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.

Searching High


Yahoo Inc. has upgraded its local search offerings not long after Amazon.com Inc. introduced its new local search feature on A9, which provides photographs of neighborhoods and businesses in search results.

Yahoo now has interactive maps at the neighborhood level, a calendar of neighborhood activities and customer reviews. “It’s kind of like CitySearch, but deeper and broader,” said Diana Vincent, a spokeswoman for Yahoo Local Search.

The program also gives recommendations based on recent searches, using computer-generated algorithms, and lists the most popular searches in a particular area.

Yahoo sees it as another extension of social networking not to mention the advertising potential. “It pairs what you search for with what others have searched for in your area, algorithmically,” Vincent said. For Pasadena-based Yahoo Search Marketing, “there’s obviously a lot of potential,” she said.

Hollywood Shuffle


Mark Bianchi, founder and former chief executive of post-production powerhouse L.A. Digital Post, is taking on Hollywood again as new chief executive of Archion Technologies, a digital storage provider for television and feature films.

Burbank-based Archion wants to compete with Avid Technology Inc. as the dominant provider of digital storage equipment for movie and television shoots. Founded in 1999, Archion is still the new kid on the block, though it has been making inroads with large and small studios. Its equipment was used in Lion’s Gate Films’ release “Crash,” and Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc.’s “Must Love Dogs.”

Beyond the Sea


Monrovia-based systems-integrator SeeBeyond Technology Corp. has won a contract from Southlake, Texas-based Sabre Holdings Corp., owner of travel site Travelocity and the Sabre travel and airline networks.

SeeBeyond is overhauling the systems for the entire company, which includes Travelocity and two industry-based networks. The project involves integrating Sabre’s three disparate systems onto one platform so that each vendor just has to tap into Sabre. As part of the project, Travelocity is expected to be overhauled, though details were not disclosed.

*Staff Reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext.226 or by e-mail at

[email protected]

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