The number of IT jobs grew 0.1% sequentially last month to 5,319,700, 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 2.1% since October 2016 adding 107,300 IT workers.

Engineering employment increased by 0.1 percent sequentially to 2,576,400. On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment increased by 1.4% since October 2016 or 34,700 engineering workers.

"Following a trend that has been in place for some time, the rate of IT job growth fell to its lowest level in years.  Given that demand remains strong for IT professionals in high demand skill sets, this ongoing deceleration is attributable to an ever tightening labor supply," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "The current administration's restrictive immigration policies affecting highly skilled foreign nationals is making the job of finding qualified IT professionals even more difficult.  These policies are contributing to the decline in the rate of IT job growth in the U.S.," added Roberts.