College students looking for summer internships can make nearly $9,000 a month working at Facebook, LinkedIn and Amazon as tech companies start an aggressive recruitment drive.
Silicon Valley giants are willing to pay up to $8,800 per month to interns as they try to build a future talent pipeline for their businesses and bolster employment opportunities for young people who struggled to find work amid the pandemic.
If these salaries were paid all year round, eager college graduates and entry-level employees would be taking home a six-figure salary upward of $100,000.
This is almost double the average wage in the US which was $51,916.27 in 2019, according to the most recent government figures.
The 25 highest paying internships for 2021 were revealed in a new report from Glassdoor, based on salary reviews reported by interns between March 1 2020 and February 28 2021.
College students looking for summer internships can make nearly $9,000 a month working at Facebook (left), LinkedIn (right) and Amazon as tech companies start an aggressive recruitment drive
It found Santa Clara-based chipmaker Nvidia offers the most generous compensation package with median monthly pay reaching $8,811, which would equate to an annual salary of $105,732.
Current openings for internships at the firm include roles for physical design interns, software interns in math libraries, machine learning infrastructure interns and product marketing interns specializing in artificial intelligence.
Silicon Valley giants Facebook and LinkedIn are also offering paid interns upwards of $8,000 a month, with median monthly pays of $8,023 and $8,009 respectively.
Jeff Bezos' Amazon, which repeatedly came under fire over its treatment of essential warehouse workers amid the pandemic, is paying $7,964 to interns across sectors including design, marketing and economics.
Meanwhile, Salesforce offers around $7,710 a month to interns for roles in several locations including San Francisco, Dallas and Palo Alto.
Other major players include Capital One, Microsoft, Uber, Google and ExxonMobil, who all other positions upwards of $7,000 a month.
More than half - 16 - of the 25 companies with the highest paying internships are in the tech industry, with six in finance and two in energy.
Silicon Valley giants are willing to pay up to $8,800 per month to interns as they try to build a future talent pipeline for their businesses and bolster employment opportunities for young people who struggled to find work amid the pandemic
The lucrative deals will come as welcome news to college students, who have been heavily impacted by the widespread unemployment due to the pandemic.
During last summer, the unemployment rate among 16-to-24-year-old Americans reached 18.5 percent, about twice as high as the previous year before the virus forced businesses to shutter, stay-at-home orders to be issued and plunged millions out of work overnight.
Less than half (47 percent) of people in that age group were in employment in July, the month when youth employment typically reaches its peak, after most students graduate from college.
The previous year, this figure was significantly higher at 56 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Paid and unpaid internships were also in short supply as struggling companies laid off staff while most others adjusted to a remote working model.
Amanda Stansell, Glassdoor economic data scientist, said students and graduates were faced with 'unique challenges' during the pandemic, making it difficult for them to gain work experience.
Santa Clara-based chipmaker Nvidia offers the most generous compensation package with median monthly pay reaching $8,811 Current openings for internships at the firm include roles for physical design interns and software interns in math libraries
Jeff Bezos' Amazon, which repeatedly came under fire over its treatment of essential warehouse workers amid the pandemic, is paying $7,964 to interns across sectors including design, marketing and economics
'The past year presented unique challenges for college students and recent graduates trying to gain valuable internship experience, with many employers making the difficult decision to pause hiring or even cut internships,' she said.
With the economy showing signs of recovery, more opportunities are becoming available, she said.
'Fortunately, the labor market is seeing signs of recovery, presenting opportunities for workers early in their careers to not only find internships at top companies but also earn a hefty paycheck, especially in those industries where it's notoriously difficult to hire, like tech and finance,' said Stansell.
'Internship programs are critical tools for employers to fill their early talent pipelines and, in this age of remote work, many are willing to pay top dollar for interns, no matter where they are based.'
Stansell told CNBC that many of the internships on offer are still fully remote due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, a move that also levels the 'playing field' for students living in different parts of the country.
However, securing a place on one of the high-paid internships from the likes of Apple and Facebook is notoriously competitive.
At Facebook, for example, shortlisted applicants can expect to be put through multiple interviews with the entire process taking around a month.
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