(Image credit: W Marsh)

MBA graduates of 2010 across the world feel more optimistic about the health of the economy than those in 2009 did, even though the number of MBAs having a job before graduation has dropped to a seven-year low, reports a GMAC survey. Only 33% of the management graduates of the world had a job before graduation this year, compared to 43% in 2008 and 58% in 2009. Among those employed, the percentage increase in salaries (over pre-MBA salaries) too was at a four-year low at 57%. Yet according to GMAC’s research, about one-third of the class of 2010 felt that the economy was stable or strong, compared to only 9% of the class of 2009.

The insights are derived from the Global Management Education Graduate Survey 2010 by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the agency that owns the GMAT exam. The responses of 5,274 graduates from 147 business schools worldwide were used in the survey report.

Compared to 2009’s 50%, only 40% job-seeking graduates of the Two-year fulltime MBA had jobs before finishing school this year. In the One-year fulltime program, this percentage remained more or less unchanged over the previous year at 28%. Among Executive MBAs of 2010, only 23% had a job offer before graduation, compared to 44% in 2009.

Citizens of Asia-Pacific nations studying in the surveyed b-schools were the worst-hit at only 28% pre-graduation employment across all types of MBA programs. Europeans had it best at 38% having a pre-graduation job.

(Graphics courtesy: GMAC)

This year, the percentage change in base salary earned by an MBA over his pre-MBA compensation was 57%. This is a four-year low, the highest having been 68% in 2008 followed by 61% in 2009.

This percentage increase was higher than last year only for Executive and Part-time MBA but more or less unchanged for Two-year and One-year fulltime MBA.

Despite the lingering shortage of employment sparked off by the economic recession and regardless of the graduates’ success in the job market, MBAs still gave high marks to their business program’s ability to prepare them for a suitable employment.

While the job market may be cyclical, the value of management education is constant. The investment people make in their own human capital by going to business school gives them a competitive advantage that transcends the ups and downs of the economy, said Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of GMAC.