In contrast to the doom and gloom in the economy and the continued layoffs in industries from Pharmaceutical Sales to Wall Street, the National Association of Colleges and Employers actually predicts that the number of new hires from the fresh graduation ranks will increase 8% over 2007.







Below are the top ten majors and last year's starting salary according to the recent survey. The results are somewhat surprising as discussed below.

1. Accounting
$46,292

2. Mechanical Engineering
$54,057

3. Electrical Engineering
$55,333

4. Computer Science
$53,051

5. Business Administration/Management
$47,407

6. Economics/Finance
$47,782, $46,442, respectively

7. Information Sciences & Systems
$49,966

8. Marketing/Marketing Management
$39,269

9. Computer Engineering
$55,920

10. Management Information Systems/Business Data Processing
$47,407

Thoughts:

• I was surprised to see Accounting at the top of the list and Economic/Finance at #6 given the flood of layoffs in the mortgage and investment banking industry. Perhaps there will be a wave of fresh, newly minted replacements at 1/3 the salary?
  
• I continue to see the dichotomy of top pay to Engineers year after year, yet the number of graduates in the U.S. is woefully short, to the point that Andy Grove and other tech leaders opine on the demise of the U.S. due to our lack of innovative power as fewer and fewer Engineers are available in the U.S. and our government no longer allows the same number of H-1B visas, but rather prefers to ignore border crossings from Mexico as a means of immigration. You'd think that in a free market, over time, the higher salaries would attract more Engineering students, but the graduation cohort never seems to catch up to the demand.
  

Related Articles:

Top 10 Places to Work for New Grads in 2008

10 Tips for College Freshmen: Financial Advice to Live By

Your School Matters more than your Degree says Study

I finished my MBA! Now What?

Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers
http://www.naceweb.org/