Continuous Improvement Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Continual Improvement
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Continuous Improvement skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 23 41 52
Rank change year-on-year +18 +11 +18
Contract jobs citing Continuous Improvement 1,288 677 713
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 7.09% 4.58% 3.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 8.26% 5.25% 4.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 814 359 430
10th Percentile £300 £265 £348
25th Percentile £375 £411 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £550 £600 £638
90th Percentile £625 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 31 68
10th Percentile £12.50 £15.50 £26.24
25th Percentile £15.00 £15.70 £38.95
Median hourly rate £28.01 £25.99 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.75% -60.02% +13.04%
75th Percentile £57.25 £60.00 -
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.50 £70.50
UK median hourly rate £27.22 £24.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +13.44% -63.08% +4.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,596 12,890 17,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.88% 87.23% 88.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,517 7,575 11,112
10th Percentile £220 £238 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,767 745 1,193
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.50 £30.88 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.89% -31.39% +44.18%
75th Percentile £49.88 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £71.64 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.86
% change year-on-year -22.62% -25.90% +25.31%

Continuous Improvement
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Continuous Improvement job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the UK excluding London

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Continuous Improvement.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Continuous Improvement in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Continuous Improvement in the UK excluding London

Continuous Improvement
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 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
North of England +28 380 £475 -5.00% 446
Midlands +10 270 £500 - 252
South East +9 264 £475 -13.64% 434
North West +33 211 £450 -10.00% 254
West Midlands +14 207 £515 -0.72% 159
South West +11 132 £525 - 188
Yorkshire +10 130 £500 +4.71% 141
Scotland +27 113 £461 +7.27% 75
East of England +9 100 £500 +42.86% 133
East Midlands +7 64 £418 +0.85% 93
North East +8 43 £475 -20.83% 58
Wales +21 26 £250 -56.52% 35
Northern Ireland +10 24 £450 -28.00% 22
Continuous Improvement
UK

Continuous Improvement
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 58 (4.50%) Confluence
2 38 (2.95%) SharePoint
3 32 (2.48%) Apache
4 26 (2.02%) WebLogic
5 25 (1.94%) SAS
6 18 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
7 10 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.78%) CMS
8 9 (0.70%) JBoss
9 6 (0.47%) CICS
10 5 (0.39%) Apache Spark
10 5 (0.39%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.23%) Camunda
11 3 (0.23%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.16%) IIS
13 1 (0.078%) Oracle Coherence
13 1 (0.078%) SharePoint 2013
13 1 (0.078%) Umbraco
13 1 (0.078%) WebSphere
Applications
1 77 (5.98%) Microsoft Excel
1 77 (5.98%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (2.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 33 (2.56%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (1.09%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.39%) Windchill
6 4 (0.31%) Simulink
7 3 (0.23%) Camtasia
7 3 (0.23%) Snagit
7 3 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.078%) Acrobat
9 1 (0.078%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.078%) Revit
9 1 (0.078%) Sketch
9 1 (0.078%) Trello
Business Applications
1 36 (2.80%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.48%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.62%) Oracle EBS
4 7 (0.54%) assyst
5 6 (0.47%) Maximo
6 5 (0.39%) SAP HR
6 5 (0.39%) SAP PM
7 4 (0.31%) SAP PLM
7 4 (0.31%) Workday HCM
8 3 (0.23%) NetSuite
8 3 (0.23%) SAP SCM
8 3 (0.23%) VisionPLUS
9 2 (0.16%) Dynamics GP
9 2 (0.16%) Dynamics NAV
9 2 (0.16%) iTrent
9 2 (0.16%) Oracle Payroll
9 2 (0.16%) Primavera
9 2 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
9 2 (0.16%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.16%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 257 (19.95%) Azure
2 204 (15.84%) AWS
3 88 (6.83%) GCP
4 67 (5.20%) Microsoft 365
5 66 (5.12%) Azure DevOps
6 62 (4.81%) Power Platform
7 40 (3.11%) SaaS
8 39 (3.03%) Entra ID
9 38 (2.95%) GitHub
10 28 (2.17%) Serverless
11 27 (2.10%) Azure Monitor
12 26 (2.02%) AWS CloudFormation
13 23 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
13 23 (1.79%) OpenShift
14 20 (1.55%) Power Automate
15 17 (1.32%) Azure AKS
16 16 (1.24%) AWS Lambda
16 16 (1.24%) PaaS
17 15 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
17 15 (1.16%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 41 (3.18%) Firewall
2 38 (2.95%) Network Security
3 33 (2.56%) DNS
4 17 (1.32%) SSL
4 17 (1.32%) VPN
5 16 (1.24%) HTTP
6 15 (1.16%) SMTP
7 14 (1.09%) FTP
8 12 (0.93%) LAN
9 9 (0.70%) Software-Defined Networking
9 9 (0.70%) VLAN
10 8 (0.62%) Cisco IOS
10 8 (0.62%) DHCP
10 8 (0.62%) Skype
10 8 (0.62%) TCP/IP
10 8 (0.62%) WAN
11 7 (0.54%) BGP
12 5 (0.39%) Broadband
12 5 (0.39%) Wireless
13 4 (0.31%) AMQP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (3.73%) Power BI
2 28 (2.17%) Oracle Database
3 27 (2.10%) Pentaho
4 22 (1.71%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
6 18 (1.40%) MongoDB
7 17 (1.32%) Relational Database
7 17 (1.32%) SQL Server
8 16 (1.24%) Tableau
9 14 (1.09%) MySQL
10 9 (0.70%) RDBMS
10 9 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 8 (0.62%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.54%) Metadata
12 7 (0.54%) Oracle Reports
12 7 (0.54%) Snowflake Schema
13 6 (0.47%) Amazon Aurora
13 6 (0.47%) Big Data
13 6 (0.47%) Data Lake
13 6 (0.47%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 154 (11.96%) JIRA
2 90 (6.99%) Git
3 65 (5.05%) Jenkins
4 47 (3.65%) GitLab
5 37 (2.87%) Selenium
6 26 (2.02%) Postman
7 23 (1.79%) Cypress.io
8 20 (1.55%) Cucumber
9 18 (1.40%) JUnit
10 11 (0.85%) CircleCI
10 11 (0.85%) Maven
11 10 (0.78%) Bitbucket
11 10 (0.78%) IntelliJ
12 9 (0.70%) Artifactory
12 9 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
13 8 (0.62%) Eclipse
14 7 (0.54%) Gradle
14 7 (0.54%) JMeter
14 7 (0.54%) Rational DOORS
15 6 (0.47%) webpack
General
1 595 (46.20%) Social Skills
2 298 (23.14%) Finance
3 246 (19.10%) Analytical Skills
4 175 (13.59%) Public Sector
5 67 (5.20%) Banking
6 65 (5.05%) Influencing Skills
7 59 (4.58%) Organisational Skills
8 54 (4.19%) Documentation Skills
9 48 (3.73%) Legal
10 44 (3.42%) Telecoms
11 36 (2.80%) Manufacturing
12 32 (2.48%) Retail
13 31 (2.41%) Marketing
14 28 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
15 24 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 18 (1.40%) Military
16 18 (1.40%) Pharmaceutical
17 16 (1.24%) Aerospace
18 15 (1.16%) Electronics
19 11 (0.85%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 183 (14.21%) Analyst
2 140 (10.87%) Lead
3 96 (7.45%) Senior
4 61 (4.74%) Developer
5 55 (4.27%) Project Manager
6 52 (4.04%) Architect
7 38 (2.95%) Business Analyst
8 37 (2.87%) Delivery Manager
9 34 (2.64%) Scrum Master
10 29 (2.25%) Consultant
11 28 (2.17%) Data Engineer
11 28 (2.17%) DevOps Engineer
12 27 (2.10%) IT Support
13 25 (1.94%) Software Engineer
14 24 (1.86%) Platform Engineer
15 23 (1.79%) Service Manager
16 21 (1.63%) Administrator
16 21 (1.63%) SOC Analyst
17 20 (1.55%) IT Manager
18 18 (1.40%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (3.80%) REST
2 33 (2.56%) .NET
2 33 (2.56%) React
3 32 (2.48%) Spring
4 25 (1.94%) JSON
5 20 (1.55%) Spring Boot
6 19 (1.48%) OAuth
6 19 (1.48%) RESTful
7 17 (1.32%) Node.js
7 17 (1.32%) OAuth2
8 16 (1.24%) HTML
8 16 (1.24%) LDAP
8 16 (1.24%) Playwright
8 16 (1.24%) SOAP
9 14 (1.09%) XML
10 13 (1.01%) Elastic Stack
11 12 (0.93%) AngularJS
12 11 (0.85%) .NET Core
12 11 (0.85%) Oracle Fusion
12 11 (0.85%) Play Framework
Miscellaneous
1 110 (8.54%) Product Ownership
2 73 (5.67%) Onboarding
3 42 (3.26%) Management Information System
4 34 (2.64%) Analytical Mindset
5 32 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
6 31 (2.41%) Virtual Team
7 29 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
7 29 (2.25%) Security Operations Centre
8 26 (2.02%) Cloud Native
9 23 (1.79%) Data Centre
9 23 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
9 23 (1.79%) Mobile App
9 23 (1.79%) NHS
10 19 (1.48%) Cyber Threat
10 19 (1.48%) PMI
11 16 (1.24%) Cyberattack
11 16 (1.24%) Security Posture
12 15 (1.16%) e-Learning
12 15 (1.16%) Learning Management System
13 13 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 135 (10.48%) Windows
2 83 (6.44%) Linux
3 36 (2.80%) Unix
4 33 (2.56%) Windows Server
5 23 (1.79%) Windows 10
6 21 (1.63%) Android
6 21 (1.63%) Mac OS
7 14 (1.09%) Apple iOS
8 13 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.47%) CentOS
10 5 (0.39%) VMS
11 3 (0.23%) zOS
12 2 (0.16%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.078%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.078%) Solaris
13 1 (0.078%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.078%) Windows 8
13 1 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.078%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.078%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 465 (36.10%) Agile
2 367 (28.49%) Problem-Solving
3 272 (21.12%) Stakeholder Management
4 223 (17.31%) DevOps
5 211 (16.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 206 (15.99%) CI/CD
7 176 (13.66%) Scrum
8 169 (13.12%) ITIL
9 148 (11.49%) Test Automation
10 142 (11.02%) Change Management
11 141 (10.95%) Analytics
12 139 (10.79%) Decision-Making
13 138 (10.71%) Project Management
14 132 (10.25%) Service Delivery
15 131 (10.17%) Roadmaps
16 116 (9.01%) Migration
17 112 (8.70%) Cybersecurity
18 110 (8.54%) Project Delivery
19 109 (8.46%) Service Management
20 103 (8.00%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 131 (10.17%) SQL
2 117 (9.08%) Python
3 80 (6.21%) PowerShell
4 79 (6.13%) Java
5 39 (3.03%) Bash
6 38 (2.95%) JavaScript
7 29 (2.25%) TypeScript
8 28 (2.17%) C#
9 16 (1.24%) PL/SQL
10 13 (1.01%) Scala
11 10 (0.78%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.70%) Kotlin
13 8 (0.62%) Apex Code
14 7 (0.54%) C++
14 7 (0.54%) Perl
15 6 (0.47%) Bicep
15 6 (0.47%) JCL
16 5 (0.39%) Go
16 5 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
17 4 (0.31%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 299 (23.21%) Security Cleared
2 221 (17.16%) SC Cleared
3 144 (11.18%) Degree
4 55 (4.27%) DV Cleared
5 31 (2.41%) PMI Certification
6 29 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (2.10%) CISSP
8 25 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
9 23 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (1.71%) Azure Certification
10 22 (1.71%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 19 (1.48%) AWS Certification
11 19 (1.48%) ITIL Certification
11 19 (1.48%) PMP
12 17 (1.32%) CISM
12 17 (1.32%) Master's Degree
13 15 (1.16%) ISTQB
14 14 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
15 13 (1.01%) Six Sigma Green Belt
16 11 (0.85%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (6.60%) QA
2 67 (5.20%) Data Quality
3 62 (4.81%) GDPR
4 53 (4.11%) PMO
5 52 (4.04%) Accessibility
6 49 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 48 (3.73%) SLA
8 40 (3.11%) NIST
9 15 (1.16%) COBIT
10 11 (0.85%) WCAG
11 9 (0.70%) PCI DSS
12 7 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
12 7 (0.54%) GRC
12 7 (0.54%) ISO 19650
12 7 (0.54%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
13 6 (0.47%) EU AI Act
13 6 (0.47%) NCSC
14 5 (0.39%) HIPAA
System Software
1 103 (8.00%) Docker
2 74 (5.75%) Active Directory
3 30 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.78%) vSphere
5 6 (0.47%) Firmware
6 5 (0.39%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.23%) Time Sharing Option
8 3 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.16%) HDFS
9 2 (0.16%) KVM
9 2 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.078%) ISA Server
10 1 (0.078%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.078%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.078%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.078%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 101 (7.84%) Kubernetes
2 77 (5.98%) Terraform
3 52 (4.04%) Ansible
4 33 (2.56%) Grafana
5 31 (2.41%) SCCM
6 26 (2.02%) Microsoft Intune
7 20 (1.55%) Prometheus
8 19 (1.48%) Single Sign-On
9 18 (1.40%) Puppet
10 10 (0.78%) Progress Chef
11 8 (0.62%) Podman
12 6 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.47%) vRealize
13 4 (0.31%) RSA Archer
13 4 (0.31%) vRealize Orchestrator
14 3 (0.23%) CA Endevor
14 3 (0.23%) OMEGAMON
14 3 (0.23%) Proxmox
15 2 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
15 2 (0.16%) WSUS
Vendors
1 236 (18.32%) Microsoft
2 120 (9.32%) Oracle
3 91 (7.07%) SAP
4 63 (4.89%) ServiceNow
5 54 (4.19%) Google
6 51 (3.96%) Salesforce
7 44 (3.42%) Cisco
8 41 (3.18%) VMware
9 39 (3.03%) Splunk
10 30 (2.33%) Dynatrace
11 28 (2.17%) Talend
12 25 (1.94%) Denodo
13 20 (1.55%) AppDynamics
14 19 (1.48%) Citrix
15 18 (1.40%) Red Hat
16 13 (1.01%) HP
17 11 (0.85%) Workday
18 9 (0.70%) Databricks
18 9 (0.70%) IFS
18 9 (0.70%) Juniper