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 19 April 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 371 333 368
Rank change year-on-year -38 +35 +17
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 224 150 174
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.57% 0.61% 0.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.61% 0.66% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 116 129
10th Percentile £150 £143 £125
25th Percentile £196 £185 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £272 £325
Median % change year-on-year +19.71% -16.46% +18.18%
75th Percentile £438 £392 £413
90th Percentile £491 £450 £500
UK median daily rate £325 £270 £325
% change year-on-year +20.37% -16.92% +18.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 5 12
10th Percentile £12.43 £16.73 -
25th Percentile £12.72 £17.44 -
Median hourly rate £14.00 £18.13 £10.42
Median % change year-on-year -22.78% +73.99% -22.67%
75th Percentile £18.32 £21.92 £16.65
90th Percentile £21.00 £23.32 £37.89
UK median hourly rate £14.31 £18.13 £10.42
% change year-on-year -21.10% +73.99% -22.67%

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 36,438 22,702 34,531
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.29% 92.70% 92.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,879 15,162 23,005
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £644
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,439 867 2,382
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.41 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.73 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% -7.14% -19.08%
75th Percentile £67.36 £64.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%

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 19 April 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 19 April 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 -15 111 £325 +18.18% 90
South East -27 39 £339 +11.01% 91
North of England -69 23 £353 +76.25% 74
South West -11 20 £425 +36.00% 36
Midlands -75 16 £190 -5.00% 58
North West -38 15 £327 -13.09% 30
East of England -22 14 £185 -40.80% 30
West Midlands -67 13 £170 +9.68% 29
North East - 8 £398 - 15
East Midlands -33 3 £297 -4.50% 29
Yorkshire -61 2 £363 +150.00% 31
Junior
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 April 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 54 (24.11%) Security Cleared
2 45 (20.09%) SC Cleared
3 39 (17.41%) Agile
4 29 (12.95%) SQL
5 27 (12.05%) Break/Fix
5 27 (12.05%) HP
6 23 (10.27%) Microsoft
6 23 (10.27%) Problem-Solving
7 22 (9.82%) Time Management
8 19 (8.48%) Python
9 17 (7.59%) Azure
9 17 (7.59%) C#
9 17 (7.59%) Computer Science
9 17 (7.59%) Degree
10 16 (7.14%) .NET
11 15 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
12 14 (6.25%) DNS
12 14 (6.25%) Project Delivery
12 14 (6.25%) Project Management
12 14 (6.25%) Software Engineering
13 13 (5.80%) Accessibility
13 13 (5.80%) CI/CD
13 13 (5.80%) DevOps
13 13 (5.80%) Java
13 13 (5.80%) Migration
13 13 (5.80%) REST
13 13 (5.80%) Scrum
14 12 (5.36%) TCP/IP
15 11 (4.91%) Active Directory
15 11 (4.91%) DV Cleared

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 (3.13%) Confluence
2 5 (2.23%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.89%) Apache
4 1 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.45%) FileNet
4 1 (0.45%) govService
4 1 (0.45%) IIS
Applications
1 5 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (2.23%) Microsoft Project
2 4 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.34%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.89%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.45%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.45%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.45%) InDesign
5 1 (0.45%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.45%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 2 (0.89%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 17 (7.59%) Azure
2 9 (4.02%) AWS
3 8 (3.57%) Figma
4 7 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (3.13%) Power Platform
5 6 (2.68%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.23%) Serverless
7 4 (1.79%) Amazon S3
7 4 (1.79%) AWS Lambda
7 4 (1.79%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.34%) Amazon Kinesis
8 3 (1.34%) AWS Step Functions
8 3 (1.34%) Azure AKS
8 3 (1.34%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (1.34%) GitHub
9 2 (0.89%) Amazon EC2
9 2 (0.89%) Amazon SQS
9 2 (0.89%) SaaS
10 1 (0.45%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.45%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 14 (6.25%) DNS
2 12 (5.36%) TCP/IP
3 10 (4.46%) BIG-IP
3 10 (4.46%) HTTP
3 10 (4.46%) SSL
3 10 (4.46%) Wireshark
4 5 (2.23%) LAN
4 5 (2.23%) VPN
4 5 (2.23%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (1.79%) DHCP
5 4 (1.79%) VLAN
6 3 (1.34%) Wireless
7 2 (0.89%) Internet
8 1 (0.45%) Cisco Nexus
8 1 (0.45%) Ethereal
8 1 (0.45%) Firewall
8 1 (0.45%) HTTPS
8 1 (0.45%) IPsec
8 1 (0.45%) Network Security
8 1 (0.45%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (3.57%) Relational Database
2 7 (3.13%) Power BI
3 3 (1.34%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (1.34%) NoSQL
3 3 (1.34%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.89%) Big Data
5 1 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.45%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.45%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.45%) DataStage
5 1 (0.45%) Hadoop
5 1 (0.45%) Looker
5 1 (0.45%) MySQL
5 1 (0.45%) Power Query
5 1 (0.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 11 (4.91%) JIRA
2 9 (4.02%) Fiddler
3 5 (2.23%) Git
3 5 (2.23%) GitLab
4 1 (0.45%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.45%) TeamCity
General
1 54 (24.11%) Social Skills
2 32 (14.29%) Finance
2 32 (14.29%) Organisational Skills
3 15 (6.70%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (5.36%) Public Sector
5 10 (4.46%) Banking
6 4 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (1.79%) Publishing
7 3 (1.34%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.34%) Retail
8 2 (0.89%) French Language
8 2 (0.89%) Front Office
8 2 (0.89%) German Language
8 2 (0.89%) Investment Banking
8 2 (0.89%) Law
8 2 (0.89%) Legal
8 2 (0.89%) Marketing
8 2 (0.89%) Military
8 2 (0.89%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.89%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (7.14%) .NET
2 13 (5.80%) REST
3 6 (2.68%) Spring
4 3 (1.34%) HTML
4 3 (1.34%) React
5 2 (0.89%) ADO
5 2 (0.89%) AngularJS
5 2 (0.89%) Spring Boot
5 2 (0.89%) Vue
6 1 (0.45%) CSS
6 1 (0.45%) FIX Protocol
6 1 (0.45%) Hibernate
6 1 (0.45%) JSF
6 1 (0.45%) JSON
6 1 (0.45%) LDAP
6 1 (0.45%) SAML
6 1 (0.45%) Spring MVC
6 1 (0.45%) Struts
6 1 (0.45%) XML
6 1 (0.45%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 17 (7.59%) Mobile App
2 11 (4.91%) Onboarding
3 10 (4.46%) Product Ownership
4 6 (2.68%) Cloud Native
5 5 (2.23%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
6 4 (1.79%) Hedge funds
6 4 (1.79%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.34%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 2 (0.89%) Data Structures
8 2 (0.89%) Equities
8 2 (0.89%) Fat Client
8 2 (0.89%) Housing Association
8 2 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (0.89%) NHS
8 2 (0.89%) PMI
8 2 (0.89%) Thin Client
8 2 (0.89%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.57%) Windows
2 6 (2.68%) Windows 10
3 4 (1.79%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.89%) AIX
4 2 (0.89%) Linux
4 2 (0.89%) Solaris
5 1 (0.45%) CatOS
5 1 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (17.41%) Agile
2 27 (12.05%) Break/Fix
3 23 (10.27%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (9.82%) Time Management
5 17 (7.59%) Computer Science
6 15 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
7 14 (6.25%) Project Delivery
7 14 (6.25%) Project Management
7 14 (6.25%) Software Engineering
8 13 (5.80%) CI/CD
8 13 (5.80%) DevOps
8 13 (5.80%) Migration
8 13 (5.80%) Scrum
9 11 (4.91%) User Experience
10 10 (4.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 10 (4.46%) Stakeholder Management
11 9 (4.02%) Data Loss Prevention
11 9 (4.02%) Load Balancing
11 9 (4.02%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 8 (3.57%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 29 (12.95%) SQL
2 19 (8.48%) Python
3 17 (7.59%) C#
4 13 (5.80%) Java
5 5 (2.23%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.34%) Bash
7 2 (0.89%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.45%) C++
8 1 (0.45%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.45%) Korn
8 1 (0.45%) Ruby
8 1 (0.45%) Rust
8 1 (0.45%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 54 (24.11%) Security Cleared
2 45 (20.09%) SC Cleared
3 17 (7.59%) Degree
4 11 (4.91%) DV Cleared
5 6 (2.68%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.79%) PMI Certification
6 4 (1.79%) PMP
7 3 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.45%) A+ Certification
8 1 (0.45%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.45%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.45%) MBA
8 1 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.45%) SAFe Agilist
8 1 (0.45%) Six Sigma Black Belt
8 1 (0.45%) Six Sigma Green Belt
8 1 (0.45%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (5.80%) Accessibility
2 11 (4.91%) PMO
3 5 (2.23%) QA
4 3 (1.34%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.34%) SLA
5 2 (0.89%) WCAG
6 1 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.45%) Basel III
6 1 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.45%) GRC
6 1 (0.45%) HL7
6 1 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.45%) P3O
System Software
1 11 (4.91%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.46%) VMware NSX
3 4 (1.79%) Docker
4 2 (0.89%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 10 (4.46%) Ansible
2 5 (2.23%) Terraform
3 4 (1.79%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (1.79%) Kubernetes
3 4 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.45%) Istio
4 1 (0.45%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 27 (12.05%) HP
2 23 (10.27%) Microsoft
3 11 (4.91%) VMware
4 10 (4.46%) F5
5 9 (4.02%) Blue Coat
5 9 (4.02%) McAfee
6 3 (1.34%) ServiceNow
7 2 (0.89%) Adobe
7 2 (0.89%) Remedy
7 2 (0.89%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.45%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.45%) Anaplan
8 1 (0.45%) Aruba
8 1 (0.45%) CheckPoint
8 1 (0.45%) Cisco
8 1 (0.45%) Google
8 1 (0.45%) IBM
8 1 (0.45%) Oracle
8 1 (0.45%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.45%) SAP