Revealed: Best places for IT jobs in the UK

Two-thirds of all new IT jobs are created in London and the South East, even though the area only accounts for a quarter of the UK's population.

More than a third (38 per cent) of the new IT jobs are based in London, with another 27 per cent in the South East. The third ranking region - the North West - is home to just 6.6 per cent of new jobs.

According to ReThink Recruitment, which conducted the research, demand for IT skills in London and the South East is being spurred by strong growth in financial services and central government, both heavily concentrated in the region.

ReThink Recruitment director Jon Butterfield said banks are hiring IT pros to build systems to handle higher volumes of more complex transactions, with developments in areas such as electronic and algorithmic trading systems.

Butterfield said in a statement: "Higher transaction volumes in areas such as credit derivatives, international bonds and interest rate swaps are driving demand for faster and more robust IT systems in the City. At the same time banks realise that integrating IT systems across departments is vital to their effort to constantly reduce the cost of each transaction."

But while banks have stepped up IT recruitment, it's still not like the boom times of the late 1990s.

Public sector IT programmes - a large number of which are London-based - are also making up a sizeable chunk of the IT skills market nationally, the staffing company said.

New IT jobs by region, according to ReThink:

• London - 38.3 per cent
• South East - 27.2 per cent
• North West - 6.6 per cent
• South West - 5.3 per cent
• West Midlands - 5 per cent
• Yorkshire & Humberside - 4.8 per cent
• East Midlands - 4.2 per cent
• Scotland 3.4 per cent
• East Anglia - 3.1 per cent
• North East - 1.4 per cent
• Wales - 1 per cent
• Northern Ireland - 1 per cent