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 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 209 111
Rank change year-on-year -65 -98 +105
Contract jobs citing C 154 145 427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.75% 1.09% 2.06%
As % of the Programming Languages category 3.01% 3.79% 8.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 49 133
10th Percentile £68 £273 £345
25th Percentile £371 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £536
Median % change year-on-year +1.60% -12.78% -2.55%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £638
90th Percentile £625 £625 £706
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £535
% change year-on-year -5.00% -6.54% -10.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 37 185
10th Percentile £60.00 £58.42 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £61.25 £56.65
Median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +3.85% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.75 £95.00 £89.50
UK median hourly rate £67.00 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +3.85% +13.04%

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 5,118 3,821 5,049
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 24.87% 28.77% 24.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,342 2,344 3,377
10th Percentile £329 £325 £313
25th Percentile £404 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.52% -3.50% -1.57%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £659 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -5.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 407 175 401
10th Percentile £44.94 £21.10 £37.50
25th Percentile £55.75 £45.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.75 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.97% +1.99% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £85.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -4.76%

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 25 February 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 25 February 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 25 February 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 +2 66 £525 +31.25% 60
South West -14 53 £68 -88.57% 52
South East -53 13 £500 +5.26% 101
North of England -62 8 £550 - 40
Scotland +8 7 £65 -77.78% 39
Northern Ireland +1 5 £425 -
North West -36 5 £550 - 16
Yorkshire -62 2 £531 - 14
Midlands -65 2 £575 +243.28% 46
East Midlands -32 1 - - 25
West Midlands -57 1 £575 - 21
North East - 1 £625 - 10
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:

Applications
1 9 (5.84%) Simulink
2 3 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.95%) Stateflow
3 2 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 4 (2.60%) AWS
2 3 (1.95%) Azure
2 3 (1.95%) GitHub
3 2 (1.30%) GCP
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon ECS
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon EKS
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon GuardDuty
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
4 1 (0.65%) AWS CloudFormation
4 1 (0.65%) AWS CloudTrail
4 1 (0.65%) AWS Lambda
4 1 (0.65%) ChatGPT
4 1 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (0.65%) Firebase
4 1 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
4 1 (0.65%) GitHub Copilot
4 1 (0.65%) IaaS
4 1 (0.65%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (9.09%) Ethernet
2 7 (4.55%) RS-232
3 5 (3.25%) SpaceWire
4 3 (1.95%) Bluetooth
4 3 (1.95%) Modbus
4 3 (1.95%) RS-422
4 3 (1.95%) RS-485
5 2 (1.30%) HTTP
5 2 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.30%) Wireless
6 1 (0.65%) 3GPP
6 1 (0.65%) 5G
6 1 (0.65%) 5G NR
6 1 (0.65%) Internet
6 1 (0.65%) LTE
6 1 (0.65%) Software-Defined Radio
6 1 (0.65%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.60%) Oracle Database
2 1 (0.65%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (16.88%) Rational DOORS
2 14 (9.09%) Git
3 13 (8.44%) Rational Rhapsody
4 10 (6.49%) JIRA
5 8 (5.19%) PVCS
6 3 (1.95%) Artifactory
6 3 (1.95%) Jenkins
6 3 (1.95%) Rational Team Concert
6 3 (1.95%) Visual Studio
7 2 (1.30%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.65%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.65%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.65%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.65%) GitLab
8 1 (0.65%) NUnit
8 1 (0.65%) Polyspace
8 1 (0.65%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.65%) Xcode
8 1 (0.65%) XCTest
8 1 (0.65%) XCUITest
General
1 33 (21.43%) Electronics
2 21 (13.64%) Social Skills
3 20 (12.99%) Aerospace
4 13 (8.44%) Law
5 11 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (7.14%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.25%) Automotive
7 3 (1.95%) Games
7 3 (1.95%) Manufacturing
7 3 (1.95%) Military
8 2 (1.30%) Aviation
8 2 (1.30%) Avionics
8 2 (1.30%) Publishing
9 1 (0.65%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 70 (45.45%) Software Engineer
2 57 (37.01%) Embedded Engineer
3 43 (27.92%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 27 (17.53%) C Software Engineer
5 22 (14.29%) C++ Software Engineer
6 21 (13.64%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 19 (12.34%) Embedded C Engineer
7 19 (12.34%) Embedded C Software Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) Embedded C++ Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
8 13 (8.44%) Support Engineer
9 12 (7.79%) Product Engineer
9 12 (7.79%) Products Support Engineer
9 12 (7.79%) Software Support Engineer
10 10 (6.49%) Developer
10 10 (6.49%) Validation Engineer
11 9 (5.84%) FPGA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (11.04%) Middleware
2 7 (4.55%) Flash
3 6 (3.90%) Yocto
4 2 (1.30%) .NET
4 2 (1.30%) JSON
4 2 (1.30%) Protocol Buffers
4 2 (1.30%) Qt
4 2 (1.30%) REST
4 2 (1.30%) WebSockets
5 1 (0.65%) .NET Compact Framework
5 1 (0.65%) .NET Framework
5 1 (0.65%) Itk
5 1 (0.65%) NumPy
5 1 (0.65%) OAuth
5 1 (0.65%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.65%) OpenID
5 1 (0.65%) RESTful
5 1 (0.65%) SciPy
5 1 (0.65%) Web Services
5 1 (0.65%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 26 (16.88%) FPGA
2 24 (15.58%) Embedded Systems
3 14 (9.09%) PCIe
3 14 (9.09%) VHDL
4 5 (3.25%) Algorithms
4 5 (3.25%) CAN bus
5 4 (2.60%) Verilog
6 3 (1.95%) CUDA
6 3 (1.95%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.95%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.30%) Analogue Electronics
7 2 (1.30%) ASIC
7 2 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.65%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.65%) IoT
8 1 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.65%) MicroBlaze
8 1 (0.65%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.65%) RISC-V
8 1 (0.65%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 35 (22.73%) Linux
2 13 (8.44%) Windows
3 12 (7.79%) Ubuntu
4 8 (5.19%) Embedded Linux
5 5 (3.25%) FreeRTOS
6 1 (0.65%) Android
6 1 (0.65%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.65%) OpenVMS
6 1 (0.65%) Unix
6 1 (0.65%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 100 (64.94%) Software Engineering
2 39 (25.32%) Validation
3 19 (12.34%) Problem-Solving
3 19 (12.34%) Workflow
4 15 (9.74%) Software Testing
4 15 (9.74%) Unit Testing
5 14 (9.09%) Signal Processing
6 13 (8.44%) CI/CD
6 13 (8.44%) Embedded Software Development
6 13 (8.44%) Requirements Analysis
6 13 (8.44%) Test Automation
7 12 (7.79%) Verification and Validation
8 11 (7.14%) Systems Engineering
8 11 (7.14%) Workflow Management
9 9 (5.84%) Agile
9 9 (5.84%) AI
9 9 (5.84%) FPGA Design
10 8 (5.19%) Collaborative Culture
10 8 (5.19%) Data Acquisition
10 8 (5.19%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 91 (59.09%) C++
2 33 (21.43%) Ada
3 28 (18.18%) Python
4 25 (16.23%) Embedded C
5 14 (9.09%) Embedded C++
5 14 (9.09%) JavaScript
5 14 (9.09%) Shell Script
6 13 (8.44%) Java
6 13 (8.44%) MATLAB
7 8 (5.19%) C#
8 6 (3.90%) SQL
8 6 (3.90%) SystemVerilog
9 5 (3.25%) Bash
9 5 (3.25%) Fortran
10 4 (2.60%) PL/SQL
11 3 (1.95%) Rust
11 3 (1.95%) Tcl
11 3 (1.95%) VBA
12 2 (1.30%) Assembly Language
12 2 (1.30%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 52 (33.77%) Security Cleared
2 46 (29.87%) SC Cleared
3 12 (7.79%) Degree
4 2 (1.30%) DV Cleared
4 2 (1.30%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.65%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (0.65%) ISTQB
5 1 (0.65%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
5 1 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 1 (0.65%) PhD
5 1 (0.65%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (14.94%) Def Stans
2 12 (7.79%) MISRA
3 10 (6.49%) DO-178B
4 8 (5.19%) IEC 61508
5 3 (1.95%) ISO 26262
5 3 (1.95%) QA
6 2 (1.30%) IEC 62304
6 2 (1.30%) MIL-STD-1553
6 2 (1.30%) MISRA C
7 1 (0.65%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.65%) AUTOSAR
7 1 (0.65%) DICOM
7 1 (0.65%) HL7
7 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.65%) NIST
7 1 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 19 (12.34%) Firmware
2 9 (5.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (5.19%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (2.60%) Docker
Systems Management
1 5 (3.25%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.30%) Terraform
3 1 (0.65%) Ansible
3 1 (0.65%) Functional Safety
3 1 (0.65%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 12 (7.79%) IBM
1 12 (7.79%) Red Hat
2 9 (5.84%) VMware
3 8 (5.19%) ANSYS
4 6 (3.90%) Intel
4 6 (3.90%) MathWorks
5 5 (3.25%) Microsemi
5 5 (3.25%) Oracle
5 5 (3.25%) Xilinx
6 2 (1.30%) Atlassian
6 2 (1.30%) NetApp
7 1 (0.65%) HP
7 1 (0.65%) Lauterbach
7 1 (0.65%) Microsoft
7 1 (0.65%) QNX
7 1 (0.65%) Remedy
7 1 (0.65%) Siemens
7 1 (0.65%) Sitecore
7 1 (0.65%) Splunk
7 1 (0.65%) Xamarin