eFinancialCareers

The proportion of new MBA holders worldwide who received a job offer before graduation climbed for a fifth straight year, edging up to 53 percent from 52 percent in 2006.

Demand is up dramatically since 2003, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council. In that year, just 36 percent of new MBAs had a job offer by the time they were awarded the degree.

The average respondent to this year's GMAC Global MBA Graduate survey had received 2.5 job offers.

Graduates of full-time MBA programs expected to earn 54 percent more, on average, than they earned before earning their degree. Part-time students estimated their compensation would climb an average of 43 percent, while those in executive MBA programs foresaw a 33 percent average increase. The council said those figures were higher than in previous surveys, but did not provide prior-year numbers.

The survey includes responses from 5,641 graduating MBA students representing 158 business schools around the world, according to the GMAC, an association of graduate business schools that owns the GMAT admissions test.

A separate GMAC survey released May 2 found that recruiters at about 1,000 companies planned to hire an average of 18 percent more new MBA holders this year than in 2006, while trimming hires of new college graduates by seven percent. Recruiters also planned to offer new MBAs base salaries 84 percent more than college graduates and 28 percent more than holders of other types of graduate degrees. Those MBA pay differentials widened from 75 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in 2006.