Salaries vary, depending on degree, type of job, type of employer, and other factors, but the increase reaffirms the positive job outlook for this year's class of college graduates.

By and large, the average salary increases employers offered to new college graduates were respectable, and some were standouts.

We're seeing a greater range of opportunities opening up for new college graduates. Employers said they plan to hire 9.8 percent more college students than they did last year.

Seven of the top-10 majors with the highest starting salary offers saw increases in their offers over last year. Engineering remains strong, and another high point comes for economics/finance graduates, who saw a spectacular 11-percent increase to their average starting salary offers.

We saw the job market for new college graduates drop significantly in 2002, and it has been climbing back since then. This is the third consecutive year in which employers have reported plans to increase the number of new college graduates they hire, and this is the best job market we've seen for new college graduates in the past four years.

The ferment and viability in any society is directly proportionate to the number of people actively living their ideas. This is not positive thinking - it is positive action: the spirit of experiment.