Unit Testing Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Unit Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Unit Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 285 197 145
Rank change year-on-year -88 -52 +22
Contract jobs citing Unit Testing 190 176 267
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.69% 1.14% 1.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.85% 1.28% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 99 168
10th Percentile £290 £344 £375
25th Percentile £373 £384 £448
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £469 £525
Median % change year-on-year +6.61% -10.67% -4.55%
75th Percentile £572 £546 £618
90th Percentile £688 £638 £661
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £543
% change year-on-year +2.56% -10.14% -5.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 22 43
10th Percentile £38.25 £61.63 -
25th Percentile £62.50 - £61.25
Median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% - -
75th Percentile £70.00 - -
90th Percentile - £67.00 -
UK median hourly rate £66.25 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.92% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Unit Testing 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 22,370 13,748 15,035
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 80.96% 89.15% 82.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,018 8,282 8,952
10th Percentile £300 £238 £250
25th Percentile £406 £366 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £594 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,491 1,394 1,433
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.00 £13.69
25th Percentile £17.72 £16.95 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +7.39%
75th Percentile £68.00 £44.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £69.38 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
% change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% -3.67%

Unit Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Unit Testing job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Unit Testing
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Unit Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Unit Testing

Unit Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Unit Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Unit Testing in the UK excluding London

Unit Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Unit Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Unit Testing

Unit Testing
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Unit Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 24 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Unit Testing in the UK excluding London

Unit Testing
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 Unit Testing within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 24 August 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
South East -14 71 £513 +2.50% 8
North of England -56 69 £463 +3.93% 27
North East -8 34 £510 -7.27% 6
North West -68 22 £463 -3.75% 16
Midlands -54 21 £490 +5.95% 25
East of England -31 15 £619 +32.00% 6
West Midlands -43 15 £490 - 15
Yorkshire -36 13 £447 +14.62% 6
South West -38 13 £500 -9.09% 15
Scotland -41 9 £500 +0.60% 2
East Midlands -23 6 £447 -3.35% 10
Wales -20 3 £700 +35.27% 1
Northern Ireland +4 2 £369 -32.95% 2
Unit Testing
UK

Unit Testing
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 5 (2.63%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.53%) Camunda
2 1 (0.53%) IIS
2 1 (0.53%) JBoss
2 1 (0.53%) Jupyter
2 1 (0.53%) Mule
2 1 (0.53%) Mule ESB
2 1 (0.53%) SAS
2 1 (0.53%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (2.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.05%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.53%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 10 (5.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (2.11%) SAP Payroll
3 3 (1.58%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (1.58%) SAP HCM
3 3 (1.58%) SAP SD
4 2 (1.05%) Oracle 11i
4 2 (1.05%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (1.05%) SAP MM
4 2 (1.05%) SAP PP
5 1 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.53%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.53%) ProductWriter
5 1 (0.53%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.53%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.53%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.53%) SAP LE
5 1 (0.53%) SAP QM
5 1 (0.53%) SAP Travel Management
5 1 (0.53%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 41 (21.58%) OpenShift
2 39 (20.53%) Azure
3 26 (13.68%) AWS
4 25 (13.16%) Azure DevOps
5 17 (8.95%) GitHub
6 16 (8.42%) Serverless
7 14 (7.37%) Power Platform
8 9 (4.74%) PowerApps
9 8 (4.21%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (4.21%) Azure Functions
9 8 (4.21%) Power Automate
10 7 (3.68%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (3.16%) Azure Logic Apps
11 6 (3.16%) GCP
12 5 (2.63%) Amazon SQS
13 4 (2.11%) Amazon ECS
13 4 (2.11%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (2.11%) Amazon S3
13 4 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
14 3 (1.58%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 13 (6.84%) Ethernet
1 13 (6.84%) TCP/IP
2 1 (0.53%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.79%) PostgreSQL
1 11 (5.79%) SQL Server
2 10 (5.26%) NoSQL
3 9 (4.74%) DynamoDB
4 8 (4.21%) Power BI
5 5 (2.63%) Relational Database
6 4 (2.11%) MongoDB
7 3 (1.58%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (1.58%) DocumentDB
7 3 (1.58%) MySQL
7 3 (1.58%) Oracle Database
7 3 (1.58%) SAP HANA
8 2 (1.05%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (1.05%) Big Data
8 2 (1.05%) Data Lake
8 2 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 1 (0.53%) Aerospike
9 1 (0.53%) Amazon Aurora
9 1 (0.53%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.53%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 50 (26.32%) Git
2 41 (21.58%) SonarQube
3 24 (12.63%) Visual Studio
4 19 (10.00%) GitLab
5 16 (8.42%) Eclipse
5 16 (8.42%) JUnit
6 14 (7.37%) Selenium
7 12 (6.32%) Jenkins
8 11 (5.79%) JIRA
9 9 (4.74%) Maven
10 8 (4.21%) Gradle
11 6 (3.16%) Cucumber
11 6 (3.16%) NUnit
12 5 (2.63%) MSTest
13 4 (2.11%) Bitbucket
13 4 (2.11%) Cypress.io
13 4 (2.11%) JMeter
14 3 (1.58%) SpecFlow
14 3 (1.58%) TeamCity
14 3 (1.58%) WebDriver
General
1 46 (24.21%) Social Skills
2 20 (10.53%) Public Sector
3 19 (10.00%) Finance
4 15 (7.89%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (7.37%) Military
6 10 (5.26%) Banking
7 9 (4.74%) Aerospace
7 9 (4.74%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (2.11%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.11%) Retail
9 3 (1.58%) Billing
10 1 (0.53%) Advertising
10 1 (0.53%) Aviation
10 1 (0.53%) General Ledger
10 1 (0.53%) Law
10 1 (0.53%) Legal
Job Titles
1 84 (44.21%) Developer
2 37 (19.47%) Software Engineer
3 25 (13.16%) Java Developer
4 24 (12.63%) Java Engineer
5 15 (7.89%) Consultant
6 14 (7.37%) Senior
7 12 (6.32%) Java Software Engineer
7 12 (6.32%) Lead
8 11 (5.79%) C# Software Engineer
9 10 (5.26%) SC Cleared Java Developer
10 9 (4.74%) .NET Developer
10 9 (4.74%) C++ Software Engineer
11 8 (4.21%) SAP Consultant
11 8 (4.21%) Software Developer
12 7 (3.68%) Senior Developer
13 6 (3.16%) Analyst
13 6 (3.16%) Microsoft Developer
14 5 (2.63%) C# Developer
14 5 (2.63%) Full-Stack Developer
14 5 (2.63%) Technical Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (22.63%) AngularJS
2 38 (20.00%) Quarkus
3 30 (15.79%) .NET
4 27 (14.21%) Web Services
5 25 (13.16%) REST
6 21 (11.05%) React
6 21 (11.05%) Spring
7 20 (10.53%) Node.js
7 20 (10.53%) RESTful
8 16 (8.42%) Spring Boot
9 13 (6.84%) HTML
9 13 (6.84%) Kafka
10 12 (6.32%) CSS
10 12 (6.32%) Terraform
11 11 (5.79%) Playwright
11 11 (5.79%) WinForms
11 11 (5.79%) WPF
12 10 (5.26%) .NET Framework
13 9 (4.74%) Middleware
13 9 (4.74%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (5.79%) Cloud Native
1 11 (5.79%) Distributed Systems
2 10 (5.26%) Data Structures
2 10 (5.26%) Product Ownership
3 3 (1.58%) CMDB
3 3 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (1.58%) Management Information System
3 3 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (1.05%) Algorithms
4 2 (1.05%) NHS
4 2 (1.05%) Onboarding
5 1 (0.53%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (0.53%) Embedded Systems
5 1 (0.53%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
5 1 (0.53%) Low-Code
5 1 (0.53%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 20 (10.53%) Windows
2 16 (8.42%) Linux
3 1 (0.53%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (58.95%) Agile
2 77 (40.53%) Test Automation
3 74 (38.95%) CI/CD
4 68 (35.79%) Software Engineering
5 66 (34.74%) Scrum
6 57 (30.00%) DevOps
7 51 (26.84%) SDLC
8 44 (23.16%) Front End Development
9 40 (21.05%) Sprint Planning
10 39 (20.53%) DevSecOps
11 38 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
12 37 (19.47%) Sprint Review
12 37 (19.47%) TDD
12 37 (19.47%) User Acceptance Testing
13 31 (16.32%) Continuous Improvement
14 30 (15.79%) Integration Testing
15 27 (14.21%) Microservices
16 25 (13.16%) Code Quality
16 25 (13.16%) Validation
17 23 (12.11%) Continuous Integration
Programming Languages
1 68 (35.79%) Java
2 55 (28.95%) SQL
3 54 (28.42%) C#
4 45 (23.68%) JavaScript
5 19 (10.00%) C++
6 17 (8.95%) Python
7 16 (8.42%) TypeScript
8 7 (3.68%) Scala
9 6 (3.16%) ABAP
10 5 (2.63%) C
10 5 (2.63%) PL/SQL
11 4 (2.11%) PowerShell
11 4 (2.11%) X++
12 3 (1.58%) T-SQL
13 2 (1.05%) Apex Code
13 2 (1.05%) Bash
13 2 (1.05%) Embedded C
13 2 (1.05%) Shell Script
13 2 (1.05%) VBA
13 2 (1.05%) XAML
Qualifications
1 67 (35.26%) Security Cleared
2 57 (30.00%) SC Cleared
3 12 (6.32%) Degree
4 9 (4.74%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (2.63%) ISTQB
6 5 (2.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 3 (1.58%) DV Cleared
8 2 (1.05%) Master's Degree
8 2 (1.05%) PhD
9 1 (0.53%) ACCA
9 1 (0.53%) CIMA
9 1 (0.53%) CISA
9 1 (0.53%) CISSP
9 1 (0.53%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.53%) CREST Certified
9 1 (0.53%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (24.21%) QA
2 9 (4.74%) Accessibility
3 6 (3.16%) Data Quality
4 4 (2.11%) WCAG
5 3 (1.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 3 (1.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.53%) GDPR
6 1 (0.53%) GRC
6 1 (0.53%) HL7
6 1 (0.53%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 22 (11.58%) Docker
2 2 (1.05%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 54 (28.42%) Kubernetes
2 38 (20.00%) Argo
3 2 (1.05%) Ansible
4 1 (0.53%) Grafana
4 1 (0.53%) Istio
4 1 (0.53%) Kubeflow
4 1 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 36 (18.95%) Red Hat
2 30 (15.79%) Microsoft
3 16 (8.42%) Oracle
4 15 (7.89%) SAP
5 5 (2.63%) Splunk
6 4 (2.11%) Avaloq
6 4 (2.11%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.11%) UiPath
7 3 (1.58%) Databricks
8 2 (1.05%) Adobe
8 2 (1.05%) Google
8 2 (1.05%) MuleSoft
8 2 (1.05%) Salesforce
8 2 (1.05%) VMware
9 1 (0.53%) Dynatrace
9 1 (0.53%) IFS
9 1 (0.53%) JDA
9 1 (0.53%) Sitecore
9 1 (0.53%) Workday