MBA Jobs Back For Class of 2011

Unemployment in the U.S. is still hovering at troubling levels, but not for graduates of the top business schools. The data is now in and it’s official: The Class of 2011 had considerably better luck in landing jobs shortly after graduation than MBAs who got the degree either last year or in 2009.

Of 30 highly ranked business schools, only one school–Georgia Institute of Technology– reported that the percentage of MBAs without job offers three months after commencement went up. Georgia said that a mere 5% of its graduating class lacked offers, up from just 3% in 2010.

The good news has been dribbling out of business schools for months now. But only recently have most schools published their 2011 employment reports. The data confirms earlier reports by the Graduate Management Admission Council that MBAs landed more jobs, with slightly more job offers at higher starting salaries this year.

The schools with the absolute best records in job placement for the Class of 2011 are Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business. Some 97% of the MBAs from those four schools had job offers in hand within three months of their graduation this year. Tuck matched its leading 2010 placement record, while Harvard improved from 95%, Columbia from 94%, and Carlson from 91%.

In many cases, schools reported dramatic increases in the percentage of MBAs with job offers. Michigan State’s Broad School of Business, for example, reported that only 13% of its graduates were without job offers three months after graduation, down from 28% last year. Southern Methodist University’s Cox School said that 17% of its graduates were without job offers three months after commencement, down from 33% last year. And Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business reported that 8% of its MBA graduates were without job offers, down from 19% in 2010.

This year’s gains were even more dramatic when compared against the results for the Class of 2009 when MBA job placement was devastated by the Great Recession (see table below). That year, for instance, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School reported that 29% of its MBAs lacked job offers three months after graduation. This year, only 12% of the graduating class was in that unenviable position.

Source: School reporting to BusinessWeek and individual school employment reports

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