Software Testing Contract Job Trends in Dorset

Software Testing
South West > Dorset

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Dorset requiring Software Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 29 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 - -
Rank change year-on-year - - -
Contract jobs citing Software Testing 6 0 0
As % of all contract jobs in Dorset 5.04% - -
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.69% - -
Number of daily rates quoted 3 0 0
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £409 - -
South West median daily rate £449 £400 £515
% change year-on-year +12.13% -22.33% -18.25%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Dorset

Software Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Dorset.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 78 82 178
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Dorset 65.55% 90.11% 86.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 31 47 99
10th Percentile £256 £280 £172
25th Percentile £375 £406 £178
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +6.06%
75th Percentile £550 £563 £675
90th Percentile £675 £688 £825
South West median daily rate £525 £525 £545
% change year-on-year - -3.67% +0.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 52
10th Percentile £21.40 - £13.07
25th Percentile £22.00 £14.41 £15.16
Median hourly rate £25.15 £14.81 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +69.82% -73.78% +3.03%
75th Percentile £52.28 £20.11 £58.94
90th Percentile £74.68 £23.04 £65.98
South West median hourly rate £51.21 £65.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -21.22% +18.18% -10.57%

Software Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in Dorset

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Dorset.

Software Testing job vacancy trend in Dorset

Software Testing
Daily Rate Trend in Dorset

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Dorset citing Software Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Dorset citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in Dorset

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Dorset citing Software Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Dorset citing Software Testing

Software Testing
Contract Job Locations in Dorset

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Testing within the Dorset region over the 6 months to 29 January 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
Bournemouth - 3 £409 - 4
Wareham - 3 - - 3
Software Testing
South West

Software Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Dorset 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (50.00%) AWS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (50.00%) MySQL
Job Titles
1 3 (50.00%) Developer
1 3 (50.00%) Java Developer
1 3 (50.00%) Senior
1 3 (50.00%) Senior Developer
1 3 (50.00%) Senior Java Developer
1 3 (50.00%) Software Engineer
1 3 (50.00%) Software Verification Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (50.00%) Spring
1 3 (50.00%) Spring Boot
1 3 (50.00%) Spring MVC
2 1 (16.67%) CSS
2 1 (16.67%) CSS3
2 1 (16.67%) HTML
2 1 (16.67%) HTML5
2 1 (16.67%) Jest
2 1 (16.67%) React
2 1 (16.67%) Redux
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Code Quality
1 3 (50.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 3 (50.00%) Data Protection
1 3 (50.00%) MVC
1 3 (50.00%) SDLC
1 3 (50.00%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 3 (50.00%) Java
1 3 (50.00%) JavaScript
1 3 (50.00%) SQL
Vendors
1 1 (16.67%) Microsoft