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 15 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 264 95
Rank change year-on-year -24 -169 +69
Contract jobs citing C 172 74 447
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.67% 0.55% 2.09%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.95% 1.92% 8.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 27 169
10th Percentile £411 £191 £408
25th Percentile £433 £287 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £391 £540
Median % change year-on-year +21.48% -27.59% +8.00%
75th Percentile £508 £500 £625
90th Percentile £625 £564 £688
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £535
% change year-on-year -5.00% -6.54% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 31 170
10th Percentile £59.84 £55.00 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £59.50 £57.50
Median hourly rate £69.00 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.47% +4.62% +8.33%
75th Percentile £70.00 £76.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £85.00 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £67.75 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.37% +4.62% +11.11%

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 5,838 3,846 5,063
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 22.81% 28.76% 23.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,668 2,549 3,323
10th Percentile £335 £315 £319
25th Percentile £408 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £489
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -2.86% -2.20%
75th Percentile £575 £551 £577
90th Percentile £650 £626 £650
UK median daily rate £505 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -1.46% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 476 167 454
10th Percentile £37.75 £27.02 £37.55
25th Percentile £55.38 £43.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.84% -4.62% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £69.38 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £84.70 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +18.18% -12.00% +2.97%

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 15 June 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 15 June 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 15 June 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 -3 53 £525 +31.25% 99
South East -18 48 £500 - 144
South West -2 43 £463 -22.92% 71
Midlands -41 18 £473 +530.67% 26
West Midlands - 17 £462 - 18
North of England -79 4 £625 +66.67% 34
Northern Ireland - 4 £425 - 8
Scotland -28 2 - - 16
North East -32 2 £625 - 2
Wales -15 1 £460 -12.38% 8
East Midlands -25 1 £525 +600.00% 8
North West -44 1 - - 21
Yorkshire -53 1 - - 11
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 (2.91%) Tuxedo
2 1 (0.58%) Confluence
2 1 (0.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 1 (0.58%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 10 (5.81%) Simulink
2 3 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.58%) BASE24
2 1 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 7 (4.07%) AWS
2 6 (3.49%) GitHub
3 5 (2.91%) GitHub Copilot
4 3 (1.74%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.16%) Azure
5 2 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (1.16%) GCP
5 2 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.58%) BlazeMeter
6 1 (0.58%) Copilot Studio
6 1 (0.58%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.58%) Firebase
6 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.21%) Ethernet
2 17 (9.88%) Software-Defined Radio
2 17 (9.88%) Wireless
3 3 (1.74%) Bluetooth
3 3 (1.74%) Modbus
3 3 (1.74%) RS-232
3 3 (1.74%) RS-422
3 3 (1.74%) RS-485
3 3 (1.74%) SpaceWire
4 2 (1.16%) 3GPP
4 2 (1.16%) 4G
4 2 (1.16%) 5G
4 2 (1.16%) 5G NR
4 2 (1.16%) LTE
4 2 (1.16%) Microwave Backhaul
4 2 (1.16%) MPLS
4 2 (1.16%) Radio Access Network
4 2 (1.16%) VoLTE
4 2 (1.16%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (1.16%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.23%) Ingres
2 5 (2.91%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.33%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.33%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.74%) Power BI
4 3 (1.74%) Tableau
5 1 (0.58%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.58%) NonStop SQL
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.58%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 23 (13.37%) Rational DOORS
2 16 (9.30%) Git
3 13 (7.56%) Rational Rhapsody
4 7 (4.07%) JIRA
5 5 (2.91%) Visual Studio
6 4 (2.33%) Team Foundation Server
7 3 (1.74%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (1.74%) PVCS
8 2 (1.16%) GitLab
9 1 (0.58%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.58%) Crashlytics
9 1 (0.58%) fastlane
9 1 (0.58%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.58%) JMeter
9 1 (0.58%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.58%) PetaLinux
9 1 (0.58%) Postman
9 1 (0.58%) Xcode
9 1 (0.58%) XCTest
9 1 (0.58%) XCUITest
General
1 29 (16.86%) Aerospace
1 29 (16.86%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.63%) Electronics
3 12 (6.98%) Law
4 10 (5.81%) Documentation Skills
4 10 (5.81%) Manufacturing
5 6 (3.49%) Automotive
6 4 (2.33%) Avionics
6 4 (2.33%) Public Sector
7 3 (1.74%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (1.16%) Games
8 2 (1.16%) Publishing
9 1 (0.58%) Finance
Job Titles
1 77 (44.77%) Software Engineer
2 60 (34.88%) Embedded Engineer
3 44 (25.58%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 21 (12.21%) C++ Software Engineer
5 20 (11.63%) C Software Engineer
5 20 (11.63%) C/C++ Software Engineer
6 15 (8.72%) Senior
7 14 (8.14%) Developer
8 10 (5.81%) Lead
8 10 (5.81%) Validation Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Test Leader
10 8 (4.65%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) DSP Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Embedded C Software Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Embedded C++ Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) FPGA Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.14%) Yocto
2 6 (3.49%) .NET
3 5 (2.91%) WinForms
4 4 (2.33%) Qt
5 3 (1.74%) ADO
5 3 (1.74%) COM
5 3 (1.74%) ODBC
6 2 (1.16%) Itk
6 2 (1.16%) Middleware
6 2 (1.16%) QML
7 1 (0.58%) Core Data
7 1 (0.58%) Flash
7 1 (0.58%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.58%) JSON
7 1 (0.58%) LDAP
7 1 (0.58%) PostGIS
7 1 (0.58%) Protocol Buffers
7 1 (0.58%) REST
7 1 (0.58%) Web Services
7 1 (0.58%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 34 (19.77%) FPGA
2 29 (16.86%) Embedded Systems
3 19 (11.05%) PCIe
4 12 (6.98%) VHDL
5 9 (5.23%) Algorithms
5 9 (5.23%) Device Driver
5 9 (5.23%) Verilog
6 6 (3.49%) MicroBlaze
6 6 (3.49%) RISC-V
7 5 (2.91%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.33%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.74%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.74%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.74%) Low-Code
10 2 (1.16%) ASIC
10 2 (1.16%) CAN bus
10 2 (1.16%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.16%) Video\Live Streaming
11 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.58%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 45 (26.16%) Linux
2 20 (11.63%) Embedded Linux
3 12 (6.98%) FreeRTOS
4 11 (6.40%) Windows
5 3 (1.74%) Unix
6 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (59.88%) Software Engineering
2 36 (20.93%) Validation
3 29 (16.86%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (16.86%) Test Automation
4 24 (13.95%) Agile
5 22 (12.79%) Signal Processing
5 22 (12.79%) Workflow
6 20 (11.63%) Digital Signal Processing
7 17 (9.88%) Embedded Software Development
7 17 (9.88%) Workflow Management
8 15 (8.72%) CI/CD
8 15 (8.72%) Verification and Validation
9 13 (7.56%) UML
10 12 (6.98%) Software Testing
11 11 (6.40%) Data Acquisition
11 11 (6.40%) TDD
11 11 (6.40%) Unit Testing
12 10 (5.81%) Data Management
12 10 (5.81%) Technical Leadership
13 9 (5.23%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 85 (49.42%) C++
2 32 (18.60%) Embedded C
3 29 (16.86%) Ada
3 29 (16.86%) Python
4 20 (11.63%) MATLAB
5 16 (9.30%) SQL
6 11 (6.40%) Embedded C++
7 10 (5.81%) PL/SQL
8 8 (4.65%) Java
8 8 (4.65%) ProC
9 7 (4.07%) C#
9 7 (4.07%) SystemVerilog
10 6 (3.49%) VB
11 5 (2.91%) VB6
12 4 (2.33%) Bash
13 3 (1.74%) Rust
14 2 (1.16%) Perl
14 2 (1.16%) Shell Script
15 1 (0.58%) JavaScript
15 1 (0.58%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 55 (31.98%) Security Cleared
2 45 (26.16%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.81%) Degree
4 9 (5.23%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.49%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.58%) CCNA
6 1 (0.58%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (0.58%) ISTQB
6 1 (0.58%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 1 (0.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 1 (0.58%) Six Sigma Black Belt
6 1 (0.58%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.14%) Def Stans
2 11 (6.40%) QA
3 4 (2.33%) MISRA
4 3 (1.74%) IEC 61508
4 3 (1.74%) MIL-STD-1553
5 2 (1.16%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.58%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.58%) DICOM
6 1 (0.58%) DO-178B
6 1 (0.58%) HL7
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.58%) MISRA C
System Software
1 13 (7.56%) Firmware
2 6 (3.49%) Embedded Firmware
3 4 (2.33%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.74%) Docker
4 3 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.58%) Active Directory
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 2 (1.16%) Kubernetes
1 2 (1.16%) Terraform
2 1 (0.58%) Grafana
2 1 (0.58%) HP ALM
2 1 (0.58%) Nagios
2 1 (0.58%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (7.56%) Oracle
2 10 (5.81%) IBM
2 10 (5.81%) Xilinx
3 9 (5.23%) Intel
4 7 (4.07%) MathWorks
5 6 (3.49%) Microsemi
6 4 (2.33%) Lauterbach
7 3 (1.74%) Actian
7 3 (1.74%) ANSYS
7 3 (1.74%) SAP
7 3 (1.74%) VMware
8 2 (1.16%) Google
8 2 (1.16%) HP
8 2 (1.16%) Microsoft
8 2 (1.16%) QNX
9 1 (0.58%) Cisco
9 1 (0.58%) Citrix
9 1 (0.58%) EMC
9 1 (0.58%) Infoblox
9 1 (0.58%) Remedy