Continuous Improvement Contract Job Trends in the South East

Continual Improvement
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Continuous Improvement skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 32 43 69
Rank change year-on-year +11 +26 +3
Contract jobs citing Continuous Improvement 262 178 159
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.02% 4.73% 3.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 7.03% 5.39% 3.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 168 96 80
10th Percentile £304 £375 £400
25th Percentile £356 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% -4.35% +15.00%
75th Percentile £575 £639 £645
90th Percentile £627 £700 £701
England median daily rate £500 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -5.66% -3.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 11 11
10th Percentile - £13.25 £16.25
25th Percentile £12.50 £21.00 £35.55
Median hourly rate £16.00 £52.50 £60.14
Median % change year-on-year -69.52% -12.70% +131.31%
75th Percentile £58.00 £59.53 £71.41
90th Percentile £87.55 £61.76 £72.33
England median hourly rate £20.75 £29.87 £65.00
% change year-on-year -30.53% -54.05% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Continuous Improvement falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,725 3,304 4,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 85.55% 87.83% 89.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,434 2,050 2,922
10th Percentile £223 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £523
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.44% +1.95%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £615
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £544
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.49% -1.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 377 129 234
10th Percentile £14.67 £19.19 £16.60
25th Percentile £17.00 £26.00 £25.25
Median hourly rate £22.27 £50.00 £53.94
Median % change year-on-year -55.47% -7.31% +43.85%
75th Percentile £48.75 £64.73 £65.96
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.30%

Continuous Improvement
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Continuous Improvement relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Continuous Improvement job vacancy trend in the South East

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the South East over the 6 months to 16 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the South East

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the South East over the 6 months to 16 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the South East

Continuous Improvement
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Continuous Improvement within the South East region over the 6 months to 16 December 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
Thames Valley +7 135 £461 -16.27% 187
Berkshire +5 106 £426 -22.50% 103
Hampshire +14 64 £475 -9.52% 101
Surrey +8 22 £500 -23.08% 46
Buckinghamshire +5 22 £550 -2.22% 52
West Sussex +4 15 £488 +5.41% 26
Sussex 0 9 - - 2
Kent +10 8 £594 +7.91% 49
East Sussex +7 7 £600 -14.29% 27
Oxfordshire -14 7 £529 +17.61% 32
Continuous Improvement
England

Continuous Improvement
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 8 (3.05%) Confluence
2 7 (2.67%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (1.15%) Camunda
5 2 (0.76%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.38%) Apache
6 1 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.38%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.38%) CMS
6 1 (0.38%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.38%) Umbraco
Applications
1 19 (7.25%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (6.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (3.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (3.05%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (3.05%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.76%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.15%) NetSuite
2 3 (1.15%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.38%) assyst
4 1 (0.38%) iTrent
4 1 (0.38%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.38%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.38%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.38%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.38%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.38%) SAP PM
4 1 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 70 (26.72%) Azure
2 54 (20.61%) AWS
3 36 (13.74%) GCP
4 12 (4.58%) Google Workspace
5 11 (4.20%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (3.82%) Microsoft 365
6 10 (3.82%) Power Platform
7 9 (3.44%) GitHub
7 9 (3.44%) SaaS
8 8 (3.05%) Entra ID
9 5 (1.91%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (1.91%) IaaS
10 4 (1.53%) PaaS
10 4 (1.53%) Serverless
11 3 (1.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 3 (1.15%) Azure Functions
11 3 (1.15%) Lucidchart
11 3 (1.15%) OCI
11 3 (1.15%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.58%) Network Security
2 9 (3.44%) Firewall
3 8 (3.05%) DNS
4 6 (2.29%) VPN
5 4 (1.53%) DHCP
5 4 (1.53%) LAN
6 3 (1.15%) Broadband
6 3 (1.15%) MPLS
6 3 (1.15%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.15%) WAN
7 2 (0.76%) 5G
7 2 (0.76%) Internet
7 2 (0.76%) NaaS
7 2 (0.76%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.76%) Software-Defined Networking
8 1 (0.38%) DWDM
8 1 (0.38%) Intranet
8 1 (0.38%) IPv4
8 1 (0.38%) Remote Desktop
8 1 (0.38%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.67%) Power BI
2 6 (2.29%) Oracle Database
3 4 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (1.53%) Relational Database
3 4 (1.53%) SQL Server
4 3 (1.15%) Data Lake
4 3 (1.15%) Oracle Reports
5 2 (0.76%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle Database 11g
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle Database 12c
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle ODI
5 2 (0.76%) Pinecone
5 2 (0.76%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.76%) Tableau
5 2 (0.76%) Weaviate
6 1 (0.38%) Big Data
6 1 (0.38%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.38%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.38%) Redis
6 1 (0.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 21 (8.02%) JIRA
2 7 (2.67%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.29%) GitLab
4 4 (1.53%) Git
4 4 (1.53%) Selenium
5 3 (1.15%) Bitbucket
5 3 (1.15%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.76%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.76%) Oracle APEX
6 2 (0.76%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.76%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.38%) Appium
7 1 (0.38%) Gatling
7 1 (0.38%) HP UFT
7 1 (0.38%) JMeter
7 1 (0.38%) Katalon Studio
7 1 (0.38%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.38%) MSI
7 1 (0.38%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 134 (51.15%) Social Skills
2 67 (25.57%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (17.56%) Finance
4 22 (8.40%) Public Sector
5 18 (6.87%) Organisational Skills
6 12 (4.58%) Influencing Skills
6 12 (4.58%) Manufacturing
7 9 (3.44%) Retail
8 8 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (2.67%) Telecoms
10 6 (2.29%) Aerospace
10 6 (2.29%) Legal
11 4 (1.53%) Automotive
11 4 (1.53%) Aviation
11 4 (1.53%) Environmental Health
12 3 (1.15%) Billing
12 3 (1.15%) Electronics
12 3 (1.15%) Marketing
12 3 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.76%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 37 (14.12%) Lead
2 27 (10.31%) Analyst
3 25 (9.54%) Senior
4 14 (5.34%) Project Manager
5 13 (4.96%) Support Officer
6 12 (4.58%) Architect
6 12 (4.58%) IT Support
7 11 (4.20%) Consultant
7 11 (4.20%) Support Assistant
8 10 (3.82%) IT Assistant
8 10 (3.82%) IT Support Assistant
9 8 (3.05%) Delivery Manager
9 8 (3.05%) Senior Analyst
9 8 (3.05%) Test Manager
10 7 (2.67%) IT Manager
10 7 (2.67%) Service Delivery Manager
10 7 (2.67%) Service Manager
10 7 (2.67%) Support Analyst
11 6 (2.29%) Designer
11 6 (2.29%) Service Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (2.67%) REST
2 6 (2.29%) .NET
2 6 (2.29%) React
3 4 (1.53%) Oracle Fusion
3 4 (1.53%) RESTful
3 4 (1.53%) SOAP
4 3 (1.15%) AngularJS
4 3 (1.15%) Node.js
5 2 (0.76%) Faiss
5 2 (0.76%) Kafka
5 2 (0.76%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 1 (0.38%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.38%) Entity Framework
6 1 (0.38%) Keycloak
6 1 (0.38%) Lightning Web Components
6 1 (0.38%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.38%) Play Framework
6 1 (0.38%) Playwright
6 1 (0.38%) Spring Boot
6 1 (0.38%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.87%) Enterprise Software
2 15 (5.73%) Onboarding
3 12 (4.58%) Virtual Team
4 11 (4.20%) Data Centre
5 9 (3.44%) Security Operations Centre
6 8 (3.05%) PMI
6 8 (3.05%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.67%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (2.67%) PKI
8 5 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (1.91%) Cloud Native
8 5 (1.91%) e-Learning
8 5 (1.91%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.53%) Cyber Threat
9 4 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.53%) Learning Management System
9 4 (1.53%) Life Science
9 4 (1.53%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.53%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 28 (10.69%) Windows
2 27 (10.31%) Linux
3 6 (2.29%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.91%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.53%) Unix
6 3 (1.15%) CentOS
6 3 (1.15%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.76%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.38%) Solaris
8 1 (0.38%) VMS
8 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (29.39%) Agile
2 76 (29.01%) Problem-Solving
3 63 (24.05%) ITIL
4 54 (20.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 53 (20.23%) Change Management
6 45 (17.18%) ITSM
6 45 (17.18%) Service Management
7 42 (16.03%) Stakeholder Management
8 34 (12.98%) Performance Metrics
9 32 (12.21%) Decision-Making
10 27 (10.31%) Roadmaps
11 26 (9.92%) DevOps
11 26 (9.92%) Project Management
12 25 (9.54%) Service Delivery
13 24 (9.16%) Collaborative Working
14 22 (8.40%) Cybersecurity
15 21 (8.02%) Incident Response
15 21 (8.02%) PRINCE2
15 21 (8.02%) Project Delivery
16 20 (7.63%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 22 (8.40%) Python
2 17 (6.49%) PowerShell
3 13 (4.96%) SQL
4 8 (3.05%) Bash
5 5 (1.91%) Java
5 5 (1.91%) PL/SQL
6 3 (1.15%) C#
6 3 (1.15%) Perl
7 1 (0.38%) Apex Code
7 1 (0.38%) Bicep
7 1 (0.38%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.38%) PHP
7 1 (0.38%) Scala
7 1 (0.38%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.38%) VB
Qualifications
1 77 (29.39%) Security Cleared
2 52 (19.85%) SC Cleared
3 30 (11.45%) Degree
4 17 (6.49%) DV Cleared
4 17 (6.49%) PMI Certification
5 11 (4.20%) Computer Science Degree
6 10 (3.82%) CISSP
6 10 (3.82%) PMP
7 7 (2.67%) ISTQB
7 7 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (1.91%) ACCA
8 5 (1.91%) CIMA
8 5 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (1.91%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 5 (1.91%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.53%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.53%) CCNA
9 4 (1.53%) GCIA
9 4 (1.53%) GCIH
9 4 (1.53%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (8.02%) GDPR
2 14 (5.34%) SLA
3 13 (4.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (4.96%) PMO
4 12 (4.58%) NIST
5 10 (3.82%) QA
6 4 (1.53%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.53%) Data Quality
7 3 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.15%) GRC
8 2 (0.76%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.76%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.76%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 2 (0.76%) NCSC
8 2 (0.76%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.38%) COBIT
9 1 (0.38%) ISO 9001
9 1 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (0.38%) JSP 440
System Software
1 14 (5.34%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (4.58%) Active Directory
3 10 (3.82%) Docker
4 6 (2.29%) vSphere
5 5 (1.91%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.76%) KVM
6 2 (0.76%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (0.76%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.38%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (4.58%) Ansible
2 8 (3.05%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.05%) Terraform
3 6 (2.29%) SCCM
4 4 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.15%) Grafana
5 3 (1.15%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.15%) Podman
5 3 (1.15%) Progress Chef
5 3 (1.15%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.15%) Proxmox
5 3 (1.15%) Puppet
6 2 (0.76%) CSIRT
6 2 (0.76%) Nagios
6 2 (0.76%) vRealize
6 2 (0.76%) vRealize Orchestrator
7 1 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.38%) Argo
7 1 (0.38%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.38%) VxRail
Vendors
1 50 (19.08%) Microsoft
2 31 (11.83%) Google
3 20 (7.63%) Oracle
4 19 (7.25%) ServiceNow
5 18 (6.87%) VMware
6 10 (3.82%) SAP
7 9 (3.44%) Cisco
7 9 (3.44%) Juniper
8 8 (3.05%) Workday
9 7 (2.67%) Splunk
10 6 (2.29%) Zscaler
11 5 (1.91%) IFS
12 4 (1.53%) BMC
12 4 (1.53%) Fortinet
12 4 (1.53%) Salesforce
13 3 (1.15%) Citrix
13 3 (1.15%) CyberArk
13 3 (1.15%) Palo Alto
13 3 (1.15%) Red Hat
13 3 (1.15%) Tenable