There are now 24 states at full employment level, meaning higher pay for IT professionals, according to Janco Associates’ analysis of the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) state unemployment data.

Full employments is defined as an unemployment rate of 4 percent or less. Last year at this time, only 15 states were at that level, according to Janco  Of the 24 full employment states, only one, South Dakota, had a lower unemployment rate in June of last year.

“With such low unemployment rates there will be a significant increase in the salaries that corporations pay for IT professionals,” said Victor Janulaitis, Janco’s CEO. “With the budgeting process for 2018 in full swing over the new few months, CIOs need to validate they will (include) salary levels that will support maintaining their existing staff as well as having the ability to hire qualified … additions. The median salary for all IT professionals is now $87,175. Planning for 2018 budgets should use that mean as the lowest base point.”

IT job growth is predicted, while telecommunications has a bleaker outlook with layoffs continuing.

Major findings of Janco’s 2017 Mid-Year IT Salary Survey that impact the 2018 budgeting process for IT professionals are:

BLS also tracks average weekly wages by state.