On November 21, 2013, Alison Griswold writes in Business Insider:
Hiring in finance and insurance services could tumble nearly 60% for MBAs in the 2013-2014 year, according to the newest recruiting trends report from Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
Business school grads face the most uncertain career prospects of all degree holders, the report finds. The hiring market for MBAs is expected to contract by nearly 25% in the coming year, weighed on by the sharp drop in finance hiring and a projected 86% plunge in government opportunities.
The report proposes that employers tend to hire fewer MBAs during periods of economic uncertainty. It says one common pattern is for employers to substitute MBA hires with cheaper bachelor’s degrees, in order to cut short-term budget risks.
All finance hiring was initially expected to expand in 2012-2013, but dipped at the start of this year, according to the report. “The job market has soured with layoffs and hiring contractions because of increases in interest rates, declines in mortgage activity, growth in online banking, and new banking regulations,” it says.
MBAs may already be taking note. A report by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month found that the percentage of business school grads going into finance slid 12% at Harvard and 13% at Stanford over the past two years. Meanwhile, a record number of the elite graduates headed to the tech sector.
And while MBAs are expected to be among the hardest hit the finance hiring pullback, the Michigan State report suggests the sector isn’t particularly promising for anyone. The industry as a whole is expected to cut hiring by 40%, with prospects for bachelor’s degree holders falling by up to 27%.
The significant factor not addressed in this article is that due to expanded sophisticated computer algorithms and human-intelligent machines, less people, even those with advanced degrees, will be needed to perform the work that previously required far greater human labor.
The obstacle to overcome is the reality that academicians and politicians are stuck in one-factor thinking––human labor, and do not grasp the full extent of the permeation past and future of the non-human factor of production––productive capital as in structures, machines, super-automation, robotics, digital computerized operations, etc. For one to “ad value to society and get compensated for it,” one must become an OWNER of wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital assets, which when financed using insured capital credit loans the earnings enable repayment of the principal and once paid generate an income for their owners. There will always be job opportunities, but far fewer than the number of people able and willing, due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production that destroy far more jobs than are created and devalue the worth of labor.
http://www.businessinsider.com/finance-job-prospects-plunging-for-mbas-2013-11
