In May, IT employment ticked up .05% to 5,347,500 jobs, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. After three consecutive monthly declines at the beginning of 2019, we have had two months of very modest growth. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by only 0.11% since May 2018 adding a mere 6,000 IT workers.

Engineering employment increased by 0.12 percent sequentially to 2,653,200. On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment increased by 2.19% since May 2018 or 56,900 engineering workers.

"While it goes without saying that any increase in IT employment is better than a decline, the month-over-month growth we have seen in 2019 to-date is underwhelming," observed Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "In absolute terms, the US labor market has only added 6,000 net IT job or .11% on a year-over-year basis---anemic to be sure. Given the ongoing shortage of IT talent and ever more restrictive immigration polices for high skilled foreign nationals, we do not see these trends abating in the foreseeable future," added Roberts.