Companies having renewed interest in hiring MBA grads.

Business programs at Valley-area colleges and universities are reporting a renewed interest by companies seeking to hire their MBA graduates.

Andre Van Niekerk, the dean of the school of business at Woodbury University in Burbank, believes a stronger economy is the reason more companies are looking to hire more graduates from his school than have been hired in recent years.

"Many of these companies had held off for a while and now they're reassured of the economy and wanting to add qualified employees," Van Niekerk said. I think people are realizing that MBA's leave with a degree that gives them an excellent set of skills."

According to Van Niekerk, this trend began about six months ago, but has picked up strongly over the last month.

"I expect this to continue at least through 2006's graduating class. The only caveat would be is if there is some kind of disaster it would change the outlook completely," Van Niekerk said.

Van Niekerk said that manufacturing firms, the financial sector and pharmaceutical companies were among the businesses most active in seeking to hire Woodbury MBA's.

The trend that Van Niekerk noticed at Woodbury seems to be taking hold across the nation. In a survey of business-school placement directors, the MBA Career Services Council found that nearly 75 percent expected the job market to improve further in the last half of 2005, while about a quarter of respondents anticipated that it would remain the same. No one believed it would weaken.

This renewed interest in graduate business students has also-tied into an increase in MBA graduates' salaries. In the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, about 45 percent of recruiters said starting salaries were higher in 2005 than the year before. The largest share of recruiters (about 55 percent) said that they would pay starting salaries of between $75,000 and $100,000. About one-fifth planned to offer $50,000 to $75,000, while about 13 percent were in the $100,000 to $125,000 range.

The increase in MBA interest locally isn't restricted to Woodbury. Although Cal Lutheran's Graduate School of Business mainly consists of part-time students who remain employed, Ronald Hagler, the director of the MBA program claims that his students are enjoying the fruits of the MBA resurgence.

"Our program numbers are up and that's indicative of the strong job market. Our numbers are up 15 to 20 percent each year in the last three or four years," Hagler said. "I think the climate is excellent right now and our graduates have been rising up the corporate ladder very rapidly post-graduation. Fred Evans, dean of California State University, Northridge's College of Business and Economics, also concurred that the job market for MBA's is exceptionally strong at the moment.

"I do see a renewed interest at the moment. These things are cyclical," Evans said. "I think you're going to see that demand continue to increase for at least the next five or six years. An MBA is a very useful degree. There's a lot of incentive right now to get an MBA."