US IT Job Growth Hits A Wall; Talent Shortage To Blame

The number of IT jobs grew 0.03% sequentially last month to 5,337,000 according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment grew by 0.85% since May 2017 adding 44,900 IT workers.

Engineering employment increased by 0.18 percent sequentially to 2,591,000. On a year-over-year basis, growth in engineering employment increased by 1.98% since May 2017 or 50,300 engineering workers.

“With the unemployment rate for the overall workforce at historic lows and IT occupations at levels economists would unequivocally deem to be ‘full employment,’ the shortage of IT professionals has become acute,” stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance.  “We have hit a wall in terms of IT jobs growth. There are simply not enough qualified IT professionals to meet demand. This shortage has only been further exacerbated by the restrictive immigration policies of this Administration,” added Roberts.