The number of IT jobs in the US rose 0.4% in February from January, according to the TechServe Alliance, the trade association of the IT and engineering staffing and solutions industry in the US. That compares to a 0.2% increase in total nonfarm jobs in the US.

Year over year, IT jobs rose by 4.5% in February. There were a total almost 4.9 million IT jobs in February.

Engineering jobs rose by 0.2% in February from the previous month and were up 1.5% year over year. There were approximately 2.5 million US engineering jobs in February.

“In February, IT employment continued its strong month-over-month performance. While not as robust as IT, engineering employment posted solid growth in February,” said TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts.

“As I have been warning for some time, an inadequate supply of talent in high demand skill sets will continue to be a challenge,” Roberts said. “Without a significant increase in the availability of talent by growing the domestic IT and engineering workforce or increasing the availability of high-skilled foreign professionals, all industries dependent on technical talent will continue to be at risk of not having their needs fully met. In the White House’s launch of its TechHire initiative this week, the Administration underscored what is both a challenge and opportunity noting that over 500,000 IT jobs have gone unfilled. ” added Roberts.