At around 1.5 million, the U.S. class of 2009 is the largest ever. Which, thanks to the gloomy economic picture, means there will be more people competing for fewer jobs.
But the bad news doesn’t end there. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)’s latest Salary Survey, for any 2009 college graduate lucky enough to land a job, the starting salary may be a bit disappointing. NACE found that the overall average offer to a 2009 bachelor’s degree grad is now $48,515—down 2.2% from $49,624 last spring.
Some disciplines fare better than others: Engineers showed the most promise, averaging a 2.3% increase in their overall average offer, which now stands at $58,438. Chemical engineers are especially favored—their average offer rose 2.8% to $65,403.
Sorry, computer science majors. It seems there were fewer offers for software design and development positions in Spring ’09 than in Spring ’08, and your average offer has fallen 11% from last spring’s average of $65,379 to the current average of $58,837.
Business graduates are holding their own; as a group, their average offer rose 1% to $46,973, says NACE. And although NACE says its data on liberal arts graduates is limited at this time because those grads tend to get job offers later in the year, their offering salaries are relatively flat, with an average offer of $36,807.
NACE will release its next report for the college Class of 2009 in July. In the meantime, you may want to take some chem classes.
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