Freshly-minted MBAs enter a tough job market

As you might imagine, people graduating with masters in business administration right about now are having a tough time finding work. The Wall Street Journal recently reported (subscription required) that last year, 81% of the graduating M.B.A. class at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business had accepted full-time job offers by January -- and that market was no pink tea. This year, that number fell to 61%, a decline of 25%. Across the board, schools are reporting declines in recruiting.

But before we start to feel bad for these master of the universe wannabes, shouldn't we ask the question: "What skills of value did they actually learn in business school?" As we watch economy collapse as bank after bank implodes as a result of decision made by top MBAs, you have to wonder: Who wants to hire these people? Reuters reports on some of the ways that MBA programs are looking to adapt their programs to the current crisis, but it all seems like too little, too late: like pulling the salmonella-tainted peanuts a couple weeks after people start dying.

Employers have to start to wonder whether people with master's degrees in finance really possess anything of value -- and if so, why they were such a big contributor to the proliferation of bad assets that destroyed so much wealth.

It might be time to give the liberal arts majors a shot.