275 per cent increase in the number of US firms hiring UK IT consultants over the last 12 months.

New research shows a 275 per cent increase in the number of US firms hiring UK IT consultants in the digital sector over the last 12 months.

The top states hiring UK IT talent are California, home to Silicon Valley, New York and Texas. While top freelancer locations in the UK are London, Leeds, Glasgow and Manchester, according to a report by PeoplePerHour.

The new figures reveal that the IT consultants are gaining work in the following areas: IT/Web/Programming (mainly web design, application development and web programming), Design (mainly graphic design and logo design) and Writing/Translation mainly (Copy editing/writing and web content).

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, PeoplePerHour founder and CEO: "Our figures show clearly that the UK is producing highly skilled IT consultants.

"The huge growth in hiring UK IT consultants from the US when both countries have high unemployment, shows that the UK staff are not just taking surplus jobs but competing with their US counterparts in a highly competitive marketplace.

"What’s more, UK IT consultants are competing most successfully in California, the home of Silicon Valley, which attracts IT specialists from around the world. This shows that it isn’t just US IT specialists that the UK consultants are successfully competing against but IT specialists from other countries too."