Junior Contract Job Trends in England

Junior
UK > England

The median Junior daily rate in England is £325, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 358 326 358
Rank change year-on-year -32 +32 +23
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 235 150 181
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.58% 0.62% 0.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.66% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 116 135
10th Percentile £151 £150 £123
25th Percentile £199 £185 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £275 £325
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +20.37%
75th Percentile £438 £388 £400
90th Percentile £496 £441 £500
UK median daily rate £325 £270 £325
% change year-on-year +20.37% -16.92% +20.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 6 12
10th Percentile - £16.85 -
25th Percentile £12.43 £17.61 -
Median hourly rate £14.00 £19.71 £10.42
Median % change year-on-year -28.95% +89.11% -20.76%
75th Percentile £18.90 £23.67 £16.65
90th Percentile £21.00 £24.25 £37.89
UK median hourly rate £14.61 £19.71 £10.42
% change year-on-year -25.86% +89.11% -20.76%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 37,365 22,563 34,397
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 92.56% 92.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,363 15,023 22,839
10th Percentile £313 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £501 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.82% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,529 906 2,437
10th Percentile £15.72 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £20.79 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £30.45 £36.34
Median % change year-on-year +54.35% -16.20% -18.83%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.66
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.42
% change year-on-year +51.72% -20.37% -19.07%

Junior
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Junior' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Junior job vacancy trend in England

Junior
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in England

Junior
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Junior in England over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Junior in England

Junior
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in England

Junior
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Junior within the England region over the 6 months to 3 May 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
London -26 120 £320 +16.36% 101
South East -34 40 £300 -1.64% 110
North of England -53 24 £355 +67.06% 90
South West -8 22 £425 +36.00% 55
North West -32 16 £350 -3.45% 37
Midlands -79 16 £190 -8.98% 59
West Midlands -66 13 £170 +6.25% 33
East of England -30 12 £185 -40.80% 38
North East - 8 £398 - 21
East Midlands -35 3 £297 -4.50% 26
Yorkshire -53 2 £363 +150.00% 35
Junior
UK

Junior Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 3 May 2026, Junior contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Junior in the job title.

1 56 (23.83%) Security Cleared
2 48 (20.43%) SC Cleared
3 42 (17.87%) Agile
4 30 (12.77%) SQL
5 27 (11.49%) Break/Fix
5 27 (11.49%) HP
6 24 (10.21%) Microsoft
7 22 (9.36%) Python
7 22 (9.36%) Time Management
8 20 (8.51%) C#
9 19 (8.09%) Problem-Solving
10 18 (7.66%) Accessibility
11 17 (7.23%) Azure
11 17 (7.23%) Computer Science
12 16 (6.81%) Degree
12 16 (6.81%) Project Management
13 15 (6.38%) .NET
14 14 (5.96%) Continuous Improvement
14 14 (5.96%) DNS
14 14 (5.96%) Java
14 14 (5.96%) Migration
14 14 (5.96%) Project Delivery
14 14 (5.96%) Software Engineering
15 13 (5.53%) CI/CD
15 13 (5.53%) User Experience
16 12 (5.11%) Active Directory
16 12 (5.11%) DevOps
16 12 (5.11%) PMO
16 12 (5.11%) REST
16 12 (5.11%) Scrum

Junior Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in 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:

Application Platforms
1 7 (2.98%) Confluence
2 5 (2.13%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.85%) Apache
3 2 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.85%) IIS
4 1 (0.43%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.43%) FileNet
4 1 (0.43%) govService
Applications
1 6 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.13%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.28%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.85%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.43%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.43%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.43%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.43%) InDesign
5 1 (0.43%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.43%) Sketch
5 1 (0.43%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 1 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 17 (7.23%) Azure
2 10 (4.26%) Figma
3 9 (3.83%) AWS
3 9 (3.83%) Power Platform
4 8 (3.40%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.13%) Serverless
7 4 (1.70%) Amazon S3
7 4 (1.70%) AWS Lambda
7 4 (1.70%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.28%) Amazon Kinesis
8 3 (1.28%) AWS Step Functions
8 3 (1.28%) Azure AKS
8 3 (1.28%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (1.28%) GitHub
9 2 (0.85%) Amazon SQS
9 2 (0.85%) Dynamics 365
9 2 (0.85%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.85%) Power Automate
9 2 (0.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 14 (5.96%) DNS
2 11 (4.68%) TCP/IP
3 10 (4.26%) BIG-IP
3 10 (4.26%) HTTP
3 10 (4.26%) SSL
3 10 (4.26%) Wireshark
4 5 (2.13%) LAN
4 5 (2.13%) VPN
4 5 (2.13%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (1.70%) DHCP
5 4 (1.70%) VLAN
6 1 (0.43%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.43%) Ethereal
6 1 (0.43%) Firewall
6 1 (0.43%) HTTPS
6 1 (0.43%) Internet
6 1 (0.43%) IPsec
6 1 (0.43%) Network Security
6 1 (0.43%) WAN
6 1 (0.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.83%) Power BI
1 9 (3.83%) Relational Database
2 3 (1.28%) Amazon Athena
2 3 (1.28%) NoSQL
2 3 (1.28%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.85%) Power Query
4 1 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.43%) Big Data
4 1 (0.43%) BigQuery
4 1 (0.43%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.43%) DataStage
4 1 (0.43%) Looker
4 1 (0.43%) MS Access
4 1 (0.43%) MySQL
4 1 (0.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
4 1 (0.43%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (4.68%) JIRA
2 9 (3.83%) Fiddler
3 5 (2.13%) GitLab
4 4 (1.70%) Git
5 1 (0.43%) TeamCity
General
1 54 (22.98%) Social Skills
2 33 (14.04%) Finance
3 31 (13.19%) Organisational Skills
4 15 (6.38%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (5.96%) Banking
5 14 (5.96%) Public Sector
6 6 (2.55%) Publishing
7 5 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (2.13%) Investment Banking
7 5 (2.13%) Retail
8 3 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (1.28%) Legal
9 2 (0.85%) French Language
9 2 (0.85%) Front Office
9 2 (0.85%) German Language
9 2 (0.85%) Law
9 2 (0.85%) Marketing
9 2 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.85%) Retail Banking
9 2 (0.85%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.38%) .NET
2 12 (5.11%) REST
3 6 (2.55%) Spring
4 2 (0.85%) ADO
4 2 (0.85%) AngularJS
4 2 (0.85%) HTML
4 2 (0.85%) React
4 2 (0.85%) Spring Boot
4 2 (0.85%) Vue
4 2 (0.85%) XML
5 1 (0.43%) Apache Commons
5 1 (0.43%) Guava
5 1 (0.43%) Hibernate
5 1 (0.43%) JSF
5 1 (0.43%) LDAP
5 1 (0.43%) RESTful
5 1 (0.43%) SAML
5 1 (0.43%) Struts
5 1 (0.43%) Swagger
5 1 (0.43%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 17 (7.23%) Mobile App
2 13 (5.53%) Onboarding
3 11 (4.68%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.98%) Cloud Native
5 4 (1.70%) Data Centre
5 4 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (1.70%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (1.70%) Hedge funds
6 3 (1.28%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.28%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 2 (0.85%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.85%) Equities
7 2 (0.85%) Fat Client
7 2 (0.85%) Housing Association
7 2 (0.85%) NHS
7 2 (0.85%) PMI
7 2 (0.85%) Private Cloud
7 2 (0.85%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.40%) Windows
2 6 (2.55%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.70%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.85%) AIX
4 2 (0.85%) Solaris
5 1 (0.43%) CatOS
5 1 (0.43%) Linux
5 1 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (17.87%) Agile
2 27 (11.49%) Break/Fix
3 22 (9.36%) Time Management
4 19 (8.09%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (7.23%) Computer Science
6 16 (6.81%) Project Management
7 14 (5.96%) Continuous Improvement
7 14 (5.96%) Migration
7 14 (5.96%) Project Delivery
7 14 (5.96%) Software Engineering
8 13 (5.53%) CI/CD
8 13 (5.53%) User Experience
9 12 (5.11%) DevOps
9 12 (5.11%) Scrum
10 11 (4.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 10 (4.26%) Stakeholder Management
11 10 (4.26%) UX Design
12 9 (3.83%) Business Intelligence
12 9 (3.83%) Data Loss Prevention
12 9 (3.83%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 30 (12.77%) SQL
2 22 (9.36%) Python
3 20 (8.51%) C#
4 14 (5.96%) Java
5 4 (1.70%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.28%) Bash
7 2 (0.85%) C++
8 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.43%) Korn
8 1 (0.43%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.43%) Ruby
8 1 (0.43%) Rust
8 1 (0.43%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.43%) VB
Qualifications
1 56 (23.83%) Security Cleared
2 48 (20.43%) SC Cleared
3 16 (6.81%) Degree
4 8 (3.40%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
6 4 (1.70%) PMI Certification
6 4 (1.70%) PMP
7 2 (0.85%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.43%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.43%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.43%) MBA
8 1 (0.43%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.43%) SAFe Agilist
8 1 (0.43%) Six Sigma Black Belt
8 1 (0.43%) Six Sigma Green Belt
8 1 (0.43%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.66%) Accessibility
2 12 (5.11%) PMO
3 5 (2.13%) QA
4 4 (1.70%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.28%) SLA
6 2 (0.85%) WCAG
7 1 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.43%) Basel III
7 1 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.43%) GRC
7 1 (0.43%) HL7
7 1 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.43%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (5.11%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.26%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.28%) Docker
4 2 (0.85%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 10 (4.26%) Ansible
2 5 (2.13%) Terraform
3 4 (1.70%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (1.70%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.43%) Istio
4 1 (0.43%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 27 (11.49%) HP
2 24 (10.21%) Microsoft
3 11 (4.68%) VMware
4 10 (4.26%) F5
5 9 (3.83%) Blue Coat
5 9 (3.83%) McAfee
6 3 (1.28%) ServiceNow
7 2 (0.85%) Adobe
7 2 (0.85%) Google
7 2 (0.85%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.43%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.43%) Anaplan
8 1 (0.43%) Aruba
8 1 (0.43%) Automation Anywhere
8 1 (0.43%) CheckPoint
8 1 (0.43%) Cisco
8 1 (0.43%) IBM
8 1 (0.43%) Oracle
8 1 (0.43%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.43%) SAP