Flight crew reported an inflight engine shutdown; causing an air turnback and landing.

Attributes
ACN	1742006
Time
Date	202005
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Turbine Engine
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 168 Flight Crew Total 18838
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 159 Flight Crew Total 22000 Flight Crew Type 10322
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

We departed ZZZ enroute to ZZZ1 and were in the initial climb just below 16000 ft. The auto throttles kicked off and then we noticed the #2 engine N1 gauge started to decrease. The captain lowered the nose of the airplane and held that altitude and asked me to [advise ATC] which I did. I ran the engine failure or shutdown checklist. Item#14 ask if you want to try a restart. After talking it over with the captain we decide to give it a try. I then ran the eng start - inflight check list. The result was unsuccessful. We then received a clearance from ATC for the ILS runway xx. After we landed we had the emergency vehicles inspect the aircraft. They told us nothing was seen except that the engine was shut down; and then we taxied to the gate.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Crew reported an inflight engine shutdown; causing an air turnback and landing.

Narrative: We departed ZZZ enroute to ZZZ1 and were in the initial climb just below 16000 ft. The auto throttles kicked off and then we noticed the #2 engine N1 gauge started to decrease. The Captain lowered the nose of the airplane and held that altitude and asked me to [advise ATC] which I did. I ran the Engine Failure or Shutdown checklist. Item#14 ask if you want to try a restart. After talking it over with the Captain we decide to give it a try. I then ran the Eng Start - Inflight check list. The result was unsuccessful. We then received a clearance from ATC for the ILS Runway XX. After we landed we had the emergency vehicles inspect the aircraft. They told us nothing was seen except that the engine was shut down; and then we taxied to the gate.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.