Hiring in the information technology field is expected to continue to increase in coming months, according to a survey by Oakbrook Terrace-based Comptia, a professional group for IT professionals.

While more hiring is expected to take place in China and India, that doesn't necessarily mean the worst for local tech workers.

"Quite the contrary, we see a need for more people in IT careers right now," said Comptia spokesman Steve Ostrowski.

He said other sources also point to more hiring here, including statistics at Indeed.com. Its April report showed an increase of 26 percent for hiring that month, compared to the same month a year ago.

It also said 270,000 jobs were posted nationwide (www.indeed.com/jobtrends/information-technology-industry).

This also holds true in the Chicago market, too, Ostrowski said.

"We're finishing up a study - not yet published - on IT occupation trends in the Chicago market," he said.

That report could show that more than 170 surveyed companies, 58 percent, expressed concern about the challenge in finding high-quality technical staff. Jobs that these companies are looking to fill in the next six months include project managers, database administrators, network administrators, business intelligence analysts, PC support technicians and security administrators, he said.

Comptia's survey, called the Industry International Business Confidence Index, showed that business confidence trends were above the global average (64 on a 100-point scale) among IT companies in China (77) and India (76). Among other countries, Canadian sentiment falls roughly at the average, while business confidence among IT companies in the United States and United Kingdom lags slightly behind the global average, the report said. The index is based on an online survey of more than 850 IT companies in more than 70 countries conducted in March.

CompTIA also has a program called Getting America Back to Work (www.comptia.org/certifications/backtowork.aspx). The organization works with local Workforce Investment Boards nationwide to help people with adequate technical aptitude gain the training and certifications needed to secure IT jobs, he said.