C Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

C
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring C skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 265 128
Rank change year-on-year -45 -137 +7
Contract jobs citing C 166 104 310
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.60% 0.68% 1.75%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.77% 2.47% 7.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 33 135
10th Percentile £338 £375 £400
25th Percentile £400 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -7.06% +2.48%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £594
90th Percentile £681 £634 £638
UK median daily rate £473 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -9.90% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 32 70
10th Percentile £59.85 £42.33 £52.38
25th Percentile £65.00 £53.31 £61.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% +7.69%
75th Percentile - £73.75 £80.00
90th Percentile £70.75 £87.50 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £68.00 £68.00 £67.50
% change year-on-year - +0.74% +3.85%

All Programming Languages
UK excluding London

C falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 5,992 4,208 4,323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 21.52% 27.70% 24.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,673 2,735 2,798
10th Percentile £329 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £550 £588
90th Percentile £669 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £520 £501 £526
% change year-on-year +3.90% -4.76% -4.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 450 202 273
10th Percentile £29.81 £31.64 £35.12
25th Percentile £52.63 £50.00 £54.36
Median hourly rate £65.50 £63.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.97% -3.08% +1.27%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £78.84
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%

C
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing C relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

C job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

C
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing C.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing C

C
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing C in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for C in the UK excluding London

C
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing C.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing C

C
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing C in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 8 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for C in the UK excluding London

C
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing C within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 8 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -25 55 £450 -10.00% 184
East of England -8 53 £700 +30.23% 188
South West -43 30 £450 -20.88% 117
West Midlands -27 20 £450 - 30
Midlands -38 20 £450 - 64
Scotland -34 5 - - 52
North of England -84 4 £400 -6.43% 60
Yorkshire -41 2 £400 -20.00% 14
North East -42 1 - - 11
North West -64 1 - - 37
C
UK

C
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 5 (3.01%) Tuxedo
2 1 (0.60%) ColdFusion
2 1 (0.60%) Confluence
2 1 (0.60%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 11 (6.63%) Simulink
2 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.60%) BASE24
2 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.60%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 6 (3.61%) AWS
2 5 (3.01%) Azure
2 5 (3.01%) GitHub
2 5 (3.01%) GitHub Copilot
3 4 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (1.20%) IaaS
4 2 (1.20%) OCI
4 2 (1.20%) SaaS
5 1 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
5 1 (0.60%) Datadog
5 1 (0.60%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (0.60%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.65%) Software-Defined Radio
1 21 (12.65%) Wireless
2 9 (5.42%) Ethernet
3 3 (1.81%) Bluetooth
3 3 (1.81%) RS-232
3 3 (1.81%) RS-485
3 3 (1.81%) Wireshark
4 1 (0.60%) ATM
4 1 (0.60%) Broadband
4 1 (0.60%) DHCP
4 1 (0.60%) DNS
4 1 (0.60%) Firewall
4 1 (0.60%) LAN
4 1 (0.60%) SpaceWire
4 1 (0.60%) VPN
4 1 (0.60%) WAN
4 1 (0.60%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (0.60%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.02%) Ingres
2 5 (3.01%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.41%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.41%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.60%) NonStop SQL
4 1 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.60%) Power BI
4 1 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 20 (12.05%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (7.83%) Git
3 12 (7.23%) Rational Rhapsody
4 9 (5.42%) JIRA
5 7 (4.22%) Team Foundation Server
6 5 (3.01%) Oracle Forms
7 2 (1.20%) CppUnit
7 2 (1.20%) Jenkins
7 2 (1.20%) PVCS
8 1 (0.60%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.60%) CMake
8 1 (0.60%) GitLab
8 1 (0.60%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.60%) PetaLinux
General
1 33 (19.88%) Social Skills
2 26 (15.66%) Aerospace
3 16 (9.64%) Electronics
4 13 (7.83%) Law
5 12 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (6.02%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.01%) Public Sector
8 3 (1.81%) Automotive
8 3 (1.81%) Military
9 2 (1.20%) Avionics
9 2 (1.20%) Retail
10 1 (0.60%) Finance
10 1 (0.60%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 83 (50.00%) Software Engineer
2 50 (30.12%) Embedded Engineer
3 44 (26.51%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 21 (12.65%) C Software Engineer
5 19 (11.45%) Senior
6 17 (10.24%) C++ Software Engineer
7 13 (7.83%) Developer
8 12 (7.23%) C/C++ Software Engineer
8 12 (7.23%) Lead
9 10 (6.02%) Embedded C Engineer
9 10 (6.02%) Embedded C Software Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) Development Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) DSP Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) DSP Software Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) Software Development Engineer
10 8 (4.82%) Software Team Leader
10 8 (4.82%) Team Leader
11 7 (4.22%) Software Developer
12 6 (3.61%) Linux Engineer
12 6 (3.61%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.43%) Yocto
2 4 (2.41%) LDAP
2 4 (2.41%) OpenTofu
2 4 (2.41%) Terraform
3 3 (1.81%) ADO
3 3 (1.81%) COM
3 3 (1.81%) ODBC
3 3 (1.81%) REST
4 2 (1.20%) .NET
4 2 (1.20%) QML
4 2 (1.20%) Qt
4 2 (1.20%) XML
5 1 (0.60%) .NET Core
5 1 (0.60%) AngularJS
5 1 (0.60%) Itk
5 1 (0.60%) Middleware
5 1 (0.60%) PostGIS
5 1 (0.60%) PyTorch
5 1 (0.60%) Razor View Engine
5 1 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 30 (18.07%) Embedded Systems
2 19 (11.45%) FPGA
3 17 (10.24%) RISC-V
4 15 (9.04%) Device Driver
5 10 (6.02%) MicroBlaze
6 9 (5.42%) PCIe
7 8 (4.82%) Verilog
7 8 (4.82%) VHDL
8 7 (4.22%) Legacy Systems
9 6 (3.61%) Algorithms
10 3 (1.81%) ARM Cortex
10 3 (1.81%) Low-Code
11 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.20%) Cloud Native
11 2 (1.20%) Legacy Applications
11 2 (1.20%) Private Cloud
11 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
12 1 (0.60%) Acoustics
12 1 (0.60%) IoT
12 1 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 50 (30.12%) Linux
2 24 (14.46%) Embedded Linux
3 12 (7.23%) FreeRTOS
4 5 (3.01%) Unix
5 2 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.20%) Windows
6 1 (0.60%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (66.87%) Software Engineering
2 31 (18.67%) Agile
3 28 (16.87%) Signal Processing
4 23 (13.86%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (13.25%) Digital Signal Processing
6 20 (12.05%) UML
7 19 (11.45%) Validation
8 17 (10.24%) Test Automation
9 16 (9.64%) Data Management
9 16 (9.64%) Systems Engineering
10 14 (8.43%) Software Testing
11 12 (7.23%) Integration Testing
11 12 (7.23%) System Integration Testing
12 11 (6.63%) Migration
13 10 (6.02%) DevOps
13 10 (6.02%) Embedded Software Development
13 10 (6.02%) Runbook
13 10 (6.02%) Technical Leadership
13 10 (6.02%) Workflow
14 9 (5.42%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 89 (53.61%) C++
2 32 (19.28%) Embedded C
3 27 (16.27%) Python
4 22 (13.25%) Ada
5 16 (9.64%) SQL
6 14 (8.43%) MATLAB
7 11 (6.63%) PL/SQL
8 10 (6.02%) ProC
9 8 (4.82%) Embedded C++
10 7 (4.22%) Java
11 6 (3.61%) SystemVerilog
12 5 (3.01%) VB
12 5 (3.01%) VB6
13 4 (2.41%) C#
14 3 (1.81%) Lua
14 3 (1.81%) PowerShell
14 3 (1.81%) Rust
15 2 (1.20%) JavaScript
15 2 (1.20%) Perl
16 1 (0.60%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 48 (28.92%) Security Cleared
2 40 (24.10%) SC Cleared
3 15 (9.04%) Degree
4 7 (4.22%) DV Cleared
5 5 (3.01%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.41%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.60%) CCNA
7 1 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.83%) QA
2 11 (6.63%) Def Stans
3 9 (5.42%) MISRA
4 7 (4.22%) DO-178B
5 2 (1.20%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.60%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.60%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.60%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.60%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.60%) MIL-STD-1553
6 1 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 27 (16.27%) Firmware
2 15 (9.04%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (4.82%) Docker
4 6 (3.61%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (3.01%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (2.41%) Active Directory
7 1 (0.60%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 2 (1.20%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.20%) Progress Chef
1 2 (1.20%) Puppet
1 2 (1.20%) Salt
2 1 (0.60%) Nagios
Vendors
1 16 (9.64%) Oracle
2 10 (6.02%) IBM
3 8 (4.82%) Xilinx
4 7 (4.22%) Intel
5 5 (3.01%) Microsemi
5 5 (3.01%) VMware
6 4 (2.41%) MathWorks
7 3 (1.81%) Actian
8 2 (1.20%) Lauterbach
8 2 (1.20%) Microsoft
8 2 (1.20%) QNX
8 2 (1.20%) Red Hat
8 2 (1.20%) SaltStack
8 2 (1.20%) SAP
9 1 (0.60%) Cisco
9 1 (0.60%) EMC
9 1 (0.60%) HP
9 1 (0.60%) Infoblox
9 1 (0.60%) NetScout
9 1 (0.60%) Splunk