For the second consecutive year, more than half of IT professionals throughout the Greater Chicagoland and Milwaukee areas secured a significant pay raise in the past 12 months, according to the 2017 Hiring Trends report released by CultureFit Technology Staffing, a Deerfield, Ill.-based IT staffing provider. Twenty-eight percent of these increases were greater than 15%.

This trend helps provide immense negotiating power to those tech professionals who have acquired specialized skill sets in categories where companies are finding it especially difficult to acquire qualified talent, such as big data, security and encryption, according to the report.

Although the shortages in available talent provide a compensation advantage for IT professionals, the survey also showed, by a wide margin, “career advancement” was a much stronger motivator when making a career switch.

“This presents a strategic hiring opportunity for most companies. It’s not uncommon for IT professionals to value career advancement over compensation,” said Eric Edelsberg, staffing director and principal of CultureFit. “The best formula is to be both strategic and flexible, loosening criteria will open the doors to qualified candidates willing to work harder to meet expectations in order to achieve their own personal goals.”

The survey included nearly 200 IT professionals throughout the greater Chicago and Milwaukee areas.