A 10 min read

In the world of top-tier business schools, a curious paradox has emerged. On one hand, more MBAs than ever are graduating without a job in hand. On the other hand, those who do land offers are still enjoying formidable compensation packages. Recent employment data from some of America’s most prestigious MBA programs reveals a stark reality: MBA unemployment rates are soaring; even as median salaries remain comparatively strong. 

Part 1: The Decline of Employment 

From coast to coast, leading institutions are reporting a worrisome uptick in grads unable to secure roles post-graduation. At Harvard, 23% of the Class of 2024 were unemployed at the three-month mark, up from 20% the previous year and just 10% in 2022. Over at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, the unemployment rate sits at 13%, triple the prior year’s figure. Meanwhile, MIT Sloan is grappling with 13% unemployment—more than double the 5% reported in 2021. Even Stanford Graduate School of Business has seen its unemployment tally climb to 18%, double the 9% reported just three years ago. 

Why the sudden decline in employment? Part of the story lies with traditional MBA employers: 

• Consulting Cutbacks 
  McKinsey, a mainstay for MBA recruitment, hired only 33 graduates from Chicago Booth in 2024—less than half the 71 it brought on board in 2023. Meanwhile, many consultancies have reduced on-campus recruitment visits or pushed back start dates, as clients rein in spending and projects become more uncertain. 

• Tech Retrenchment 
  Big Tech has likewise scaled back hiring dramatically. Once a booming destination for MBAs, firms like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have either paused their usual on-campus recruiting or offered a fraction of the roles they posted in previous years. Some have even discontinued campus recruitment altogether, citing budget constraints, restructuring, or a focus on more technical hires. 

• The Human Side: Anecdotes from the Class of 2024 
  The hiring freeze isn’t just a statistical phenomenon—it’s shaping the individual journeys of fresh MBA grads: 
  • Ronil Diyora, a UVA Darden graduate, applied to over 1,000 positions before eventually landing a role—but only after months of uncertainty. 
  • Yvette Anguiano, a Kellogg graduate, saw her consulting offer delayed until June 2025, forcing her to piece together contract work in the interim. 
  • Nikhil Sreekumar, from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, submitted 500 applications before finding employment, underscoring just how challenging the market has become. 

For institutions that pride themselves on preparing the next generation of corporate leaders, such statistics are jarring. The MBA has traditionally been regarded as a near-guaranteed ticket to high-paying jobs in consulting, finance, and tech. Now, the picture is much more complicated. 

Part 2: Causes of the Decline (My opinion) 

While Part 1 highlighted the rise in MBA unemployment and shared anecdotal stories from recent graduates, Part 2 delves deeper into the root causes behind this precarious job market. A confluence of economic forces, shifting employer expectations, and structural changes has converged to create the current downturn. 

Economic and Industry Volatility 

• Consulting Contraction 
  • The once-stable MBA pipeline into top-tier consultancies has been disrupted by a dip in client demand and internal restructuring. Hiring cutbacks at McKinsey—dropping from 71 MBA hires at Chicago Booth in 2023 to just 33 in 2024—epitomize this contraction. 
  • Other firms have deferred start dates, slowed on-campus visits, or paused recruitment altogether, leaving new graduates in limbo. 

• Tech Retrenchment 
  • Big Tech giants, historically aggressive recruiters of MBAs, have scaled back. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are refocusing on technical talent, meaning fewer roles for generalist business graduates, driven by efficiencies extracted from AI.  
  • Amid fears of overhiring during the pandemic boom, some companies have discontinued direct campus recruitment, further shrinking opportunities. 

Changing Employer Demands 

• Rise of Specialized Skill Sets 
  • While MBAs excel at leadership and strategic thinking, many employers now require data analytics, machine learning, or sector-specific expertise. This mismatch has left a swath of graduates on the sidelines. 
  • Consulting clients increasingly want problem solvers who can dive into technical details, reducing the need for purely generalist consultants. 

• Preference for STEM Credentials 
  • Financial services, consulting, and even corporate strategy roles are pivoting toward candidates with advanced quantitative backgrounds. 
  • MBAs who have not supplemented their degrees with technical certifications, coding skills, or data-analysis experience may find themselves overshadowed in a crowded market. 

• Disconnect Between Curriculum and Market Needs 
  • Many business schools still emphasize classic core subjects—finance, marketing, operations—without fully integrating advanced tech or data-focused curricula. 
  • Graduates must then play catch-up with online certifications or real-world projects to stay competitive. 

Broader Macroeconomic Headwinds 

• Interest Rate Hikes & Funding Crunch 
  • Rising interest rates have stifled investment in high-growth tech and slowed private equity deal-making—two major MBA destinations. 
  • Startups and scale-ups that once hired MBAs for strategic roles are now downsizing or freezing positions, leading to fewer opportunities across the board. 

In sum, the spike in MBA unemployment is not the result of any single factor. Instead, it’s a perfect storm: traditional employers are pulling back, the bar for specialized skills has risen, and business schools are scrambling to keep curricula aligned with a fast-changing market. For current and future MBAs, understanding these deeper causes is critical to charting a more resilient—and relevant—career path. 

AI’s Growing Influence on the Workforce 

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has remarked on a potential 30% reduction in hiring software engineers due to AI tools like Agentforce, which boost productivity (source: WSJ). Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman goes even further, predicting AI will handle most coding tasks within two years, freeing developers for higher-level responsibilities (source: Entrepreneur). 

As coding becomes more automated, one outcome is the rise of single-person startups—an increase noted by Y Combinator, which sees more solo founders leveraging AI to operate efficiently without building large teams (source: Startup Stash Blog). This implies a fundamental shift in how work is done: a small number of people, or even a single individual, can now accomplish what once took large teams. 

Implications for MBA Demand 

1. Fewer Traditional Corporate Roles 
   • With AI supercharging productivity, companies may reduce large teams—not just in software engineering, but also in supporting functions like project management, data entry, or operations. 
   • This streamlining can mean fewer “generalist” roles for MBAs within large corporations, as AI offloads many routine tasks. 

2. Shift Toward Higher-Level, Strategic Responsibilities 
   • While mundane tasks become automated, the complexities of AI strategy, product-market fit, and ethical considerations increase. 
   • In theory, this could boost demand for MBAs who excel in strategic planning, organizational leadership, and nuanced decision-making. However, success in these roles now hinges on AI proficiency rather than solely on traditional MBA coursework. 

Rise of the Technical + MBA Profile 

As Matt Garman predicts AI will handle most coding, developers and other technical experts will shift to higher-level problem solving. MBAs who blend technical fluency with business acumen become more valuable—think product managers or AI strategists who guide R&D, go-to-market, and governance decisions. 

This hybrid profile aligns with employers’ growing preference for candidates proficient in AI tools and analytics (source: LinkedIn, which reports a surge in AI-related job listings). 

Compensation Remains Solid—But Only for Those with the Right Skills 

If 2024 will go down as a challenging year for MBA hiring, it is not without some silver linings. While fewer MBAs overall are securing offers, those who do land top roles—especially in areas demanding sought-after competencies—continue to command formidable compensation packages. The common thread among these success stories? An alignment between specialized skill sets and market demand. 

Kellogg’s Mixed Signals: Downward Pressure Meets Bright Spots

At first glance, the Class of 2024 employment data from Northwestern Kellogg echoes the broader downturn:

• Median Salary: Down $5K to $170,000 

• Overall Compensation: Down 1.7% to $197,000 

• Offers & Acceptances at Three Months: Both down by 5 percentage points from 2023 (90% and 87%, respectively) 

Yet, Kellogg’s numbers also carry a hopeful note: 

1. A Tech Resurgence (at Kellogg, at Least) 
   • Placement in tech rose to 20% from 17% in 2023, bucking the national trend of declining tech hires. 
   • Tech also boasted the year’s highest reported salary for the entire class—a $260K top-end offer—and the highest median signing bonus ($42,150). 
   • Graduates accepted roles at major names like Amazon, Google, Adobe, Apple, PayPal, and Visa, as well as product-focused positions at traditional firms (e.g., Walmart and Capital One). 

2. Other Positive Indicators 
   • Five-Month Employment Data: Kellogg captured, for the first time, an updated number at five months post-graduation. By then, 92% of 2024 grads had accepted job offers—suggesting that given more time, most do secure roles. 
   • Salary Growth Over Time: Despite a $5K dip from last year, Kellogg’s median base salary is still double the graduates’ pre-MBA pay and has risen 21% over five years. 
   • Healthcare Spike: Nine percent of 2024 grads ventured into healthcare—a five-year high—reflecting the industry’s rising need for strategic leaders who can navigate complex ecosystems. 
   • Entrepreneurship Uptick: A small but notable 12 graduates launched businesses or search funds, underscoring the growing allure of forging one’s own path. 

A National Perspective: Compensation Holds Up, But Placement Slips 

Other top schools’ reports underscore a year of slower hiring—yet also show that well-positioned MBAs can still earn impressive packages: 

• Stanford GSB: 
  • Average base salary dipped by 1% to $187,504, and average signing bonus dropped nearly 20% to $33,967. 
  • Offers at three months fell to 88% from 89% in 2023. 
  • Still, total compensation hovered around $268,490—robust by most standards. 

• Dartmouth Tuck: 
  • Median salary ($175K) and bonus ($30K) remained flat. 
  • Total comp inched up to $200,200, aided by a rise in the percentage of students receiving a bonus (84%). 
  • Yet offers at three months slumped to 91%, one of Tuck’s lowest levels in over a decade. 

• NYU Stern: 
  • Average salary down 1.2% to $166,148; signing bonus off by 4.5% to $37,028. 
  • Offers at graduation plunged nearly 5 points to 80.6%; at three months, 86.1%—down over 8 points. 

• UVA Darden: 
  • Average base salary down 2.5% to $163,710; signing bonus down nearly 8% to $34,562. 
  • Offers at graduation dropped by 6 points, to 86.5%; at three months, 92.9%—still a dip from last year’s 95.4%. 

• Michigan Ross & UC-Berkeley Haas: 
  • Both saw base salary declines of a few thousand dollars and lower offer rates, but again, compensation totals remained near historic highs—albeit slightly off their peaks. 

In each case, the data shows an overall tightening of the market—fewer offers, later acceptances, and smaller bonuses. Still, among MBAs who do secure positions, salary figures remain high by any broader workforce standard and often competitive with pre-2024 levels. 

What’s Driving Solid Compensation for the Lucky Few? 

1. Companies Still Pay for Specialized Talent 
   • Whether in consulting (which leads Kellogg at 35% of placements) or tech (spiking at 20%), top firms reward MBAs who bring unique skill sets—be it advanced analytics, product management expertise, or industry-specific know-how. 

2. Regional & Sector Variance 
   • Some industries and geographies (e.g., finance in New York, tech on the West Coast) still have formidable compensation norms. Even as hiring slows, salary structures for in-demand roles remain robust. 

3. Experience & Networking 
   • The MBAs who land early offers often leveraged internships, campus clubs, and alumni connections. This networking advantage helps them lock in the limited plum roles—often at compensation levels established before the downturn. 

4. Longer Time Horizons 
   • As Kellogg’s five-month data shows, many MBAs do find roles beyond the classic three-month reporting window. For those who can wait or pivot (e.g., to healthcare or entrepreneurial ventures), compensation eventually aligns with their skill level and market norms. 

Conclusion: A Tough Market, But a Valuable Degree—For the Right Profile 

While 2024 has proven challenging for newly minted MBAs—marked by higher unemployment, slower offer timelines, and pockets of falling compensation—the silver lining remains: 

• For graduates who align with sought-after roles—particularly those demanding strong strategic thinking plus AI or industry-specific knowledge—compensation remains solid if not stellar. 

• Even in down cycles, top-tier credentials combined with relevant experience allow MBAs to command impressive pay packages and signing bonuses. 

• Looking ahead, schools like Kellogg and others are extending reporting timelines and diversifying career pathways, recognizing that success in today’s market may require more time, broader skill sets, and a willingness to venture beyond well-worn corporate paths. 

In short, if the first half of this year’s story is about contracting opportunity, the second half tells us that MBAs who ride the changing tide—focusing on sectors that are still hiring, growing in essential skills, and perhaps being patient—can ultimately land in highly lucrative positions. For them, 2024 may indeed be a year to forget—except when they look at the numbers on their paycheck. 

What Should Current & Future MBAs Do? 

As the job market tightens and median salaries become more contingent on possessing in-demand skills, today’s MBAs must think strategically about how to position themselves for success. Below are actionable steps for both current and aspiring MBA candidates in this new employment landscape. 

1. Double Down on Specialized Skill Sets 

• AI & Analytics: From product management to AI-powered data analysis, employers increasingly want MBAs who can dive into complex technical areas and translate findings into business strategy. 

• Industry Focus: If you’re passionate about healthcare, finance, or tech, choose coursework, projects, and extracurriculars that emphasize deep sector knowledge—giving you an edge when those roles open. 

Why it Matters: Traditional pipelines (consulting, finance, big tech) are looking for niche expertise, not just broad-based management theory. Having a specialized foundation makes you harder to replace. 

2. Leverage Experiential Learning 

• Internships & Real-World Projects: Seek out roles or semester-long engagements that allow you to apply classroom knowledge in a tangible way (e.g., consulting for a startup, working on a healthcare innovation project). 

• Student Competitions & Labs: Participate in case competitions, venture labs, or entrepreneur-incubator programs that let you demonstrate problem-solving skills under pressure. 

Why it Matters: Recruiters value proven experience. Even brief but focused projects can set your résumé apart—especially when normal hiring funnels have narrowed. 

3. Expand (and Deepen) Your Network 

• Alumni Outreach: Don’t just rely on career fairs. Proactive relationship-building with alumni can open hidden doors, especially when formal recruiting slows. 

• Mentorship & Peer Learning: Tap into professors, industry speakers, and student clubs. Building authentic connections often yields critical insights and job leads—sometimes months before they’re public. 

Why it Matters: In a tighter market, who you know can matter as much as what you know. Networking can help you bypass automated filtering and stand out in a sea of similar résumés. 

4. Be Flexible & Open to New Pathways 

• Explore Emerging Industries: Certain sectors—renewables, healthtech, AI-driven startups—are expanding even as others contract. Staying open-minded may lead to unexpected, high-potential opportunities. 

• Consider Entrepreneurship: With single-person startups on the rise, launching or joining a lean venture could be less risky than before. The resources at top B-schools—search fund clubs, incubators, seed grants—can mitigate early-stage challenges. 

Why it Matters: Many of this year’s success stories hinge on adaptability. As industry cycles shift, the ability to pivot swiftly can turn a down market into a stepping stone. 

5. Adopt a Long-Game Mentality 

• Multiple Recruitment Windows: Accept that three-month post-graduation stats no longer capture the full picture. Some classmates may land top-tier offers at month four or five when specific roles re-open. 

• Skills Over Short-Term Pay: Even if base salaries have dipped in some fields, a role that lets you build strategic or technical acumen could pay off significantly in the long run. 

Why it Matters: In uncertain times, patience and ongoing skill development can yield better opportunities—and bigger paychecks—down the road. Kellogg’s five-month employment rate of 92% underscores that many MBAs simply need more time to find the right fit. 

6. Emphasize Soft Skills & Leadership 

• Team Management & Communication: As AI and automation reduce routine tasks, the ability to lead people and communicate vision becomes more valuable—particularly in larger organizations. 

• Ethical & Responsible AI: Companies grappling with AI’s ethical and regulatory dimensions need managers who can navigate gray areas and set responsible policies. 

Why it Matters: Hard skills might land you an interview, but leadership and people skills can seal the deal—especially for roles that blend strategic oversight with technical nuance. 

Final Takeaway: Stay Nimble, Stay Curious 

2024 has shown that the MBA value proposition is evolving. Yes, overall hiring is down, and yes, compensation has flattened or slipped in some sectors. But the flipside is undeniable: graduates with the right combination of specialized know-how, adaptability, and leadership savvy continue to command impressive compensation. 

For those who embrace constant learning, strategic networking, and a willingness to pivot, an MBA can still be a powerful accelerator—even in turbulent times. The key is aligning your personal strengths with market realities, then remaining flexible as those realities continue to shift.