Junior Contract Job Trends in England

Junior
UK > England

The median Junior daily rate in England is £260, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 October 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 359 334 366
Rank change year-on-year -25 +32 +66
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 164 196 215
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.58% 0.61% 0.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.64% 0.66% 0.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 83 138 143
10th Percentile £140 £125 £113
25th Percentile £191 £194 £155
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £260 £290 £300
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £349 £386 £388
90th Percentile £444 £519 £479
UK median daily rate £263 £290 £300
% change year-on-year -9.48% -3.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 18
10th Percentile £13.25 - £12.12
25th Percentile £15.25 - £13.04
Median hourly rate £22.56 £27.00 £21.25
Median % change year-on-year -16.44% +27.06% +30.77%
75th Percentile £43.75 - £30.34
90th Percentile - - £31.63
UK median hourly rate £23.03 £17.05 £21.00
% change year-on-year +35.11% -18.83% +29.23%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 25,725 29,743 38,511
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.11% 93.07% 93.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,539 18,154 26,856
10th Percentile £281 £300 £300
25th Percentile £403 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,463 1,231 1,412
10th Percentile £13.85 £15.10 £15.25
25th Percentile £17.31 £21.25 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -6.89% +66.53%
75th Percentile £51.01 £67.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £41.27 £45.00
% change year-on-year -39.05% -8.30% +69.56%

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025.

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 17 October 2025. 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 -8 79 £273 +4.50% 104
Midlands -15 26 £205 +32.26% 51
South East +2 21 £228 -24.17% 125
East of England +4 16 £150 -48.28% 27
North of England -40 16 £263 -27.08% 69
East Midlands 0 13 £173 -18.34% 23
West Midlands -26 13 £313 +101.61% 28
North West -20 12 £263 -30.00% 43
South West +21 7 £328 +31.39% 43
Yorkshire -37 4 £326 +0.38% 14
Junior
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 October 2025, 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 47 (28.66%) Problem-Solving
2 31 (18.90%) Microsoft
3 28 (17.07%) Agile
4 26 (15.85%) Python
5 22 (13.41%) SQL
6 19 (11.59%) Windows
7 17 (10.37%) Security Cleared
8 16 (9.76%) Customer Service
8 16 (9.76%) Microsoft Office
9 15 (9.15%) Degree
9 15 (9.15%) SC Cleared
10 14 (8.54%) Microsoft 365
10 14 (8.54%) Oracle
11 13 (7.93%) Azure
11 13 (7.93%) Microsoft Excel
11 13 (7.93%) TCP/IP
12 12 (7.32%) Data Protection
12 12 (7.32%) Java
12 12 (7.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
12 12 (7.32%) Migration
12 12 (7.32%) Project Delivery
12 12 (7.32%) Project Management
13 10 (6.10%) CI/CD
13 10 (6.10%) JIRA
13 10 (6.10%) SAP
13 10 (6.10%) Software Engineering
14 9 (5.49%) Requirements Gathering
14 9 (5.49%) Test Automation
15 8 (4.88%) Analytics
15 8 (4.88%) Business Intelligence

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 8 (4.88%) SharePoint
2 7 (4.27%) Confluence
3 4 (2.44%) CMS
4 3 (1.83%) Drupal
4 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.61%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 16 (9.76%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (7.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (7.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.83%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (1.83%) Chatbot
4 3 (1.83%) InDesign
4 3 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (1.83%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.83%) Photoshop
5 2 (1.22%) Adobe After Effects
5 2 (1.22%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.61%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 5 (3.05%) Oracle Receivables
2 3 (1.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.61%) BondVision
3 1 (0.61%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.61%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.61%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.61%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.61%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 14 (8.54%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (7.93%) Azure
3 8 (4.88%) Power Platform
4 7 (4.27%) AWS
5 5 (3.05%) SuccessFactors
6 4 (2.44%) GCP
6 4 (2.44%) Google Workspace
6 4 (2.44%) Snowflake
7 2 (1.22%) Adobe Creative Cloud
7 2 (1.22%) dbt
7 2 (1.22%) GitHub
7 2 (1.22%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (1.22%) Matillion
7 2 (1.22%) SaaS
8 1 (0.61%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.61%) Amazon SQS
8 1 (0.61%) Azure Data Factory
8 1 (0.61%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.61%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.61%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.93%) TCP/IP
2 8 (4.88%) DNS
2 8 (4.88%) Internet
3 6 (3.66%) HTTP
3 6 (3.66%) SSL
4 5 (3.05%) BIG-IP
4 5 (3.05%) VPN
4 5 (3.05%) Wireshark
5 3 (1.83%) DMZ
5 3 (1.83%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 3 (1.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (1.83%) Wireless
6 2 (1.22%) Firewall
6 2 (1.22%) SMTP
7 1 (0.61%) DHCP
7 1 (0.61%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.27%) Power BI
2 4 (2.44%) Tableau
3 2 (1.22%) Big Data
3 2 (1.22%) BigQuery
3 2 (1.22%) Data Lake
3 2 (1.22%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.22%) Geospatial Data
3 2 (1.22%) GIS
3 2 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.22%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.61%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.61%) Metadata
4 1 (0.61%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.61%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.61%) Pinecone
4 1 (0.61%) SAP BW
4 1 (0.61%) Snowflake Schema
4 1 (0.61%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 1 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.61%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 10 (6.10%) JIRA
2 6 (3.66%) Fiddler
3 5 (3.05%) Git
4 4 (2.44%) Jenkins
5 3 (1.83%) Postman
6 1 (0.61%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.61%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.61%) GitLab
6 1 (0.61%) Jasmine
6 1 (0.61%) JUnit
6 1 (0.61%) Karma Test Runner
6 1 (0.61%) Mocha
6 1 (0.61%) Protractor
6 1 (0.61%) Selenium
6 1 (0.61%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.61%) Zephyr
General
1 62 (37.80%) Social Skills
2 41 (25.00%) Finance
3 25 (15.24%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (10.98%) Banking
5 16 (9.76%) Organisational Skills
6 15 (9.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (5.49%) Billing
8 7 (4.27%) Public Sector
9 6 (3.66%) Front Office
9 6 (3.66%) Marketing
10 5 (3.05%) Investment Banking
11 4 (2.44%) Manufacturing
11 4 (2.44%) Retail
12 3 (1.83%) Back Office
12 3 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 2 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (1.22%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (1.22%) Legal
13 2 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (1.22%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.05%) JSON
1 5 (3.05%) XML
2 4 (2.44%) RESTful
3 2 (1.22%) HTML
3 2 (1.22%) LangChain
3 2 (1.22%) LangGraph
3 2 (1.22%) Web Services
4 1 (0.61%) ActiveMQ
4 1 (0.61%) ADO
4 1 (0.61%) CrewAI
4 1 (0.61%) CSS
4 1 (0.61%) CSS3
4 1 (0.61%) DOM
4 1 (0.61%) Faiss
4 1 (0.61%) Gherkin
4 1 (0.61%) Gradio
4 1 (0.61%) HTML5
4 1 (0.61%) LDAP
4 1 (0.61%) REST
4 1 (0.61%) Streamlit
Miscellaneous
1 15 (9.15%) Data Centre
2 9 (5.49%) Data Protection Act
3 6 (3.66%) Onboarding
4 5 (3.05%) Management Information System
4 5 (3.05%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.44%) iPad
5 4 (2.44%) iPhone
6 3 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (1.83%) Fixed Income
6 3 (1.83%) SCADA
6 3 (1.83%) Social Media
7 2 (1.22%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.22%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.22%) Graphic Design
7 2 (1.22%) Life Science
7 2 (1.22%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.22%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.61%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.61%) Cyberattack
8 1 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 19 (11.59%) Windows
2 5 (3.05%) Apple iOS
3 4 (2.44%) Linux
4 2 (1.22%) Mac OS
4 2 (1.22%) Unix
5 1 (0.61%) Android
5 1 (0.61%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (28.66%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (17.07%) Agile
3 16 (9.76%) Customer Service
4 12 (7.32%) Data Protection
4 12 (7.32%) Migration
4 12 (7.32%) Project Delivery
4 12 (7.32%) Project Management
5 10 (6.10%) CI/CD
5 10 (6.10%) Software Engineering
6 9 (5.49%) Requirements Gathering
6 9 (5.49%) Test Automation
7 8 (4.88%) Analytics
7 8 (4.88%) Business Intelligence
7 8 (4.88%) Computer Science
7 8 (4.88%) Continuous Improvement
7 8 (4.88%) Decision-Making
7 8 (4.88%) Server Management
7 8 (4.88%) Software Testing
8 7 (4.27%) ITIL
8 7 (4.27%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (15.85%) Python
2 22 (13.41%) SQL
3 12 (7.32%) Java
4 3 (1.83%) PHP
5 2 (1.22%) Go
5 2 (1.22%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.61%) Bash
6 1 (0.61%) C#
6 1 (0.61%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.61%) R
6 1 (0.61%) Ruby
6 1 (0.61%) Rust
6 1 (0.61%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.61%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.61%) VBA
Qualifications
1 17 (10.37%) Security Cleared
2 15 (9.15%) Degree
2 15 (9.15%) SC Cleared
3 3 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (1.83%) DV Cleared
3 3 (1.83%) HNC
4 2 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (1.22%) CISMP
4 2 (1.22%) GSEC
4 2 (1.22%) PMI Certification
4 2 (1.22%) PMP
5 1 (0.61%) A+ Certification
5 1 (0.61%) DBS Check
5 1 (0.61%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.61%) MCP
5 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.88%) QA
2 7 (4.27%) Accessibility
3 6 (3.66%) Data Quality
4 4 (2.44%) PMO
5 3 (1.83%) GDPR
5 3 (1.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.22%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.22%) GRC
7 1 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.61%) NIST
7 1 (0.61%) PMBOK
7 1 (0.61%) SLA
7 1 (0.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 7 (4.27%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.22%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 5 (3.05%) Ansible
2 1 (0.61%) Ambari
2 1 (0.61%) ITRS Geneos
2 1 (0.61%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.61%) Puppet
2 1 (0.61%) SCCM
2 1 (0.61%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 31 (18.90%) Microsoft
2 14 (8.54%) Oracle
3 10 (6.10%) SAP
4 7 (4.27%) Cisco
4 7 (4.27%) Google
5 5 (3.05%) Blue Coat
5 5 (3.05%) F5
5 5 (3.05%) IFS
5 5 (3.05%) McAfee
5 5 (3.05%) ServiceNow
5 5 (3.05%) Workday
6 4 (2.44%) MobileIron
6 4 (2.44%) Netskope
6 4 (2.44%) Nexthink
7 3 (1.83%) Adobe
7 3 (1.83%) Fortinet
7 3 (1.83%) NetApp
7 3 (1.83%) VMware
8 2 (1.22%) Axway
8 2 (1.22%) ION Trading