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The technology sector may be struggling through the worst downturn in decades, but students with technical degrees still pull down the highest starting salaries compared to other jobs, a survey by The New York Times job market division has found.

The survey, conducted by Beta Research Corporation, polled more than 450 hiring managers and job seekers in the New York metropolitan region. Among its findings: students graduating with technical degrees are typically offered the highest starting salaries compared to their peers holding other degrees.

For example, undergraduate students with technical degrees were hired at salaries between $38,000 and $52,000. Students with business-related undergraduate degrees were just behind the tech grads in the poll, averaging between $30,000 and $35,000 in starting pay.

Communications majors ranked next in the survey, garnering on average between $27,000 and $36,000 in their first jobs. Liberal arts majors' starting pay was next, ranging between $27,000 and $34,000 according to the survey results.

Still, for all their gains in high starting pay, the survey found that 43 percent of hiring managers in the New York metropolitan region were likely to recruit undergraduate students with degrees in business more than other candidates. Another 28 percent in the survey ranked liberal arts majors as their next recruiting choice, followed by technical disciplines at 24 percent. Communications majors came in at 18 percent of hiring managers recruiting interests.

The same trend applied among graduate students, with 46 percent of hiring managers in the survey likely to recruit candidates with advanced business/M.B.A. degrees, compared to 42 percent with M.A./M.S. degrees. But the pay was flipped, with grad students holding technical degrees in the $55,000 to $78,000 starting range. The next highest pay went to M.B.A. holders in the $40,000 to $55,000 starting range.

Still, for all extra pay that a technical degree appears to garner in the survey results, the top quality managers said they look for candidates is "demonstrating strong ethics" (88 percent). The next most important was "ability to multi-task" favored by 78 percent of the managers polled.