Life Science Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Life Sciences
South East > Berkshire

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Life Science in contract job vacancies in Berkshire. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Life Science over the 6 months leading up to 4 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 83 115
Rank change year-on-year -33 +32 -42
Contract jobs citing Life Science 2 11 13
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 0.11% 0.90% 0.66%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.31% 2.59% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 1 3
10th Percentile - - £119
25th Percentile - £613 £229
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £425
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +47.06% -14.57%
75th Percentile - £638 £438
90th Percentile - - -
South East median daily rate £525 £450 £425
% change year-on-year +16.67% +5.88% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 8
10th Percentile - £49.10 £20.50
25th Percentile - £50.75 £36.06
Median hourly rate - £53.50 £47.19
Median % change year-on-year - +13.37% -
75th Percentile - £70.28 £61.63
90th Percentile - £80.34 £62.00
South East median hourly rate - £53.50 £43.33
% change year-on-year - +23.47% -

All Generic Skills
Berkshire

Life Science falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 638 424 654
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 36.25% 34.50% 32.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 387 217 362
10th Percentile £280 £300 £205
25th Percentile £367 £419 £280
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £510 £484
Median % change year-on-year -6.86% +5.48% -3.30%
75th Percentile £589 £613 £600
90th Percentile £669 £650 £673
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 13 30
10th Percentile £20.79 £25.53 £18.82
25th Percentile £44.83 £46.12 £24.09
Median hourly rate £81.50 £61.50 £55.80
Median % change year-on-year +32.53% +10.21% +1.45%
75th Percentile £88.00 £62.24 £62.49
90th Percentile £96.25 £91.41 £65.27
South East median hourly rate £46.35 £33.75 £42.92
% change year-on-year +37.34% -21.36% -1.34%

Life Science
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Life Science relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Life Science job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Life Science
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Life Science.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Life Science

Life Science
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Life Science.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Life Science

Life Science
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Life Science within the Berkshire region over the 6 months to 4 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
Reading - 1 £600 -
Wokingham - 1 - - 1
Life Science
South East

Life Science
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire 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:

Business Applications
1 1 (50.00%) Sage X3
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle Database
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle Database 12c
1 1 (50.00%) SQL Server
1 1 (50.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
1 1 (50.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
General
1 2 (100.00%) Manufacturing
1 2 (100.00%) Pharmaceutical
2 1 (50.00%) Finance
2 1 (50.00%) Retail
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Administrator
1 1 (50.00%) DBA
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle DBA
1 1 (50.00%) Senior
1 1 (50.00%) Senior DBA
1 1 (50.00%) Senior Oracle DBA
1 1 (50.00%) Senior SQL DBA
1 1 (50.00%) SQL DBA
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) FMCG
1 1 (50.00%) Legacy Systems
1 1 (50.00%) Operational Technology
1 1 (50.00%) Replication
1 1 (50.00%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1 (50.00%) Linux
1 1 (50.00%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (50.00%) Change Management
1 1 (50.00%) Contract Negotiation
1 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
1 1 (50.00%) Data Management
1 1 (50.00%) Data Migration
1 1 (50.00%) Database Tuning
1 1 (50.00%) ERP
1 1 (50.00%) Migration
1 1 (50.00%) Performance Tuning
1 1 (50.00%) Project Management
1 1 (50.00%) Project Planning
1 1 (50.00%) Risk Management
1 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft Certification
1 1 (50.00%) OCP
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (50.00%) NIST
1 1 (50.00%) NIST 800
Systems Management
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 1 (50.00%) Microsoft
1 1 (50.00%) Oracle
1 1 (50.00%) Sage
1 1 (50.00%) Wonderware