As this year's MBA interns compete for banking job offers, this year's new MBA hires worry they'll be unemployed by year-end

The MBAs have arrived. Not only are 2011's newly recruited MBA associates busy with classroom training somewhere, but this summer's MBA interns are making themselves useful in the hope they'll get an offer of a full time job in 2012.

On one hand, it's all great. We understand from the head of finance careers at one of Europe's top business schools that investment banks' zeal for summer interns increased markedly this summer compared to last.

"Significantly more of our MBAs got internship offers from finance firms this year," he informs us. "It was up hugely - by around 60%, although a significant proportion of those were multiple offers to the same candidates."

On the other, it's all a little worrying. Like the university students interning in investment banks this summer, MBAs must worry whether there will be enough jobs to accommodate their swollen ranks.

"It's concerning that if banks are closing down elements of their business, there won't be the opportunities in future," confesses the finance careers head (who asked not to be named if this article were going to be negative). "But we won't know how many people have got offers for a few weeks' yet."

Also worrying is the suggestion that if lots of this summer's MBA interns get jobs starting in 2012, some of the MBAs hired fulltime in 2011 could be cleared out to make way for them.

"I was on an associate programme at Merrill Lynch in 2008," says one recent MBA graduate. "We went on the training programme and got to know everyone, but after six months 30-50% of us were let go."

"Most of the people I know who wanted to go into finance have got jobs," says another recent MBA graduate. "But they're worried about what's going to happen next. Are banks going to hire more MBAs next year and let go of some of the people they've just hired? There's a lot of pressure and the environment is very uncertain."