WASHINGTON — Information technology (IT) professionals can write their own ticket right now, with a nagging shortage of talent restricting U.S. IT job growth despite high demand.

Alexandria-based TechServe Alliance in Virginia says the number of IT jobs grew just 0.05 percent from April to May, and IT employment has grown less than one percent since a year ago.

“While economic downturns result in slow or negative job growth because of lagging demand, we are seeing anemic job growth in IT because of lack of supply,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance.

“Despite robust demand in many IT skill sets, we simply do not have enough qualified IT professionals,” he said.

TechServe Alliance blames insufficient long-term investment in growing the domestic talent supply in STEM fields, and highly restrictive immigration policies.

“It is unfortunate that we are not fulfilling the growth potential of one of our most dynamic employment sectors,” Roberts said.

The information technology industry is a major employer in the United States. According to TechServe Alliance, the IT industry employed more than 5.3 million in the U.S. as of April.