Full Employment in 24 States Means Higher IT Pro Pay

Written by Edward Gately
August 2, 2017

Of the 24 full employment states, only one, South Dakota, had a lower unemployment rate in June of last year.

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:

The biggest increases in compensation have been at the middle manager levels in mid-sized companies with an increase of 6.65 percent.
In the first two quarters of 2017, middle management positions in IT organizations of SMBs had the highest demand for new hires.
Compensation for all IT professionals increased by 5.32 percent.
Positions in highest demand are associated with security, training, large data center management, big data, distributed/mobile system project management, quality control, BYOD implementation, capacity planning and service level improvement.
Onshore outsourcing and H-1B visa jobs have peaked. The America first campaign has resulted in more infrastructure functions being moved in-house.

BLS also tracks average weekly wages by state.