Information technology employment rose by 6,000 jobs in January, or 0.2 percent, to almost 4.0 million, according to the monthly index of IT jobs released by the TechServe Alliance.

On a year-over-year basis, IT employment rose 4.5 percent, according to the index.

"With January's strong IT employment numbers, 2011 is off to a good start," said Mark Roberts, CEO of the TechServe Alliance. "With increased demand, we are again hearing of shortages of qualified IT professionals in certain skill sets."

The TechServe Alliance is an organization of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers.