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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 311 248 138
Rank change year-on-year -63 -110 -3
Contract jobs citing C 166 124 277
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.59% 0.79% 1.59%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.74% 2.88% 6.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 35 38 94
10th Percentile £325 £67 £400
25th Percentile £400 £375 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -11.63% +2.38%
75th Percentile £538 £547 £600
90th Percentile £664 £624 £638
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £539
% change year-on-year -5.00% -7.19% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 66 39 62
10th Percentile £60.00 £41.25 £51.38
25th Percentile £65.00 £52.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £68.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% +0.74% +3.85%
75th Percentile - £73.75 £76.88
90th Percentile £70.63 £75.00 £89.50
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 6,061 4,301 4,382
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 21.49% 27.54% 25.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,648 2,777 2,672
10th Percentile £335 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £550 £581
90th Percentile £672 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 474 207 259
10th Percentile £23.15 £33.91 £27.00
25th Percentile £51.06 £50.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.00 £75.00
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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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
East of England -11 53 £705 +61.14% 267
South East -12 52 £450 -10.00% 256
South West -49 30 £550 - 144
Midlands -26 18 £462 - 104
West Midlands -29 18 £462 - 52
Scotland -33 7 £480 +9.71% 71
North of England -81 6 £410 -4.09% 111
Yorkshire -36 3 £400 -20.00% 31
North West -55 3 £420 +10.53% 50
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 7 (4.22%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.60%) BASE24
2 1 (0.60%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 6 (3.61%) AWS
1 6 (3.61%) GitHub
1 6 (3.61%) GitHub Copilot
2 5 (3.01%) Azure
3 3 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (1.20%) Datadog
4 2 (1.20%) IaaS
4 2 (1.20%) OCI
4 2 (1.20%) SaaS
5 1 (0.60%) Anthropic Claude
5 1 (0.60%) Azure AI
5 1 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 17 (10.24%) Wireless
2 16 (9.64%) Software-Defined Radio
3 9 (5.42%) Ethernet
4 6 (3.61%) RS-232
5 4 (2.41%) RS-485
6 3 (1.81%) Bluetooth
6 3 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.81%) Wireshark
7 2 (1.20%) Broadband
8 1 (0.60%) DHCP
8 1 (0.60%) DSL
8 1 (0.60%) Firewall
8 1 (0.60%) FTP
8 1 (0.60%) Gigabit Ethernet
8 1 (0.60%) IPsec
8 1 (0.60%) IPv6
8 1 (0.60%) SNMP
8 1 (0.60%) VoIP
8 1 (0.60%) VPN
8 1 (0.60%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.02%) Ingres
2 5 (3.01%) Relational Database
2 5 (3.01%) SQL Server
3 4 (2.41%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.60%) NonStop SQL
4 1 (0.60%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 16 (9.64%) Rational DOORS
2 14 (8.43%) Git
3 13 (7.83%) JIRA
3 13 (7.83%) Rational Rhapsody
4 7 (4.22%) Team Foundation Server
5 5 (3.01%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (2.41%) CppUnit
6 4 (2.41%) PVCS
7 2 (1.20%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.60%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.60%) PowerBuilder
General
1 30 (18.07%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.84%) Electronics
3 17 (10.24%) Aerospace
4 13 (7.83%) Law
5 11 (6.63%) Analytical Skills
6 10 (6.02%) Manufacturing
7 5 (3.01%) Automotive
7 5 (3.01%) Public Sector
8 3 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
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 49 (29.52%) Embedded Engineer
3 45 (27.11%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 29 (17.47%) C Software Engineer
5 20 (12.05%) Senior
6 19 (11.45%) C++ Software Engineer
6 19 (11.45%) Developer
7 16 (9.64%) Embedded C Engineer
7 16 (9.64%) Embedded C Software Engineer
8 14 (8.43%) C/C++ Software Engineer
8 14 (8.43%) Development Engineer
8 14 (8.43%) Software Development Engineer
9 11 (6.63%) Lead
9 11 (6.63%) Software Developer
9 11 (6.63%) Software Team Leader
9 11 (6.63%) Team Leader
10 9 (5.42%) C Developer
11 8 (4.82%) Linux Developer
12 6 (3.61%) DSP Engineer
12 6 (3.61%) Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.23%) Yocto
2 8 (4.82%) LDAP
2 8 (4.82%) OpenTofu
2 8 (4.82%) Terraform
3 3 (1.81%) .NET
3 3 (1.81%) ADO
3 3 (1.81%) COM
3 3 (1.81%) ODBC
3 3 (1.81%) REST
3 3 (1.81%) XML
4 2 (1.20%) CSS
4 2 (1.20%) HTML
4 2 (1.20%) HTML5
4 2 (1.20%) QML
4 2 (1.20%) Qt
4 2 (1.20%) React
5 1 (0.60%) AngularJS
5 1 (0.60%) Itk
5 1 (0.60%) Middleware
5 1 (0.60%) Razor View Engine
Miscellaneous
1 24 (14.46%) Embedded Systems
2 15 (9.04%) RISC-V
3 14 (8.43%) FPGA
4 13 (7.83%) Device Driver
5 8 (4.82%) MicroBlaze
6 7 (4.22%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (4.22%) PCIe
7 5 (3.01%) Verilog
7 5 (3.01%) VHDL
8 4 (2.41%) Algorithms
9 3 (1.81%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.81%) Low-Code
10 2 (1.20%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.20%) Digital TV
10 2 (1.20%) GNSS
10 2 (1.20%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.20%) Product Ownership
10 2 (1.20%) Robotics
10 2 (1.20%) Social Media
10 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 43 (25.90%) Linux
2 19 (11.45%) Embedded Linux
3 8 (4.82%) FreeRTOS
4 4 (2.41%) Unix
5 2 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.60%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (66.87%) Software Engineering
2 33 (19.88%) Agile
3 21 (12.65%) Signal Processing
4 20 (12.05%) UML
5 19 (11.45%) Problem-Solving
5 19 (11.45%) Validation
6 16 (9.64%) Data Management
6 16 (9.64%) Systems Engineering
7 15 (9.04%) Digital Signal Processing
8 13 (7.83%) Integration Testing
9 12 (7.23%) System Integration Testing
10 11 (6.63%) Migration
10 11 (6.63%) Software Testing
11 10 (6.02%) DevOps
11 10 (6.02%) Runbook
12 9 (5.42%) User Acceptance Testing
13 8 (4.82%) Requirements Management
13 8 (4.82%) Test Automation
14 7 (4.22%) Collaborative Working
14 7 (4.22%) Embedded Software Development
Programming Languages
1 86 (51.81%) C++
2 38 (22.89%) Embedded C
3 23 (13.86%) Python
4 17 (10.24%) SQL
5 15 (9.04%) Ada
6 11 (6.63%) PL/SQL
7 10 (6.02%) ProC
8 8 (4.82%) Embedded C++
9 7 (4.22%) Java
9 7 (4.22%) MATLAB
10 5 (3.01%) C#
10 5 (3.01%) SystemVerilog
10 5 (3.01%) VB
10 5 (3.01%) VB6
11 4 (2.41%) JavaScript
11 4 (2.41%) PowerShell
12 3 (1.81%) Lua
12 3 (1.81%) Rust
12 3 (1.81%) TypeScript
13 2 (1.20%) Go
Qualifications
1 37 (22.29%) Security Cleared
2 31 (18.67%) SC Cleared
3 12 (7.23%) Degree
4 4 (2.41%) DV Cleared
4 4 (2.41%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.02%) QA
2 9 (5.42%) Def Stans
2 9 (5.42%) MISRA
3 7 (4.22%) DO-178B
4 2 (1.20%) ISO 26262
5 1 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.60%) IEC 62304
5 1 (0.60%) ISO 8583
5 1 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 28 (16.87%) Firmware
2 13 (7.83%) Embedded Firmware
3 8 (4.82%) Active Directory
3 8 (4.82%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (4.22%) Docker
4 7 (4.22%) VMware Infrastructure
5 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
Vendors
1 17 (10.24%) Oracle
2 8 (4.82%) IBM
3 7 (4.22%) VMware
4 5 (3.01%) Intel
4 5 (3.01%) Microsemi
4 5 (3.01%) Xilinx
5 3 (1.81%) Actian
5 3 (1.81%) EMC
6 2 (1.20%) MathWorks
6 2 (1.20%) Microsoft
6 2 (1.20%) QNX
6 2 (1.20%) Red Hat
6 2 (1.20%) SaltStack
6 2 (1.20%) Splunk
7 1 (0.60%) Altera
7 1 (0.60%) HP
7 1 (0.60%) NVIDIA
7 1 (0.60%) OpenAI