The number of IT jobs in the US rose by 0.51% in November from October to a total of more than 5.2 million jobs, reported the TechServe Alliance, a trade association of the IT and engineering staffing and solutions industry. It was the fourth consecutive month of strong growth.

“Given the critical role of both internal and external IT resources in enabling many businesses to operate in the face of the pandemic, it is no surprising that demand for highly skilled IT professionals continues to grow,” TechServe Alliance CEO Mark Roberts said.

However, the number of tech jobs still remains down 2.67% since November 2019 — a decline of 143,100 IT workers.

In addition, engineering staffing employment was relatively unchanged in November, adding just 100 jobs month over month for a total of nearly 2.6 million. Compared to November 2019, however, the number of jobs is down 82,500.