By Chelsea Babin

The IT industry has been experiencing some meaningful changes throughout 2016. While the IT unemployment rate fell to a record 2.4 percent in January, employers everywhere are still searching for top technical talent to add to their teams. This search may be getting more difficult but could it also be speeding up?

According to the new DHI-DFH Mean Vacancy Duration measure, technology jobs stayed open for 24.7 working days in December 2015, which is down from 27.5 working days in November. Although an average of almost 25 working days is still not an ideal situation when you need to add technical professionals to your team immediately, this shrinking time period is shocking many who were expecting longer talent searches as the IT unemployment rate continues to shrink.

However, this data isn’t meaningful on its own. It’s also important to note the results of a recent Dice Salary Survey which found that 53 percent of tech pro respondents were satisfied with their pay. This leaves a gap of 47 percent of employees who are unsatisfied and perhaps ready to take the leap when they see an opportunity with better compensation.

67 percent of technical professionals simultaneously expressed confidence that they could find a new job in 2016. For these confident techies, higher salaries, a better work/life balance, flexibility, growth and learning opportunities, and other unique perks will make the difference between staying in a job they like where they’re unsatisfied with their salary or filling one of the numerous open positions they can find.

This is great news for the IT employers who are looking to win over top technical talent as long as they’re willing to offer competitive salary and other tempting benefits. More than likely these are the employers seeing the shorter average job search length while the IT employers who aren’t offering enough are left with their lengthy, often unsuccessful searches.