Days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the December jobs report, economists predicted that 200,000 new jobs would be created that month. However, the report showed that there were only 74,000 jobs added in December compared to the over 200,000 that were created in November. This left very little light in the report. However, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, which is the lowest number since 2008.

In regards to IT, the year has been assessed as a whole and it showed that 139,000 IT jobs were added in 2013. Many of these jobs were in the Professional and Business Services sector and the numbers showed that, once again, this is a sector that is very high performing. Of the jobs that were added in this sector in December, 5,300 of them were for technical consulting and computer systems design. In November, the number of jobs added in this sector was approximately 35,000 and that brought the average number of jobs added in the sector per month to 53,000.

The number of jobs added showed that there is still a high demand for IT professionals in practically every industry. From technical support to programmers, there is a growing need. As a matter of fact, businesses that did not previously use IT services in any way are now adopting them to help them reach out to their highly technological audiences.

Since 2013 wrapped up, the industry insiders have been looking in-depth at how the labor picture changed over the year. The number of employed Americans grew by 1.4 million people, while the number of unemployed fell by almost 2 million. Many of the jobs were new IT positions that were created to help businesses run more efficiently. However, many job seekers are finding that the market is a little harder than it once was, so they are utilizing new ways to succeed in their job hunts.

So what can IT professionals expect in 2014?
Well, the New Year looks to be a bright one for IT professionals. It appears that 2014 is going to call for more jobs and even higher salaries.
CareerBuilder surveyed over 2,000 HR professionals and hiring managers in November and December of 2013 and they found that 29% had already made plans to hire IT staff in 2014. In regards to expected hiring, IT was the second-highest sector. It was just one percent behind sales.

Geographically, the West is seeing the largest job growth. Twenty-six percent of those in the West who were surveyed said that they had plans to hire additional full-time staff. In the Northeast, that number is 24%; in the Midwest that number is 24%; and in the South that number is 22%.

A promising trend is that job holders and job seekers who wish to diversify their skills will find that many employers are looking to build the perfect employees rather than waiting on them. Nearly half of the companies surveyed said they have intentions to train their employees in areas that they may not have experience so they can “mold” them into what they want.

All in all, all of this adding jobs and “molding” is also going to lead to higher salaries. There are a number of companies experiencing economic expansion and this trickles down to their employees.