2010年美国大学生薪水不如过去

The latest side effect of the poor labor market for new college grads: Lower salaries.

Those who are graduating in the spring and land a job will see average starting salary offers fall 1.7% from last year to $47,673, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' spring salary survey. The survey is based on data from college and university career services offices for students graduating with bachelors degrees.

To be sure, that average salary doesn't apply to all types of graduates. Depending on their career path, some are much better - and much worse - off than others.

Those with computer-related degrees are expected to see one of the largest increases in offers - rising to $58,746, on average, 5.8%, higher than a year earlier. For computer-science majors, offers are 4.7% higher for an average salary of $60,426.

Engineering graduates are also better off than last year, led by salary increases for electrical, chemical and civil engineers.

Meanwhile, as Wall Street continues to gain strength, starting salaries rose for finance majors to $50,546, up 1.6% from last year. Offers for accounting majors are up slightly as well.

Those with liberal arts degrees are among the worst off. Their average salaries have fallen 8.9% from last year to $33,540. But graduates with business administration and management and marketing degrees are in a tough spot too. Salary offers for business administration and management grads are down 8% to $42,094. And offers for marketing graduates fell 2.1% to $42,710.