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 18 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 298 252 130
Rank change year-on-year -46 -122 +11
Contract jobs citing C 174 111 319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.63% 0.72% 1.76%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.86% 2.62% 7.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 32 140
10th Percentile £400 £274 £400
25th Percentile £403 £375 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £467 £469 £546
Median % change year-on-year -0.48% -14.19% +4.05%
75th Percentile £538 £542 £600
90th Percentile £661 £631 £650
UK median daily rate £492 £513 £538
% change year-on-year -3.95% -4.65% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 37 85
10th Percentile £56.50 £52.00 £52.50
25th Percentile £65.00 £55.00 £61.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% +0.74% +3.85%
75th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £72.25 £87.50 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +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 6,092 4,239 4,356
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 22.10% 27.68% 23.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,759 2,766 2,897
10th Percentile £330 £310 £325
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.21% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £581 £550 £588
90th Percentile £660 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £515 £505 £533
% change year-on-year +1.98% -5.25% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 455 200 315
10th Percentile £33.70 £30.00 £30.15
25th Percentile £53.26 £50.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.17% -3.08% +8.56%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £78.83 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +8.33%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -23 59 £500 -2.44% 86
East of England -10 54 £700 +49.33% 67
South West -43 28 £450 -18.18% 73
Midlands -35 21 £462 +559.29% 33
West Midlands -27 20 £450 - 17
Scotland -21 6 - - 5
North of England -86 6 £400 +6.67% 50
Yorkshire -45 3 £400 -20.00% 12
North West -53 2 - - 20
East Midlands -20 1 £525 +650.00% 15
North East -39 1 - - 19
Wales - 1 £460 - 1
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 10 (5.75%) Simulink
2 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.15%) Oracle Retail
1 2 (1.15%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.57%) BASE24
2 1 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 7 (4.02%) AWS
2 6 (3.45%) Azure
2 6 (3.45%) GitHub
3 5 (2.87%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (2.87%) GitHub Copilot
4 3 (1.72%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.15%) GCP
5 2 (1.15%) IaaS
5 2 (1.15%) OCI
5 2 (1.15%) SaaS
6 1 (0.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.57%) BlazeMeter
6 1 (0.57%) Copilot Studio
6 1 (0.57%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.57%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 19 (10.92%) Software-Defined Radio
1 19 (10.92%) Wireless
2 11 (6.32%) Ethernet
3 5 (2.87%) Wireshark
4 3 (1.72%) Bluetooth
4 3 (1.72%) RS-232
4 3 (1.72%) RS-485
5 2 (1.15%) 3GPP
5 2 (1.15%) 4G
5 2 (1.15%) 5G
5 2 (1.15%) 5G NR
5 2 (1.15%) LTE
5 2 (1.15%) Microwave Backhaul
5 2 (1.15%) MPLS
5 2 (1.15%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (1.15%) VoLTE
6 1 (0.57%) LAN
6 1 (0.57%) VPN
6 1 (0.57%) WAN
6 1 (0.57%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.75%) Ingres
2 5 (2.87%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.30%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.30%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.72%) Power BI
4 3 (1.72%) Tableau
5 1 (0.57%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.57%) NonStop SQL
5 1 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (13.22%) Rational DOORS
2 16 (9.20%) Git
3 8 (4.60%) Rational Rhapsody
4 7 (4.02%) Team Foundation Server
5 5 (2.87%) Oracle Forms
5 5 (2.87%) Visual Studio
6 4 (2.30%) JIRA
7 3 (1.72%) Jenkins
8 2 (1.15%) CppUnit
8 2 (1.15%) GitLab
8 2 (1.15%) PVCS
9 1 (0.57%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.57%) CMake
9 1 (0.57%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.57%) JMeter
9 1 (0.57%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.57%) PetaLinux
9 1 (0.57%) Postman
General
1 35 (20.11%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.09%) Aerospace
3 18 (10.34%) Electronics
4 14 (8.05%) Law
5 11 (6.32%) Manufacturing
6 10 (5.75%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.87%) Public Sector
9 4 (2.30%) Automotive
10 3 (1.72%) Military
11 2 (1.15%) Avionics
11 2 (1.15%) Retail
12 1 (0.57%) Finance
12 1 (0.57%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 80 (45.98%) Software Engineer
2 47 (27.01%) Embedded Engineer
3 38 (21.84%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 18 (10.34%) C++ Software Engineer
4 18 (10.34%) Developer
4 18 (10.34%) Senior
5 17 (9.77%) C Software Engineer
6 12 (6.90%) C/C++ Software Engineer
6 12 (6.90%) Software Developer
7 10 (5.75%) Lead
8 9 (5.17%) Test Leader
9 8 (4.60%) DSP Engineer
9 8 (4.60%) DSP Software Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) Embedded C Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) Embedded C Software Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) Linux Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) Senior Developer
11 5 (2.87%) C Developer
11 5 (2.87%) Senior C Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.47%) Yocto
2 7 (4.02%) .NET
3 5 (2.87%) WinForms
4 4 (2.30%) LDAP
5 3 (1.72%) ADO
5 3 (1.72%) COM
5 3 (1.72%) ODBC
5 3 (1.72%) REST
6 2 (1.15%) Itk
6 2 (1.15%) QML
6 2 (1.15%) Qt
6 2 (1.15%) Web Services
6 2 (1.15%) XML
7 1 (0.57%) .NET Core
7 1 (0.57%) AngularJS
7 1 (0.57%) Middleware
7 1 (0.57%) PostGIS
7 1 (0.57%) PyTorch
7 1 (0.57%) Razor View Engine
7 1 (0.57%) Taurus
Miscellaneous
1 32 (18.39%) Embedded Systems
2 20 (11.49%) FPGA
3 15 (8.62%) RISC-V
4 14 (8.05%) Device Driver
5 9 (5.17%) PCIe
5 9 (5.17%) Verilog
5 9 (5.17%) VHDL
6 8 (4.60%) MicroBlaze
7 7 (4.02%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (2.87%) Algorithms
9 4 (2.30%) Cloud Native
10 3 (1.72%) ARM Cortex
10 3 (1.72%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (1.72%) Low-Code
11 2 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.15%) Data Centre
11 2 (1.15%) Legacy Applications
11 2 (1.15%) Private Cloud
11 2 (1.15%) Video\Live Streaming
11 2 (1.15%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 56 (32.18%) Linux
2 24 (13.79%) Embedded Linux
3 12 (6.90%) FreeRTOS
4 7 (4.02%) Windows
5 6 (3.45%) Unix
6 2 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.57%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (62.64%) Software Engineering
2 31 (17.82%) Agile
3 28 (16.09%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (15.52%) Signal Processing
5 26 (14.94%) Test Automation
6 21 (12.07%) Digital Signal Processing
6 21 (12.07%) Validation
7 16 (9.20%) Data Management
7 16 (9.20%) Software Testing
8 14 (8.05%) CI/CD
9 13 (7.47%) Embedded Software Development
9 13 (7.47%) Systems Engineering
9 13 (7.47%) UML
9 13 (7.47%) Workflow
10 12 (6.90%) DevOps
10 12 (6.90%) Integration Testing
10 12 (6.90%) Migration
10 12 (6.90%) System Integration Testing
11 11 (6.32%) Workflow Management
12 10 (5.75%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 95 (54.60%) C++
2 31 (17.82%) Embedded C
2 31 (17.82%) Python
3 25 (14.37%) Ada
4 18 (10.34%) SQL
5 17 (9.77%) MATLAB
6 11 (6.32%) PL/SQL
7 10 (5.75%) Java
7 10 (5.75%) ProC
8 9 (5.17%) Embedded C++
9 6 (3.45%) SystemVerilog
10 5 (2.87%) C#
10 5 (2.87%) VB
10 5 (2.87%) VB6
11 3 (1.72%) Lua
11 3 (1.72%) PowerShell
11 3 (1.72%) Rust
12 2 (1.15%) Bash
12 2 (1.15%) JavaScript
12 2 (1.15%) Perl
Qualifications
1 56 (32.18%) Security Cleared
2 47 (27.01%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.62%) Degree
4 10 (5.75%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (2.30%) Master's Degree
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 14 (8.05%) Def Stans
2 13 (7.47%) QA
3 9 (5.17%) MISRA
4 7 (4.02%) DO-178B
5 2 (1.15%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.57%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.57%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.57%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.57%) ISO 8583
6 1 (0.57%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.57%) MIL-STD-1553
6 1 (0.57%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 25 (14.37%) Firmware
2 13 (7.47%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.17%) Docker
4 6 (3.45%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (2.30%) Active Directory
7 1 (0.57%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 5 (2.87%) Terraform
2 3 (1.72%) Kubernetes
3 2 (1.15%) Progress Chef
3 2 (1.15%) Puppet
3 2 (1.15%) Salt
4 1 (0.57%) Grafana
4 1 (0.57%) Nagios
4 1 (0.57%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 16 (9.20%) Oracle
2 9 (5.17%) Xilinx
3 8 (4.60%) IBM
3 8 (4.60%) Intel
4 5 (2.87%) Microsemi
4 5 (2.87%) VMware
5 4 (2.30%) Lauterbach
5 4 (2.30%) MathWorks
6 3 (1.72%) Actian
6 3 (1.72%) Microsoft
6 3 (1.72%) SAP
7 2 (1.15%) Google
7 2 (1.15%) QNX
7 2 (1.15%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.15%) SaltStack
8 1 (0.57%) Citrix
8 1 (0.57%) EMC
8 1 (0.57%) HP
8 1 (0.57%) Infoblox
8 1 (0.57%) NetScout