career Management Center, said in the introduction of the 2024 employment report.
“However, most graduates were still able to achieve their career goals and secure opportunities that will position them well for career growth in the upcoming years.”
Key differences between the two classes start to emerge in employment trends.
Consulting was the top industry for 2024 Vanderbilt MBA graduates, with 32% landing jobs in that sector. Another 23% went into financial services; 14% went into healthcare; 10% went into consumer products, and 8% went into technology.
Compare that with 2023, when 41% went into consulting. Twenty-one percent went into financial services; 12% went into healthcare; 6% went into consumer products, and 11% went into technology.
Consulting was by far the highest-paying industry in both 2023 and 2024. Owen MBA graduates who went into consulting in 2023 had an average salary of $174,318. 2024 MBA graduates who went into consulting had an average salary of $172,614.
Only the narrow function of investment banking within the finance sector had a similar salary, hovering around $170,000 in both years. Jobs in other industries tended to bring in average salaries of less than $140,000 in both years.
Takeaways
Fewer graduates going into consulting translates to a lower median salary. And although job placement rates three months after graduation saw declines across the board, MBA graduates still had positive outcomes at all three business schools.
All three schools boasted initial earnings of well over six figures and job placement rates around 90%. All of the schools were also coming off years that shattered records for job placements or earnings.
It’s also worth noting that an MBA’s return on investment (ROI) can’t be measured by starting salaries alone.
The MBA’s value builds up over time in the form of career advancement and higher earnings — and the starting salary after graduation is only an initial benchmark for the long-term ROI of a degree.
Jobs prospects remain strong for MBA graduates, according to a 2024 report from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC).
The GMAC’s 2024 Corporate Recruiters Survey showed stronger employment growth globally than in the United States, but U.S. employers still indicated plans to employ MBA graduates.
Roughly 25% of U.S. employers who responded to the survey indicated that they planned to hire more MBA graduates in 2024 than in 2023. A further 46% said they expected to hire the same as in 2023.
Only 12% of U.S. employers indicated that they didn’t plan to hire MBA graduates in 2024, whereas that figure was 16% for 2023.