Jobs Are Scarcer, But Michigan Ross MBAs Get Another Big Boost In Median Salary & Total Pay

Michigan Ross has released its MBA employment report showing that about 96% of Class of 2023 graduates had received job offers three months after graduation. Ross photo

It would be nearly impossible for Michigan to find jobs for its graduating MBAs at a higher rate in 2023 than it did in 2022.

That’s because last year nearly 100% of Ross School of Business MBAs had received job offers three months after they graduated, and more than 98% had said yes to new positions. Ross MBAs were in so much demand in 2022, in fact, that they had the offers pouring in even as they donned their caps and gowns that May, with 93.2% of U.S. citizens and 92.9% of foreign nationals in that MBA class receiving first job offers by graduation. That’s 93.1% of the class already employed at commencement, up from 90.2% the previous year.

Michigan Ross set five school records in its 2022 employment report, which is a hard act to follow. Indeed, in its newly released MBA Class of 2023 jobs report, the Ross School reports a step back from three of those records, with declines in the rate of job offers at graduation and 90 days later, as well as job acceptances. But Ross and its current MBA students can find consolation in a more important number: median starting salary for the 398-member Class of 2023 saw a big leap again this year, continuing on its stratospheric trajectory of the last three years.

MICHIGAN ROSS MBA JOB OFFERS AT GRADUATION 2018-2023

Student	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2023	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2022	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2021	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2020	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2019	Received Job Offer By Graduation 2018
U.S. Citizen	88.9%	93.2%	90.0%	86.5%	95.9%	92.4%
Foreign National	94.5%	92.9%	90.6%	75.9%	83.5%	87.5%
All	90.5%	93.1%	90.2%	83.1%	92.0%	91.0%

MEDIAN SALARY GROWS BY $10K TO $175K; MEDIAN TOTAL PAY GROWS 5.1%

Last year, 99% of Ross Class of 2022 MBAs received job offers three months after graduation, up from 97.5% in 2021, and 98.4% of graduates accepted jobs, up from 96.1%. Already by graduation time, more than 93% of the class had jobs in hand. Those numbers were stratospheric, and Ross grads in 2023 came back to Earth a bit, with just over 90% of graduates accepting jobs at graduation and 95.9% within three months of leaving the program. The latter group is the smallest at Ross since the pandemic class of 2020.

Another connection with the 2020 coronavirus class: At graduation this year, Ross MBAs who are U.S. citizens took the biggest hit, falling to 88.9% from 93.2% — the lowest rate of employment for that group in three years.

But those numbers wouldn’t stand out much in comparison with Michigan’s peer schools, whether pre- or post-pandemic. And Ross has a major source of comfort: salaries and overall pay. This year Ross grads reported a median salary of $175,000, up $10K in one year, $31K in two years, and $40K since 2020. Median starting pay — calculated by multiplying median salary by 100, adding to median bonus times the percentage of those reporting a bonus (this year: 90%), and dividing by 100 — was up 5.1% to $202,000. That’s up nearly 18% from the $171,450 it was two years ago.

MICHIGAN ROSS MBA JOB OFFERS 3 MONTHS AFTER GRADUATION 2018-2023

Student	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2023	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2022	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2021	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2020	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2019	Received Job Offer 3 Months After Graduation 2018
U.S. Citizen	96.0%	99.2%	97.3%	93.1%	97.9%	95.2%
Foreign National	95.6%	98.2%	97.9%	84.5%	95.4%	90.4%
All	95.9%	99.0%	97.5%	90.3%	97.2%	93.8%

A CONSULTING POWERHOUSE

Last year, consulting-bound Ross grads accounted for more than 42% of the class, up big from 35% in 2021, while tech slipped to 17.3%, for a combined total of just under 60%. Twenty-three percent of all 2022 graduates and 55% of consultant hires last year were made by the MBB firms of McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group. The number of finance-bound grads stayed about the same at 15%. In total, 93% of the class were career switchers, about the same as the previous year.

This year, McKinsey, Bain, and BCG once again rank as the top three destinations for Michigan Ross graduates, with consulting representing even more of the class: just under 45% (see table below). With tech accounting for 15.5%, the two industries drew 60% of Ross’s 2023 class, with financial services (14.2%) the third-most popular industry. Amazon, Dell, and Adobe Inc. are the top tech recruiters, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citi lead the way in finance. Healthcare and consumer packaged goods round out the top five industries for the Class of 2023.

Consultants made the highest median salary at $190,000, and boasted the highest upper end of the salary range at $300K. Consultants also had the highest average salary at just over $180K. The lowest end of the salary range was in healthcare ($104,631). Finance grads made the highest median bonus at $46,250, with consumer packaged goods MBAs (5.4% of the class) close behind at $40K.

MICHIGAN ROSS MBA CLASS OF 2023 EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY

Industry	%	Range	Median Salary	Mean Salary	Median Sign-On Bonus
Consulting	44.9%	$108K-$300K	$190,000	$181,895	$30,000
Consumer Packaged Goods	5.4%	$110K-$135K	$128,000	$125,800	$40,000
Energy	3.4%	$115K-$170K	$125,000	$131,550	$22,500
Financial Services	14.2%	$120K-$225K	$175,000	$161,821	$46,250
Healthcare	5.7%	$104,631-$190K	$135,000	$139,102	$30,000
Manufacturing	2.7%	$120K-$145K	$125,000	$127,143	$32,500
Real Estate	1.7%	$135K-$150K	$140,000	$140,000	$20,000
Retail	3.7%	$125K-$175,200	$140,000	$141,130	$25,000
Technology	15.5%	$115K-$194,400	$152,625	$154,988	$30,000
Other	2.7%	$112,015-$215K	$150,000	$156,754	$17,000
TOTAL	100%	$104,631-$300K	$175,000	$162,946	$30,000

MICHIGAN ROSS MBA CLASSES 2019-2022 EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY

Industry	2022%	2022 Median Salary	2021%	2021 Median Salary	2020%	2020 Median Salary	2019%	2019 Median Salary
Consulting	42.2%	$175,000	35.1%	$165,000	35.7%	$160,000	32.0%	$150,000
Consumer Packaged Goods	5.3%	$120,000	7.9%	$113,000	7.2%	$110,000	8.0%	$108,000
Energy	3.0%	$125,000	1.5%	$110,000	NA	NA	NA	NA
Financial Services	15.0%	$175,000	15.5%	$150,000	11.9%	$150,000	15.1%	$150,000
Healthcare	6.3%	$140,000	5.6%	$130,000	5.3%	$125,000	3.6%	$120,000
Manufacturing	3.7%	$125,000	2.9%	$132,500	4.4%	$123,500	8.9%	$120,000
Real Estate	1.0%	$130,000	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Retail	2.0%	$127,500	1.8%	$127,838	3.8%	$120,000	4.4%	$115,000
Technology	17.3%	$136,000	24.9%	$130,000	24.5%	$130,000	21.6%	$122,650
Other	4.2%	$141,000	5.0%	$130,000	5.0%	$115,000	6.4%	$120,000

‘THE JOB MARKET HAS BEEN CHANGING’

“We are very pleased with the employment results for this year’s Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA graduates,” says Heather Byrne, managing director of the Career Development Office at Michigan Ross, in a news report coinciding with the release of 2023 jobs data. “The job market has been changing, especially in tech, and Ross grads continue to land jobs at great companies, showing how they are able to leverage our action-based learning curriculum, supportive alumni network, and maximize all of the resources provided to them.”

Last year about one-third of Ross grads found jobs in the Midwest (30.2%), mostly Chicago (18.9%), with another quarter heading to the East Coast, mostly the New York area (21.6%). The West was another big destination in 2022, with about a quarter of grads going there, mostly San Francisco (10%). This year the Ross diaspora is not radically different, with two-thirds (66.2%) of the class slated to work either in the New York Metropolitan area (24.3%), the West Coast (19.3%), or Chicago (22.6%).

Notably, 94% of Ross 2023 MBAs are career-switchers, up from 93% the last two years. Seven of every eight grads this year accepted offers that were obtained through school-facilitated recruiting activities.