GMAC hiring report explores state of employer demand for graduate business school talent

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Bernama) -- The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a global association of leading graduate business schools, has released its annual hiring report, the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey – 2022 Summary Report.

“The latest GMAC findings of the Corporate Recruiters Survey show that nearly nine out of 10 corporate recruiters feel confident or highly confident in the ability of business schools to prepare students to be successful in their organisations,” said Sangeet Chowfla, president and CEO of GMAC.

The report explores the state of employer demand for graduate business school talent (MBA and business master’s degree recipients) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and includes responses from nearly 1,000 corporate recruiters and staffing firms worldwide.

According to a statement, hiring projections of graduate management education (GME) graduates remain bullish this year, with 92 per cent of corporate recruiters expecting to hire newly minted MBAs.

Promisingly, two in three responding corporate recruiters describe the current direction of their organisation as expanding or growing (67 per cent) and a similar proportion plan to increase their overall headcount (65 per cent).

Also, most recruiters (63 per cent) project that demand for new business school talent will increase in the next five years, with business master’s hiring intention the highest among recruiters for East and Southeast Asia and Middle East companies.

Other Key Findings include MBA starting salaries continue to provide a premium and Business master’s median starting salaries are on the rise and, U.S. international hiring bounced back to pre-pandemic levels with potential of continued growth for 2022.

Recruiter responses suggest companies in the United States plan to offer increased starting salaries to business master’s graduates in 2022 compared to last year. In addition, median MBA starting salary levels eclipse those being offered to bachelor’s graduates by 22 per cent to 40 per cent across the world regions for which there is sufficient sample to report.

In addition, the world regions with the highest percentage of recruiters affirming that they plan to hire international candidates in 2022 are the Middle East (52 per cent) and Western Europe (40 per cent).

In the United States, this year’s survey results suggest an improving situation for international MBA and business master’s graduates. Looking back at last year’s actual hiring, 43 per cent of U.S. recruiters confirmed they hired international talent in 2021—a bounce back from 35 per cent in 2020 and 41 per cent in 2019.

More details at www.gmac.com.

-- BERNAMA