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 22 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 312 268 125
Rank change year-on-year -44 -143 +8
Contract jobs citing C 174 113 299
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.62% 0.74% 1.69%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.87% 2.66% 6.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 33 121
10th Percentile £363 £358 £400
25th Percentile £400 £375 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -7.06% +2.48%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £600
90th Percentile £679 £634 £638
UK median daily rate £473 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -9.90% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 36 65
10th Percentile £57.43 £41.25 £51.75
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 £77.50
90th Percentile £70.38 £75.00 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +2.94% +4.62% -

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 6,070 4,243 4,360
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 21.54% 27.80% 24.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,696 2,739 2,748
10th Percentile £331 £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 £583
90th Percentile £675 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £523 £505 £526
% change year-on-year +3.47% -3.90% -4.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 471 199 268
10th Percentile £26.85 £33.91 £29.33
25th Percentile £51.25 £50.00 £52.19
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +3.17%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -14 57 £450 -10.00% 214
East of England -13 55 £700 +75.00% 194
South West -42 31 £450 -18.18% 151
West Midlands -29 20 £450 - 45
Midlands -33 20 £450 - 90
North of England -77 7 £410 -4.09% 84
Scotland -34 5 - - 57
Yorkshire -44 3 £400 -20.00% 25
North West -59 3 £420 +10.53% 42
North East -35 1 - - 18
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 (2.87%) Tuxedo
2 1 (0.57%) ColdFusion
2 1 (0.57%) Confluence
2 1 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (0.57%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 9 (5.17%) Simulink
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.15%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.57%) BASE24
2 1 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.57%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 6 (3.45%) AWS
1 6 (3.45%) Azure
1 6 (3.45%) GitHub
1 6 (3.45%) GitHub Copilot
2 4 (2.30%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (1.15%) Copilot Studio
3 2 (1.15%) Datadog
3 2 (1.15%) IaaS
3 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
3 2 (1.15%) OCI
3 2 (1.15%) SaaS
4 1 (0.57%) Anthropic Claude
4 1 (0.57%) Azure AI
4 1 (0.57%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (0.57%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.57%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 22 (12.64%) Wireless
2 21 (12.07%) Software-Defined Radio
3 10 (5.75%) Ethernet
4 4 (2.30%) RS-232
5 3 (1.72%) Bluetooth
5 3 (1.72%) RS-485
5 3 (1.72%) Wi-Fi
5 3 (1.72%) Wireshark
6 2 (1.15%) Broadband
6 2 (1.15%) DHCP
6 2 (1.15%) Firewall
6 2 (1.15%) VPN
6 2 (1.15%) WAN
7 1 (0.57%) DNS
7 1 (0.57%) FTP
7 1 (0.57%) IPv6
7 1 (0.57%) LAN
7 1 (0.57%) SNMP
7 1 (0.57%) VoIP
7 1 (0.57%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.75%) Ingres
2 5 (2.87%) Relational Database
2 5 (2.87%) SQL Server
3 4 (2.30%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.57%) NonStop SQL
4 1 (0.57%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.57%) Power BI
4 1 (0.57%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 20 (11.49%) Rational DOORS
2 14 (8.05%) Git
3 13 (7.47%) JIRA
3 13 (7.47%) Rational Rhapsody
4 7 (4.02%) Team Foundation Server
5 5 (2.87%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (2.30%) CppUnit
6 4 (2.30%) PVCS
7 2 (1.15%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.57%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.57%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.57%) CMake
8 1 (0.57%) GitLab
8 1 (0.57%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.57%) PetaLinux
8 1 (0.57%) PowerBuilder
General
1 34 (19.54%) Social Skills
2 22 (12.64%) Aerospace
3 18 (10.34%) Electronics
4 14 (8.05%) Law
5 12 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (4.60%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.87%) Public Sector
8 4 (2.30%) Automotive
9 3 (1.72%) Avionics
9 3 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.72%) Military
10 2 (1.15%) Retail
11 1 (0.57%) Finance
11 1 (0.57%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 85 (48.85%) Software Engineer
2 51 (29.31%) Embedded Engineer
3 47 (27.01%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 24 (13.79%) C Software Engineer
5 21 (12.07%) Senior
6 20 (11.49%) Developer
7 17 (9.77%) C++ Software Engineer
8 13 (7.47%) Embedded C Engineer
8 13 (7.47%) Embedded C Software Engineer
8 13 (7.47%) Lead
9 12 (6.90%) C/C++ Software Engineer
10 11 (6.32%) Development Engineer
10 11 (6.32%) Software Development Engineer
10 11 (6.32%) Software Team Leader
10 11 (6.32%) Team Leader
11 10 (5.75%) Software Developer
12 8 (4.60%) C Developer
12 8 (4.60%) DSP Engineer
12 8 (4.60%) DSP Software Engineer
13 7 (4.02%) Linux Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.05%) Yocto
2 7 (4.02%) LDAP
2 7 (4.02%) OpenTofu
2 7 (4.02%) Terraform
3 4 (2.30%) .NET
4 3 (1.72%) ADO
4 3 (1.72%) COM
4 3 (1.72%) ODBC
4 3 (1.72%) REST
4 3 (1.72%) XML
5 2 (1.15%) CSS
5 2 (1.15%) HTML
5 2 (1.15%) HTML5
5 2 (1.15%) QML
5 2 (1.15%) Qt
5 2 (1.15%) React
6 1 (0.57%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.57%) Middleware
6 1 (0.57%) PyTorch
6 1 (0.57%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 29 (16.67%) Embedded Systems
2 18 (10.34%) FPGA
3 17 (9.77%) RISC-V
4 15 (8.62%) Device Driver
5 10 (5.75%) MicroBlaze
6 9 (5.17%) PCIe
7 7 (4.02%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (4.02%) Verilog
7 7 (4.02%) VHDL
8 5 (2.87%) Algorithms
9 3 (1.72%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.72%) Low-Code
10 2 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.15%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.15%) Legacy Applications
10 2 (1.15%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.15%) Product Ownership
10 2 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (1.15%) Social Media
10 2 (1.15%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 51 (29.31%) Linux
2 23 (13.22%) Embedded Linux
3 12 (6.90%) FreeRTOS
4 5 (2.87%) Unix
5 2 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.15%) Windows
6 1 (0.57%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (66.09%) Software Engineering
2 34 (19.54%) Agile
3 27 (15.52%) Signal Processing
4 23 (13.22%) UML
5 22 (12.64%) Problem-Solving
6 21 (12.07%) Digital Signal Processing
7 18 (10.34%) Validation
8 17 (9.77%) Systems Engineering
9 16 (9.20%) Data Management
10 14 (8.05%) Software Testing
11 13 (7.47%) Integration Testing
12 12 (6.90%) System Integration Testing
12 12 (6.90%) Test Automation
13 11 (6.32%) DevOps
13 11 (6.32%) Migration
14 10 (5.75%) Runbook
15 9 (5.17%) CI/CD
15 9 (5.17%) SysML
15 9 (5.17%) Technical Leadership
15 9 (5.17%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 94 (54.02%) C++
2 34 (19.54%) Embedded C
3 28 (16.09%) Python
4 19 (10.92%) Ada
5 17 (9.77%) SQL
6 11 (6.32%) MATLAB
6 11 (6.32%) PL/SQL
7 10 (5.75%) ProC
8 9 (5.17%) Java
9 7 (4.02%) Embedded C++
10 6 (3.45%) C#
10 6 (3.45%) SystemVerilog
11 5 (2.87%) JavaScript
11 5 (2.87%) VB
11 5 (2.87%) VB6
12 4 (2.30%) PowerShell
13 3 (1.72%) Lua
13 3 (1.72%) Rust
13 3 (1.72%) TypeScript
14 2 (1.15%) Go
Qualifications
1 45 (25.86%) Security Cleared
2 37 (21.26%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.62%) Degree
4 5 (2.87%) DV Cleared
5 4 (2.30%) Master's Degree
6 2 (1.15%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.57%) CCNA
7 1 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.57%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.57%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (6.90%) QA
2 9 (5.17%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.17%) MISRA
3 7 (4.02%) DO-178B
4 2 (1.15%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.57%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.57%) ISO 14001
5 1 (0.57%) ISO 8583
5 1 (0.57%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.57%) MIL-STD-1553
5 1 (0.57%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 28 (16.09%) Firmware
2 15 (8.62%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (4.60%) Docker
3 8 (4.60%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (4.02%) Active Directory
4 7 (4.02%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.57%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 2 (1.15%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.15%) Progress Chef
1 2 (1.15%) Puppet
1 2 (1.15%) Salt
2 1 (0.57%) Nagios
Vendors
1 17 (9.77%) Oracle
2 9 (5.17%) IBM
3 7 (4.02%) VMware
3 7 (4.02%) Xilinx
4 6 (3.45%) Intel
5 5 (2.87%) Microsemi
6 3 (1.72%) Actian
6 3 (1.72%) MathWorks
6 3 (1.72%) Microsoft
7 2 (1.15%) EMC
7 2 (1.15%) QNX
7 2 (1.15%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.15%) SaltStack
7 2 (1.15%) Splunk
8 1 (0.57%) Google
8 1 (0.57%) HP
8 1 (0.57%) Infoblox
8 1 (0.57%) NetScout
8 1 (0.57%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.57%) OpenAI