The number of IT jobs in the US edged up 0.2% in March from February to almost 5.1 million, reported TechServe Alliance, an association of IT and engineering staffing companies. Year over year, IT employment in the US rose by 3.9% in March.

“While I would not characterize Q1 numbers as robust, IT employment continued to post steady growth in March,” said TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts. “On the engineering side, employment ticked down modestly.”

The number of US engineering jobs edged down 0.05% in March from February to more than 2.5 million jobs. Year over year, the increase was an anemic 0.8%, continuing to underperform the overall workforce.

“Many policymakers have noted that while there is still significant underlying strength in the US economy, all indicators are not uniformly positive,” Roberts said. “The same could be said for job growth in technical occupations particularly engineering.”