The number of IT jobs in the US rose 0.2% in December from November to more than 5.0 million, reported TechServe Alliance, an association of IT and engineering staffing companies. Year-over-year IT employment in the US rose by 3.7% in December.

“As we closed out 2015, the rate of IT job growth slowed with engineering employment barely making it into positive territory,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. “While the US economy is on a reasonably solid footing, there is increasing uncertainty associated with the macroeconomic and geopolitical picture.”

The number of US engineering jobs rose by only 0.1% in December from November to 2.5 million jobs. Year-over-year, the increase was 0.6%.

“Although we expect IT job growth to continue to outperform the overall job market with an ongoing shortage of talent in high-demand skill sets, growth will likely not be as robust as we experienced earlier in the economic recovery,” Roberts said. “Engineering employment has been particularly vulnerable to a number of industry sectors such as oil and gas that are experiencing significant headwinds. We anticipate these pressures will continue throughout 2016 inhibiting engineering job growth.”