Graduates with Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualifications managed to secure posts around the world despite the economic downturn.

This is the claim made by the Financial Times, which has conducted research showing that those with the postgraduate degree who sought new employment opportunities during the slump were successful in securing new roles.

According to the online poll of more than 1,400 people, over half of those leaving business schools in 2007 reported that they had changed organization since, with an average salary of $131,000 earned by all graduates.

This figure rose to $135,600 for those who had changed company once within the past three years and falling to $106,300 among serial jobseekers.

However, many of those questioned reported that they felt the global economic crisis had negatively affected their careers, with this figure particularly high in the UK where many MBA graduates were found to be reliant on the financial services sector for jobs.

Across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development region, employment has shown signs of improving in recent months, with the rate of joblessness among member countries falling by 0.1 points over the month of April to 8.1 per cent.

Posted by Lee Thrace