For the third year, GMAC® has conducted a global survey of employers who hire new MBA graduates. The results offer insight into how recruiters plan their recruiting activities and make decisions about new MBA hires. The survey also reveals recruiters’ wish list of things they want from business schools’ career services offices. Career services offices can use the survey results to evaluate and plan their strategies for helping to place graduates and manage relationships with corporate recruiters.

Corporate Recruiters Survey 2003–04 garnered responses from 1,300 corporate recruiters at 1,004 companies around the world. Below is a sample of the results.

Condition of the Economy, Hiring Plans

There’s some good news about recruiters’ perception of the economy. When we first surveyed recruiters in 2001–02, an astounding 99% reported that they thought the economy was weak. The following year, we saw an insignificant improvement in that outlook, with 96% reporting a weak economy. This year, although 82% of recruiters say the economy is weak, this number represents a significant improvement from last year and suggests that employers of recent MBA graduates are feeling more positive about the state of the economy.

Moreover, fewer recruiters this year than last year say that the state of the economy is taking a bite out of their recruiting plans. When we first conducted the Corporate Recruiters Survey, 69% of recruiters said the weak economy was limiting their plans to recruit new hires. Last year, that number had dropped to 57%. This year, only half the recruiters (an even 50%) say economic weakness is hampering their recruiting plans. Interestingly, recruiters from outside Europe and the United States are the least likely to say the economy is weak but the most likely to say that the state of the economy is constraining their recruiting plans.

Outlook on Hiring Overall and by Job Function

Despite the improved outlook on the part of recruiters, the average number of MBAs they will hire in 2004 has not increased significantly over the number hired last year. It has remained stable. This year, recruiters will hire an average of 9 recent MBA graduates, up from 8 last year.

The number of companies able to hire has increased significantly, though. Only 12% of companies represented in the Corporate Recruiters Survey say they are unable to hire new MBA graduates in 2004, compared with 23% of companies last year.

More good news: Recruiting activity in all job functions is significantly on the rise from last year. The job function for which there is the most recruiting is finance (with 62% of companies recruiting for such positions), followed by marketing (49% of companies recruiting), accounting (30%), general management (29%), operations and logistics (28%), information technology/MIS (26%), consulting (21%), human resources/organization management (17%), and entrepreneurship (7%).

There are significant differences from industry to industry in the type of jobs for which companies recruit. The following list shows the primary job function per industry and the percentage of companies that say they are recruiting for that job function in 2004.

Top Jobs for Which Various Industries Recruit