Benefits May 27, 2003

Business Majors See Starting Salary Increases

May 27, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - New college graduates with accounting degrees have seen starting salary offers increase 2.6% in 2003.
Reported by

Accounting majors can now expect an average annual starting salary of $41,360, according to a new survey. The majority of their offers were for public and private accounting positions, but those receiving offers in the areas of consulting and financial analysis were more likely to be offered bigger paychecks, according to the Spring 2003 Salary Survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Breaking it down by sector:

  • Financial analyst positions were starting at $45,761
  • Consulting positions were starting at $45,680
  • Public accounting positions were starting at $42,191
  • Private accounting positions were starting at $42,145.

Other Business Degrees

Other business disciplines revealed increases as well, with business administration graduates receiving the highest increase (3.7%) to $35,209. Many of those job offers were for sales and management trainee positions.

Additionally, economics/finance majors received 1.8% more than last year, pushing their average offer up to $40,764, while marketing graduates received a 1.3% increase, raising their average offer to $35,822.

On the other side of the coin, management information systems (MIS) graduates were hit hardest among the business disciplines; their average offer dropped 5.0%, to $41,543. Similarly, the once red-hot computer science degree has seen its average offer decrease 7.6%, but still runs at a strong $46,536.

Starting Out

Looking across all degrees, a separate report by NACE found that employers expect to hire about the same number of new college graduates for 2002-2003 as they hired in 2001-2002. By industry, those projecting the highest increases in college hiring are:

  • Construction companies (35.7%)
  • Consulting services organizations (14.3%)
  • Public accounting firms (14.0%).

Conversely, those industries looking at the steepest cuts in college hiring include:

  • Utilities companies (31.0%)
  • Engineering/surveying firms (29.1%)
  • Chemical manufacturers (22.8%).
Products May 23, 2003

One Group Puts Market Neutral Fund into Gear

May 23, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - One Group Mutual Funds has put the One Group Market Neutral Mutual Fund into gear.
Reported by

According to a news release, the new offering’s market neutral strategy is designed to perform independently from the general domestic markets to help “neutralize” volatility.

Banc One Investment Advisors – One Group’s advisor – will apply proprietary quantitative analysis to rank 1,100 to 1,300 stocks using both valuation and fundamental criteria. The 200 to 250 most attractive stocks are held in a long position and the 200 to 250 least attractive stocks are sold short, according to the news release.   The fund intends to maintain approximately equal value exposure in its long and short positions to offset the effects from stock market movements or sector swings.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

In general, the fund will:

  • be sector neutral
  • give equal consideration to both value and growth factors
  • invest in small-, mid- and large-cap stocks
  • offer A, B, C or I shares
  • have a $10,000 minimum investment

One Group Mutual Funds has more than $97.5 billion in assets as of March 31, 2003 and is the mutual fund family of the Bank One Corporation. More information is available at  http://www.onegroup.com/ .

«