Hoping to bank a little more on payday? You might want to consider developing some IT skills, an online tech journal suggests. Studies show that these skills are what employers are looking for in 2013, especially as more companies are expecting to hire tech professionals in the coming year.

Here are a few of the skills that key players in the IT industry say will help you be competitive:

Programming and Application Development
In the wake of the recession, companies are looking for ways to heighten productivity, lower costs and make an impact on the Web. Staff is necessary to create the technology to do this.

Project Management
As industries are beginning to develop, projects are beginning to develop. Thus, the demand for more detail-oriented project managers manage complex systems within IT teams.

Help Desk/Technical Support
The addition of new systems means that there’s an increasing need for support staff to ably guide employees as they use the technology.

Additional skills in high demand include Security, Business Intelligence/Analytics and Cloud Computing.