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The majority of last year's MBA graduates accepted job offers within a few months of finishing school despite the tight labor market, according to a recent report from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC).

Results from GMAC's semi-annual Alumni Perspectives Survey, released last week, showed that three-quarters of survey respondents who graduated from full-time MBA programs in 2009 had a job by September 2009, when the survey was conducted. Meanwhile, a whopping 96 percent of survey participants who completed part-time MBA programs in 2009 reported having jobs by September, and 85 percent of survey respondents who received other types of graduate management degrees in 2009 were employed by survey time.

Overall, 3,966 graduates representing every business school class since 2000 responded to this year's alumni survey. Of those, 1,208 received a graduate management degree in 2009.

According to David Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC, business school students have an edge in the job market thanks to the knowledge, skills and contacts they develop as part of MBA and other graduate management programs. "The remarkable success individuals with graduate management degrees continue to have when looking for employment - even in a down economy - is further evidence of the high value employers place on management education," he said in a statement announcing the survey results.

Survey respondents themselves seemed to echo Wilson's sentiments. Seventy-eight percent of respondents who graduated in 2009 felt that their degree was essential to landing their jobs, and 47 percent said they thought their employer placed particular value on their degree when hiring them.

Happy to land jobs relatively quickly, many survey respondents nonetheless found that the starting salaries they were offered were slightly lower than those offered to graduates from previous years. The median salary reported by survey participants from the class of 2009 was $79,271, compared to an $80,000 median starting salary for the class of 2008.

If slightly lower, the salaries offered were still satisfactory to the majority of survey respondents. Fifty-two percent said their pay met their expectations, while 14 percent said it exceeded what they'd anticipated receiving. Perhaps not surprisingly, respondents who said their compensation was less than they expected were among those reporting lower salaries than those who were happy with their pay.

To view the report in it's entirety: https://www.gmac.com/gmac/ResearchandTre ... Survey.htm