What a difference a few years makes.

In 2022, when tech was still flying high, business students wanted to work in FAANG – the now out-dated acronym for the five best-performing American tech stocks of the time: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

That year, three of the top five of the Most Attractive Employers in the U.S. were FAANG: Apple was voted the most attractive by business students followed by Google at No. 2. Amazon was No. 4 another tech behemoth – Microsoft – came in at No. 3.

But in 2025? None of them cracked the top three.

Facebook is now Meta. Google is Alphabet. And amid high-profile layoffs and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence, tech’s luster has faded. Business students are coming back to their finance roots.

All three of the top employers in Universum’s 2025 Most Attractive Employers in the U.S. ranking are bulge-bracket banks: JPMorgan Chase took the No. 1 spot for the second straight year, followed by Goldman Sachs (No. 2) and Morgan Stanley (No. 3)

2025’s 10 MOST ATTRACTIVE EMPLOYERS

Universum, the global employer branding firm, surveys more than 130,000 business, engineering, and IT students across 11 key markets each year to complete its ranking. In the U.S. alone, more than 33,000 students – including thousands of MBAs and business students – shared their career preferences in the 2025 survey.

This year, five of the top 10 most attractive employers for U.S. business students were banks or asset managers. Just three were in tech.

JPMorgan Chase was No. 1 for the second straight year while Morgan Stanley made one of the most dramatic moves on the list. It rose 9 spots from No. 12 in 2024 to No. 3.

Other newcomers to the top 10 included Deloitte, BlackRock, and Bank of America, signaling renewed interest in firms and industries with established business school pipelines.

U.S.’ Top 10 Companies For Business Majors & MBAs 2025 Universum Rank Company Industry 2024 Rank 1 JPMorgan Chase Banking 1 2 Goldman Sachs Financial Services 4 3 Morgan Stanley Financial Services 12 4 Apple Technology 3 5 Google Technology 2 6 Nike Consumer Goods 5 7 Deloitte Professional Services 11 8 Bank of America Banking 13 9 BlackRock Asset Management 14 10 Microsoft Technology 8

WHY BUSINESS STUDENTS ARE COMING BACK TO FINANCE

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the years that followed, many MBAs turned to tech and consulting for their innovation, pay, and flexibility. But tech started a very public worker purge in 2022 which continued through the first half of this year. Business students are recalibrating.

“Now it’s shifted, and it’s gone the other direction. It’s a very different market than just a few years ago,” said Jeff Rugg, global account director at Universum, during a recent webinar on the rankings.

In an unsure job market, finance has resurged. Among the top 100 preferred U.S. employers for business students, 34 were finance-related, compared to 23 in tech and just 9 in consulting. Even the MBB firms – McKinsey (No. 27), Bain & Co. (No. 74), and Boston Consulting Group (No. 36) – fell out of the top 20.

Consulting, the other big MBA-destination industry, had only 9 companies on the list. The MBB – McKinsey (ranked No. 27), Bain (No. 74), and Boston Consulting Group (No. 36) – fell out of the top 20 altogether.

“The job market is moving, but not for everyone,” says Paola Ospina, a global account manager at Universum. “Companies are pulling back on entry-level hiring. This generation is facing an employment crisis, and landing a job has become a real challenge for many of them.”

Where MBAs once targeted a short list of “dream” companies, many are now casting wider nets.

FROM PURPOSE TO PRACTICALITY

While students in past surveys emphasized purpose, flexibility, and making an impact, 2025’s survey suggests business students are making more pragmatic decisions.

Career growth and competitive pay are now the top two attributes business students look for in an employer, according to Universum. A respectful workplace culture ranked third.

“There’s a completely frustrated pool of candidates being ghosted by employers, wasting their time,” Ospina says. “They’re not really being valued. And again, it’s all over social media.”

Flexibility still matters, but not necessarily remote work. Only 4% of students said they would refuse a job that didn’t offer remote options. The rest either preferred flexibility or said they could adjust.

“This generation wants to go into the office,” says Ospina, noting that younger grads started college during the pandemic, when campuses were either closed down or heavily restricted. “They are craving that in-person interaction.”

As Rugg notes, companies like JPMorgan Chase and Amazon – both of which require employees to be in the office – are ranked highly by business students.

“It should give confidence to employers in the marketplace,” he said.

THE AI SKILLS GAP

Artificial intelligence was another hot topic in this year’s survey. While 75% of students said they felt positive or curious about working for an employer that uses AI, 57% said they had not developed AI-related skills.

“So there’s a bit of a disconnect,” says Nikki Trifunovic, an employer brand and talent acquisition advisor.

The gap is even more pronounced for women, who reported lower levels of AI preparedness than their male peers. For employers, that’s both a challenge and an opportunity. Companies that offer robust training and upskilling could be better positioned to attract and retain early-career MBA talent.

‘MESSY… LITERALLY THE WORST JOB MARKET EVER’

The 2025 Universum rankings land at a tricky moment in the U.S. labor market. On one hand, it is still adding jobs (147,000 in June alone) while unemployment sits at 4.1%. On the other?

“There is growing uncertainty for employers on what’s to happen with the tariffs and all of the policy shifts that are coming,” Ospina says. “We’ll definitely see the full effect of this as we get into the second half of the year.”

In response, many employers are moving into a conservative hiring mode. Budgets are tighter. Teams are being asked to do more with less. And companies are laser focused on hiring the right talent, especially those who can drive digital transformation.

For candidates, especially new grads, the result is a job market that feels pretty bleak. Only 35% of students felt confident that they would be able to find a job after graduation.

The uncertainty feels a lot like the pandemic when companies froze hiring and layoffs were everywhere, Ospina says. Particularly for Generation Z.

“And in their true Gen Z fashion, they’re being very vocal about it all over TikTok and social media. They’re calling it like they see it – messy, and I think, literally, the worst job market ever,” she says.

“All of that frustration we’re seeing online and in the media articles, it’s not just noise. It’s actually showing up in our data too.”

Read Universum’s 2025 report on the Most Attractive Employers In The United States here.

NEXT PAGE: The 100 most-desired employers of B-school students according to Universum’s 2025 survey.