Digital & IT Contractor Trends & Insights

Contract Job Market Index

Use this option to select the period over which the statistics are calculated.

There is a choice between 3 and 6 months to 24 October 2026 with year-over-year comparisons.

Exclude

Use this option to exclude results with historical job ad aggregates falling below the selected threshold during the period.

When used in combination with column sorting, this option can be used to display results of greater statistical significance.

Results 1 - 50 of 4,052

Contract Job Market Index
Description	Rank 6 Months to 24 Oct 2026	Rank YoY Change	Median Daily Rate	Median Daily Rate YoY Change	Historical Absolute & Relative Jobs Vacancies	Live Jobs
Social Skills	1	No change0	£510	+2.00%	13,160 23.89%	14,507
Security Cleared	2	Up 1 place+1	£550	+2.42%	12,177 22.10%	5,834
Finance	3	Down 1 place-1	£550	+4.76%	10,295 18.69%	13,051
Stakeholder Management	4	Up 12 places+12	£550	+4.76%	9,277 16.84%	5,213
SC Cleared	5	Up 2 places+2	£550	+4.76%	9,274 16.83%	3,820
Agile	6	Down 2 places-2	£513	-0.30%	8,702 15.80%	7,803
Azure	7	Down 2 places-2	£530	+1.92%	8,423 15.29%	7,392
Microsoft	8	No change0	£495	+4.21%	7,791 14.14%	7,538
CI/CD	9	Up 5 places+5	£520	+1.46%	6,540 11.87%	6,257
AWS	10	Down 1 place-1	£550	+4.76%	6,486 11.77%	7,128
Problem-Solving	11	Down 5 places-5	£495	+2.59%	6,146 11.16%	10,161
Architect	12	Up 8 places+8	£620	-0.80%	6,104 11.08%	4,810
Senior	13	Up 9 places+9	£550	-	5,811 10.55%	15,966
DevOps	14	Down 2 places-2	£525	-	5,773 10.48%	4,704
Python	15	Down 5 places-5	£538	+2.38%	5,751 10.44%	8,861
AI	16	Up 24 places+24	£557	+1.27%	5,568 10.11%	18,004
Continuous Improvement	17	Up 12 places+12	£520	+4.00%	5,293 9.61%	7,825
Public Sector	18	No change0	£525	+5.00%	5,289 9.60%	3,263
SQL	19	Down 4 places-4	£500	-	5,251 9.53%	5,091
Developer	20	Down 7 places-7	£505	+1.00%	5,228 9.49%	2,959
Analyst	21	Down 10 places-10	£466	+3.44%	5,118 9.29%	3,461
Migration	22	Down 3 places-3	£538	+4.36%	5,101 9.26%	2,611
Analytical Skills	23	Down 6 places-6	£500	-	4,849 8.80%	6,614
Lead	24	Up 7 places+7	£575	+2.22%	4,624 8.39%	12,462
Stakeholder Engagement	25	Up 1 place+1	£540	+2.85%	4,409 8.00%	2,243
Analytics	26	Up 2 places+2	£534	+3.18%	4,045 7.34%	7,463
Roadmaps	27	Up 12 places+12	£590	+9.00%	3,537 6.42%	7,686
Decision-Making	28	Up 24 places+24	£550	+10.00%	3,373 6.12%	6,215
Validation	29	Up 37 places+37	£500	-0.09%	3,357 6.09%	4,237
Banking	30	Down 6 places-6	£550	-	3,286 5.96%	2,061
Windows	31	Down 10 places-10	£425	+6.25%	3,282 5.96%	2,485
Consultant	32	Down 9 places-9	£550	-	3,268 5.93%	3,175
Software Engineering	33	Up 9 places+9	£550	-	3,153 5.72%	8,355
Kubernetes	34	Down 2 places-2	£538	+2.38%	3,054 5.54%	3,140
Infrastructure as Code	35	Up 14 places+14	£550	+1.85%	2,988 5.42%	2,955
Data Modelling	36	Up 15 places+15	£525	-	2,987 5.42%	2,414
Java	36	Down 11 places-11	£515	+0.48%	2,987 5.42%	3,084
Terraform	37	No change0	£538	+2.47%	2,971 5.39%	2,695
Cybersecurity	38	Up 3 places+3	£550	+2.42%	2,861 5.19%	5,385
Oracle	39	Down 5 places-5	£525	+0.96%	2,859 5.19%	1,484
SAP	40	Down 10 places-10	£558	-1.23%	2,853 5.18%	1,685
Test Automation	41	Up 4 places+4	£475	-5.00%	2,693 4.89%	3,350
Degree	42	Down 15 places-15	£510	+2.00%	2,605 4.73%	10,159
Data Quality	43	Up 52 places+52	£515	+3.00%	2,590 4.70%	2,594
Power Platform	44	No change0	£500	+1.83%	2,547 4.62%	2,373
JIRA	45	Down 10 places-10	£500	-	2,391 4.34%	1,548
Business Intelligence	46	Down 8 places-8	£500	-	2,378 4.32%	2,808
QA	46	Up 15 places+15	£475	-	2,378 4.32%	2,729
GCP	47	Up 3 places+3	£550	+2.42%	2,352 4.27%	2,826
Project Delivery	48	Up 11 places+11	£525	-	2,350 4.27%	2,561

The figures above represent demand-side skills and capabilities across the digital and IT contractor job market.
The statistics are not representative of specific organisations.