High tech wages slip in face of outsourcing, but some still benefit.

Outsourcing tech jobs continues to put downward pressure on wages.

High-tech salaries nationwide slipped 1.2 percent since January, according to the latest Yoh Index of Technology Wages. The index does not break out cities or regions, but Jon Kraft, chairman of the Software Council of Southern California, said L.A. likely saw a slight dip during that period as well. "Los Angeles tracks the national trend pretty closely," he said.

Cost is usually the overriding factor behind outsourcing, but Kraft said that in Southern California there's also the difficulty in finding high tech talent. That's led companies to outsource. "In L.A., it's the tightness of the talent pool," Kraft said.

Of course, a tight labor pool, in L.A. and elsewhere, can also benefit those in the swim, especially at the top. The California Institute of Technology's career development office found that of the 2005 graduates who reported taking jobs in software engineering, top-level salaries reached $86,000, up from the group of prior year's graduates who reported a top-level salary of $74,000. "Because there are few elite engineering architects and VPs of engineering down here, they may be able to command better salaries," Kraft said.