Some Positive News On Salaries For New Grads

Finding a job remains difficult in the current market, but new research shows a glimmer of hope for 2009 graduates who do land jobs. The glimmer appears on the paycheck. Grads’ starting salaries are still holding at around the same level as the starting pay offered to 2008 grads. In better years, it is true, new grads hope the starting salaries go up, rather than hold steady or lose a few percentage points. But bear in mind that in the current economy many people who are able to hold onto their jobs in challenged workplaces, in both the public and private sectors, are having their pay cut, so this is good news.
Here’s what the National Association of Colleges and Employers is saying about starting salaries in the fields popular with many Saint Leo University undergraduates. The average starting offer for people with a bachelor’s in business administration was $44,944. The average for accounting majors was higher, at $48,993. Liberal arts majors, as always, attracted lower starting salaries than business majors. The average pay offered to liberal arts graduates as a group (including majors in English, history, and social sciences) was $36,175. Those with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, on average, attracted $34,284.