Where In The World Is The MBA Most Valued?

World

Where is an MBA most desired and valued? Well, it depends. It’s obviously a loaded question. But the latest QS Top MBA Jobs and Salaries report points to some ideas and conversation points. According to the report, no region in the world is hiring more MBAs than North America. That’s certainly not surprising. Yet, no country pays their MBAs more on average than New Zealand, according to the report.

Specifically, the annual report, first conducted in 1990, shows that there was a 26% job growth for MBA jobs this past year in the United States and Canada. The report also says Kiwis earn an average salary of $145,000 with average bonuses at $10,000. Although there are some odd outliers, the general sentiment from the 45-page report is the MBA continues to be one of the most valuable degrees in the world—regardless of location.

“We’ve always found that the MBA is quite resilient during tougher times for a lot of the world,” explains report author Mansoor Iqbal. “It’s had it’s problems, of course, but it remains quite tough.”

The report calls the North American growth percentage “eye-catching” considering the growth rate from the previous year’s report for the same region was just 2%. QS predicts growth slowing in the next year, but still up 9% growth in U.S. and Canadian jobs. The overall global MBA job growth was 14% this year, according to the report.

The next region to see significant MBA job growth was Asia-Pacific with an 18% increase. Western Europe was next with a a 9% uptick. The Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America followed with 8%, 4%, and 1% upticks, respectively. Latin America not only had the lowest MBA job growth, but also finished the furthest below its forecasted number from last year’s report.

The report is based on survey responses from nearly 4,000 companies hiring MBAs in 88 countries. Some examples of respondents are Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Bain, Deloitte, and many other top brands that have their fingers in economies stretching the globe. Iqbal explained that the report is meant to be viewed at a regional global level, and not on a country-by-country basis. So the report is broken up into six very broad regions. Out of the nearly 4,000 companies responding, the majority (32%) came from the Asia-Pacific region and the least (6%) came from Eastern Europe.

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