The number of IT jobs grew 0.1 percent sequentially last month to 5,177,500, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by 2.7% since November 2015 adding 135,300 IT workers.

Engineering employment remains sluggish, also growing 0.1 percent sequentially to 2,543,900.  On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment remained anemic increasing by only 0.8% since November 2015 or 20,500 engineering workers.

"While the overall rate of growth in IT employment has continued to decelerate throughout the year, demand remains strong in some skill sets and sectors," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "With early indications that the new Administration may adopt more restrictive immigration policies, legislative and regulatory developments will need to be closely watched in the coming year.  Given some IT occupations are effectively at full employment with unemployment under 2%, any effort to further restrict access to high-tech talent would exacerbate the chronic domestic shortage of talent in high-demand skill sets and could have an adverse effect on growth," observed Roberts.