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

6 months to
27 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 209 157 153
Rank change year-on-year -52 -4 +30
Contract jobs citing Unit Testing 216 245 323
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.22% 1.49% 1.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.39% 1.75% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 146 199
10th Percentile £358 £356 £409
25th Percentile £400 £434 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £525 £569
Median % change year-on-year -11.90% -7.73% +5.86%
75th Percentile £546 £651 £650
90th Percentile £632 £681 £699
UK median daily rate £500 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -9.09% -8.33% +2.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 21 58
10th Percentile £59.00 £47.50 £48.32
25th Percentile - £55.00 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £67.00 - -
90th Percentile £69.57 - £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 15,506 14,029 17,849
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 87.39% 85.17% 88.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,424 8,005 11,616
10th Percentile £219 £243 £250
25th Percentile £368 £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 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,752 914 1,257
10th Percentile £14.32 £15.10 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £19.43 £17.75
Median hourly rate £23.00 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.23% -26.97% +41.14%
75th Percentile £45.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £72.50 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +25.71%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +5 70 £446 -10.80% 24
North West +9 49 £453 -7.03% 15
Midlands -14 40 £463 -11.48% 12
East of England -6 36 £488 +33.56% 25
Scotland -12 29 £447 +0.45% 16
West Midlands -17 24 £519 -15.20% 6
South East -66 24 £591 -7.29% 50
East Midlands -9 16 £420 -3.45% 6
Yorkshire -28 16 £390 -35.00% 5
Wales -3 12 £520 +145.96%
South West -9 8 £550 +10.00% 16
North East -6 5 £550 - 4
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 12 (5.56%) Apache Spark
2 9 (4.17%) Apache
3 8 (3.70%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (3.70%) Confluence
4 3 (1.39%) Camunda
4 3 (1.39%) Mule
4 3 (1.39%) NetWeaver
5 2 (0.93%) Alfresco
5 2 (0.93%) JBoss
6 1 (0.46%) CMS
6 1 (0.46%) Jupyter
6 1 (0.46%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.46%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.46%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.46%) InVision
1 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
1 1 (0.46%) MS Visio
1 1 (0.46%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 4 (1.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.39%) SAP MDG
2 3 (1.39%) SAP MDG-F
2 3 (1.39%) SAP MDG-M
2 3 (1.39%) SAP MDG-S
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle Assets
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle Cash Management
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle General Ledger
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle Payables
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle Receivables
3 2 (0.93%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.93%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.46%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.46%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.46%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.46%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.46%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.46%) SAP SD
4 1 (0.46%) SAP Travel Management
Cloud Services
1 49 (22.69%) Azure
2 43 (19.91%) AWS
3 29 (13.43%) Azure DevOps
4 18 (8.33%) Serverless
5 15 (6.94%) GitHub
6 13 (6.02%) AWS Lambda
7 12 (5.56%) OpenShift
8 10 (4.63%) Amazon S3
8 10 (4.63%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (4.17%) AWS Step Functions
9 9 (4.17%) GCP
9 9 (4.17%) Power Platform
10 8 (3.70%) AWS CloudFormation
10 8 (3.70%) npm
11 7 (3.24%) Dynamics 365
11 7 (3.24%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 6 (2.78%) Azure AKS
12 6 (2.78%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 5 (2.31%) Amazon ECS
14 4 (1.85%) BlazeMeter
Communications & Networking
1 24 (11.11%) TCP/IP
2 21 (9.72%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.93%) X.509
4 1 (0.46%) DNS
4 1 (0.46%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (9.26%) NoSQL
2 15 (6.94%) MongoDB
3 11 (5.09%) Redis
4 9 (4.17%) Big Data
4 9 (4.17%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (3.70%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (3.24%) Amazon Athena
6 7 (3.24%) Relational Database
7 5 (2.31%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (2.31%) Delta Lake
7 5 (2.31%) Hadoop
7 5 (2.31%) MySQL
7 5 (2.31%) SQL Server
8 4 (1.85%) Apache Hive
8 4 (1.85%) Data Lake
9 3 (1.39%) Aerospike
9 3 (1.39%) DocumentDB
9 3 (1.39%) HBase
9 3 (1.39%) Metadata
9 3 (1.39%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 71 (32.87%) Git
2 31 (14.35%) JIRA
3 26 (12.04%) Visual Studio
4 22 (10.19%) Jenkins
5 21 (9.72%) Eclipse
6 18 (8.33%) SonarQube
7 17 (7.87%) JUnit
8 13 (6.02%) GitLab
8 13 (6.02%) Postman
9 12 (5.56%) Cypress.io
10 9 (4.17%) Artifactory
11 8 (3.70%) Selenium
12 7 (3.24%) Rational DOORS
13 6 (2.78%) Bitbucket
13 6 (2.78%) Gradle
13 6 (2.78%) Grunt
13 6 (2.78%) gulp
13 6 (2.78%) NUnit
14 5 (2.31%) MSTest
14 5 (2.31%) Xcode
General
1 81 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 40 (18.52%) Finance
3 34 (15.74%) Public Sector
4 25 (11.57%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (11.11%) Military
6 20 (9.26%) Banking
6 20 (9.26%) Presentation Skills
7 11 (5.09%) Telecoms
8 10 (4.63%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (3.24%) Aerospace
9 7 (3.24%) Manufacturing
10 5 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (2.31%) Marketing
11 4 (1.85%) Electronics
12 3 (1.39%) Health Technology
12 3 (1.39%) Law
13 2 (0.93%) General Ledger
14 1 (0.46%) Billing
14 1 (0.46%) Financial Institution
14 1 (0.46%) Legal
Job Titles
1 80 (37.04%) Developer
2 48 (22.22%) Software Engineer
3 31 (14.35%) Senior
4 26 (12.04%) Java Developer
5 22 (10.19%) C++ Software Engineer
6 19 (8.80%) C# Software Engineer
7 17 (7.87%) Senior Developer
8 13 (6.02%) Lead
9 10 (4.63%) Data Engineer
10 9 (4.17%) AWS Engineer
10 9 (4.17%) Senior Java Developer
11 8 (3.70%) Tester
12 7 (3.24%) Analyst
12 7 (3.24%) Android Developer
12 7 (3.24%) Full-Stack Developer
13 6 (2.78%) .NET Developer
13 6 (2.78%) Automation Tester
13 6 (2.78%) Consultant
13 6 (2.78%) Help Desk Analyst
13 6 (2.78%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (18.06%) Web Services
2 37 (17.13%) React
3 36 (16.67%) Spring
4 35 (16.20%) Node.js
4 35 (16.20%) RESTful
5 34 (15.74%) REST
6 30 (13.89%) Spring Boot
7 26 (12.04%) AngularJS
8 25 (11.57%) CSS
8 25 (11.57%) Kafka
9 24 (11.11%) HTML
10 22 (10.19%) .NET
11 16 (7.41%) Jest
12 13 (6.02%) JSON
13 12 (5.56%) .NET Core
13 12 (5.56%) PySpark
14 10 (4.63%) CSS3
14 10 (4.63%) HTML5
14 10 (4.63%) Redux
15 9 (4.17%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 18 (8.33%) Cloud Native
2 15 (6.94%) Distributed Systems
3 13 (6.02%) Mobile App
4 8 (3.70%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 7 (3.24%) Algorithms
5 7 (3.24%) Onboarding
6 6 (2.78%) FPGA
6 6 (2.78%) PCIe
6 6 (2.78%) State Machine
7 5 (2.31%) AI Agents
7 5 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.85%) Client/Server
8 4 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.85%) Mobile Banking
8 4 (1.85%) PKI
8 4 (1.85%) Private Cloud
8 4 (1.85%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.39%) Data Structures
9 3 (1.39%) NHS
9 3 (1.39%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 45 (20.83%) Linux
2 40 (18.52%) Windows
3 16 (7.41%) Android
4 11 (5.09%) Unix
5 9 (4.17%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.93%) VMS
7 1 (0.46%) OpenVMS
7 1 (0.46%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (57.87%) Agile
2 120 (55.56%) CI/CD
3 68 (31.48%) DevOps
4 65 (30.09%) Software Engineering
5 62 (28.70%) Problem-Solving
5 62 (28.70%) Test Automation
6 51 (23.61%) Microservices
7 49 (22.69%) TDD
8 38 (17.59%) Validation
9 35 (16.20%) Continuous Delivery
10 34 (15.74%) Containerisation
10 34 (15.74%) Continuous Integration
10 34 (15.74%) Scrum
11 33 (15.28%) Integration Testing
12 32 (14.81%) Mentoring
13 27 (12.50%) Visualisation
14 26 (12.04%) Front End Development
15 25 (11.57%) Code Quality
16 24 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
16 24 (11.11%) Verification and Validation
Programming Languages
1 61 (28.24%) Java
2 60 (27.78%) JavaScript
3 47 (21.76%) SQL
4 46 (21.30%) C#
5 42 (19.44%) Python
6 40 (18.52%) C++
7 17 (7.87%) TypeScript
8 13 (6.02%) Scala
9 11 (5.09%) C
9 11 (5.09%) PowerShell
10 10 (4.63%) Kotlin
11 7 (3.24%) Swift
12 6 (2.78%) PL/SQL
12 6 (2.78%) Shell Script
13 5 (2.31%) ABAP
14 4 (1.85%) Bicep
14 4 (1.85%) Objective-C
14 4 (1.85%) Ruby
15 3 (1.39%) Bash
15 3 (1.39%) Perl
Qualifications
1 43 (19.91%) Security Cleared
2 29 (13.43%) SC Cleared
3 17 (7.87%) Degree
4 11 (5.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (4.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (2.31%) AWS Certification
6 5 (2.31%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 5 (2.31%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.85%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 1 (0.46%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.46%) ISEB
8 1 (0.46%) ISEB Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (14.81%) QA
2 20 (9.26%) Accessibility
3 11 (5.09%) Data Quality
4 8 (3.70%) ISO 20022
4 8 (3.70%) PSD2
4 8 (3.70%) SEPA
4 8 (3.70%) SLA
5 6 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (2.31%) WCAG
7 4 (1.85%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (1.39%) HL7
9 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.46%) IEC 61508
9 1 (0.46%) IEC 62304
9 1 (0.46%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 32 (14.81%) Docker
2 4 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
2 4 (1.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.39%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 37 (17.13%) Kubernetes
2 11 (5.09%) Grafana
3 7 (3.24%) Terraform
4 5 (2.31%) Ansible
4 5 (2.31%) Kustomize
4 5 (2.31%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.39%) Argo
5 3 (1.39%) Hadoop YARN
5 3 (1.39%) Oozie
5 3 (1.39%) Podman
5 3 (1.39%) SELinux
5 3 (1.39%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.93%) Cilium
6 2 (0.93%) Control-M
6 2 (0.93%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.93%) Kibana
6 2 (0.93%) Rsyslog
6 2 (0.93%) SCOM
6 2 (0.93%) vRealize
7 1 (0.46%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 37 (17.13%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.33%) Oracle
3 10 (4.63%) Databricks
3 10 (4.63%) SAP
4 8 (3.70%) BeyondTrust
4 8 (3.70%) CyberArk
5 7 (3.24%) Google
5 7 (3.24%) Splunk
6 6 (2.78%) Dynatrace
6 6 (2.78%) Perforce
7 5 (2.31%) VMware
8 4 (1.85%) Atlassian
8 4 (1.85%) IBM
8 4 (1.85%) Red Hat
8 4 (1.85%) ServiceNow
9 3 (1.39%) ANSYS
9 3 (1.39%) Brio
9 3 (1.39%) HP
9 3 (1.39%) Pega
10 2 (0.93%) Ab Initio