IT employment in 2018 increased at the slowest annual rate in nine years, the TechServe Alliance announced. IT employment grew by 0.30% since December 2017, adding 16,200 IT workers, according to the group, which serves as the national trade association of the IT and engineering staffing and solution industry.

On a sequential basis, IT employment eked out a small gain in December from November. The number of IT jobs in the US edged up by 1,200, or 0.02%, to a total of approximately 5.34 million.

“IT employment struggled to remain in positive territory during 2018 — posting less than a 1% growth rate for the first time in nine years,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said. “As we and many other observers have noted before, this is a supply side — not a demand-side problem. With an insufficient number of US students pursuing careers in STEM occupations coupled with the administration’s restrictive immigration policies, growth of the US IT workforce will remain challenging for the foreseeable future.”

The TechServe Alliance also measures engineering employment, which edged up by 0.21% in December from November. Engineering employment rose 2.52% since December 2017, an increase of 64,700 engineering workers.