New research carried out by an employment organisation has found that IT support individuals in northern England have seen their pay drop, while their southern counterparts have got a rise.

IT specialist company ReThink Recruitment stated that although wage decreases were far from a regular thing, the pay gap between the north and south had widened for the first time in two years.

Salaries for IT support in the north-east have fallen to an average of £29,380 a year, while pay in London has risen by an average of 1.2 per cent to £45,240, meaning that northern wages are just 65 per cent of their southern rivals, down from 67 per cent in 2007.

ReThink Recruitment director Michael Bennett said that London was more resilient than the north in the IT sector, as the north held traditionally lower-skilled jobs that could be outsourced with ease.

He continued: "IT staff that are able to boost the bottom line tend to be more highly skilled and therefore less likely to be threatened by offshore competition."

The ReThink Group specialises in recruiting IT specialists for one-off contracts and permanent placements.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.