Programmer Contract Job Trends in London

Programmer
England > London

The median Programmer daily rate in London is £400, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 360 370 444
Rank change year-on-year +10 +74 +104
Contract jobs requiring a Programmer 15 20 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in London 0.11% 0.12% 0.050%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.13% 0.053%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 12 7
10th Percentile £308 £464 £373
25th Percentile £356 £484 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £568 £550
Median % change year-on-year -29.52% +3.18% -4.35%
75th Percentile £538 £585 £605
90th Percentile £585 £588 £676
England median daily rate £485 £536 £450
% change year-on-year -9.47% +19.06% -10.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in London. 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 London with a recognized job title 12,474 15,321 20,870
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.69% 94.00% 94.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,348 10,224 15,217
10th Percentile £331 £341 £350
25th Percentile £425 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £543 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -1.27% -4.35% -
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £800 £800
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 179 231
10th Percentile £17.00 £17.45 £18.16
25th Percentile £23.00 £23.80 £22.27
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £36.54
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -4.21% +13.30%
75th Percentile £51.13 £55.50 £63.13
90th Percentile £66.54 £71.88 £76.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%

Programmer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Job postings that featured Programmer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in London.

Job vacancy trend for Programmer in London

Programmer
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in London

Programmer
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Programmer in London over the 6 months to 20 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Programmer in London

Programmer
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Programmer job vacancies in London

Programmer
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Programmer within the London region over the 6 months to 20 September 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
Central London - 4 £375 - 10
Programmer
England

Programmer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 20 September 2025, Programmer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the London region featuring Programmer in the job title.

1 8 (53.33%) Mainframe
2 6 (40.00%) Data Sharing
3 5 (33.33%) Social Skills
3 5 (33.33%) zOS
3 5 (33.33%) SQL
3 5 (33.33%) CICS
4 4 (26.67%) Python
4 4 (26.67%) DB2
4 4 (26.67%) Disaster Recovery
4 4 (26.67%) User Acceptance Testing
4 4 (26.67%) High Availability
4 4 (26.67%) Cost Reduction
4 4 (26.67%) Scenario Testing
4 4 (26.67%) Runbook
5 3 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (20.00%) Roadmaps
5 3 (20.00%) Onboarding
5 3 (20.00%) Problem Management
5 3 (20.00%) Root Cause Analysis
5 3 (20.00%) OMEGAMON
5 3 (20.00%) Replication
5 3 (20.00%) RACF
5 3 (20.00%) REXX
5 3 (20.00%) ITIL
5 3 (20.00%) IBM
6 2 (13.33%) Microsoft
6 2 (13.33%) Microsoft Excel
6 2 (13.33%) COBOL
6 2 (13.33%) JCL
6 2 (13.33%) Data Protection Act

Programmer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (33.33%) CICS
Applications
1 2 (13.33%) Microsoft Excel
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (26.67%) DB2
General
1 5 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 2 (13.33%) Banking
3 1 (6.67%) Finance
3 1 (6.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.67%) ISPF
1 1 (6.67%) React
Miscellaneous
1 8 (53.33%) Mainframe
2 3 (20.00%) Onboarding
2 3 (20.00%) Replication
3 2 (13.33%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (6.67%) Legacy Applications
4 1 (6.67%) Management Information System
4 1 (6.67%) VAX
Operating Systems
1 5 (33.33%) zOS
2 1 (6.67%) Linux
2 1 (6.67%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (40.00%) Data Sharing
2 4 (26.67%) Cost Reduction
2 4 (26.67%) Disaster Recovery
2 4 (26.67%) High Availability
2 4 (26.67%) Runbook
2 4 (26.67%) Scenario Testing
2 4 (26.67%) User Acceptance Testing
3 3 (20.00%) ITIL
3 3 (20.00%) Problem Management
3 3 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (20.00%) Roadmaps
3 3 (20.00%) Root Cause Analysis
4 2 (13.33%) Change Data Capture
4 2 (13.33%) Data Analysis
4 2 (13.33%) Data Collection
4 2 (13.33%) Data Protection
4 2 (13.33%) Technical Analysis
5 1 (6.67%) Computer Science
5 1 (6.67%) Logistics
5 1 (6.67%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 5 (33.33%) SQL
2 4 (26.67%) Python
3 3 (20.00%) REXX
4 2 (13.33%) COBOL
4 2 (13.33%) JCL
5 1 (6.67%) Assembly Language
5 1 (6.67%) C#
5 1 (6.67%) CLIST
5 1 (6.67%) Java
5 1 (6.67%) Perl
5 1 (6.67%) PHP
5 1 (6.67%) PL/1
5 1 (6.67%) VB
Qualifications
1 1 (6.67%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (6.67%) Degree
1 1 (6.67%) Master's Degree
System Software
1 3 (20.00%) RACF
2 1 (6.67%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 3 (20.00%) OMEGAMON
2 1 (6.67%) Tivoli NetView
Vendors
1 3 (20.00%) IBM
2 2 (13.33%) Microsoft