It’s difficult not to feel charitable towards the average MBA student graduating this year. Laden with tens of thousands of pounds of debt, primed with expertise on competitive strategy, and bursting to get a job to pay it off and put it all to use, banks haven’t been very obliging.

Compared to the university graduate market, where the Association of Graduate Recruiters provides regular updates on the state of hiring, the MBA job market is relatively opaque. Anecdotally, both students and banks’ MBA recruiters say it hasn’t been good.

“MBA hiring for 2009 was down significantly across the board, maybe by 50%” says the head of graduate recruitment at one European investment bank. “MBAs are expensive, so hiring tends to be a lot more cyclical than for university graduates.”

One MBA student at the London Business School says the vast majority of the class of 2009 have found jobs, but they’ve had to compromise to get them. “A lot of people are being flexible about relocating and have gone for corporate finance roles in industry rather than in the City. It’s been hard because you’re competing against past MBA hires who were let go and are also trying to get in,” he says.

However, there are signs of improvement.

The head of financial services careers at a leading European business school says things have picked up within the past month. “Everything we’re hearing from banks suggests they’ll be doing top-up hiring to add to their summer interns,” she says.

This is confirmed by banks’ own websites. For example, BofA Merrill Lynch is looking for full time associates to join its global markets business (but nowhere else); UBS is looking for full time associates in IBD in London; Credit Suisse appears to be hiring MBA graduates full time for most areas. Goldman also appears to be hiring in all areas; Morgan Stanley is looking in investment banking, investment management and research in Europe, and Nomura is hiring in global markets and investment banking.

“MBA hiring will be up again in 2010,” predicts one head of graduate recruitment. Malcolm Horton, head of recruitment at Nomura, agrees: “MBAs who graduate next year will be in a stronger position – the market will be picking up and there should be more opportunities.”