Business School GraduatesMuch like last year, 2015 should be a good year for business school and management degree graduates to find a job, a new poll has found.

The 2014 Year-End Poll of Employers conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) showed that nine in 10 employers who plan on hiring business school graduates this year intend to sustain or increase the amount of open positions for business school graduates, compared with 2014.

“The solid job prospects for b-school talent seen over the past several years and again reflected in this poll give prospective students good reason to consider pursuing these degrees as part of a strategy to drive their career goals,” said Rebecca Estrada Worthington, GMAC’s survey research manager.

Unlike years following the recession, nearly two-thirds of employers polled said their company was growing. They expect to hire a greater share of recent graduate business students in 2015 than the companies that said they are struggling or not expanding.

Starting pay is also expected to improve for business graduates. According to the poll, a majority of employers said they have plans to increase initial base salaries at or above the inflation rate for new MBA and business master’s hires.

In general, most companies planned to hire applicants with relevant work experience and those with bachelor’s or MBA degrees. Nearly three-quarters (72%) said they expect to hire MBA graduates compared with 69% that actually hired MBA candidates in 2014.

Seventy-eight percent planned to hire those with bachelor’s degrees, slightly less than they did in 2014. About 85% said they would hire candidates with work experience, about the same as in 2014.

The greatest increase in demand is expected to be for new graduates with master’s in management degrees. Forty-one percent of employers said they planned to hire them compared with 30% of companies that hired them in 2014. Demand for graduates with master’s in accounting or finance degrees will likely be up slightly.

The Year-End Poll provides a recap of actual hiring for the year and gives a hiring outlook for graduate business students worldwide for the upcoming year. Conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov.16, it was based on the responses of 169 employers in 33 countries.

The annual poll is a product of the GMAC, a global, nonprofit education program that owns the Graduate Management Admission Test, an exam used in the admission process of more than 6,100 graduate management programs worldwide.

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