Mainframe Contract Job Trends in the East of England

Mainframes
England > East of England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Mainframe in contract job vacancies in the East of England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Mainframe over the 6 months leading up to 20 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 84 106
Rank change year-on-year -19 +22 +18
Contract jobs citing Mainframe 2 1 4
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 0.10% 0.10% 0.21%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.35% 0.23% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 4
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £463 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 - £400
Median % change year-on-year - - -23.81%
75th Percentile £488 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £478 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -4.50% +5.26% -13.64%

All Generic Skills
East of England

Mainframe 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 the East of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 566 437 578
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England 29.40% 44.19% 30.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 301 248 308
10th Percentile £196 £250 £187
25th Percentile £313 £396 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +8.33%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £560
90th Percentile £688 £700 £651
England median daily rate £513 £545 £545
% change year-on-year -5.96% - -5.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 99 71 127
10th Percentile £13.50 £16.95 £13.24
25th Percentile £16.17 £29.89 £17.00
Median hourly rate £22.50 £67.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -66.67% +22.73% -15.71%
75th Percentile £67.25 £85.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £88.00 £70.00
England median hourly rate £37.50 £33.00 £28.00
% change year-on-year +13.64% +17.86% +17.70%

Mainframe
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Mainframe relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England.

Mainframe job vacancy trend in the East of England

Mainframe
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Mainframe.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Mainframe

Mainframe
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Mainframe.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing Mainframe

Mainframe
Contract Job Locations in the East of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Mainframe within the East of England region over the 6 months to 20 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
Hertfordshire -24 2 £475 -
Mainframe
England

Mainframe
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England 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:

General
1 2 (100.00%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (50.00%) Retail
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Analyst
1 2 (100.00%) Security Analyst
2 1 (50.00%) Mainframe Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (100.00%) ISPF
Operating Systems
1 2 (100.00%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Problem-Solving
1 2 (100.00%) RBAC
1 2 (100.00%) Runbook
2 1 (50.00%) AI
2 1 (50.00%) Collaborative Working
2 1 (50.00%) Generative AI
2 1 (50.00%) Privileged Access Management
2 1 (50.00%) Security Monitoring
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) CLIST
1 2 (100.00%) JCL
1 2 (100.00%) REXX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (100.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 2 (100.00%) RACF
Systems Management
1 2 (100.00%) zSecure
Vendors
1 2 (100.00%) IBM