Following a strong 2010, IT employment continued its pattern of month-over-month growth by adding more than 6,000 jobs in January.

According to a monthly index of IT jobs developed and published by TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, in January, IT employment stood at 3,997,400 jobs; reflecting incremental growth of 0.2, while overall non-farm employment only rose by .03 percent. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up 4.5 percent, compared to only a 0.8 percent increase in total non-farm employment.

"With January's strong IT employment numbers, 2011 is off to a good start. With increased demand, we are again hearing of shortages of qualified IT professionals in certain skill sets," commented Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "We continue to maintain a very bullish outlook for IT employment in 2011," added Roberts.