Lack of available talent continued to hamper growth in IT jobs in April, according to the TechServe Alliance, a trade group of IT and engineering staffing and solutions firms.

The number of IT jobs in the US edged up 0.05% sequentially in April to more than 5.3 million; on a year-over-year basis, the increase was 0.96%, adding 50,700 IT workers.

“While economic downturns result in slow or negative job growth because of lagging demand, we are seeing anemic job growth in IT because of a lack of supply,” said TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts. “Despite robust demand in many IT skill sets, we simply do not have enough qualified IT professionals.”

Roberts attributed the lack of talent to insufficient long-term investment in growing our domestic talent supply in STEM fields and highly restrictive immigration policies of the current administration. “It is unfortunate we are not fulfilling the growth potential of one of our most dynamic employment sectors,” he said.

Engineering employment increased by 0.22% sequentially in April to almost 2.6 million. The increase was 1.88% — or 47,700 engineering workers — on a year-over-year basis.