Real-Time IT Contract Trends & Actionable Insights

Contract Job Market Index

Description	Rank 6 Months to 3 May 2026	Rank YoY Change	Median Daily Rate	Median Daily Rate YoY Change	Historical Absolute & Relative Jobs Vacancies	Live Jobs
Git	20	Down -7 places-7	£510	-6.42%	9 4.11%	11
Software Engineer	11	Up 6 places+6	£535	+10.30%	18 8.22%	6
Software Testing	23	Down -6 places-6	£600	+48.14%	6 2.74%	2
Software Engineering	8	Up 2 places+2	£570	+16.80%	22 10.05%	14
GCP Software Engineer	26	Down -8 places-8	£500	+3.09%	3 1.37%
Software Delivery	27	New entry-	-	-	2 0.91%	1
Software Developer	27	New entry-	£600	-	2 0.91%	5
Software Architect	26	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.37%
Software Architecture	26	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.37%	3
Code Quality (Software Quality)	22	Down -8 places-8	£570	+42.50%	7 3.20%	7
C++ Software Engineer	28	New entry-	-	-	1 0.46%
PLC Software Engineer	24	New entry-	-	-	5 2.28%
Java Software Engineer	27	Down -10 places-10	£535	+10.30%	2 0.91%
Cloud Software Engineer	28	Down -10 places-10	£500	+3.09%	1 0.46%
Java Software Architect	26	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.37%
Agile Software Development	10	Down -4 places-4	£500	+6.95%	19 8.68%	22
Software as a Service (SaaS)	25	New entry-	£450	-	4 1.83%	7
Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)	21	New entry-	£585	-	8 3.65%	2
Principal Software Engineer	28	New entry-	-	-	1 0.46%
Developer/Software Engineer	27	New entry-	£600	-	2 0.91%
Atlassian Software Systems	27	New entry-	£300	-	2 0.91%
Siemens PLM Software Teamcenter	28	New entry-	-	-	1 0.46%
Software Development Engineer	26	New entry-	-	-	3 1.37%
Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)	28	New entry-	£450	-	1 0.46%
Progress Software Corporation	27	New entry-	£460	-	2 0.91%	1
Research Software Engineer	27	New entry-	-	-	2 0.91%