In today’s saturated, cutthroat job market, it seems as if there may be an increase in opportunity for business majors. This appeared to be a crucial finding in the Job Outlook 2015 survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
The survey found that more than 75 percent surveyed had the intention to employ business majors from the 2015 graduating class, while also providing an inflation in starting salaries in contrast to previous years. Companies surveyed included Cargill, Kimberly-Clark, IBM, DuPont, and Procter & Gamble.
Although various academic advisors, entrepreneurs and politicians enforce their belief that science, technology, engingeering and mathematics majors seem to be the future of the job market, it still seems that business majors are being hired at a pretty healthy rate.
According to the survey 75% of employers surveyed stated that they intended on employing graduates from all degree levels, majoring in business. The percentage deriving from this sample survey basically indicates that it tops engineering (74.4 percent), computer and information sciences (57.4 percent), math and sciences (38.6 percent), and communications (26.9 percent).
When interpreting these results in terms of specific job markets we can interpret that among finance and accounting majors, there is a large demand between food and beverage manufacturers, support service companies, government, and insurance and real estate companies. Companies who showed a distinct demand for business administration and management graduates were those in the niches of retail, transportation, finance, insurance and real estate.
Although these results seem astonishing, there were some results that might dissatisfy those pursuing a career in business. Compared to previous years the number of employers who expected to increase hiring dropped from 8.6 to 8.3 percent compared to other years. Some can make the argument, however, that this statistic is offset by a projected 3.6 percent increase in wages throughout 2014.
Over half of employers surveyed also indicated that they will offer bonuses at an increase of nearly 4 percent compared to those acquired in 2014. These results suggest that business majors will be among the biggest beneficiaries, including those majoring in accounting and finance. At the graduate level, MBAs can expect average projected bonuses to be around five to six times that of beneficiaries containing a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree level.
When viewing the job market from the perception of corporate executives, a common trend among desired applicants were those not only containing “book knowledge,” but incorporating leadership qualities as well. This year, leadership and teamwork tied for No. 1 at 77.8 percent among attributes employers fancy the most.
Proceeding these numbers in the rankings were written communication skills (73.4 percent), problem solving skills (70.9 percent), work ethic (70.4 percent), analytical and quantitative skills (68.0 percent) and technical skills (67.5 percent).
As part of the survey employers also graded recent graduates on their acquired skills. Findings showed that graduates scored well in the attributes pertaining to problem solving and initiative. However, they dropped in teamwork attributes.
The gross interpretation of these results means to us that the job market seems to be more lenient toward business majors in 2015. However, the job market is still extremely competitive for those pursuing a field in business.
Although there may be more of a demand for business majors the survey results reveal, we cannot predict what the results would display if all major firms in a wider range of educational fields were included in the surveyed population.
What also has to be taken into account is the proportions of applicants in relevance to their fields of study. These markets are saturated in relevance to specific majors, and the survey mentions only the percentages of firms looking to employ business majors.
Email Cardinal Points at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
