Many technology teams will be growing in the first half of 2019, but staffing challenges exist, according to Robert Half Technology's State of U.S. Tech Hiring research. Sixty-three percent of IT hiring decision makers polled plan to expand the size of their teams by adding full-time employees. However, 87 percent of those surveyed said it's challenging for their company to find skilled IT professionals.

Respondents cited the following skills as immediately needed for their organizations:

• Cybersecurity
• Cloud security
• Cloud computing
• Cloud architecture
• Business intelligence and reporting services
• Database management
• Virtualization
• Web development/design
• Mobile development

Almost all respondents (95 percent) said they will bring on project professionals to support their teams in the first six months of the new year. In addition, 90 percent of IT leaders said they are upskilling or training current employees on in-demand technology skills.

"Along with a strong core team, project professionals are becoming an integral part of organizations' staffing strategies to get the best and brightest on board quickly for key projects," said John Reed, executive vice president of Robert Half. "Digital and security initiatives continue to put pressure on IT departments, adding to the need for talent."

Reed continued, "Training and upskilling team members, especially for the most critical skills, helps keep the business competitive and demonstrates your commitment to employees' professional growth."

Besides recruitment, maintaining security, innovation, investing in new technologies and cloud projects will be top priorities for tech managers in the first six months of the new year. Cloud computing is the top skill employers are currently training their IT teams on, followed by security, project management, data science and machine learning/artificial intelligence.