NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- College grads are getting offered bigger paychecks for the first time since 2008.
Students who will graduate this spring are receiving job offers with starting salaries averaging $50,034 per year, up 3.5% from last year, according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Meanwhile, employers surveyed by NACE said they plan to boost hiring of college graduates by 13.5% from a year ago.
Business majors noticed the biggest bump, with the average salary offer rising nearly 2% to $48,089.
Within the business discipline, accounting majors received salary offers of $49,022, up 2.2%, while finance majors were offered an average $50,535, an increase of 1.9%.
Offers for business administration/management graduates slipped slightly to $44,171, down 2.3%.
Graduates majoring in engineering -- typically one of the highest-paying fields -- didn't see a big change overall, with the average starting salary down a mere 0.3% but still high at $59,435.
Certain engineering majors, however, saw significant jumps, with electrical engineering majors receiving an average salary offer of $61,690 -- up 4.4% from the previous year. Offers for mechanical engineers climbed 3.8% to $60,598.
But it didn't pay as much to graduate with a degree in civil engineering this year, with starting salaries in that field slipping 7.1% to $48.885.
While the association's survey didn't break out starting salaries for individual liberal arts majors, offers were up a whopping 9.5% to $35,633 for the group as a whole. That compares to a steep drop of 11% last year.
The quarterly survey tracks starting salary offers to new college graduates in 70 disciplines nationwide at the bachelor's degree level. 
| Overnight Avg Rate | Latest | Change | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 yr fixed | 3.80% | 3.80% | |
| 15 yr fixed | 3.09% | 3.11% | |
| 5/1 ARM | 2.65% | 2.69% | |
| 30 yr refi | 3.77% | 3.86% | |
| 15 yr refi | 3.09% | 3.21% |
Today's featured rates:
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,454.83 | -74.92 | -0.60% |
| Nasdaq | 2,837.53 | -1.85 | -0.07% |
| S&P 500 | 1,317.82 | -2.86 | -0.22% |
| Treasuries | 1.74 | -0.01 | -0.80% |
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.15 | 0.01 | 0.14% |
| Sprint Nextel Corp | 2.62 | 0.09 | 3.56% |
| Cisco Systems Inc | 16.33 | -0.06 | -0.37% |
| Chesapeake Energy Co... | 15.81 | 0.23 | 1.48% |
| Ford Motor Co | 10.60 | 0.01 | 0.09% |
|
The Senate hearing will focus JPMorgan's recent $2 billion trading loss, which Dimon announced earlier this month. More |
The offer for mail handlers is part of the Postal Service's plan to cut 150,000 jobs by 2015. More |
In the whirlwind of its IPO fallout, there has been a sort of glee in watching the company stumble. What's driving the Facebook-schadenfreude and what can the social network do about it? More |
One in six children in the United States is obese. These small businesses have found creative -- and lucrative -- ways to fight the childhood obesity epidemic. More |
In Harper County, Kansas, oil companies are offering farmers up to $1,250 an acre for the mineral rights that allow them to drill for oil on their property. More |
.
