The number of IT jobs in the US edged up 0.12% in November from October to almost 5.2 million, reported TechServe Alliance, an association of IT and engineering staffing companies.

“While the overall rate of growth in IT employment has continued to decelerate throughout the year, demand remains strong in some skill sets and sectors,” said TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts.

Year over year, IT employment in the US rose by 2.68% in November, representing an increase of 135,300 IT jobs.

“With early indications that the new administration may adopt more restrictive immigration policies, legislative and regulatory developments will need to be closely watched in the coming year,” Roberts said. “Given some IT occupations are effectively at full employment with unemployment under 2%, any effort to further restrict access to high-tech talent would exacerbate the chronic domestic shortage of talent in high-demand skill sets and could have an adverse effect on growth.”

Engineering employment growth also remains sluggish, edging up 0.11% in November from October to more than 2.5 million jobs. Year over year, the increase remained anemic at 0.81%, representing 20,500 engineering jobs.