Average Starting Salaries for New College Graduates Falls 1.3 Percent

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July 22, 2010

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)'s "Salary Survey" is a quarterly report of starting salary offers to new bachelor's degree recipients in 70 disciplines. Within these disciplines, the recent salary trends varied. English majors saw their average offer rise 7.1 percent, while offers to history and psychology graduates dropped 2.1 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. Overall, liberal arts graduates saw their average offer fall 3.9 percent to $34,747.

Engineering majors also experienced a decline in their starting salaries-on average, these new bachelor's degree recipients were offered $58,970-a 0.5 percent decrease from summer 2009. Computer engineering graduates saw the biggest decrease within this group; their average offer fell 2.9 percent, to $59,917. Electrical engineering graduates' average salary offer dropped 1.2 percent, to $59,381, and the average offer to mechanical engineering graduates declined less than 1 percent, to $58,457. Chemical engineering graduates, conversely, enjoyed a 1.1 percent increase, to $65,628.

NACE will publish the final report on salary offers to the class of 2010 in September. Additional information about the "Salary Survey" series is available from the NACE Web site.