IT job growth is at its lowest level in years, according to the TechServe Alliance, a trade group of IT and engineering staffing and solutions firms. It reported the number of IT jobs in the US grew by 0.1% sequentially in November to more than 5.3 million; on a year-over-year basis, the increase was 1.8%

“As 2017 draws to a close, the rate of IT job growth remains at its lowest level in years,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance.

“While I remain very bullish about demand for highly skilled IT professionals, the restrictive immigration policies being pursued by the administration is cause for great concern,” Roberts said. “Without access to an adequate domestic supply of talent, the ability to grow the US IT workforce is significantly diminished, causing more work to be pushed offshore — an unfortunate outcome for US-based businesses as well as IT professionals that would otherwise make up part of the US-based team.”

Engineering employment in the US rose by 0.2% sequentially in November to almost 2.6 million jobs. The increase was 1.6% on a year-over-year basis.