IT job growth eked out a small gain in November from October after declining in the prior month, 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 edged up by 0.18% sequentially in November to more than 5.3 million.

“After declining in October, IT employment edged into positive territory in November,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said.

“While performing better than last month, we remain in a challenging environment for IT job growth,” Roberts said. “With a limited supply of talent and growing political uncertainty both at home and abroad, we foresee headwinds to IT employment growth in 2019.”

On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up by 0.32% in November, with 16,900 more IT workers than the previous year.

The TechServe Alliance also measures engineering employment, which edged up by 0.18% in November from October. Engineering employment rose 2.39% on a year-over-year basis, an increase of 61,200 engineering workers.