After several months of sluggish to no growth, engineering employment posted its best month since January, rising 0.2% in July from June to more than 2.5 million jobs, reported the TechServe Alliance, an association of engineering ad IT staffing companies. However, the year-over-year increase remains lackluster at 0.65%, adding only 16,500 engineering workers since July 2015.

The number of IT jobs in the US rose 0.2% in July from June to more than 5.1 million. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment increased by 3.5%, adding 173,900 IT workers. Growth for IT employment fell below 10,000 jobs for the first time this year, adding only 9,400 jobs during the month of July.

“The deceleration in the growth rate of IT employment is attributable to multiple factors, including apprehension over the global macroeconomic environment as well as a chronic shortage in high demand skill sets,” said TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts. “As I have noted in the past, the index represents an amalgamation of a wide range of industries and IT skill sets. While demand has waned in some industries, there continues to be strong demand for certain highly sought after IT skill sets in many sectors of the US economy.”