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Employment Stats Unveiled for 2008-2009

June 22, 2009

By Sheryle Dirks
Associate Dean for Career Management

To characterize this year's job market as difficult is an understatement, so I hope these reports are useful in understanding how our Daytime MBA students fared in the turbulent conditions of 2008 - 2009. The news is neither all-bad or all-good, and every effort has been made to paint a balanced picture.
 
This data reflects graduate and intern employment as of May 10 graduation. The information will be updated three months post-graduation and will become final when the reporting year ends on September 30, 2009. All information is self-reported by students and is presented in compliance with MBA Career Services Council guidelines.

Described here are some notable numbers from this year's results. I encourage you to read the full report on our web site.

For Class of 2009 graduates

  • The most significant change from last year is the later timing for students to secure employment. Last year, 76% of 2008 graduates reported having accepted a position by graduation; this year's number drops by 9 percentage points to 67%, a nearly 12% decrease.
  • Duke MBA graduates experienced a slight increase in mean base salary over last year despite the difficult market. This number went up 2.7% to $102,869. Over a two-year period, the relative increase is 3.5%, up from $99,350 in 2006-07. These changes can largely be attributed to the corresponding increase in the percentage of graduates accepting jobs in consulting. Among fields hiring large numbers of MBAs each year, consulting has the highest base salary and therefore influences the class mean salary. 
  • By function, general management and consulting saw the biggest increases. Over one-third of 2009 graduates accepted consulting roles, constituting the single largest category at 37%, and 18% took jobs in general management. These numbers represent increases of 7 and 8 percentage points respectively. 
  • As you might expect, the number of students accepting finance positions declined considerably. While investment banking represented the job function of 12% of the Class of 2008, it accounted for only 5% of the Class of 2009. Finance overall dipped by nearly 41%, from 32% in 2007-08 to 19% this year.
  • Likely to mitigate risk in uncertain conditions, a higher percentage of graduates returned to either their summer intern or pre-Fuqua employer. Nearly half (49%) of 2009 graduates accepted employment with an internship or pre-Fuqua company while 37% did so in the 2008 class, representing a one-year increase of 32%.
  • While on-campus recruiting slowed over previous years, nearly three-quarters of 2009 grads (74%) attributed the source of their employment as Fuqua-facilitated. This percentage is up slightly from the previous year, when campus activity was at an all-time high, at 71%.

For Class of 2010 interns

  • Many companies seeking to cut short-term costs found savings in reducing or eliminating MBA intern programs, which has made the search longer and more difficult for our first-year students. While 66% of the Class of 2010 had accepted internships by graduation, that number was off by nearly 20 percentage points from last year, at 85%. First-year students have continued to receive and accept offers in May and June, so we anticipate this gap will narrow as the summer progresses. 
  • While mean base salary decreased slightly (6%) from $6,363/month in 2007-2008 to $5,952 in 2008-2009, the mean bonus did not decrease, at approximately $3,400 each of the last two years.
  • Of the "Big 3" job functions, one increased, another stayed the same, and the third decreased as a proportion of the overall class at this time. Marketing captured 35% of the intern class, up six percentage points from 29%, consulting held at 24%, and finance decreased from 27% to 21%. 
  • Another reflection of market conditions is the increase in first-year students accepting employment closer to home.  While 18% of Class of 2009 interns accepted roles in the southern region, over a quarter of 2010 interns (27%) are located here, representing a 50% increase.

International trends

  • The Class of 2009 experienced a considerable increase in students accepting positions outside of the United States. Considering Fuqua's continuing emphasis on globalization and the U.S. job market for international students, this change is not surprising. Nearly one-fourth of this year's graduates took non-U.S. jobs at 24%, up 50% over the previous year at 16%. 
  • Employment statistics at graduation typically show the percentage of international students having accepted jobs to lag behind those of their American classmates, while that gap usually narrows when our stats are re-published later in the fall. While the final results won't be known until October 2009, the initial data reflects this trend. For example, 62% of international graduates in the Class of 2009 report having accepted positions while 67% of the class overall report acceptances. 
  • Graduates and interns who accepted non-U.S. employment from a Fuqua source are going to work in 14 different countries, which represents an ever-widening footprint for the school's recruiting partnerships. These students accepted jobs in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Russia, Nicaragua, Chile, Peru, and Turkey.

Top employers

  • Johnson & Johnson retains its perennial position as Fuqua's top employer for 2008-09, increasing the total number of hires over last year from 24 to 27. Deloitte Consulting increased its presence from 16 to 23 hires to take the #2 spot, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Dell tied for third with 13 each. 
  • As a reflection of broader job market conditions, nine employers hired 10 or more Duke MBAs compared to nearly double (17) who met that mark last year.
  • Two non-profit organizations made the top employers list. Education Pioneers repeats from last year, hiring 5 Duke interns, and the Small Business & Technology Development Center placed 3 interns in local start-up companies. 
  • Key industries or verticals are represented in our top 30 employers as follows: 8 consulting,  6 financial services, 4 technology, 4 consumer products/retail, 3 health care, 2 energy, and 2 other. The most significant shift in this profile, as you might expect, is the decrease in financial services from last year. Ten of our top 30 employers were from this industry in 2007-08 compared to this year at six.

Many, many people contribute to the employment success of our students each year, and I extend a sincere thanks to:

  • the students who work so hard to achieve their goals, share their employment data, and help one another along this rewarding but challenging path; 
  • the employers who find value in hiring Duke MBAs and expend tremendous care, effort, and resources to attract and retain them;
  • the alumni who coach and mentor our students and advocate for the Duke MBA at their employers; 
  • the school administrators, faculty, and staff who proactively support these efforts in countless ways.

And while we live in a data-driven age, these numbers only tell part of the story. The spirit, resilience, and creativity that are hallmarks of the Fuqua culture shine through in the career journeys our students have made this year. For those who have accepted jobs, we congratulate them, wish them much success, and look forward to having them return as recruiters some day soon. For those continuing their search, we are committed to providing service until they land a desired position and we look forward to celebrating with them when that day comes (and it will!). 

Please feel free to contact me at sheryle.dirks@duke.edu with any questions or comments.