GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 96 September 2004

US Labour Market – NACE Salary Survey

The latest survey of salaries in the United States, conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been completed, and a report issued in mid-2004. Among the most important aspects of this report is that the country’s continuing improvement in economic performance is being reflected in both job rates, and in a marked increase in overall starting salaries.

NACE Summer Salary Survey

The NACE Summer Salary Survey shows an increased likelihood of higher salaries for some two thirds of disciplines studied, and suggests that many graduates in the coming year will find getting a job a little easier than their predecessors. Among the high-performing disciplines in terms of employment uptake rates was business, including fields of study such as business administration; almost all of these fields showed an increase in average starting salaries.

Other disciplines to feel the benefit of the rallying American economy included accounting graduates, who experienced a 1.4% gain on the previous year’s results, and graduates in economics and finance (with a rise of 2.1%) and marketing/marketing management (2% up on the previous year).

Management information systems graduates experienced a marked 2.9% increase on the previous year, while computer science and information science/systems graduates also experienced rises; the former 4.8% on average, the latter a significant 8.2% rise indicating the healthy state of the ICT industry in the US in mid-2004.

Other Disciplines Rise

Engineering graduates also posted modest gains in their overall starting salaries compared with the previous year, as did liberal arts graduates; individual liberal arts disciplines to particularly benefit included political science/government graduates (whose salaries rose 3.9% on average) and English language graduates, who registered an overall increase of 3.4%. Psychology graduates too experienced a rise of 1.2% during this period.

For more information about the NACE Salary Surveys, visit their website at www.naceweb.org