The median starting salary for new MBA graduates is projected to hit $120,000 this year, down 4% from $125,000 in 2025, according to the annual corporate recruiters survey from the Graduate Management Admission Council, a nonprofit association of 228 business schools. Salaries for other business master’s degrees — including master’s in finance, accounting and management — are forecast to fall roughly 10% to a median of $82,500, from $92,500.
The survey, conducted from January to May 2026 among 621 corporate recruiters and hiring managers, also signals a cautious hiring picture. More than a third of employers said they plan to hire more MBAs this year than last, a jump from the 13% who ended up doing so in 2025. But GMAC researchers cautioned that employers’ hiring projections have historically exceeded actual outcomes: last year, 90% of recruiters predicted they would hire MBA graduates, but 88% actually did. The gap was wider for master of finance graduates, where 74% projected hires and 68% followed through.
Beyond the numbers, recruiters identified structural forces reshaping the market for business graduates. One in three employers said AI was beginning to reorder their hiring plans, with at least some entry-level roles being replaced by the technology. Older workers staying in their jobs longer has also curbed the turnover that typically creates openings for new graduates.
Tim Westerbeck, co-chairman of the higher-education consulting firm Eduvantis, said the traditional MBA pipeline — which fed graduates into analyst positions in consulting and finance — is being disrupted by AI’s ability to perform those entry-level functions. “This isn’t an obituary,” Westerbeck said, “the market for M.B.A.-level work may be shrinking, permanently, to a smaller size.”
Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, a labor-market think tank, pointed to the sectors newly minted MBAs typically enter. “The bottom rungs young grads depend on are being pulled away,” Levanon said. Business-school graduates often funnel into finance, consulting, technology and professional services, “exactly the sectors where employment is declining the most,” he added.
International students who earned an MBA in hopes of landing a U.S. job face additional headwinds. About four in 10 American employers surveyed said they would decrease hiring of international candidates because of tightening U.S. government policies on immigration and H-1B visas. In response, more international students have enrolled in business programs in Western Europe and Asia, where four out of five employers said they were willing to hire candidates requiring additional legal documentation.
Despite the dampened outlook, GMAC reported that employers said the “fundamental value proposition of a business degree remains intact.” MBA graduates in the U.S. are still expected to outearn industry candidates hired without the degree, and they continue to command a starting-salary premium over applicants with only a bachelor’s degree.