Average Starting Salaries Stabilizing

It's about time that recent grads heard some good news, isn't it?

Well here it is: Starting salaries for recent grads seem to be stabilizing, according to a new study. The average starting salary for 2010 graduates with a bachelor's degree is $48,288, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That's down 0.7% from $48,633 last year. It's still down, and was at 1.3% in July--but it's better than the 1.7% decrease in April.

"The good news is that the decreases in starting salaries appear to have leveled off," Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director, said in a statement. "In terms of starting salaries, this is the most encouraging news we've had since the market started tumbling in Fall 2008."

Of course your friends that majored in fields like engineering have more lucrative degrees just because of the nature of the work they will get into. Even if you have a liberal arts degree, it wasn't a waste of time and money. Liberal arts majors can expect to be offered a starting salary in the range of $35,508. That's down 3% from last year, but it's still a respectable starting wage. Offers to English majors dropped 1.8% to $35,946. Psychology majors, on the other hand, were the hardest hit--the average initial salaries plunged 6.7% to an average of $32,260.

When I saw this article, I thought it was the kind of thing that new grads need to hear. Keep in mind, these are the average salaries--it doesn't mean you get $48,000 a year just for going to college!

And all the same, if you have that liberal arts degree and now want to toss your diploma out of a fast-moving vehicle--don't. It's still useful and these are, again, just starting average salaries. Numbers are good to help you understand trends, but it's what you do with your education and your life that really makes a difference!