Real-Time IT Contract Trends & Actionable Insights

Contract Job Market Index

Description	Rank 6 Months to 17 May 2026	Rank YoY Change	Median Daily Rate	Median Daily Rate YoY Change	Historical Absolute & Relative Jobs Vacancies	Live Jobs
Git	22	Down -5 places-5	£510	+9.67%	9 3.85%	10
Software Engineer	10	Up 9 places+9	£505	+4.12%	22 9.40%	8
Software Testing	24	Down -5 places-5	£585	+44.44%	7 2.99%	2
Software Engineering	8	Up 3 places+3	£538	+10.14%	28 11.97%	19
GCP Software Engineer	28	Down -8 places-8	£500	+3.09%	3 1.28%
Software Delivery	29	New entry-	-	-	2 0.85%	2
Software Developer	27	New entry-	£553	-	4 1.71%	4
Software Architect	28	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.28%
Software Architecture	28	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.28%	1
Code Quality (Software Quality)	24	Down -8 places-8	£570	+42.50%	7 2.99%	2
C++ Software Engineer	30	New entry-	-	-	1 0.43%
PLC Software Engineer	26	New entry-	-	-	5 2.14%
Java Software Engineer	26	Down -7 places-7	£505	+4.12%	5 2.14%	1
Java Software Developer	29	New entry-	£505	-	2 0.85%
Cloud Software Engineer	30	Down -10 places-10	£500	+3.09%	1 0.43%
Java Software Architect	28	New entry-	£600	-	3 1.28%
Agile Software Development	9	Down -1 place-1	£503	+7.59%	24 10.26%	17
Software as a Service (SaaS)	27	New entry-	£450	-	4 1.71%	5
Systems or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)	23	Down -3 places-3	£585	+46.25%	8 3.42%	1
Senior Software Engineer	30	New entry-	£525	-	1 0.43%	2
Principal Software Engineer	30	New entry-	-	-	1 0.43%
Atlassian Software Systems	29	New entry-	£300	-	2 0.85%
Developer/Software Engineer	27	New entry-	£553	-	4 1.71%
Software Development Engineer	28	New entry-	-	-	3 1.28%
Siemens PLM Software Teamcenter	30	New entry-	-	-	1 0.43%
Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)	30	New entry-	£450	-	1 0.43%
Progress Software Corporation	28	New entry-	£460	-	3 1.28%
Research Software Engineer	29	New entry-	-	-	2 0.85%