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 28 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 250 121
Rank change year-on-year -38 -129 +22
Contract jobs citing C 166 107 341
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.61% 0.71% 1.78%
As % of the Programming Languages category 2.70% 2.58% 7.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 48 32 147
10th Percentile £400 £94 £398
25th Percentile £423 £294 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £413 £543
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -23.96% +8.50%
75th Percentile £550 £500 £600
90th Percentile £646 £573 £650
UK median daily rate £492 £500 £534
% change year-on-year -1.58% -6.28% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 35 104
10th Percentile £58.43 £52.00 £54.11
25th Percentile £65.00 £57.00 £61.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £73.13 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £77.00 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% +1.96%

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 6,142 4,154 4,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 22.71% 27.62% 23.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,812 2,738 3,057
10th Percentile £335 £310 £325
25th Percentile £410 £390 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £475 £498
Median % change year-on-year +3.58% -4.52% -0.50%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £588
90th Percentile £650 £621 £650
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 450 185 347
10th Percentile £34.01 £29.28 £34.57
25th Percentile £53.53 £50.00 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% -1.54% +4.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £79.48 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year +14.54% -12.69% +7.35%

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 28 July 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 28 July 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 28 July 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 -19 59 £500 -2.44% 86
East of England -12 55 £625 +56.25% 73
South West -35 25 £450 -18.18% 47
Midlands -34 21 £462 +559.29% 30
West Midlands -33 20 £450 - 9
North of England -78 4 - - 43
Scotland -27 2 - - 6
North West -49 2 - - 19
East Midlands -14 1 £525 +650.00% 21
North East -41 1 - - 14
Yorkshire -44 1 - - 11
Wales - 1 £460 - 5
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 10 (6.02%) Simulink
2 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) Oracle Retail
1 2 (1.20%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.60%) BASE24
2 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 7 (4.22%) AWS
2 6 (3.61%) Azure
2 6 (3.61%) GitHub
3 5 (3.01%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (3.01%) GitHub Copilot
4 3 (1.81%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.20%) GCP
5 2 (1.20%) OCI
5 2 (1.20%) SaaS
6 1 (0.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.60%) BlazeMeter
6 1 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
6 1 (0.60%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 16 (9.64%) Software-Defined Radio
1 16 (9.64%) Wireless
2 15 (9.04%) Ethernet
3 6 (3.61%) RS-232
3 6 (3.61%) RS-485
4 5 (3.01%) Wireshark
5 3 (1.81%) Bluetooth
5 3 (1.81%) Modbus
5 3 (1.81%) RS-422
6 2 (1.20%) 3GPP
6 2 (1.20%) 4G
6 2 (1.20%) 5G
6 2 (1.20%) 5G NR
6 2 (1.20%) LTE
6 2 (1.20%) Microwave Backhaul
6 2 (1.20%) MPLS
6 2 (1.20%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (1.20%) SpaceWire
6 2 (1.20%) VoLTE
7 1 (0.60%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.02%) Ingres
2 5 (3.01%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.41%) RDBMS
3 4 (2.41%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.81%) Power BI
4 3 (1.81%) Tableau
5 1 (0.60%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.60%) NonStop SQL
5 1 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 20 (12.05%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (7.83%) Git
3 7 (4.22%) Rational Rhapsody
3 7 (4.22%) Team Foundation Server
4 5 (3.01%) JIRA
4 5 (3.01%) Oracle Forms
4 5 (3.01%) Visual Studio
5 2 (1.20%) GitLab
6 1 (0.60%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.60%) CMake
6 1 (0.60%) GoogleTest
6 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.60%) JMeter
6 1 (0.60%) LoadRunner
6 1 (0.60%) PetaLinux
6 1 (0.60%) Postman
General
1 32 (19.28%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.87%) Aerospace
3 23 (13.86%) Electronics
4 15 (9.04%) Law
5 12 (7.23%) Manufacturing
6 10 (6.02%) Analytical Skills
7 7 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.01%) Automotive
8 5 (3.01%) Public Sector
9 3 (1.81%) Avionics
9 3 (1.81%) Military
10 2 (1.20%) Retail
11 1 (0.60%) Finance
11 1 (0.60%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 73 (43.98%) Software Engineer
2 41 (24.70%) Embedded Engineer
3 32 (19.28%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 18 (10.84%) Developer
4 18 (10.84%) Senior
5 16 (9.64%) C++ Software Engineer
6 12 (7.23%) C Software Engineer
6 12 (7.23%) C/C++ Software Engineer
6 12 (7.23%) Software Developer
7 10 (6.02%) Lead
8 9 (5.42%) Test Leader
9 8 (4.82%) DSP Engineer
9 8 (4.82%) DSP Software Engineer
10 6 (3.61%) Senior Developer
10 6 (3.61%) Test Engineer
11 5 (3.01%) C Developer
11 5 (3.01%) FPGA Engineer
11 5 (3.01%) Senior C Developer
12 4 (2.41%) FPGA Design Engineer
12 4 (2.41%) Software Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (6.02%) Yocto
2 7 (4.22%) .NET
3 5 (3.01%) WinForms
4 4 (2.41%) LDAP
5 3 (1.81%) ADO
5 3 (1.81%) COM
5 3 (1.81%) ODBC
5 3 (1.81%) REST
6 2 (1.20%) Itk
6 2 (1.20%) QML
6 2 (1.20%) Qt
6 2 (1.20%) Web Services
6 2 (1.20%) XML
7 1 (0.60%) AngularJS
7 1 (0.60%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.60%) JSON
7 1 (0.60%) Middleware
7 1 (0.60%) PostGIS
7 1 (0.60%) Protocol Buffers
7 1 (0.60%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.66%) Embedded Systems
2 22 (13.25%) FPGA
3 13 (7.83%) RISC-V
4 10 (6.02%) Device Driver
4 10 (6.02%) PCIe
5 9 (5.42%) Verilog
5 9 (5.42%) VHDL
6 7 (4.22%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (3.61%) MicroBlaze
8 5 (3.01%) Algorithms
9 3 (1.81%) ARM Cortex
9 3 (1.81%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.81%) Low-Code
10 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.20%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.20%) Data Centre
10 2 (1.20%) Legacy Applications
10 2 (1.20%) Video\Live Streaming
11 1 (0.60%) ASIC
11 1 (0.60%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 48 (28.92%) Linux
2 17 (10.24%) Embedded Linux
3 12 (7.23%) FreeRTOS
4 10 (6.02%) Windows
5 4 (2.41%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (61.45%) Software Engineering
2 32 (19.28%) Agile
3 27 (16.27%) Test Automation
4 26 (15.66%) Problem-Solving
5 23 (13.86%) Validation
6 22 (13.25%) Signal Processing
7 20 (12.05%) Software Testing
8 18 (10.84%) Digital Signal Processing
9 17 (10.24%) Data Management
10 15 (9.04%) DevOps
11 14 (8.43%) CI/CD
12 13 (7.83%) Embedded Software Development
12 13 (7.83%) Systems Engineering
12 13 (7.83%) UML
13 12 (7.23%) Integration Testing
13 12 (7.23%) Migration
13 12 (7.23%) System Integration Testing
13 12 (7.23%) Workflow
14 11 (6.63%) TDD
15 10 (6.02%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 85 (51.20%) C++
2 28 (16.87%) Ada
3 27 (16.27%) Python
4 24 (14.46%) Embedded C
5 19 (11.45%) SQL
6 16 (9.64%) MATLAB
7 12 (7.23%) PL/SQL
8 11 (6.63%) Java
9 10 (6.02%) ProC
10 8 (4.82%) C#
11 6 (3.61%) Embedded C++
11 6 (3.61%) SystemVerilog
11 6 (3.61%) VB
12 5 (3.01%) VB6
13 4 (2.41%) Rust
14 3 (1.81%) Lua
14 3 (1.81%) PowerShell
15 2 (1.20%) Bash
15 2 (1.20%) Shell Script
16 1 (0.60%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 53 (31.93%) Security Cleared
2 42 (25.30%) SC Cleared
3 15 (9.04%) Degree
4 10 (6.02%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.81%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.60%) CCNA
7 1 (0.60%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.60%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 1 (0.60%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.83%) Def Stans
1 13 (7.83%) QA
2 9 (5.42%) MISRA
3 7 (4.22%) DO-178B
4 2 (1.20%) ISO 26262
4 2 (1.20%) MIL-STD-1553
5 1 (0.60%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.60%) ISO 14001
5 1 (0.60%) ISO 8583
5 1 (0.60%) ISO 9001
5 1 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 22 (13.25%) Firmware
2 10 (6.02%) Embedded Firmware
3 9 (5.42%) Docker
4 4 (2.41%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.41%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.81%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.60%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 5 (3.01%) Terraform
2 4 (2.41%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.60%) Grafana
3 1 (0.60%) HP ALM
3 1 (0.60%) Nagios
3 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 16 (9.64%) Oracle
2 9 (5.42%) Xilinx
3 8 (4.82%) IBM
3 8 (4.82%) Intel
4 5 (3.01%) Microsemi
5 4 (2.41%) Lauterbach
5 4 (2.41%) MathWorks
6 3 (1.81%) Actian
6 3 (1.81%) Microsoft
6 3 (1.81%) SAP
6 3 (1.81%) VMware
7 2 (1.20%) Google
7 2 (1.20%) HP
7 2 (1.20%) QNX
8 1 (0.60%) Cisco
8 1 (0.60%) Citrix
8 1 (0.60%) EMC
8 1 (0.60%) NetScout
8 1 (0.60%) NVIDIA
8 1 (0.60%) Remedy