Benefits November 8, 2000

College Grad Salaries, Openings Up

November 8 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Employers may have to ante up a bit more for those college grads this year, with the average starting salary now topping $37,000/year, up 2.3% from a year ago.

Reported by

Nevin E. Adams

Despite the higher pay, the number of job openings for college graduates is also up – 3.9% – since October 1999, according to Jobtrak.com, a Los Angeles-based job listing service which also reports that the average starting salary now stands at $37,268.

Those Who Teach, Can

Jobs in the education sector rose a phenomenal 39.4%, but the average salary rose less than 1% to $38,583, on average.

College grads saw a 31.4% increase in engineering jobs, with a 3.9% boost in average pay to $47,425.

However, the number of new openings actually dropped in about 65% of the job listings posted at more than 1,000 university career centers. Sales, marketing, advertising, and public relations positions fell 14.7%, while the average starting salary for those jobs also slipped 1.5% to $35,789.

Entry-level business and management positions dropped 9.3%, while accounting and finance positions fell 7.3%. Computer and information science positions slipped 0.7%.