The hunt is on for Harvard Business School graduates--and 10 to 15 per cent more organizations will be hunting this year as compared to last, Roderic C. Hodgins '54, director of the Office of Career Development at the school, said yesterday.

Corporate executives' projections for continued economic growth and expected increases in hiring by the federal government are contributing to a growing national demand for business school graduates.

Open Season

Since Harvard is the largest business school among the major four, which include Stanford, Wharton and Chicago, corporations tend to take more Harvard graduates, Hodgins said.

Last year 350 companies interviewed 12,000 Business School grauates. So far this year 379 companies have signed up to recruit at Harvard, Hodgins said, adding he expects many more before the end of the recruiting season.

The organizations recruit through the school's placement office, through which approximately 40 per cent of last year's graduates found jobs.

Ten per cent of last year's graduates entered investment banking, and another 10 per cent joined consulting firms, Hodgins said.

Commercial banking, electronics, accounting, and auditing are the next most popular fields among graduates, he added.

This year's graduates can expect to earn $2000 more this year, raising the starting salary to $24,000, Hodgins said.

He added that this figure is slightly higher than the salary graduates from other business schools start with.