Applications to US business schools may be surging, but the on-campus recruiting scene in the financial services industry – typically the biggest consumer of newly minted MBAs – is on the verge of slumping.

While most business schools have not published final hiring and recruiting statistics for this academic year, preliminary findings indicate the number of job offers students have received is down slightly from the year before, as are the number of recruiters on campus. Investment banks on Wall Street have been battered by mortgage and credit losses and, with the US economy teetering on the edge of recession, many have resorted to layoffs.

“When financial services [recruiting] softens, it affects the whole marketplace,” says Everette Fortner, the director of the career development centre at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Recruiting at business schools reached its peak in 1999, but after the technology boom subsided, recruiting and hiring was lacklustre for several years. Last spring, recruiting at business schools was very competitive with a rise in the number of private equity firms, hedge funds and real estate companies stepping up efforts to woo young business graduates.

Gina Resnick, assistant dean and managing director of the career management centre at Columbia Business School, says she is concerned about how the slight decline in financial services recruiting this spring will translate for students looking for jobs in September and October next year. She says: “My sense is that if there's a sustained recession, [Wall Street banks] are not going to be doing as much hiring and those going into financial services will enter into a more challenging environment.”

However some companies – such as healthcare and digital media – have increased their on-campus recruiting. Ms Resnick thinks perhaps they learned a lesson from the bursting of the tech bubble and the subsequent slowdown in 2001 and 2002, when many companies reduced their recruiting efforts. “I am not overly bleak yet,” she says.

申请美国商学院的人数可能会上升，不过，作为对MBA毕业生需求最大的行业，金融服务业的校园招聘可能会减少。

尽管大多数商学院还没有公布这学年最终的就业数据，但初步调查显示, 与去年相比，学生收到的录用通知小幅下降了，来学校招聘的雇主也减少了。华尔街的投资银行遭遇抵押贷款和信贷损失的冲击，同时，由于美国经济行将步入衰退，因此，许多投行已经开始裁员。

“金融服务业的招聘疲软会影响整个市场，”弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)达顿商学院(Darden School of Business)职业发展中心主任埃弗雷特•福特纳(Everette Fortner)表示。

企业在商学院的招聘在1999年达到顶峰，不过，在技术热潮平息后，招聘活动已经黯淡了7年。去年春天，随着私人股本公司、对冲基金以及房地产公司加强了对年轻商学院毕业生的招聘，商学院校园招聘变得极具竞争性。

哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)副院长兼职业发展中心执行主任吉娜•雷斯尼克(Gina Resnick)表示，她非常关心今年春天金融服务业招聘的小幅下降会如何影响明年9、10月份学生找工作的情况。她说：“我感觉，如果经济陷入长期衰退，华尔街将不会招聘很多人，而那些进入到金融服务业的人会面临一个更具挑战性的环境。”

不过，一些公司（比如卫生保健和电子媒体行业的公司）已经增加了他们的校园招聘。雷斯尼克认为，或许他们从科技泡沫破裂以及随后2001、2002年的经济减速中得到了教训——当时许多公司都减少了招聘投入。“我还没有极度沮丧，”她说。

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