Permanent IT Jobs Contract IT Jobs

The first part of the table below looks at the demand for Test Automation skills in IT contracts advertised across the UK. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited Test Automation over the 3 months to 18 March 2010 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second part of the table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all of the Processes & Methodologies category.

LinkTest Automation
Location
3 months to
18 Mar 2010
Same period 2009Same period 2008
Rank290345447
Rank change year-on-year
Up+55Up+102
Matching contract IT job ads21294160
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK0.442 %0.238 %0.195 %
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category0.749 %0.448 %0.391 %
Daily rates quoted983059
Average daily rate£350£320£360
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+9.370 %-11.11 %
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£250£205£250
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£475£475£500
UK excluding London average daily rate£325£275£325
% change year-on-year
+18.18 %-15.38 %
Hourly rates quoted4510
Average hourly rate£27.25£31.00£36.25
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-12.09 %-14.48 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£26.65£22.50£16.85
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£29.25£42.60£40.70
UK excluding London average hourly rate£27.25£31.00£36.25
% change year-on-year
-12.09 %-14.48 %
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryAll Processes & Methodologies
UK
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Processes & Methodologies category
282932100440904
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the UK58.94 %53.08 %49.77 %
Daily rates quoted13607738514063
Average daily rate£410£400£400
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+2.500 %-
90% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£250£235£263
10% of contracts offered a daily rate of more than£575£550£600
UK excluding London average daily rate£350£363£375
% change year-on-year
-3.440 %-3.330 %
Hourly rates quoted114612182462
Average hourly rate£25.00£27.50£30.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
-9.090 %-8.330 %
90% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£12.22£13.00£13.50
10% of contracts offered a hourly rate of more than£42.50£42.45£44.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate£24.00£27.50£30.00
% change year-on-year
-12.72 %-8.330 %

Daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Test Automation
Demand Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving total beginning in 2004 of IT contractor jobs citing Test Automation within the UK as a proportion of the total demand within the Processes & Methodologies category.

Test Automation Demand Trend

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing Test Automation within the UK.

Test Automation Daily Rate Trend

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram

The chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing Test Automation within the UK over the 3 months to 18 March 2010.

Test Automation Daily Rate Histogram

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend

The chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing Test Automation within the UK.

Test Automation Hourly Rate Trend

Test Automation
Top 30 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the UK over the 3 months to 18 March 2010. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

LocationRank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
EnglandUp+68210£350+9.37 %
LondonDown-13113£375-6.25 %
South EastUp+1944£350+30.23 %
South WestUp+2128£325+8.78 %
City of LondonDown-6423£444+4.41 %
BerkshireUp+2321£350-
WiltshireNew entry-14£325-
ReadingUp+1210£350-
SwindonNew entry-9£325-
East of EnglandUp+168£268+37.17 %
SuffolkDown-76--
SurreyDown-126£400+45.45 %
YorkshireNew entry-6£258-
North WestDown-15--
West YorkshireNew entry-5£258-
HampshireUp+24£300+14.28 %
West SussexDown-64£308-
BristolDown-63£323+7.50 %
ManchesterNew entry-3--
HorshamNew entry-3£285-
LeedsNew entry-3£258-
SomersetNew entry-3£300-
East MidlandsNew entry-3£275-
GuildfordUp+112£438+59.09 %
West MidlandsUp+52£369+75.59 %
ScotlandDown-62--
CheshireDown-162--
MiddlesexNew entry-2--
NorthamptonshireNew entry-2--
WarringtonNew entry-2--

Test Automation
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 18 March 2010, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing Test Automation also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited Test Automation.

193 (26.65 %)QuickTest Pro
292 (26.36 %)SQL
388 (25.21 %)ISEB
388 (25.21 %)QA
478 (22.35 %)Java
572 (20.63 %)Agile Software Development
663 (18.05 %)Test Scripting
759 (16.91 %)Selenium
855 (15.76 %)Automated Testing
855 (15.76 %)UNIX
953 (15.19 %)Finance
1052 (14.90 %)Banking
1146 (13.18 %)XML
1245 (12.89 %)TDD
1341 (11.75 %)C#
1436 (10.32 %)Oracle
1436 (10.32 %)Windows
1436 (10.32 %)Test Management
1535 (10.03 %)JUnit
1634 (9.742 %)Scrum
1634 (9.742 %)Software Testing
1733 (9.456 %)Investment Banking
1832 (9.169 %).NET
1929 (8.309 %)Web Services
1929 (8.309 %)User Acceptance Testing
2028 (8.023 %)Perl
2028 (8.023 %)TestDirector
2127 (7.736 %)Configuration Management
2127 (7.736 %)FitNesse
2225 (7.163 %)ClearQuest

Test Automation
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 18 March 2010, IT contractor jobs within the UK citing Test Automation also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited Test Automation. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

IT Contractor Job Market, Application Development CategoryApplication Development
146 (13.18 %)XML
232 (9.169 %).NET
329 (8.309 %)Web Services
419 (5.444 %)HTML
510 (2.865 %)XML Messaging
69 (2.579 %)CSS
77 (2.006 %)J2EE
86 (1.719 %)Flash
86 (1.719 %)SOAP
86 (1.719 %)Silverlight
93 (0.860 %)EJB 3.0
93 (0.860 %)Java ME
93 (0.860 %)WebSphere
93 (0.860 %)Qt
93 (0.860 %)EJB
102 (0.573 %)XSLT
102 (0.573 %)Spring
102 (0.573 %)JSON
102 (0.573 %)WPF
111 (0.287 %)WCF
IT Contractor Job Market, Application Platforms CategoryApplication Platforms
115 (4.298 %)Tomcat
210 (2.865 %)Apache
36 (1.719 %)Confluence
44 (1.146 %)WebLogic
53 (0.860 %)ESB
53 (0.860 %)WebSphere Application Server
53 (0.860 %)IIS
53 (0.860 %)SAS
62 (0.573 %)SharePoint
62 (0.573 %)CMS
71 (0.287 %)Oracle 10gAS
71 (0.287 %)SharePoint Server 2007
71 (0.287 %)Oracle Application Server
71 (0.287 %)WebSphere MQ
IT Contractor Job Market, Applications CategoryApplications
110 (2.865 %)MS Project
28 (2.292 %)MS Excel
34 (1.146 %)MS Office
41 (0.287 %)Spreadsheet
41 (0.287 %)MS PowerPoint
41 (0.287 %)MS Visio
IT Contractor Job Market, Business Applications CategoryBusiness Applications
13 (0.860 %)SAP Payroll
13 (0.860 %)SAP HR
21 (0.287 %)Loan IQ
21 (0.287 %)Global One
21 (0.287 %)Oracle Financials
IT Contractor Job Market, Communications & Networking CategoryCommunications & Networking
122 (6.304 %)3G
221 (6.017 %)Wireless
320 (5.731 %)3GPP
419 (5.444 %)UTRAN
419 (5.444 %)Wireshark
518 (5.158 %)Firewall
518 (5.158 %)DHCP
518 (5.158 %)TCP/IP
518 (5.158 %)DNS
610 (2.865 %)GSM
78 (2.292 %)RNC
86 (1.719 %)Internet
95 (1.433 %)SIGTRAN
95 (1.433 %)SS7
95 (1.433 %)PSTN
104 (1.146 %)Extranet
104 (1.146 %)TCAP
104 (1.146 %)SCCP
104 (1.146 %)INAP
113 (0.860 %)BSS
IT Contractor Job Market, Database & Business Intelligence CategoryDatabase & Business Intelligence
111 (3.152 %)Oracle Reports
111 (3.152 %)TOAD
29 (2.579 %)Datawarehouse
37 (2.006 %)SQL Server
37 (2.006 %)DB2
46 (1.719 %)ETL
55 (1.433 %)MySQL
55 (1.433 %)RDBMS
64 (1.146 %)BusinessObjects
73 (0.860 %)Oracle BI EE
73 (0.860 %)Oracle 10g
82 (0.573 %)SQLPlus
82 (0.573 %)Data Mart
82 (0.573 %)SQL Server 2008
82 (0.573 %)Reference Data
91 (0.287 %)SQL Server Reporting Services
91 (0.287 %)Oracle 9i
91 (0.287 %)OLAP
91 (0.287 %)Crystal Reports
IT Contractor Job Market, Development Applications CategoryDevelopment Applications
193 (26.65 %)QuickTest Pro
259 (16.91 %)Selenium
335 (10.03 %)JUnit
428 (8.023 %)TestDirector
527 (7.736 %)FitNesse
625 (7.163 %)ClearQuest
724 (6.877 %)ClearCase
822 (6.304 %)WinRunner
921 (6.017 %)LoadRunner
1020 (5.731 %)Ant
1119 (5.444 %)Subversion
1217 (4.871 %)WATIR
1217 (4.871 %)Maven
1217 (4.871 %)JIRA
1314 (4.011 %)HttpUnit
1412 (3.438 %)WebDriver
158 (2.292 %)Eclipse
158 (2.292 %)Rational Functional Tester
167 (2.006 %)NUnit
167 (2.006 %)RequisitePro
IT Contractor Job Market, General CategoryGeneral
153 (15.19 %)Finance
252 (14.90 %)Banking
333 (9.456 %)Investment Banking
422 (6.304 %)Telecoms
512 (3.438 %)Insurance
610 (2.865 %)Retail
79 (2.579 %)Games
79 (2.579 %)Government
86 (1.719 %)Electronics
86 (1.719 %)Front Office
95 (1.433 %)Education
104 (1.146 %)Pensions
113 (0.860 %)Back Office
122 (0.573 %)Criminal Justice
122 (0.573 %)Construction
122 (0.573 %)Marketing
122 (0.573 %)Online Games
131 (0.287 %)Retail Banking
131 (0.287 %)Billing
131 (0.287 %)Health
IT Contractor Job Market, Job Titles CategoryJob Titles
188 (25.21 %)Analyst
270 (20.06 %)Test Analyst
270 (20.06 %)Tester
351 (14.61 %)Test Engineer
432 (9.169 %)Test Manager
522 (6.304 %)Developer
621 (6.017 %)Consultant
719 (5.444 %)QA Analyst
817 (4.871 %)Test Consultant
916 (4.585 %)Test Leader
1013 (3.725 %)Software Engineer
1111 (3.152 %)QA Engineer
129 (2.579 %)Agile Test Analyst
129 (2.579 %)Test Automation Consultant
129 (2.579 %)QA Manager
138 (2.292 %)Architect
138 (2.292 %)Technical Analyst
138 (2.292 %)Technical Tester
138 (2.292 %)Technical Test Analyst
138 (2.292 %)Agile Tester
IT Contractor Job Market, Miscellaneous CategoryMiscellaneous
111 (3.152 %)Open Source
25 (1.433 %)Credit Risk
25 (1.433 %)Derivative
34 (1.146 %)Client/Server
34 (1.146 %)Mainframe
34 (1.146 %)Handset
34 (1.146 %)STB
34 (1.146 %)Fixed Income
43 (0.860 %)Blackberry
43 (0.860 %)Foreign Exchange (FX)
52 (0.573 %)EPoS
52 (0.573 %)W3C
52 (0.573 %)Biometrics
52 (0.573 %)Equities
52 (0.573 %)Clustering
52 (0.573 %)Interest Rate Derivative
52 (0.573 %)Equity Derivative
52 (0.573 %)PDA
52 (0.573 %)Statistics
52 (0.573 %)Data Protection Act
IT Contractor Job Market, Operating Systems CategoryOperating Systems
155 (15.76 %)UNIX
236 (10.32 %)Windows
322 (6.304 %)Linux
411 (3.152 %)Solaris
57 (2.006 %)Windows Server 2003
65 (1.433 %)AIX
65 (1.433 %)Windows XP
73 (0.860 %)Android
73 (0.860 %)VMS
81 (0.287 %)Windows Server 2008
81 (0.287 %)VME
81 (0.287 %)Windows Vista
81 (0.287 %)Windows 7
81 (0.287 %)Windows 2000
IT Contractor Job Market, Processes & Methodologies CategoryProcesses & Methodologies
172 (20.63 %)Agile Software Development
263 (18.05 %)Test Scripting
355 (15.76 %)Automated Testing
445 (12.89 %)TDD
536 (10.32 %)Test Management
634 (9.742 %)Scrum
634 (9.742 %)Software Testing
729 (8.309 %)User Acceptance Testing
827 (7.736 %)Configuration Management
924 (6.877 %)Continuous Integration
924 (6.877 %)System Testing
1021 (6.017 %)Regression Testing
1120 (5.731 %)Integration Testing
1120 (5.731 %)Performance Testing
1219 (5.444 %)Manual Testing
1318 (5.158 %)Load Testing
1417 (4.871 %)SOA
1514 (4.011 %)E-Commerce
1514 (4.011 %)Unit Testing
1613 (3.725 %)Requirements Analysis
IT Contractor Job Market, Programming Languages CategoryProgramming Languages
192 (26.36 %)SQL
278 (22.35 %)Java
341 (11.75 %)C#
428 (8.023 %)Perl
525 (7.163 %)VBScript
624 (6.877 %)Tcl
624 (6.877 %)Ruby
721 (6.017 %)C
820 (5.731 %)PL/SQL
917 (4.871 %)JavaScript
917 (4.871 %)VB
1014 (4.011 %)Shell Script
1113 (3.725 %)C++
1210 (2.865 %)PHP
139 (2.579 %)VB.NET
144 (1.146 %)Python
144 (1.146 %)XPath
151 (0.287 %)Groovy
151 (0.287 %)Bash shell
151 (0.287 %)VC++
IT Contractor Job Market, Qualifications CategoryQualifications
188 (25.21 %)ISEB
222 (6.304 %)Security Cleared
321 (6.017 %)Degree
415 (4.298 %)SC Cleared
512 (3.438 %)ISTQB
67 (2.006 %)ISEB Practitioner
71 (0.287 %)DV Cleared
71 (0.287 %)ITIL Certification
IT Contractor Job Market, Quality Assurance & Compliance CategoryQuality Assurance & Compliance
188 (25.21 %)QA
22 (0.573 %)PCI DSS
31 (0.287 %)HL7
31 (0.287 %)COBIT
IT Contractor Job Market, System Software CategorySystem Software
12 (0.573 %)Active Directory
12 (0.573 %)Xen
12 (0.573 %)VMware Infrastructure
21 (0.287 %)VMware ESX
IT Contractor Job Market, Systems Management CategorySystems Management
110 (2.865 %)HP Quality Center
22 (0.573 %)Netcool
22 (0.573 %)McAfee ePO
31 (0.287 %)NetBackup
31 (0.287 %)Oracle Enterprise Manager
31 (0.287 %)OpenView Configuration Management
IT Contractor Job Market, Vendors CategoryVendors
136 (10.32 %)Oracle
222 (6.304 %)HP
319 (5.444 %)NetHawk
414 (4.011 %)Microsoft
511 (3.152 %)TIBCO
69 (2.579 %)SAP
78 (2.292 %)JBoss
84 (1.146 %)IBM
84 (1.146 %)Business Objects
93 (0.860 %)VMware
93 (0.860 %)Symbian
93 (0.860 %)Apple
102 (0.573 %)Veritas
102 (0.573 %)Citrix
102 (0.573 %)Murex
102 (0.573 %)Calypso
102 (0.573 %)Cognos
102 (0.573 %)McAfee
102 (0.573 %)Canoo
111 (0.287 %)Wall Street Systems