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 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 276 236 105
Rank change year-on-year -40 -131 +82
Contract jobs citing C 168 108 427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.76% 0.86% 2.03%
As % of the Programming Languages category 3.18% 2.94% 8.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 42 144
10th Percentile £367 £268 £396
25th Percentile £425 £306 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £471 £536
Median % change year-on-year +2.12% -12.08% +4.33%
75th Percentile £559 £538 £616
90th Percentile £625 £625 £706
UK median daily rate £481 £500 £533
% change year-on-year -3.75% -6.19% -11.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 41 178
10th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £59.00 £59.25
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 - £95.00 £88.75
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% +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 5,284 3,670 4,989
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 23.93% 29.14% 23.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,418 2,379 3,351
10th Percentile £328 £325 £313
25th Percentile £403 £400 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £483 £488
Median % change year-on-year -1.66% -0.92% -2.50%
75th Percentile £568 £575 £588
90th Percentile £638 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 447 189 394
10th Percentile £44.94 £22.18 £35.00
25th Percentile £56.75 £44.51 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +1.56% +3.90% -4.31%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.75 £68.75
90th Percentile £76.25 £85.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -4.00%

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 26 March 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 26 March 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 26 March 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 68 £500 +21.21% 88
South West -3 51 £450 -24.37% 80
South East -43 27 £500 - 129
North of England -59 8 £531 - 58
Scotland +3 5 £65 -77.19% 22
Northern Ireland 0 5 £425 - 7
Midlands -63 4 £525 +213.43% 66
Yorkshire -53 3 £531 - 29
North West - 3 £450 - 20
West Midlands - 3 £488 - 33
North East - 2 £625 - 9
Wales -12 1 £460 -12.38% 12
East Midlands -37 1 £525 +213.43% 33
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 (0.60%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (5.36%) Simulink
2 3 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.60%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 5 (2.98%) AWS
2 4 (2.38%) Azure
2 4 (2.38%) GCP
3 3 (1.79%) GitHub
3 3 (1.79%) Power Platform
4 2 (1.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 2 (1.19%) AWS CloudFormation
4 2 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (0.60%) Amazon ECS
5 1 (0.60%) Amazon EKS
5 1 (0.60%) Amazon GuardDuty
5 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudTrail
5 1 (0.60%) AWS Lambda
5 1 (0.60%) BlazeMeter
5 1 (0.60%) Copilot Studio
5 1 (0.60%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (0.60%) Firebase
5 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (0.60%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (9.52%) Ethernet
2 5 (2.98%) Wireless
3 4 (2.38%) RS-232
3 4 (2.38%) Software-Defined Radio
4 3 (1.79%) 3GPP
4 3 (1.79%) 5G
4 3 (1.79%) 5G NR
4 3 (1.79%) Bluetooth
4 3 (1.79%) LTE
4 3 (1.79%) Modbus
4 3 (1.79%) RS-422
4 3 (1.79%) RS-485
5 2 (1.19%) 4G
5 2 (1.19%) HTTP
5 2 (1.19%) MPLS
5 2 (1.19%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (1.19%) SpaceWire
5 2 (1.19%) VoLTE
5 2 (1.19%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (1.19%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.79%) Oracle Database
1 3 (1.79%) Power BI
1 3 (1.79%) Tableau
2 1 (0.60%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.60%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 24 (14.29%) Rational DOORS
2 17 (10.12%) Git
3 16 (9.52%) Rational Rhapsody
4 12 (7.14%) JIRA
5 8 (4.76%) PVCS
6 5 (2.98%) Visual Studio
7 2 (1.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (1.19%) GitLab
7 2 (1.19%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.60%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.60%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.60%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.60%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.60%) fastlane
8 1 (0.60%) PetaLinux
8 1 (0.60%) Polyspace
8 1 (0.60%) Postman
8 1 (0.60%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.60%) XCTest
8 1 (0.60%) XCUITest
General
1 36 (21.43%) Electronics
2 29 (17.26%) Social Skills
3 23 (13.69%) Aerospace
4 12 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (7.14%) Law
5 9 (5.36%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.17%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.98%) Automotive
8 4 (2.38%) Avionics
9 3 (1.79%) Games
10 2 (1.19%) Military
10 2 (1.19%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 78 (46.43%) Software Engineer
2 63 (37.50%) Embedded Engineer
3 46 (27.38%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 27 (16.07%) C Software Engineer
5 23 (13.69%) C++ Software Engineer
6 21 (12.50%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 19 (11.31%) Embedded C Engineer
7 19 (11.31%) Embedded C Software Engineer
8 14 (8.33%) Developer
9 13 (7.74%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
9 13 (7.74%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
9 13 (7.74%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
9 13 (7.74%) Embedded C++ Engineer
9 13 (7.74%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
10 12 (7.14%) Lead
11 10 (5.95%) Validation Engineer
12 9 (5.36%) FPGA Engineer
13 8 (4.76%) Test Leader
14 7 (4.17%) Senior
14 7 (4.17%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.95%) Middleware
1 10 (5.95%) Yocto
2 7 (4.17%) .NET
3 5 (2.98%) Flash
3 5 (2.98%) WinForms
4 2 (1.19%) JSON
4 2 (1.19%) Protocol Buffers
4 2 (1.19%) Qt
4 2 (1.19%) WebSockets
5 1 (0.60%) .NET Compact Framework
5 1 (0.60%) GStreamer
5 1 (0.60%) Itk
5 1 (0.60%) NumPy
5 1 (0.60%) OAuth
5 1 (0.60%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.60%) OpenID
5 1 (0.60%) PostGIS
5 1 (0.60%) REST
5 1 (0.60%) RESTful
5 1 (0.60%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 32 (19.05%) Embedded Systems
2 28 (16.67%) FPGA
3 16 (9.52%) VHDL
4 14 (8.33%) PCIe
5 8 (4.76%) Verilog
6 6 (3.57%) Algorithms
7 5 (2.98%) Device Driver
8 4 (2.38%) Data Centre
8 4 (2.38%) MicroBlaze
8 4 (2.38%) RISC-V
9 3 (1.79%) CUDA
9 3 (1.79%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (1.19%) ASIC
10 2 (1.19%) CAN bus
10 2 (1.19%) Cloud Native
11 1 (0.60%) Acoustics
11 1 (0.60%) Contactless
11 1 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
11 1 (0.60%) NB-IoT
11 1 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 39 (23.21%) Linux
2 16 (9.52%) Embedded Linux
3 11 (6.55%) Windows
4 5 (2.98%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (2.38%) Ubuntu
6 2 (1.19%) Unix
7 1 (0.60%) Android
7 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.60%) OpenVMS
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 106 (63.10%) Software Engineering
2 40 (23.81%) Validation
3 27 (16.07%) Test Automation
4 25 (14.88%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (14.29%) Workflow
6 21 (12.50%) CI/CD
7 18 (10.71%) Signal Processing
7 18 (10.71%) Unit Testing
8 17 (10.12%) Embedded Software Development
9 16 (9.52%) Verification and Validation
10 15 (8.93%) Requirements Analysis
10 15 (8.93%) Workflow Management
11 14 (8.33%) Agile
11 14 (8.33%) Software Testing
12 11 (6.55%) Data Acquisition
12 11 (6.55%) Systems Engineering
12 11 (6.55%) TDD
13 10 (5.95%) DevOps
13 10 (5.95%) Digital Signal Processing
13 10 (5.95%) FPGA Design
Programming Languages
1 99 (58.93%) C++
2 31 (18.45%) Embedded C
2 31 (18.45%) Python
3 26 (15.48%) Ada
4 17 (10.12%) Embedded C++
5 16 (9.52%) MATLAB
6 8 (4.76%) Java
7 7 (4.17%) JavaScript
7 7 (4.17%) SQL
7 7 (4.17%) SystemVerilog
8 6 (3.57%) C#
8 6 (3.57%) Shell Script
9 4 (2.38%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.79%) Bash
10 3 (1.79%) Rust
11 2 (1.19%) Perl
11 2 (1.19%) PowerShell
11 2 (1.19%) ProC
12 1 (0.60%) Tcl
12 1 (0.60%) VB
Qualifications
1 54 (32.14%) Security Cleared
2 46 (27.38%) SC Cleared
3 10 (5.95%) Degree
4 7 (4.17%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.60%) ISTQB
6 1 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 1 (0.60%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 1 (0.60%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.60%) PhD
6 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Black Belt
6 1 (0.60%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (15.48%) Def Stans
2 12 (7.14%) MISRA
3 10 (5.95%) DO-178B
4 7 (4.17%) QA
5 6 (3.57%) IEC 61508
6 2 (1.19%) MIL-STD-1553
6 2 (1.19%) MISRA C
7 1 (0.60%) AUTOSAR
7 1 (0.60%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.60%) DICOM
7 1 (0.60%) HL7
7 1 (0.60%) ISO 14001
7 1 (0.60%) ISO 26262
7 1 (0.60%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.60%) NIST
System Software
1 21 (12.50%) Firmware
2 9 (5.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (4.76%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (3.57%) Docker
5 3 (1.79%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (3.57%) Kubernetes
2 3 (1.79%) Terraform
3 1 (0.60%) Ansible
3 1 (0.60%) Functional Safety
3 1 (0.60%) Grafana
3 1 (0.60%) HP ALM
3 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 13 (7.74%) IBM
2 9 (5.36%) VMware
2 9 (5.36%) Xilinx
3 8 (4.76%) ANSYS
3 8 (4.76%) Intel
4 5 (2.98%) Microsemi
5 4 (2.38%) Lauterbach
5 4 (2.38%) MathWorks
5 4 (2.38%) Oracle
5 4 (2.38%) Red Hat
6 3 (1.79%) SAP
7 2 (1.19%) Microsoft
8 1 (0.60%) Citrix
8 1 (0.60%) Google
8 1 (0.60%) HP
8 1 (0.60%) NetApp
8 1 (0.60%) QNX
8 1 (0.60%) Remedy
8 1 (0.60%) Sitecore
8 1 (0.60%) Splunk