With May in full swing, many college seniors are ready to leave their lives of academic absorption for the working world. Fortunately, statistics from the National Association of Colleges and Employers show the transition could be fruitful for most.

According to a NACE’s quarterly “Salary Survey,” the average salary of college graduates nationally is climbing at a steady rate.

According to NACE spokesperson Andrea Koncz, there is a growing trend of starting college salaries on the rise.

“I would say across the board, we’re seeing increases in all areas,” Koncz said.

NACE predicted the total number of college graduates was projected at 1,222,000, and business and engineering fields are areas where the largest average salary increases are occurring nationwide.

Other areas such as liberal arts and computer science are showing increases indicative of “positive momentum,” which is “very encouraging news” for 2005 graduate-college classes, the release stated.

Business disciplines did especially well, grabbing a 3.9 percent increase in the average starting salary since last spring, to $43,800. Other graduates with business-administration degrees witnessed an average jump of 3.2 percent to more than $39,445, the release said.

In fact, University of Wisconsin students have been accomplishing greater feats each year as well.

UW Dean of the Business School Michael Knetter said UW students graduating today from the school of business are able to contribute to new companies.

“What we see is that the placement rates to the percentage of students that report having an offer or accepting an offer is higher than it was, this time, a year ago,” Knetter said. “Some of the credit for this certainly goes to employers, who have a lot of choices about where to go and hire people [but choose UW].”

Economics and finance graduates also held their own, increasing 5.1 percent with a $42,800 average starting salary. Additionally, marketing graduates jumped 6 percent and gained a $37,830 starting salary. Computer science graduates grew 2.6 percent with a starting salary of $51,290.

Many engineering fields also sported an increase, including chemical engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Chemical engineering grew 4.3 percent and gained an average starting salary of more than $54,000, one of the highest.

“Typically, engineering fields do have higher salaries,” Koncz said.

Still, growth was not limited to business and engineering fields, liberal arts also experienced a slight growth.

As a whole, liberal arts starting salaries are on the rise with an average starting salary of more than $30,335 with a 4.2 increase from last year’s $29,119.

UW Dean of the School of Letters and Science Gary Sandefur said there has been a growth in starting salaries for graduates with liberal-arts degrees, though it can take time for some liberal-arts students to receive jobs.

“It varies from year to year,” Sandefur said. “In general, [UW graduates] do fairly well in terms of getting jobs.”

Oftentimes, Sandefur added, many liberal-arts students continue on to graduate or professional school.

“Some are entered into the market right away and they tend to [go] into a variety of different jobs,” Sandefur said.