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 14 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 269 249 95
Rank change year-on-year -20 -154 +73
Contract jobs citing C 171 86 426
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.71% 0.68% 2.09%
As % of the Programming Languages category 3.13% 2.35% 8.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 30 154
10th Percentile £413 £242 £403
25th Percentile £430 £281 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £413 £539
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -23.47% +7.80%
75th Percentile £588 £500 £611
90th Percentile £626 £558 £706
UK median daily rate £475 £475 £535
% change year-on-year - -11.21% -4.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 39 177
10th Percentile £60.00 £54.40 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £61.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile - £87.50 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% +8.33%

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 5,466 3,658 4,759
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 22.57% 28.74% 23.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,472 2,417 3,198
10th Percentile £325 £325 £315
25th Percentile £406 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +0.63% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £570 £575 £588
90th Percentile £638 £638 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £530
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.89% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 486 184 403
10th Percentile £45.63 £24.99 £38.08
25th Percentile £56.31 £44.88 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £64.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.78% +3.20% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £85.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +4.00% - +1.07%

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 14 May 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 14 May 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 14 May 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 -6 63 £525 +31.25% 64
South West -4 47 £463 -15.91% 62
South East -25 43 £500 - 111
Midlands -58 6 £525 +213.43% 26
North of England -64 5 £625 - 49
Northern Ireland - 5 £425 -
West Midlands - 5 £488 - 13
Scotland -5 2 - - 15
North East -16 2 £625 - 10
North West - 2 - - 27
Wales -12 1 £460 -12.38% 7
East Midlands -34 1 £525 +213.43% 13
Yorkshire -55 1 - - 12
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 1 (0.58%) Confluence
1 1 (0.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
1 1 (0.58%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 11 (6.43%) Simulink
2 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.17%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 3 (1.75%) AWS
1 3 (1.75%) Power Platform
2 2 (1.17%) Azure
2 2 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
2 2 (1.17%) GCP
2 2 (1.17%) GitHub
2 2 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
3 1 (0.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 1 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
3 1 (0.58%) BlazeMeter
3 1 (0.58%) Copilot Studio
3 1 (0.58%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (0.58%) Firebase
3 1 (0.58%) GitHub Copilot
3 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.28%) Ethernet
2 17 (9.94%) Wireless
3 16 (9.36%) Software-Defined Radio
4 3 (1.75%) Bluetooth
4 3 (1.75%) Modbus
4 3 (1.75%) RS-232
4 3 (1.75%) RS-422
4 3 (1.75%) RS-485
4 3 (1.75%) SpaceWire
5 2 (1.17%) 3GPP
5 2 (1.17%) 4G
5 2 (1.17%) 5G
5 2 (1.17%) 5G NR
5 2 (1.17%) LTE
5 2 (1.17%) Microwave Backhaul
5 2 (1.17%) MPLS
5 2 (1.17%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (1.17%) VoLTE
5 2 (1.17%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.17%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.75%) Power BI
1 3 (1.75%) Tableau
2 2 (1.17%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.58%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.58%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.58%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (15.20%) Rational DOORS
2 15 (8.77%) Rational Rhapsody
3 14 (8.19%) Git
4 10 (5.85%) JIRA
5 6 (3.51%) PVCS
6 5 (2.92%) Visual Studio
7 3 (1.75%) GitLab
8 1 (0.58%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.58%) CMake
8 1 (0.58%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.58%) fastlane
8 1 (0.58%) GoogleTest
8 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.58%) JMeter
8 1 (0.58%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.58%) PetaLinux
8 1 (0.58%) Postman
8 1 (0.58%) Xcode
8 1 (0.58%) XCTest
8 1 (0.58%) XCUITest
General
1 29 (16.96%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.79%) Electronics
3 26 (15.20%) Aerospace
4 13 (7.60%) Law
5 9 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (5.26%) Manufacturing
6 7 (4.09%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (2.92%) Automotive
8 4 (2.34%) Avionics
9 3 (1.75%) Games
10 2 (1.17%) Publishing
11 1 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 87 (50.88%) Software Engineer
2 70 (40.94%) Embedded Engineer
3 53 (30.99%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 25 (14.62%) C Software Engineer
5 23 (13.45%) C++ Software Engineer
6 22 (12.87%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 14 (8.19%) Embedded C Engineer
7 14 (8.19%) Embedded C Software Engineer
8 13 (7.60%) Developer
9 11 (6.43%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) Embedded C++ Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
9 11 (6.43%) FPGA Engineer
10 10 (5.85%) Lead
10 10 (5.85%) Validation Engineer
11 9 (5.26%) Test Leader
12 8 (4.68%) DSP Engineer
12 8 (4.68%) DSP Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (8.77%) Yocto
2 6 (3.51%) .NET
3 5 (2.92%) Middleware
3 5 (2.92%) WinForms
4 3 (1.75%) Qt
5 2 (1.17%) Itk
6 1 (0.58%) Core Data
6 1 (0.58%) Flash
6 1 (0.58%) GStreamer
6 1 (0.58%) JSON
6 1 (0.58%) NumPy
6 1 (0.58%) PostGIS
6 1 (0.58%) Protocol Buffers
6 1 (0.58%) QML
6 1 (0.58%) REST
6 1 (0.58%) SciPy
6 1 (0.58%) SwiftUI
6 1 (0.58%) Taurus
6 1 (0.58%) Web Services
6 1 (0.58%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 37 (21.64%) FPGA
2 34 (19.88%) Embedded Systems
3 19 (11.11%) PCIe
4 14 (8.19%) VHDL
5 10 (5.85%) Verilog
6 9 (5.26%) Algorithms
6 9 (5.26%) Device Driver
7 7 (4.09%) MicroBlaze
7 7 (4.09%) RISC-V
8 5 (2.92%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.75%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.75%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (1.17%) ASIC
10 2 (1.17%) CAN bus
10 2 (1.17%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.17%) Video\Live Streaming
11 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
11 1 (0.58%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 44 (25.73%) Linux
2 21 (12.28%) Embedded Linux
3 11 (6.43%) FreeRTOS
3 11 (6.43%) Windows
4 3 (1.75%) Unix
5 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (64.91%) Software Engineering
2 38 (22.22%) Validation
3 29 (16.96%) Test Automation
4 27 (15.79%) Signal Processing
5 25 (14.62%) Workflow
6 23 (13.45%) Problem-Solving
7 21 (12.28%) Digital Signal Processing
8 18 (10.53%) Embedded Software Development
9 17 (9.94%) Workflow Management
10 16 (9.36%) CI/CD
10 16 (9.36%) Verification and Validation
11 14 (8.19%) Agile
11 14 (8.19%) Unit Testing
12 13 (7.60%) Requirements Analysis
12 13 (7.60%) Software Testing
12 13 (7.60%) UML
13 12 (7.02%) FPGA Design
14 11 (6.43%) Data Acquisition
14 11 (6.43%) Systems Engineering
14 11 (6.43%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 90 (52.63%) C++
2 38 (22.22%) Embedded C
3 29 (16.96%) Ada
3 29 (16.96%) Python
4 21 (12.28%) MATLAB
5 14 (8.19%) Embedded C++
6 9 (5.26%) SystemVerilog
7 8 (4.68%) Java
8 7 (4.09%) C#
9 6 (3.51%) SQL
10 4 (2.34%) Bash
11 3 (1.75%) PL/SQL
11 3 (1.75%) Rust
12 2 (1.17%) Perl
12 2 (1.17%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.58%) JavaScript
13 1 (0.58%) ProC
13 1 (0.58%) Swift
13 1 (0.58%) Tcl
13 1 (0.58%) VB
Qualifications
1 47 (27.49%) Security Cleared
2 40 (23.39%) SC Cleared
3 11 (6.43%) Degree
4 8 (4.68%) DV Cleared
5 7 (4.09%) 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 20 (11.70%) Def Stans
2 8 (4.68%) QA
3 7 (4.09%) MISRA
4 5 (2.92%) DO-178B
4 5 (2.92%) IEC 61508
5 3 (1.75%) MIL-STD-1553
6 1 (0.58%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.58%) DICOM
6 1 (0.58%) HL7
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.58%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.58%) MISRA C
System Software
1 17 (9.94%) Firmware
2 6 (3.51%) Embedded Firmware
2 6 (3.51%) Virtual Machines
2 6 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.75%) Docker
4 1 (0.58%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 2 (1.17%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.58%) Grafana
2 1 (0.58%) HP ALM
2 1 (0.58%) Nagios
2 1 (0.58%) Prometheus
2 1 (0.58%) Terraform
Vendors
1 14 (8.19%) IBM
2 11 (6.43%) Xilinx
3 10 (5.85%) Intel
4 7 (4.09%) MathWorks
4 7 (4.09%) Microsemi
5 6 (3.51%) ANSYS
5 6 (3.51%) VMware
6 4 (2.34%) Lauterbach
7 3 (1.75%) Oracle
7 3 (1.75%) SAP
8 2 (1.17%) Google
8 2 (1.17%) Microsoft
9 1 (0.58%) Cisco
9 1 (0.58%) Citrix
9 1 (0.58%) EMC
9 1 (0.58%) HP
9 1 (0.58%) Infoblox
9 1 (0.58%) NVIDIA
9 1 (0.58%) QNX
9 1 (0.58%) Remedy