The average starting salary offer for new college graduates dipped from $49,693 in 2008 to $49,307 in 2009, according to a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

NACE found that while many from the graduating class of 2009 continue to search for work, those who have received job offers aren't seeing significant change in salary offers compared with the graduating class of 2008.

Overall, graduates with bachelor's degrees in the business disciplines saw the average offer increase slightly form last year's graduates, but the average offer to business administration majors fell 2.1 percent to $44,944. One reason for the decline is that many offers came from retail/wholesale firms, which offered an average starting salary that was 6 percent less than they offered just one year ago.

Economics graduates also saw a decrease to their average salary offer, which fell by 1.3 percent to $49,829.

Engineering graduates enjoyed the highest salary increase. Overall, the average offer to engineering graduates rose 3.7 percent to $59,254. Electrical engineering graduates earned one of the larger increases (5.6 percent to $60,125).

Accounting majors saw a 1.9 percent increase for an average offer of $48,993. Meanwhile, the average offer to finance graduates rose 2.9 percent to $49,940, while marketing graduates posted a 3 percent increase for an average of $43,325.

The broad category of computer science-related fields (computer science, computer programming, computer systems analysis, and information sciences and systems) saw an average offer 1.9 percent over last summer to $59,418. Computer science grads saw their average salary offer rise 1.6 percent to $61,407. Information sciences and systems grads, however, saw their average offer slip slightly to $52,089, down less than 1 percent from last year at this time.

Liberal arts graduates saw the average offer fall less than from $36,419 last year to $36,175 this year, a 1-percent drop.