US, Asia-Pacific demand for MBAs exceeds Europe's

Employers in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States are showing themselves more eager than their European counterparts to recruit business and management postgraduates, according to a recent report.

The Graduate Management Admission Council, owner of GMAT, an examination widely used in selecting which students will be admitted to business and management schools, will publish its 2012 Global Management Education Graduate Survey Report on Thursday.

A news release about the report suggests that companies in the Asia-Pacific region and in the United States expect to continue hiring an increasing number of graduates from management schools in 2012.

European companies, though, projected that they would hire about the same number in 2012 as they had in 2011.

In the Asia-Pacific region, graduates from accounting schools were hired at a rate of about 54 percent in 2012, an increase of 16 percent from 2011.

According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, 86 percent of the Chinese companies surveyed plan to hire graduates with MBA degrees in 2012, 80 percent plan to hire graduates with master's degrees in management and 70 percent plan to hire graduates with master's degrees in accounting.

Meanwhile, 79 percent of the companies surveyed in the world said they plan to hire MBA graduates this year, up from 72 percent in 2011.

On average, employers said they would hire 17 workers in 2012, up from 13 last year.

"These results provide strong evidence on the continued global market recovery," said Eric Cornuel, director-general and CEO of European Foundation for Management Development.

"The MBA remains the core degree program of business schools, while master's programs are further gaining in acceptance by employers."

Throughout the world, 62 percent of the MBA graduates and other graduates with management degrees who were surveyed this year reported that they had received a job offer, up from 54 percent in 2011.

Among the 1,096 companies that were surveyed in the world, those with fewer than 1,000 employees had the largest percentage increase in their demand for hiring management graduates.