IT employment in the US edged down by 3,700 jobs in October from September to a total of 5.3 million, according to an analysis by TechServe Alliance, a trade association representing the technology and engineering staffing and solutions industry.

On a year-over-year basis, the number of IT jobs contracted by 101,200.

“After steeper declines in IT employment during the second half of last year through the first half of this year, employment levels have been essentially ‘running in place’ for the last six months,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said in a press statement.

While hiring has slowed as many employers continue to wait for the recession “shoe” to drop, the talent supply is still tight in high-demand skill sets, according to Roberts.

“Paradoxically, we have softer demand, but IT unemployment in Q3 stood at only 1.94% — well below full employment. It remains a weird market,” he said.

The TechServe Alliance also reported engineering employment fell by 2,900 jobs in October from September to a total of approximately 2.8 million jobs. However, engineering employment is still up by 50,100 jobs on a year-over-year basis.