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 10 September 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 422 354 345
Rank change year-on-year -68 -9 +39
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 217 167 188
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.47% 0.60% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.51% 0.66% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 94 133
10th Percentile £167 £140 £125
25th Percentile £225 £185 £208
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £250 £300
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -16.67% +10.09%
75th Percentile £438 £339 £380
90th Percentile £488 £425 £475
UK median daily rate £325 £250 £300
% change year-on-year +30.00% -16.67% +8.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 13 4
10th Percentile £11.32 £15.69 -
25th Percentile £12.71 £20.64 -
Median hourly rate £14.00 £23.50 £10.42
Median % change year-on-year -40.43% +125.53% -45.87%
75th Percentile £21.75 £43.75 £14.57
90th Percentile £22.10 - £22.03
UK median hourly rate £15.99 £23.50 £12.30
% change year-on-year -31.96% +91.06% -35.87%

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 42,748 25,384 30,473
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.31% 91.33% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,582 16,362 19,224
10th Percentile £325 £281 £305
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,383 1,348 1,536
10th Percentile £14.94 £13.62 £14.56
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.96% -47.05% +7.95%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%

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 10 September 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Junior in England over the 6 months to 10 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Junior 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 10 September 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 -39 125 £310 +15.67% 62
South West -8 40 £425 +40.50% 34
West Midlands -37 16 £162 +8.00% 22
Midlands -62 16 £162 -20.98% 44
North of England -68 15 £320 +41.28% 78
South East -74 14 £325 +30.00% 84
North West -52 11 £308 +15.38% 40
East of England -41 3 £400 +128.57% 33
North East - 3 - - 9
Yorkshire -47 1 £355 +108.82% 30
Junior
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 September 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 60 (27.65%) Agile
2 48 (22.12%) Security Cleared
3 45 (20.74%) SC Cleared
4 43 (19.82%) Microsoft
5 36 (16.59%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (13.82%) Azure
7 29 (13.36%) Degree
8 28 (12.90%) SQL
9 21 (9.68%) Project Management
9 21 (9.68%) Python
10 20 (9.22%) Computer Science
10 20 (9.22%) DevOps
11 19 (8.76%) Migration
11 19 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
12 18 (8.29%) Accessibility
12 18 (8.29%) Business Intelligence
12 18 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
13 17 (7.83%) AI
13 17 (7.83%) AWS
13 17 (7.83%) Microsoft Excel
13 17 (7.83%) Project Delivery
13 17 (7.83%) Scrum
14 16 (7.37%) Analytics
14 16 (7.37%) Customer Service
15 15 (6.91%) C#
15 15 (6.91%) Java
15 15 (6.91%) PMO
15 15 (6.91%) REST
15 15 (6.91%) Software Engineering
15 15 (6.91%) Stakeholder Engagement

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 4 (1.84%) IIS
2 3 (1.38%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.92%) Confluence
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.46%) WebLogic
Applications
1 17 (7.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (3.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (3.23%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.84%) Adobe Illustrator
4 4 (1.84%) Photoshop
4 4 (1.84%) Trello
4 4 (1.84%) UserZoom
5 3 (1.38%) Adobe After Effects
5 3 (1.38%) InDesign
6 2 (0.92%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.46%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.46%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.84%) Magento
2 1 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.46%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.46%) SAP BPC
2 1 (0.46%) SAP CO
2 1 (0.46%) SAP FI
2 1 (0.46%) SAP FI/CO
2 1 (0.46%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 30 (13.82%) Azure
2 17 (7.83%) AWS
3 14 (6.45%) Power Platform
4 13 (5.99%) Figma
5 10 (4.61%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (4.61%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (3.23%) GitHub
7 6 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
7 6 (2.76%) GCP
8 5 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (2.30%) Miro
9 4 (1.84%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 4 (1.84%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 4 (1.84%) Azure Data Factory
9 4 (1.84%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (1.38%) Canva
10 3 (1.38%) GitHub Copilot
10 3 (1.38%) OneDrive
10 3 (1.38%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.69%) TCP/IP
2 7 (3.23%) Internet
3 6 (2.76%) LAN
3 6 (2.76%) WAN
4 4 (1.84%) Network Security
5 3 (1.38%) BGP
5 3 (1.38%) DHCP
5 3 (1.38%) DNS
6 2 (0.92%) Firewall
6 2 (0.92%) Intranet
6 2 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.46%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.46%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (6.45%) Power BI
2 13 (5.99%) Relational Database
3 10 (4.61%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (2.30%) DTS
4 5 (2.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 4 (1.84%) Data Vault
5 4 (1.84%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (1.84%) MongoDB
5 4 (1.84%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.84%) Redis
6 3 (1.38%) Looker
6 3 (1.38%) Power Query
6 3 (1.38%) SQL Server
6 3 (1.38%) Tableau
7 2 (0.92%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.92%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.46%) Chroma
8 1 (0.46%) Pinecone
8 1 (0.46%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.46%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 13 (5.99%) Git
2 9 (4.15%) JIRA
3 7 (3.23%) Jenkins
4 6 (2.76%) Bitbucket
5 4 (1.84%) GitLab
5 4 (1.84%) Subversion
6 2 (0.92%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.92%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.46%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.46%) Gatling
7 1 (0.46%) git-flow
7 1 (0.46%) JMeter
7 1 (0.46%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.46%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.46%) RhodeCode
General
1 78 (35.94%) Social Skills
2 45 (20.74%) Finance
3 33 (15.21%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (9.68%) Organisational Skills
5 20 (9.22%) Public Sector
6 15 (6.91%) Banking
7 14 (6.45%) Retail
8 9 (4.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 9 (4.15%) Legal
9 8 (3.69%) Publishing
10 6 (2.76%) Marketing
11 5 (2.30%) Investment Banking
11 5 (2.30%) Military
12 4 (1.84%) French Language
12 4 (1.84%) Social Science
13 3 (1.38%) Front Office
13 3 (1.38%) Games
13 3 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (1.38%) Retail Banking
14 2 (0.92%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.91%) REST
2 12 (5.53%) .NET
3 7 (3.23%) Spring
4 5 (2.30%) Terraform
5 4 (1.84%) Ktor
5 4 (1.84%) VML
5 4 (1.84%) XML
6 3 (1.38%) ASP.NET
6 3 (1.38%) Spring Boot
7 2 (0.92%) .NET Framework
7 2 (0.92%) ADO.NET
7 2 (0.92%) Ajax
7 2 (0.92%) ASP.NET Web Forms
7 2 (0.92%) SOAP
7 2 (0.92%) Web Services
7 2 (0.92%) XSL
7 2 (0.92%) XSLT
8 1 (0.46%) FIX Protocol
8 1 (0.46%) JSON
8 1 (0.46%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 20 (9.22%) Onboarding
2 16 (7.37%) Product Ownership
3 6 (2.76%) Data Structures
3 6 (2.76%) EPoS
4 5 (2.30%) Data Centre
4 5 (2.30%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (1.84%) Graphic Design
5 4 (1.84%) Management Information System
5 4 (1.84%) Public Cloud
6 3 (1.38%) Greenfield Project
6 3 (1.38%) Housing Association
6 3 (1.38%) Security Posture
7 2 (0.92%) AI Agents
7 2 (0.92%) Cloud Native
7 2 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (0.92%) Life Science
7 2 (0.92%) Private Cloud
7 2 (0.92%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (0.92%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 12 (5.53%) Windows
2 3 (1.38%) Linux
2 3 (1.38%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.92%) AIX
3 2 (0.92%) Solaris
3 2 (0.92%) Unix
3 2 (0.92%) Windows 7
3 2 (0.92%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.46%) Android
4 1 (0.46%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.46%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.46%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.46%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (27.65%) Agile
2 36 (16.59%) Problem-Solving
3 21 (9.68%) Project Management
4 20 (9.22%) Computer Science
4 20 (9.22%) DevOps
5 19 (8.76%) Migration
5 19 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
6 18 (8.29%) Business Intelligence
6 18 (8.29%) Continuous Improvement
7 17 (7.83%) AI
7 17 (7.83%) Project Delivery
7 17 (7.83%) Scrum
8 16 (7.37%) Analytics
8 16 (7.37%) Customer Service
9 15 (6.91%) Software Engineering
9 15 (6.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 15 (6.91%) User Experience
10 13 (5.99%) Decision-Making
11 11 (5.07%) CI/CD
11 11 (5.07%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (12.90%) SQL
2 21 (9.68%) Python
3 15 (6.91%) C#
3 15 (6.91%) Java
4 6 (2.76%) Kotlin
5 3 (1.38%) C++
5 3 (1.38%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.38%) T-SQL
6 2 (0.92%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 2 (0.92%) PL/SQL
7 1 (0.46%) Bash
7 1 (0.46%) Bicep
7 1 (0.46%) Korn
7 1 (0.46%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.46%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.46%) VB
Qualifications
1 48 (22.12%) Security Cleared
2 45 (20.74%) SC Cleared
3 29 (13.36%) Degree
4 5 (2.30%) Master's Degree
5 4 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.38%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.46%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.46%) ACCA
7 1 (0.46%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.46%) CIMA
7 1 (0.46%) CISSP
7 1 (0.46%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.46%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.46%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (8.29%) Accessibility
2 15 (6.91%) PMO
3 12 (5.53%) Data Quality
4 6 (2.76%) QA
5 4 (1.84%) GRC
6 3 (1.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.92%) NIST
7 2 (0.92%) SLA
8 1 (0.46%) GDPR
8 1 (0.46%) HL7
8 1 (0.46%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.46%) NCSC
8 1 (0.46%) SEPA
System Software
1 7 (3.23%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.30%) Docker
3 2 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.46%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.46%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 7 (3.23%) Ansible
2 5 (2.30%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.84%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.38%) Packer
5 1 (0.46%) Grafana
Vendors
1 43 (19.82%) Microsoft
2 6 (2.76%) Google
3 5 (2.30%) SAP
4 4 (1.84%) VMware
5 3 (1.38%) Adobe
5 3 (1.38%) Arista
5 3 (1.38%) Cisco
6 2 (0.92%) Citrix
6 2 (0.92%) Dynatrace
6 2 (0.92%) Fortinet
6 2 (0.92%) Oracle
6 2 (0.92%) Sitecore
7 1 (0.46%) Anaplan
7 1 (0.46%) AppDynamics
7 1 (0.46%) Databricks
7 1 (0.46%) IFS
7 1 (0.46%) New Relic
7 1 (0.46%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.46%) Splunk
7 1 (0.46%) UiPath