Spotlight for Career Services Professionals, April 11, 2012
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals, April 11, 2012
Following the recent news that employers expect to hire 10.2 more college graduates from the Class of 2012 than from the Class of 2011 comes a welcome report that salaries are also on the upswing.
The overall median starting salary for a bachelor’s degree graduate from this year’s class has risen to $42,569, a 4.5 percent gain over the median of $40,735 posted by the Class of 2011, according to the April 2012 Salary Survey, the first report on salaries for the Class of 2012.
At this early juncture, education majors are seeing the largest increases to their median salaries over last year. Graduates with education degrees are entering the work force with a median salary of $37,423, 4.5 percent higher than last year.
Following are some additional survey highlights:
- Class of 2012 communications majors are seeing a 3.8 percent increase in their median salary, which has climbed to $40,022.
- The increases in median salaries for math and sciences majors, and those earning bachelor’s degrees in computer sciences, have been nearly identical—2.5 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. The overall median salary for graduates earning math and sciences degrees has increased to $40,939, while graduates within the computer sciences fields have starting salaries that have risen to $56,383.
- Posting nominal gains are those majoring in humanities/social sciences and business. The median starting salary for business graduates has crept up 1 percent to $47,748, while the median salary for humanities/social sciences majors has inched ahead by just 0.5 percent, to $34,789.
- On the other side, the median salaries for engineering and health sciences graduates have dipped incrementally. Engineering graduates are posting a median salary of $58,581, a slight drop of 0.4 percent, and health sciences majors’ median salary has dipped 0.7 percent to $43,477.
NACE’s next update on starting salaries for new college graduates will be available in the September 2012 issue of Salary Survey.