Dive Brief:

• The average salary of IT professionals is about $60,000 but 68% of millennials in the workforce believe they are underpaid, according to a Spiceworks report of about 2,100 respondents from North America and Europe. Still, 70% of respondents are satisfied with their job.
• Approximately one-third of IT professionals are planning on looking for another IT job while over half are expecting a salary increase from their current employer in 2018.
• As far as demand is concerned, cybersecurity, networking and expertise in infrastructure hardware are the most sought after skills. Currently, only about one-fourth of cybersecurity professionals possess "advance" expertise, according to the report. 

Dive Insight:

Cultivating an innovation-inspired work environment that is not dogged by the cost-center reputation of IT is the responsibility of C-suite officials. However, coupling workplace culture with satisfactory pay and appropriate skill sets is another challenge.

Because cybersecurity roles are evolving, hiring managers are tasked with looking beyond the traditional candidate pool. They have few options because less than a quarter of cybersecurity workers are beginning their careers in the field, according to the report.

But an overwhelming 87% of current cybersecurity professionals began their careers elsewhere, proving potential hires should not be limited to their resume. By 2022, women and minorities are expected to help fill the 1.8 million open security jobs. After all, a lack in diversity actually ends up costing Silicon Valley companies about $16 billion a year.  

Despite millennials being on the lower end of the pay scale, salaries in the tech industries are skyrocketing to attract the talent that will lead digital transformation efforts.