U.S. IT sector employment grew last month by an estimated 9,000 jobs, with software and technology services showing the most strength, according to CompTIA’s IT Employment Tracker.

Software and technology services added 12,500 new positions. In 2016, IT services employment grew by an estimated 73,900 jobs.

“The ‘everything-as-a-service’ movement which started several years ago continues to set the pace for the industry,” said Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s senior vice president for research and market intelligence. “These services drive the digital transformation now taking place in many organizations, and they’ll continue to define the business of the future.”

Other job categories showing employment gains last month were other information services including search portals, up 1,900, and data processing, hosting and related services, up 1,200.

Telecommunications had another rough month, shedding 3,800 jobs in January. Employment in computer and electronics-products manufacturing also fell last month, losing 2,800 jobs.{ad}

The second component of the nation’s IT workforce – IT occupations across all other industries – showed a decline of 50,000 jobs last month.

The IT occupation number is subject to month-to-month volatility. In 2016, for example, there were seven months of job growth in IT occupations and five months of job losses. Even with the monthly shifts, it is expected that most – if not all – IT occupation categories will show positive growth for the 2016 calendar year, according to CompTIA.

“It’s also important to note that declines in IT occupations reflect more than just layoffs,” Herbert said. “The pattern for 2016 showed, on average, the majority of separations were due to individual workers resigning, retiring or taking some other action to end their employment; layoffs were a secondary factor.”