Engineering employment edged upward by 0.20% month over month in February to 2.67 million jobs, the TechServe Alliance reported. It rose 3.42% on a year-over-year basis, adding 88,400 engineering workers.

TechServe Alliance also reported IT employment ticked downward modestly in February for the first time since August 2020. IT jobs in the US fell by 0.04% to approximately 5.4 million jobs. The decline represented a loss of 2,400 positions and came even as the US announced the addition of 678,000 nonfarm jobs in the month.

“Since emerging from its low of ebb brought on by the pandemic, IT employment has been essentially flat for last seven months,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said. “IT employment ticked down modestly for the first time in more than 18 months, reflecting an extraordinarily tight supply of technical talent.”

Roberts said companies must formulate talent acquisition strategies that meet the expectations of workers in terms of compensation and return-to-work policies in order to attract workers. They must also be creative and diversify their approach for sourcing candidates.

The TechServe Alliance also reported that on a year-over-year basis, IT jobs were up by 1.79%.