RESTON, Va., July 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Despite concerns about inflation and recession risks, employer confidence in graduate business education (GME) and its ability to prepare business school graduates to succeed in their organizations has reached new heights since the pandemic, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council's (GMAC) annual survey of global corporate recruiters of business school graduates released today. This increased confidence was seen across the key industries that business education serves, including consulting, finance, accounting and technology. The best news for today's business school graduates is that employer assessments are leading to optimistic hiring forecasts, with the majority of global recruiters planning stable or expanding hiring in 2024. One-third expect to hire more MBA graduates than last year.
Notably, employers’ new confidence in GME is reflected in the growing number of employers who say that business school graduates tend to perform better, advance to senior roles faster, and earn more than their peers, a percentage that has increased in recent years despite (or perhaps because of) the rapid rise of technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI). While AI is getting a lot of attention, responding employers don’t necessarily believe the predicted changes have yet reached the workplace, with only 26% of employers considering AI a critical skill that current GME graduates should leverage in their organizations. However, when asked which skills will be most important in five years, AI ranked highly across regions and industries. More importantly, employers consistently rate problem-solving and strategic thinking as the top skills for today’s and future GME graduates, and these core competencies are viewed as essential around the world.
“As disruptive technologies like generative AI reshape the labor market and the skills economy expands, employers are betting on the growing importance of technical capabilities while prioritizing strategic thinking, people leadership and problem-solving. To be successful, future business leaders will need to have the knowledge and experience to leverage technological advances and navigate the changes these evolutions bring,” said Joy Jones, CEO of GMAC. “This year's corporate recruiter survey confirms that graduate business programs remain uniquely positioned and trusted to develop business talent with increasingly critical, cutting-edge skills and the ability to balance technology and human understanding to tackle new and enduring challenges.”
Increased confidence in remote work management skills doesn't extend to remote learning.
Employers may be experiencing increased confidence in business schools in relation to the changing context in which companies and business education operate. Notably, nearly two-thirds of employers say that skills acquired through GME are more important in today's world of remote or hybrid work. This is nearly double the percentage of those who answered a similar question in 2021, the peak of the pandemic. The increase in GME ratings is most pronounced among major Fortune 100 and 500 companies, finance, accounting and manufacturing, and East Asia, Southeast Asia and Western Europe. Not surprisingly, organizations in these companies, industries and regions have experienced the greatest changes in their remote work landscape in the years since the pandemic and are more likely to rely on the skills of GME graduates to manage this disruption.
However, employers' newfound appreciation for business graduates' ability to manage flexibility in the workplace does not fully extend to their appreciation for the skills they acquire in online programs. Overall, two-thirds of employers still believe that face-to-face programs develop better technical skills than online programs, and nearly three-quarters of global employers agree that face-to-face programs develop better leadership and communication skills. But U.S. employers, who were the most skeptical of online degrees compared to other regions in past surveys, have become more open this year to the idea that face-to-face degrees are not necessarily better than online programs when it comes to developing the skills listed above.
Despite recession fears and policy implications, employment forecasts remain optimistic.
With uncertainty remaining in the global economic outlook, more than half of employers across industries and regions are optimistic about employment opportunities for business graduates, even as they report that inflation and the economic downturn are having a large or moderate impact on hiring. The consulting, finance and accounting sectors are projected to increase hiring of MBA graduates, with data and business analytics hiring set to expand the most in 2024. By region, planned hiring growth is most conservative in the United States and the technology sector, while Asian employers report the highest hiring intentions across GME degree types. Employers in key Asian markets and Western Europe also indicate a significant increase in international hiring (hiring of people who require additional legal documentation) compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2018.
“We know that an international education and subsequent international employment opportunities bring significant economic and social benefits to campuses and countries,” said Martin Boehm, rector and marketing professor at the EBS School of Economics and Law in Germany and a GMAC board member. “It is encouraging to see the positive impact of international student recruitment through diversity and increased international enrollment. We remain committed to developing graduates with intercultural competence and global employability.”
About the Corporate Recruiter Survey
For more than 20 years, the Corporate Recruiter Survey has provided graduate business schools and employers around the world with data and insights to understand the latest trends in skill demand, employment, compensation and perceptions of MBA and business masters graduates. GMAC, in collaboration with research partners the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and the MBA Career Services and Employers Alliance (MBA CSEA), conducted the survey from January to March 2024 in conjunction with the career services offices of participating graduate business schools around the world. GMAC Research also worked with a market research firm to recruit additional participants to make the overall sample more globally representative. A total of 931 corporate recruiters and hiring managers from recruitment agencies in 38 countries around the world participated in this year's survey.
About GMAC
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is the mission-driven association for the top graduate business schools worldwide. GMAC provides world-class research, industry conferences, recruiting tools and assessments for the graduate business education industry, as well as resources, events and services to assist candidates in their higher education journey. Owned and administered by GMAC, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT™) is the most widely used assessment test for graduate business schools.
More than 12 million prospective students annually use GMAC's platforms, including mba.com, GMAC Tours and BusinessBecause, to learn about MBA and business masters programs, connect with schools around the world, prepare for and register for exams, and get advice on how to successfully achieve their business education and career goals. GMAC is a global organization with offices in China, India, the UK and the US.
For more information about our work, visit www.gmac.com.
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