IT employment in the US barely eked out a small gain in January from December, the TechServe Alliance announced. The number of IT jobs in the US edged up to total of about 5.35 million, according to the group, which serves as the national trade association of the IT and engineering staffing and solutions industry.

TechServe Alliance previously reported IT employment in 2018 increased at the slowest annual rate in nine years.

“With 2018 the weakest year of growth in almost a decade, IT employment limped into 2019 posting a barely perceptible 0.02% growth in January,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said. “In looking ahead, it’s hard to see how we muster meaningful IT job growth in the future given the talent shortage and ever more restrictive immigration policies.”

However, on a year-over-year basis, IT employment was still up by 0.40% in January with 21,300 more IT workers than the previous year.

The TechServe Alliance also measures engineering employment, which edged up by 0.17% in January from December. Engineering employment rose 2.62% on a year-over-year basis, an increase of 67,300 engineering workers.