Job Offers, Accepts & Salary Average All Fell For London Business School's MBAs In 2024

2024 was a tough year for MBA graduates of London Business School — as it was for MBAs just about everywhere. LBS photo

2024 was a historically tough year for newly graduated MBAs on the job hunt — that much is well established. (See the links at the bottom of this page to Poets&Quants‘ coverage of 2024 employment reports at the M7 B-schools and INSEAD in France.) London Business School, one of the world’s premier B-schools, did not escape the tempest.

According to its newly released 2024 employment report, job offers three months after graduation for LBS’s 502 grads dropped to 87% from 91% for the Class of 2023, job acceptances fell to 86% from 90%, and average salary in U.S. dollars declined by more than 3% to $116,465. In two years the mean salary for LBS MBAs has dropped by 6.7% from a school-high of $124,822 set by the Class of 2022.

“It was a very difficult year,” LBS Dean Sergei Guriev, who began his tenure last fall, tells Poets&Quants, “and yet I’m cautiously happy. We have 86% accepted job offers within three months, so thinking about the 14% who have not yet found jobs, I cannot say I’m happy — but when indeed you look at M7 schools, we are closer to the upper end, and way above the lower end. I just saw a number for INSEAD employment in Poets&Quants, which was 80% received offers. So this is a difficult year all round.”

LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL BY THE NUMBERS: MBA SALARIES & PLACEMENT 2021-2024

Stats	2024	2023	2022	2021
Job offers – 3 months	87%	91%	94%	93%
Job accepts – 3 months	86%	90%	91%	92%
Mean MBA salary (US$)	$116,465	$120,238	$124,822	$114,526
Consulting	42%	45%	37%	38%
Consulting salary average (US$)	$125,064	$125,219	$129,195	$116,323
Finance	26%	26%	27%	26%
Finance salary average (US$)	$117,760	$121,870	$135,949	$123,231
Tech	21%	21%	29%	26%
Tech salary average (US$)	$102,129	$110,052	$114,929	$104,830
Diversified*	11%	8%	7%	10%
Diversified salary average (US$)	$114,492	$118,122	$101,173	$115,288
Work in UK	45%	55%	63%	52%
Work in Europe (non-UK)	9%	8%	7%	10%
Work in North America	10%	10%	7%	9%
Work in Asia	12%	12%	11%	13%
Work in MENA	14%	7%	6%	5%
Countries	40	30	40	37
Switched locations	35%	50%	55%	53%
Switched sectors	52%	55%	58%	50%
Switched both	21%	30%	34%	31%
Entrepreneurs	22	37	28	32

Source: LBS * Includes consumer & retail, healthcare and energy

LBS Dean Sergei Guriev: “Overall this year was particularly bad. If you think about regression to the mean, I would rather agree with the thinking that next year may be better, but there are so many moving parts”

3 TOP SECTORS SAW SALARY DECLINES FOR A 2ND STRAIGHT YEAR

All three top industries for LBS MBAs saw declines in average salary for a second straight year. Consulting, long LBS grads’ top destination sector, had the smallest decline, to $125,064 from $125,219; finance dropped 3.4% to $117,760, and tech dropped 7.2% to $102,129.

Both finance and tech were unchanged in terms of placement from the year before, at 26% of the class and 21%, respectively, while consulting saw a slight decline, to 42% from 45%.

Much more stark are the numbers for location switchers, which dropped by 15 percentage points to 35%, lowest by far out of the last four classes. Fewer LBS grads chose to switch sectors as well (52%, from 55% in 2023 and 58% in 2022), and far fewer chose to do both — 21%, down from 31% the previous year and 34% in 2022.

There were also fewer entrepreneurs in the class: 22, down from 37 in 2023.

LBS grads were also far less inclined — or able — to work in the United Kingdom than has historically been the case: 45% reported finding jobs in the UK, down 10 points from 2023 and 18 points from 2022. Those working in the Middle East-North Africa, however, doubled to 14% of the class.

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES CONTINUE IN 2025

Does London Business School’s new dean see 2025 as a bounce-back year for his MBAs, and MBAs on the job hunt generally?

“It’s very hard to make forecasts, especially in February 2025 when a major economic superpower is not sure what its economic policy is going to be,” Guriev says. “Many developments which I’ve observed in recent weeks makes it challenging to predict what will happen. LBS also depends on UK developments. A lot of people come to LBS to find a job in London, and we have our own challenges related to fiscal pressures, to difficult challenges for the Labour government to relaunch economic growth in the UK. So, there are challenges there.

“Now on the other hand, China’s economy, while it has slowed down, will continue to grow. India and the Middle East seem to be doing reasonably well. And so in those countries, there will be demand for consultants and finance professionals, which is hopeful.

“The other issue, which is even more interesting for us in terms of admissions, is the impact of election outcomes in the U.S. on admissions and applications for UK and European schools. As an economist, I can predict that if a trade war starts in earnest, that should result in a stronger dollar, which may make non-dollar-denominated programs like ours more attractive. So there are many moving parts here.

“Overall, this year was particularly bad. If you think about regression to the mean, I would rather agree with the thinking that next year may be better, but there are so many moving parts.

“I would just like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues who work with the students, helping them to find jobs. One of the good things about being in a global business capital: There are additional opportunities for reaching out to employers, bringing employers to campus, but also training students on how to find jobs. We have a very strong career center that provides help in this respect.”