Systems Programmer Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

System Programmer
UK > UK excluding London

The median System Programmer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £514, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 October 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 463 379 361
Rank change year-on-year -84 -18 +51
Contract jobs requiring a Systems Programmer 6 3 1
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.021% 0.019% 0.006%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.023% 0.021% 0.006%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile £509 - -
25th Percentile £512 - £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 - £475
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.52%
75th Percentile £524 - £488
90th Percentile £535 - -
UK median daily rate £514 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -2.10% +10.53% -9.52%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 25,748 14,151 15,929
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 89.59% 92.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,867 8,699 9,047
10th Percentile £300 £206 £220
25th Percentile £413 £363 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £671 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,550 1,338 1,207
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.51 £14.73
25th Percentile £19.22 £16.38 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.47
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.27
% change year-on-year +65.84% -39.05% -8.30%

Systems Programmer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Systems Programmer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Systems Programmer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Systems Programmer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Programmer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Systems Programmer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Systems Programmer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Programmer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Systems Programmer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Systems Programmer
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 Systems Programmer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 13 October 2026. 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
Yorkshire -31 6 £514 -
North of England -55 6 £514 - 1
Systems Programmer
UK

Systems Programmer Skill Set
Top 25 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 13 October 2026, Systems Programmer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Systems Programmer in the job title.

1 6 (100.00%) IBM
1 6 (100.00%) JCL
1 6 (100.00%) zOS
2 5 (83.33%) ISPF
2 5 (83.33%) Time Sharing Option
3 4 (66.67%) Assembly Language
3 4 (66.67%) CLIST
3 4 (66.67%) OMEGAMON
3 4 (66.67%) Performance Monitoring
3 4 (66.67%) REXX
3 4 (66.67%) Risk Management
3 4 (66.67%) SAS
4 2 (33.33%) Db2
5 1 (16.67%) ACF2
5 1 (16.67%) Architectural Design
5 1 (16.67%) Broadcom
5 1 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 1 (16.67%) Disaster Recovery
5 1 (16.67%) Functional Testing
5 1 (16.67%) Microsoft
5 1 (16.67%) MVS
5 1 (16.67%) Performance Tuning
5 1 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
5 1 (16.67%) RACF
5 1 (16.67%) Relational Database

Systems Programmer Skill Set
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 4 (66.67%) SAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (33.33%) Db2
2 1 (16.67%) Relational Database
General
1 5 (83.33%) Social Skills
2 1 (16.67%) Banking
2 1 (16.67%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (83.33%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 5 (83.33%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 6 (100.00%) zOS
2 1 (16.67%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (66.67%) Performance Monitoring
1 4 (66.67%) Risk Management
2 1 (16.67%) Architectural Design
2 1 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (16.67%) Disaster Recovery
2 1 (16.67%) Functional Testing
2 1 (16.67%) Performance Tuning
2 1 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 6 (100.00%) JCL
2 4 (66.67%) Assembly Language
2 4 (66.67%) CLIST
2 4 (66.67%) REXX
System Software
1 5 (83.33%) Time Sharing Option
2 1 (16.67%) ACF2
2 1 (16.67%) RACF
Systems Management
1 4 (66.67%) OMEGAMON
Vendors
1 6 (100.00%) IBM
2 1 (16.67%) Broadcom
2 1 (16.67%) Microsoft