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 10 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 203 143 159
Rank change year-on-year -60 +16 +13
Contract jobs citing Unit Testing 194 244 319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.15% 1.47% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.30% 1.75% 1.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 151 198
10th Percentile £348 £356 £404
25th Percentile £379 £432 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -11.90% -4.55% +1.85%
75th Percentile £545 £645 £645
90th Percentile £641 £663 £699
UK median daily rate £494 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -10.27% -8.33% +4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 20 57
10th Percentile £60.12 £45.40 £48.32
25th Percentile - £60.63 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.00 - -
90th Percentile £67.34 £65.25 £84.36
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

All Process and 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 14,943 13,918 18,487
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 88.31% 84.03% 88.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,058 7,973 12,083
10th Percentile £220 £250 £250
25th Percentile £368 £383 £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 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,689 876 1,305
10th Percentile £14.12 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.14 £18.47 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.50 £33.27 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -32.37% -24.21% +48.26%
75th Percentile £42.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £72.50 £77.30
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.63
% change year-on-year -28.14% -19.77% +24.64%

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 10 November 2025.

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 10 November 2025.

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 10 November 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 +4 68 £425 -22.73% 52
North West +21 48 £464 -0.96% 32
Midlands -15 36 £463 -11.48% 27
East of England -19 30 £469 -6.25% 42
Scotland -19 24 £500 +11.11% 23
West Midlands -15 22 £520 -15.11% 11
South East -50 21 £438 -30.00% 216
Yorkshire -25 15 £390 -35.00% 13
East Midlands -10 14 £420 -3.45% 15
Wales -6 12 £520 +144.31% 4
South West -4 6 £550 +15.79% 33
North East -9 5 £550 - 7
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 6 (3.09%) Apache Airflow
1 6 (3.09%) Confluence
2 4 (2.06%) Apache
2 4 (2.06%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.55%) Camunda
3 3 (1.55%) JBoss
3 3 (1.55%) Mule
4 2 (1.03%) Alfresco
4 2 (1.03%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.52%) CMS
5 1 (0.52%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.52%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.52%) Tomcat
Applications
1 1 (0.52%) InVision
1 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
1 1 (0.52%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.52%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Assets
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Cash Management
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Financials
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle General Ledger
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Payables
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Receivables
2 2 (1.03%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 2 (1.03%) Workday HCM
3 1 (0.52%) Endur
3 1 (0.52%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.52%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.52%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.52%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.52%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.52%) SAP SD
3 1 (0.52%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 45 (23.20%) Azure
2 30 (15.46%) AWS
3 28 (14.43%) Azure DevOps
4 13 (6.70%) GitHub
5 11 (5.67%) OpenShift
5 11 (5.67%) Serverless
6 9 (4.64%) Power Platform
7 8 (4.12%) GCP
7 8 (4.12%) npm
8 7 (3.61%) AWS Lambda
8 7 (3.61%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (3.61%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (3.09%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 5 (2.58%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (2.58%) Azure AKS
11 4 (2.06%) BlazeMeter
11 4 (2.06%) Google Play
12 3 (1.55%) Azure Functions
13 2 (1.03%) Azure Key Vault
13 2 (1.03%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 18 (9.28%) TCP/IP
2 17 (8.76%) Ethernet
3 2 (1.03%) X.509
4 1 (0.52%) DNS
4 1 (0.52%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (9.79%) NoSQL
2 15 (7.73%) MongoDB
3 10 (5.15%) Redis
4 8 (4.12%) Big Data
4 8 (4.12%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (3.61%) Data Warehouse
6 6 (3.09%) Relational Database
7 5 (2.58%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (2.58%) MySQL
7 5 (2.58%) SQL Server
8 4 (2.06%) Apache Hive
8 4 (2.06%) Hadoop
8 4 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
9 3 (1.55%) DocumentDB
9 3 (1.55%) HBase
9 3 (1.55%) Metadata
10 2 (1.03%) Amazon Aurora
10 2 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (1.03%) Data Lake
10 2 (1.03%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 66 (34.02%) Git
2 23 (11.86%) JIRA
3 22 (11.34%) Jenkins
4 21 (10.82%) Visual Studio
5 17 (8.76%) Eclipse
5 17 (8.76%) SonarQube
6 16 (8.25%) JUnit
7 14 (7.22%) Postman
8 12 (6.19%) Cypress.io
9 9 (4.64%) Artifactory
9 9 (4.64%) Gradle
9 9 (4.64%) Selenium
10 8 (4.12%) Xcode
11 6 (3.09%) Bitbucket
11 6 (3.09%) Grunt
11 6 (3.09%) gulp
12 5 (2.58%) MSTest
12 5 (2.58%) NUnit
13 4 (2.06%) JMeter
13 4 (2.06%) Rational DOORS
General
1 73 (37.63%) Social Skills
2 31 (15.98%) Public Sector
3 29 (14.95%) Finance
4 23 (11.86%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (9.79%) Banking
5 19 (9.79%) Military
6 16 (8.25%) Presentation Skills
7 11 (5.67%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (5.15%) Telecoms
9 7 (3.61%) Manufacturing
10 6 (3.09%) Aerospace
11 5 (2.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (2.58%) Marketing
12 2 (1.03%) General Ledger
12 2 (1.03%) Health Technology
12 2 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.52%) Billing
13 1 (0.52%) Electronics
13 1 (0.52%) Law
13 1 (0.52%) Legal
Job Titles
1 77 (39.69%) Developer
2 41 (21.13%) Software Engineer
3 24 (12.37%) Java Developer
3 24 (12.37%) Senior
4 20 (10.31%) C++ Software Engineer
5 17 (8.76%) C# Software Engineer
6 15 (7.73%) Senior Developer
7 9 (4.64%) Lead
8 8 (4.12%) iOS Developer
8 8 (4.12%) Tester
9 7 (3.61%) Analyst
9 7 (3.61%) Android Developer
9 7 (3.61%) Consultant
9 7 (3.61%) Full-Stack Developer
9 7 (3.61%) Senior Java Developer
10 6 (3.09%) Automation Tester
10 6 (3.09%) Data Engineer
10 6 (3.09%) Help Desk Analyst
11 5 (2.58%) Java Engineer
11 5 (2.58%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (18.56%) React
2 33 (17.01%) Spring
3 32 (16.49%) Web Services
4 31 (15.98%) REST
4 31 (15.98%) RESTful
5 28 (14.43%) CSS
5 28 (14.43%) Node.js
6 26 (13.40%) HTML
7 25 (12.89%) AngularJS
7 25 (12.89%) Spring Boot
8 23 (11.86%) Kafka
9 20 (10.31%) .NET
10 15 (7.73%) Jest
11 13 (6.70%) JSON
12 11 (5.67%) .NET Core
13 10 (5.15%) CSS3
13 10 (5.15%) HTML5
13 10 (5.15%) Redux
14 9 (4.64%) SOAP
15 8 (4.12%) jQuery
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.25%) Mobile App
2 12 (6.19%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (5.15%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.61%) Mobile Banking
4 7 (3.61%) Onboarding
5 6 (3.09%) FPGA
5 6 (3.09%) PCIe
5 6 (3.09%) State Machine
6 5 (2.58%) AI Agents
6 5 (2.58%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.58%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 4 (2.06%) Client/Server
7 4 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.06%) PKI
7 4 (2.06%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.55%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.55%) Legacy Code
8 3 (1.55%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.55%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 40 (20.62%) Linux
2 34 (17.53%) Windows
3 18 (9.28%) Android
4 12 (6.19%) Apple iOS
5 10 (5.15%) Unix
6 2 (1.03%) VMS
7 1 (0.52%) OpenVMS
7 1 (0.52%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (59.28%) Agile
2 105 (54.12%) CI/CD
3 67 (34.54%) DevOps
4 57 (29.38%) Software Engineering
4 57 (29.38%) Test Automation
5 51 (26.29%) Problem-Solving
6 49 (25.26%) TDD
7 48 (24.74%) Microservices
8 35 (18.04%) Scrum
9 31 (15.98%) Continuous Delivery
10 30 (15.46%) Mentoring
11 29 (14.95%) Validation
12 27 (13.92%) Continuous Integration
12 27 (13.92%) Front End Development
12 27 (13.92%) Integration Testing
13 26 (13.40%) Continuous Improvement
14 25 (12.89%) Containerisation
15 23 (11.86%) Visualisation
16 22 (11.34%) Performance Optimisation
17 21 (10.82%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 60 (30.93%) Java
2 57 (29.38%) JavaScript
3 40 (20.62%) C#
4 39 (20.10%) SQL
5 37 (19.07%) Python
6 36 (18.56%) C++
7 16 (8.25%) Scala
7 16 (8.25%) TypeScript
8 13 (6.70%) Kotlin
9 11 (5.67%) C
10 10 (5.15%) PowerShell
10 10 (5.15%) Swift
11 7 (3.61%) Objective-C
11 7 (3.61%) PL/SQL
11 7 (3.61%) Ruby
12 4 (2.06%) Bicep
13 3 (1.55%) Bash
13 3 (1.55%) Perl
13 3 (1.55%) Shell Script
14 2 (1.03%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 37 (19.07%) Security Cleared
2 25 (12.89%) SC Cleared
3 18 (9.28%) Degree
4 12 (6.19%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (4.64%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (2.58%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 5 (2.58%) Master's Degree
7 4 (2.06%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.52%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.52%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.52%) ISEB
8 1 (0.52%) ISEB Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (14.95%) QA
2 20 (10.31%) Accessibility
3 8 (4.12%) SLA
4 6 (3.09%) Data Quality
4 6 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (2.58%) ISO 20022
5 5 (2.58%) PSD2
5 5 (2.58%) SEPA
5 5 (2.58%) WCAG
6 4 (2.06%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 2 (1.03%) HL7
8 1 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
8 1 (0.52%) IEC 61508
8 1 (0.52%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.52%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 27 (13.92%) Docker
2 3 (1.55%) HDFS
3 1 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 30 (15.46%) Kubernetes
2 12 (6.19%) Grafana
3 6 (3.09%) Terraform
4 5 (2.58%) Ansible
4 5 (2.58%) Kustomize
4 5 (2.58%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.55%) Hadoop YARN
5 3 (1.55%) Oozie
5 3 (1.55%) Podman
5 3 (1.55%) SELinux
5 3 (1.55%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.03%) Argo
6 2 (1.03%) Cilium
6 2 (1.03%) Control-M
6 2 (1.03%) HP ALM
6 2 (1.03%) Rsyslog
6 2 (1.03%) SCOM
6 2 (1.03%) vRealize
7 1 (0.52%) Kibana
7 1 (0.52%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 30 (15.46%) Microsoft
2 17 (8.76%) Oracle
3 8 (4.12%) BeyondTrust
3 8 (4.12%) CyberArk
3 8 (4.12%) SAP
3 8 (4.12%) Splunk
4 6 (3.09%) Dynatrace
4 6 (3.09%) Google
4 6 (3.09%) Perforce
5 4 (2.06%) Atlassian
5 4 (2.06%) Red Hat
5 4 (2.06%) ServiceNow
6 3 (1.55%) HP
6 3 (1.55%) Pega
7 2 (1.03%) Brio
7 2 (1.03%) Checkmarx
7 2 (1.03%) NVIDIA
7 2 (1.03%) VMware
7 2 (1.03%) Workday
8 1 (0.52%) Databricks