Junior Contract Job Trends in England

Junior
UK > England

The median Junior daily rate in England is £353, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 June 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 336 365
Rank change year-on-year -43 +29 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 226 147 188
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.54% 0.61% 0.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.66% 0.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 146 108 141
10th Percentile £164 £154 £123
25th Percentile £263 £185 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £353 £250 £325
Median % change year-on-year +41.00% -23.08% +20.37%
75th Percentile £438 £355 £400
90th Percentile £498 £425 £513
UK median daily rate £325 £260 £325
% change year-on-year +25.00% -20.00% +23.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 7 11
10th Percentile £12.43 £17.85 -
25th Percentile £13.22 £19.39 -
Median hourly rate £14.00 £21.28 £10.42
Median % change year-on-year -34.21% +104.22% -20.31%
75th Percentile £21.00 £23.41 £13.16
90th Percentile £25.15 £24.25 £40.00
UK median hourly rate £17.73 £21.28 £10.42
% change year-on-year -16.68% +104.22% -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 38,587 22,165 34,087
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 92.40% 92.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,812 14,615 22,428
10th Percentile £325 £289 £284
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -1.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,713 946 2,578
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.27 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +53.74% -22.97% -15.56%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.70 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +52.48% -25.33% -16.67%

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 4 June 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 4 June 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 4 June 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 -25 128 £325 +22.64% 80
South East -42 31 £350 +27.27% 94
South West -11 27 £425 +41.67% 65
North of England -63 24 £353 +56.67% 98
North West -24 16 £323 +9.23% 42
North East - 7 £425 - 26
East of England -35 6 £345 +10.40% 33
West Midlands -69 5 £215 +43.33% 30
Midlands -81 5 £215 +4.88% 58
Yorkshire -62 1 £355 +77.50% 31
Junior
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 June 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 (26.55%) Security Cleared
2 52 (23.01%) SC Cleared
3 50 (22.12%) Agile
4 35 (15.49%) SQL
5 27 (11.95%) Microsoft
6 26 (11.50%) Python
7 23 (10.18%) C#
7 23 (10.18%) Degree
8 22 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
9 21 (9.29%) Accessibility
10 20 (8.85%) Azure
10 20 (8.85%) Computer Science
11 19 (8.41%) .NET
11 19 (8.41%) Migration
12 16 (7.08%) TCP/IP
12 16 (7.08%) User Experience
13 15 (6.64%) Continuous Improvement
13 15 (6.64%) DevOps
13 15 (6.64%) Project Management
13 15 (6.64%) Software Engineering
14 14 (6.19%) Figma
14 14 (6.19%) REST
15 13 (5.75%) CI/CD
15 13 (5.75%) DNS
15 13 (5.75%) Java
16 12 (5.31%) Active Directory
16 12 (5.31%) Analytics
16 12 (5.31%) UX Design
16 12 (5.31%) Validation
16 12 (5.31%) VMware

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 (1.77%) IIS
1 4 (1.77%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.33%) Confluence
3 2 (0.88%) Apache
3 2 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.44%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.44%) govService
Applications
1 9 (3.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.77%) Adobe Illustrator
2 4 (1.77%) Photoshop
2 4 (1.77%) Spreadsheet
2 4 (1.77%) UserZoom
3 3 (1.33%) Adobe After Effects
3 3 (1.33%) InDesign
3 3 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.88%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.44%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.44%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.44%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 20 (8.85%) Azure
2 14 (6.19%) Figma
3 11 (4.87%) AWS
3 11 (4.87%) Power Platform
4 8 (3.54%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.21%) GitHub
7 4 (1.77%) Amazon S3
7 4 (1.77%) AWS Lambda
7 4 (1.77%) Entra ID
7 4 (1.77%) Miro
7 4 (1.77%) Serverless
8 3 (1.33%) Amazon Kinesis
8 3 (1.33%) AWS Step Functions
8 3 (1.33%) Azure AKS
8 3 (1.33%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (1.33%) Canva
9 2 (0.88%) Anthropic Claude
9 2 (0.88%) ChatGPT
9 2 (0.88%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (7.08%) TCP/IP
2 13 (5.75%) DNS
3 8 (3.54%) BIG-IP
3 8 (3.54%) HTTP
3 8 (3.54%) SSL
3 8 (3.54%) Wireshark
4 6 (2.65%) Internet
5 5 (2.21%) DHCP
5 5 (2.21%) LAN
5 5 (2.21%) VPN
5 5 (2.21%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (1.77%) VLAN
7 3 (1.33%) BGP
7 3 (1.33%) Firewall
8 2 (0.88%) Network Security
9 1 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
9 1 (0.44%) Cisco Nexus
9 1 (0.44%) Intranet
9 1 (0.44%) IPsec
9 1 (0.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.87%) Power BI
1 11 (4.87%) Relational Database
2 4 (1.77%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.33%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (1.33%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (0.88%) Power Query
5 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.44%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.44%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.44%) Looker
5 1 (0.44%) MS Access
5 1 (0.44%) MySQL
5 1 (0.44%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.44%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (3.10%) Fiddler
2 5 (2.21%) JIRA
3 4 (1.77%) Git
3 4 (1.77%) GitLab
4 2 (0.88%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.88%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.44%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.44%) Bitbucket
General
1 72 (31.86%) Social Skills
2 37 (16.37%) Finance
3 20 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (7.96%) Organisational Skills
5 15 (6.64%) Public Sector
6 13 (5.75%) Banking
7 8 (3.54%) Publishing
8 6 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (2.65%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.77%) Retail
9 4 (1.77%) Social Science
10 3 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.33%) Games
10 3 (1.33%) Legal
10 3 (1.33%) Marketing
10 3 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
10 3 (1.33%) Retail Banking
11 2 (0.88%) Front Office
11 2 (0.88%) Law
11 2 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (8.41%) .NET
2 14 (6.19%) REST
3 6 (2.65%) Spring
4 3 (1.33%) XML
5 2 (0.88%) ADO
5 2 (0.88%) AngularJS
5 2 (0.88%) ASP.NET
5 2 (0.88%) HTML
5 2 (0.88%) React
5 2 (0.88%) Spring Boot
5 2 (0.88%) Vue
6 1 (0.44%) ADO.NET
6 1 (0.44%) Apache Commons
6 1 (0.44%) ASP.NET Web Forms
6 1 (0.44%) Guava
6 1 (0.44%) RESTful
6 1 (0.44%) SOAP
6 1 (0.44%) Spring MVC
6 1 (0.44%) Struts
6 1 (0.44%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 15 (6.64%) Onboarding
2 12 (5.31%) Product Ownership
3 8 (3.54%) Cloud Native
3 8 (3.54%) Data Centre
4 5 (2.21%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 4 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (1.77%) Distributed Systems
5 4 (1.77%) Graphic Design
5 4 (1.77%) Hedge funds
5 4 (1.77%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.33%) Housing Association
6 3 (1.33%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.33%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 2 (0.88%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.88%) Fat Client
7 2 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (0.88%) Life Science
7 2 (0.88%) Private Cloud
7 2 (0.88%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.54%) Windows
2 5 (2.21%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.77%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.88%) AIX
4 2 (0.88%) Solaris
4 2 (0.88%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.44%) CatOS
5 1 (0.44%) Linux
5 1 (0.44%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (22.12%) Agile
2 22 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
3 20 (8.85%) Computer Science
4 19 (8.41%) Migration
5 16 (7.08%) User Experience
6 15 (6.64%) Continuous Improvement
6 15 (6.64%) DevOps
6 15 (6.64%) Project Management
6 15 (6.64%) Software Engineering
7 13 (5.75%) CI/CD
8 12 (5.31%) Analytics
8 12 (5.31%) UX Design
8 12 (5.31%) Validation
9 11 (4.87%) Business Intelligence
9 11 (4.87%) Data Protection
9 11 (4.87%) Project Delivery
10 10 (4.42%) AI
10 10 (4.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 10 (4.42%) Stakeholder Management
11 9 (3.98%) Mathematics
Programming Languages
1 35 (15.49%) SQL
2 26 (11.50%) Python
3 23 (10.18%) C#
4 13 (5.75%) Java
5 4 (1.77%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.33%) C++
7 2 (0.88%) Bash
8 1 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.44%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.44%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.44%) Ruby
8 1 (0.44%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.44%) VB
Qualifications
1 60 (26.55%) Security Cleared
2 52 (23.01%) SC Cleared
3 23 (10.18%) Degree
4 9 (3.98%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 4 (1.77%) Master's Degree
6 3 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (1.33%) PMI Certification
6 3 (1.33%) PMP
7 1 (0.44%) A+ Certification
7 1 (0.44%) ACCA
7 1 (0.44%) CIMA
7 1 (0.44%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
7 1 (0.44%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.44%) Six Sigma Green Belt
7 1 (0.44%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (9.29%) Accessibility
2 8 (3.54%) PMO
3 7 (3.10%) Data Quality
4 5 (2.21%) QA
5 4 (1.77%) SLA
6 2 (0.88%) WCAG
7 1 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.44%) GDPR
7 1 (0.44%) GRC
7 1 (0.44%) HL7
7 1 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.44%) P3O
System Software
1 12 (5.31%) Active Directory
2 8 (3.54%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.33%) Docker
3 3 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.44%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.44%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 11 (4.87%) Ansible
2 5 (2.21%) Terraform
3 4 (1.77%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (1.77%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.44%) Istio
4 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 27 (11.95%) Microsoft
2 12 (5.31%) VMware
3 8 (3.54%) F5
4 7 (3.10%) Blue Coat
4 7 (3.10%) McAfee
5 5 (2.21%) Google
6 4 (1.77%) Adobe
6 4 (1.77%) Cisco
7 3 (1.33%) Arista
7 3 (1.33%) SAP
7 3 (1.33%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.88%) Fortinet
8 2 (0.88%) Salesforce
9 1 (0.44%) Alteryx
9 1 (0.44%) Anaplan
9 1 (0.44%) CheckPoint
9 1 (0.44%) IFS
9 1 (0.44%) InterSystems
9 1 (0.44%) Oracle
9 1 (0.44%) Palo Alto