Information technology budgets are expected to grow 8.6 percent over the next year, according to the March CIO Magazine Tech Poll. That number is up nearly 1 percent from the 7.8 percent reported in December 2005.

After falling to 2.5 percent last October, tech spending projections have been on the rise. A large number of CIOs plan on increasing their investments in infrastructure, and many are also focusing on up-and-coming technologies like voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and mobile solutions.

More than half of respondents are making significant investments in mobile technologies, server virtualization and consolidation, and VoIP.

The Tech Future Growth Index, an indicator of projected IT activity over the coming year, jumped up to 3.8 percent from the 3.1 percent reported in December.

The average number of panelists who plan to increase spending in eight key IT areas reached 44.8 percent in January, up from the previous poll’s 40.7 percent. The area with the greatest potential for spending was Storage Systems, with 56.7 percent of respondents looking to bump spending, up from December’s 49.7 percent.

Concerns regarding available IT labor are increasing. Of the CIOs surveyed, 26 percent said IT labor was “hard to find,” compared to the 13 percent reported a year ago.

The CIO Magazine Tech Poll is a quarterly survey of senior executives regarding various IT-related issues, specifically current and future IT spending. It is conducted by CIO, Deutsche Bank Securities and Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist with Oak Associates. In March, 180 respondents were included in the survey, and companies with employee ranges of 1,000 to 5,000 made up roughly 30 percent of the responses.

Check out the complete results of the March CIO Magazine Tech Poll, and visit the Tech Poll archives.

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.