Survey: Class of ’11 hits pay jackpot

For the first time in three years, a college graduating class is beginning the year with an average starting salary offer that is on the rise, according to results of a new survey. The trend is especially good news for Connecticut finance-accounting grads.

The overall average salary offer to a Class of 2011 bachelor’s degree graduate is $50,034, up 3.5 percent over last year at this time, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Winter 2011 Salary Survey report.  

For the Class of 2011, NACE says this is the latest sign of improvement in the college job market. Employers responding to an earlier NACE study reported plans to increase their college hiring with the Class of 2011 by 13.5 percent over the previous year, and NACE says its monthly polls show hiring remains in positive territory. 

While not all categories of majors posted increases to their average salary offers, the increases seen in the Winter 2011 Salary Survey report far outweigh the decreases, NACE said. That’s a significant improvement over last year at this time.

Among the disciplines in the Winter 2011 Salary Survey report, business majors fared the best; their average offer rose almost 2 percent to $48,089. Accounting majors saw their average salary offer rise 2.2 percent to $49,022, and the average offer to finance majors rose 1.9 percent to $50,535.

Business administration/ management graduates saw a slight decrease to their average starting salary offer, which fell 2.3 percent to $44,171. Meanwhile, the average offer to marketing majors dipped by 1.3 percent to $41,948.

Duane Sauer specializes in helping Greater Hartford/New Haven/Springfield employers fill finance and accounting slots as division director for Robert Half International’s Hartford office.

Sauer confirms that graduates keying on careers in those slots in most cases face bright pay prospects this spring for their first job.

“They will see a zero to five percent increase in base salary from last year,” Sauer said, “depending on the type of position, the size of the company, and [grade point average]. We’re getting more emphasis on that GPA again.”

Among the technical disciplines, according to NACE, computer science majors posted a small increase; their average salary offer rose almost 1 percent to $61,783. 

Salary offers to engineering graduates as a group remained nearly level-a 0.3 percent increase to $59,435-but some of the individual majors fared far better. Electrical engineering majors saw their average salary offer jump 4.4 percent to $61,690, while mechanical engineering graduates also saw a healthy increase-3.8 percent-for an average salary offer of $60,598.  

Conversely, chemical engineering and civil engineering majors saw their average salary offers fall. The average offer to chemical engineering graduates dipped by 0.8 percent to $64,641. Meanwhile, civil engineers fared worst among their engineering peers; their average offer dropped 7.1 percent to $48,885.  

Data are limited for liberal arts majors, but, as a group, their average offer is up 9.5 percent to $35,633. This is in sharp contrast to last year, when they watched their average offer fall almost 11 percent.

The Winter 2011 Salary Survey report is the first look at salaries for the Class of 2011. NACE will continue to monitor salary offers to the current class, and will release its next salary report in April with the Spring 2011 Salary Survey.