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 3 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 248 226 161
Rank change year-on-year -22 -65 +9
Contract jobs citing Unit Testing 199 114 268
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.83% 0.89% 1.29%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.02% 0.99% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 74 173
10th Percentile £353 £300 £375
25th Percentile £402 £364 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £479 £477 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.29% -9.10% +0.48%
75th Percentile £561 £619 £650
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £476 £537 £530
% change year-on-year -11.41% +1.23% -7.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 9 49
10th Percentile £59.85 £50.50 -
25th Percentile £62.50 £52.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% -3.85% -

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 19,589 11,544 17,543
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 81.35% 90.43% 84.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,859 7,252 10,477
10th Percentile £288 £235 £250
25th Percentile £400 £375 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.40% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £678 £662 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,058 821 2,060
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £12.34
25th Percentile £18.88 £17.44 £15.25
Median hourly rate £43.31 £27.64 £37.18
Median % change year-on-year +56.68% -25.66% +6.23%
75th Percentile £67.25 £64.52 £60.75
90th Percentile £79.90 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.50
% change year-on-year +43.29% -18.31% -1.39%

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 3 May 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 3 May 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 3 May 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 -33 63 £515 -17.60% 19
North of England -18 61 £450 -2.70% 31
North West -18 34 £447 -3.35% 13
East of England -18 24 £625 +28.21% 18
Midlands -63 21 £447 -3.35% 15
North East -1 20 £513 +52.99% 10
Scotland -17 16 £432 +21.42% 2
South West -18 16 £500 -18.37% 12
East Midlands -29 15 £430 -7.08% 8
Yorkshire -42 9 £500 -16.67% 8
West Midlands -56 6 £489 +5.94% 7
Wales -10 4 £700 +109.72% 3
Northern Ireland +3 2 £369 -32.95% 1
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 13 (6.53%) Confluence
2 9 (4.52%) Apache Spark
3 5 (2.51%) Apache
4 4 (2.01%) OpenStack
5 3 (1.51%) NetWeaver
5 3 (1.51%) SharePoint
6 2 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (1.01%) IIS
6 2 (1.01%) Mule
6 2 (1.01%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.50%) Camunda
7 1 (0.50%) JBoss
7 1 (0.50%) SAS
7 1 (0.50%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (1.01%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.50%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 6 (3.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (2.01%) SAP Payroll
3 3 (1.51%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (1.51%) SAP HCM
3 3 (1.51%) SAP MDG
3 3 (1.51%) SAP MDG-F
3 3 (1.51%) SAP MDG-M
3 3 (1.51%) SAP MDG-S
4 2 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.01%) NEC Housing
4 2 (1.01%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.50%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.50%) SAP CRM
5 1 (0.50%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.50%) SAP Travel Management
5 1 (0.50%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 38 (19.10%) Azure
2 36 (18.09%) AWS
3 29 (14.57%) OpenShift
4 22 (11.06%) GitHub
4 22 (11.06%) Serverless
5 21 (10.55%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (7.04%) Amazon S3
7 13 (6.53%) AWS Lambda
8 11 (5.53%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (4.52%) AWS Step Functions
9 9 (4.52%) Azure Functions
10 8 (4.02%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (3.52%) Amazon ECS
11 7 (3.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (2.51%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (2.51%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (2.51%) GCP
13 4 (2.01%) Amazon SageMaker
13 4 (2.01%) OCI
13 4 (2.01%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 21 (10.55%) TCP/IP
2 17 (8.54%) Ethernet
3 3 (1.51%) Modbus
3 3 (1.51%) RS-232
3 3 (1.51%) RS-422
3 3 (1.51%) RS-485
4 1 (0.50%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.03%) SQL Server
2 11 (5.53%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (5.03%) DynamoDB
4 9 (4.52%) NoSQL
5 8 (4.02%) Aerospike
5 8 (4.02%) Relational Database
6 7 (3.52%) Amazon Athena
6 7 (3.52%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (3.02%) MongoDB
8 5 (2.51%) Data Lake
8 5 (2.51%) Delta Lake
8 5 (2.51%) Redis
9 4 (2.01%) SAP HANA
10 3 (1.51%) Azure SQL Database
10 3 (1.51%) Big Data
10 3 (1.51%) BigQuery
10 3 (1.51%) Oracle Database
10 3 (1.51%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (1.01%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 49 (24.62%) Git
1 49 (24.62%) GitLab
2 33 (16.58%) SonarQube
3 32 (16.08%) JIRA
4 27 (13.57%) Visual Studio
5 17 (8.54%) Jenkins
6 16 (8.04%) Eclipse
6 16 (8.04%) JUnit
7 8 (4.02%) PVCS
7 8 (4.02%) Rational DOORS
8 7 (3.52%) NUnit
8 7 (3.52%) Selenium
9 6 (3.02%) Gradle
9 6 (3.02%) Maven
10 5 (2.51%) MLflow
10 5 (2.51%) MSTest
11 4 (2.01%) Bitbucket
11 4 (2.01%) Mockito
11 4 (2.01%) XCTest
12 3 (1.51%) Cucumber
General
1 41 (20.60%) Social Skills
2 33 (16.58%) Finance
3 19 (9.55%) Public Sector
4 18 (9.05%) Military
5 15 (7.54%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (6.53%) Presentation Skills
7 11 (5.53%) Banking
7 11 (5.53%) Electronics
8 4 (2.01%) Aerospace
8 4 (2.01%) Health Technology
8 4 (2.01%) Law
9 3 (1.51%) Retail
10 1 (0.50%) Advertising
10 1 (0.50%) Legal
10 1 (0.50%) Marketing
10 1 (0.50%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 83 (41.71%) Developer
2 48 (24.12%) Software Engineer
3 24 (12.06%) Java Developer
4 20 (10.05%) Senior
5 18 (9.05%) Java Engineer
6 14 (7.04%) C++ Software Engineer
6 14 (7.04%) Full-Stack Developer
7 11 (5.53%) C# Software Engineer
8 10 (5.03%) Data Engineer
9 9 (4.52%) .NET Developer
9 9 (4.52%) Consultant
9 9 (4.52%) Java Software Engineer
9 9 (4.52%) Senior Developer
10 8 (4.02%) AWS Engineer
10 8 (4.02%) Integration Engineer
10 8 (4.02%) Lead
11 7 (3.52%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
11 7 (3.52%) C/C++ Software Engineer
11 7 (3.52%) Embedded Engineer
11 7 (3.52%) SC Cleared Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (15.58%) AngularJS
1 31 (15.58%) RESTful
2 28 (14.07%) .NET
3 27 (13.57%) Quarkus
4 26 (13.07%) Node.js
5 24 (12.06%) Web Services
6 22 (11.06%) React
7 21 (10.55%) REST
8 19 (9.55%) Spring
9 16 (8.04%) Jest
10 15 (7.54%) Kafka
11 13 (6.53%) Swagger
12 12 (6.03%) .NET Framework
12 12 (6.03%) CSS
12 12 (6.03%) PySpark
12 12 (6.03%) WinForms
13 11 (5.53%) HTML
13 11 (5.53%) Spring Boot
13 11 (5.53%) YAML
14 10 (5.03%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 18 (9.05%) Cloud Native
2 17 (8.54%) Distributed Systems
3 10 (5.03%) Product Ownership
4 5 (2.51%) NHS
4 5 (2.51%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 3 (1.51%) IoT
6 2 (1.01%) Algorithms
6 2 (1.01%) Data Structures
6 2 (1.01%) Distributed Architecture
6 2 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.50%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.50%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.50%) Derivative
7 1 (0.50%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (0.50%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.50%) Mobile App
7 1 (0.50%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 30 (15.08%) Windows
2 23 (11.56%) Linux
3 4 (2.01%) Android
3 4 (2.01%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.01%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (60.30%) Agile
2 88 (44.22%) CI/CD
3 72 (36.18%) Software Engineering
4 71 (35.68%) Test Automation
5 56 (28.14%) Scrum
6 51 (25.63%) Problem-Solving
7 50 (25.13%) DevOps
8 45 (22.61%) SDLC
9 44 (22.11%) TDD
10 35 (17.59%) Validation
11 33 (16.58%) Microservices
12 31 (15.58%) Front End Development
13 28 (14.07%) Sprint Planning
14 27 (13.57%) Continuous Integration
14 27 (13.57%) DevSecOps
15 26 (13.07%) Sprint Review
16 25 (12.56%) Code Quality
17 24 (12.06%) Data Modelling
17 24 (12.06%) Full-Stack Development
17 24 (12.06%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 78 (39.20%) Java
2 60 (30.15%) C#
3 52 (26.13%) SQL
4 36 (18.09%) JavaScript
5 34 (17.09%) C++
6 29 (14.57%) Python
7 23 (11.56%) TypeScript
8 16 (8.04%) C
9 8 (4.02%) PL/SQL
10 7 (3.52%) ABAP
10 7 (3.52%) Embedded C
10 7 (3.52%) Embedded C++
10 7 (3.52%) PowerShell
11 6 (3.02%) Apex Code
12 5 (2.51%) Shell Script
13 4 (2.01%) Swift
14 3 (1.51%) Go
14 3 (1.51%) SOQL
14 3 (1.51%) SOSL
15 2 (1.01%) Scala
Qualifications
1 65 (32.66%) Security Cleared
2 55 (27.64%) SC Cleared
3 12 (6.03%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (4.52%) Degree
5 4 (2.01%) AWS Certification
5 4 (2.01%) ISTQB
5 4 (2.01%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 1 (0.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 1 (0.50%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (17.09%) QA
2 11 (5.53%) Data Quality
3 8 (4.02%) Accessibility
4 5 (2.51%) ISO 20022
4 5 (2.51%) PSD2
4 5 (2.51%) SEPA
5 4 (2.01%) HL7
5 4 (2.01%) HMG Security Policy Framework
5 4 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.01%) GDPR
7 1 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.50%) WCAG
System Software
1 27 (13.57%) Docker
2 8 (4.02%) Virtual Machines
2 8 (4.02%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 42 (21.11%) Kubernetes
2 27 (13.57%) Argo
3 9 (4.52%) Terraform
4 3 (1.51%) Grafana
5 2 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.50%) Kibana
6 1 (0.50%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 29 (14.57%) Microsoft
2 25 (12.56%) Red Hat
3 18 (9.05%) Oracle
4 16 (8.04%) Databricks
5 11 (5.53%) Salesforce
6 10 (5.03%) SAP
7 8 (4.02%) ANSYS
7 8 (4.02%) IBM
7 8 (4.02%) VMware
8 6 (3.02%) Veracode
9 4 (2.01%) Brio
9 4 (2.01%) Splunk
10 3 (1.51%) Google
11 2 (1.01%) Avaloq
11 2 (1.01%) IFS
11 2 (1.01%) NEC
12 1 (0.50%) Ab Initio
12 1 (0.50%) Dynatrace
12 1 (0.50%) ServiceNow
12 1 (0.50%) Workday