CREST Certified Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

CREST Certification
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for CREST Certified qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 28 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 373 367 421
Rank change year-on-year -6 +54 +94
Contract jobs citing CREST Certified 2 2 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.013% 0.011% 0.051%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.037% 0.033% 0.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 2 5
10th Percentile - £628 £298
25th Percentile £525 £631 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £650 £600
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% +8.33% +6.67%
75th Percentile £575 £669 -
90th Percentile - £673 £720
UK median daily rate £650 £700 £550
% change year-on-year -7.14% +27.27% -8.33%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK excluding London

CREST Certified falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 5,464 6,028 7,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 35.22% 34.12% 34.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,311 3,512 4,585
10th Percentile £213 £271 £288
25th Percentile £385 £406 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% +3.86%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 717 535 610
10th Percentile £17.50 £17.00 £15.68
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.36 £23.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £51.90
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% -3.65% +17.94%
75th Percentile £38.94 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £78.50 £78.36
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £49.00 £53.87
% change year-on-year -48.67% -9.04% +19.71%

CREST Certified
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing CREST Certified as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for CREST Certified in the UK excluding London

CREST Certified
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CREST Certified.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CREST Certified

CREST Certified
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CREST Certified.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing CREST Certified

CREST Certified
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 CREST Certified within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 28 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
North of England -23 1 £550 -15.38% 7
Midlands - 1 - - 1
North West - 1 £550 - 6
West Midlands - 1 - - 1
CREST Certified
UK

CREST Certified
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding 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:

Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity Specialist
1 1 (50.00%) Lead
1 1 (50.00%) Lead Tester
1 1 (50.00%) Penetration Tester
1 1 (50.00%) Security Specialist
1 1 (50.00%) Senior
1 1 (50.00%) Senior Penetration Tester
1 1 (50.00%) Senior Tester
1 1 (50.00%) Team Leader
1 1 (50.00%) Tester
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Cyber Defence
1 1 (50.00%) Security Operations Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (50.00%) Actionable Insight
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) Blue Team
2 1 (50.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (50.00%) DevSecOps
2 1 (50.00%) Incident Management
2 1 (50.00%) Incident Response
2 1 (50.00%) Red Team
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations
2 1 (50.00%) Security Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Technical Leadership
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) CHECK Team Leader
1 1 (50.00%) CISSP
1 1 (50.00%) Degree
1 1 (50.00%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (50.00%) Actionable Recommendations