C Contract Job Trends

C
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring C skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 277 185
Rank change year-on-year -103 -92 +92
Contract jobs citing C 210 276 564
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.87% 1.30%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.81% 2.62% 4.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 96 219
10th Percentile £68 £400 £325
25th Percentile £380 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £534 £535
Median % change year-on-year -8.67% -0.23% -10.83%
75th Percentile £584 £638 £625
90th Percentile £650 £810 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £536
% change year-on-year -5.00% -6.72% -2.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 42 186
10th Percentile £60.00 £57.69 £46.88
25th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £56.35
Median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +3.85% +13.04%
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £95.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -1.48% +3.85% -

All Programming Languages
UK

C falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 11,622 10,538 13,056
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.65% 33.26% 29.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,724 6,696 9,240
10th Percentile £350 £355 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.62% -2.78% -4.42%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.79% -2.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 431 244 475
10th Percentile £37.77 £21.25 £35.50
25th Percentile £52.50 £35.56 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.19 £69.31
90th Percentile £75.00 £85.00 £77.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +3.17% +0.80% -3.85%

C
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing C relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

C job vacancy trend in the UK

C
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing C.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing C

C
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing C over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for C in the UK

C
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing C.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing C

C
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing C over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for C in the UK

C
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing C within the UK over the 6 months to 23 January 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
England -98 190 £500 -6.32% 874
UK excluding London -58 161 £475 -5.00% 916
South West -3 60 £475 -20.17% 157
East of England -8 59 £500 - 164
Work from Home -33 54 £438 -18.98% 284
London -74 40 £488 -18.75% 62
Scotland +16 13 £283 - 57
North of England -53 12 £463 +15.63% 134
North West -24 9 £463 +15.63% 48
South East -47 9 £500 +6.10% 263
Northern Ireland 0 5 £425 - 18
Yorkshire -52 3 £531 - 65
Midlands -52 3 £575 +76.65% 117
East Midlands -27 2 - - 88
West Midlands -50 1 £575 - 25

C
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (1.90%) Confluence
2 2 (0.95%) WebLogic
2 2 (0.95%) WebSphere
3 1 (0.48%) Apache
3 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.48%) nginx
3 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (5.71%) Simulink
2 8 (3.81%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (2.38%) Stateflow
Business Applications
1 5 (2.38%) BASE24
1 5 (2.38%) Payment Gateway
2 2 (0.95%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.48%) Actimize
3 1 (0.48%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.48%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 17 (8.10%) AWS
2 16 (7.62%) GitHub
3 15 (7.14%) Azure
4 8 (3.81%) GCP
5 4 (1.90%) Amazon EKS
5 4 (1.90%) Amazon S3
6 3 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
6 3 (1.43%) AWS CloudFormation
6 3 (1.43%) AWS Lambda
6 3 (1.43%) Serverless
7 2 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.48%) AWS CloudTrail
8 1 (0.48%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.48%) Firebase
8 1 (0.48%) IaaS
8 1 (0.48%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.48%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 16 (7.62%) Ethernet
2 8 (3.81%) RS-232
3 5 (2.38%) Network Security
3 5 (2.38%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.90%) 3GPP
4 4 (1.90%) SpaceWire
5 3 (1.43%) Bluetooth
5 3 (1.43%) Modbus
5 3 (1.43%) MVNO
5 3 (1.43%) RS-485
5 3 (1.43%) SMPP
5 3 (1.43%) SMS
6 2 (0.95%) HTTP
6 2 (0.95%) SSL
6 2 (0.95%) VSAN
6 2 (0.95%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.95%) Wireless
7 1 (0.48%) 5G
7 1 (0.48%) 5G NR
7 1 (0.48%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.76%) Oracle Database
2 7 (3.33%) NonStop SQL
3 5 (2.38%) OLTP
4 3 (1.43%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.48%) Metadata
6 1 (0.48%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.48%) MySQL
6 1 (0.48%) Oracle Exadata
6 1 (0.48%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.48%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (12.38%) Rational DOORS
2 18 (8.57%) Git
3 13 (6.19%) JIRA
4 11 (5.24%) Jenkins
4 11 (5.24%) Rational Rhapsody
5 9 (4.29%) ClearCase
6 8 (3.81%) GitLab
6 8 (3.81%) PVCS
7 5 (2.38%) Rational Team Concert
8 4 (1.90%) Artifactory
8 4 (1.90%) Visual Studio
8 4 (1.90%) Xcode
9 3 (1.43%) Gradle
9 3 (1.43%) KGDB
10 2 (0.95%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.95%) Selenium
10 2 (0.95%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.95%) Subversion
11 1 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.48%) NUnit
General
1 31 (14.76%) Social Skills
2 29 (13.81%) Electronics
3 23 (10.95%) Finance
4 22 (10.48%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (10.00%) Aerospace
6 12 (5.71%) Documentation Skills
6 12 (5.71%) Law
6 12 (5.71%) Public Sector
7 10 (4.76%) Banking
8 7 (3.33%) Military
8 7 (3.33%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.90%) Aviation
10 3 (1.43%) Automotive
10 3 (1.43%) Financial Institution
10 3 (1.43%) Games
11 2 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.95%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.95%) Marketing
11 2 (0.95%) Publishing
12 1 (0.48%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 76 (36.19%) Software Engineer
2 52 (24.76%) Embedded Engineer
3 40 (19.05%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 38 (18.10%) Developer
5 25 (11.90%) C Software Engineer
6 21 (10.00%) C++ Software Engineer
7 19 (9.05%) C/C++ Software Engineer
8 17 (8.10%) Embedded C Engineer
8 17 (8.10%) Embedded C Software Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Support Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Product Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Products Support Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Senior
10 12 (5.71%) Software Support Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) Embedded C++ Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) FPGA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (9.52%) Middleware
2 13 (6.19%) HTML
3 9 (4.29%) Yocto
4 8 (3.81%) CSS
4 8 (3.81%) Node.js
5 7 (3.33%) Flash
6 6 (2.86%) REST
7 5 (2.38%) React
8 4 (1.90%) .NET
8 4 (1.90%) AngularJS
8 4 (1.90%) RESTful
9 3 (1.43%) Electron
9 3 (1.43%) JNI
9 3 (1.43%) OpenEmbedded
10 2 (0.95%) Elastic Stack
10 2 (0.95%) JSON
10 2 (0.95%) Kafka
10 2 (0.95%) OpenID
10 2 (0.95%) OpenMP
10 2 (0.95%) Qt
Miscellaneous
1 32 (15.24%) FPGA
2 29 (13.81%) Embedded Systems
3 17 (8.10%) VHDL
4 14 (6.67%) PCIe
5 7 (3.33%) Tandem
6 6 (2.86%) Verilog
7 5 (2.38%) EMV
7 5 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.90%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.90%) CAN bus
8 4 (1.90%) Device Driver
8 4 (1.90%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.90%) IoT
8 4 (1.90%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.43%) Cloud Native
9 3 (1.43%) CUDA
9 3 (1.43%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.43%) Hedge funds
9 3 (1.43%) Java Card
9 3 (1.43%) Mobile Banking
Operating Systems
1 61 (29.05%) Linux
2 16 (7.62%) Windows
3 13 (6.19%) Ubuntu
4 8 (3.81%) Embedded Linux
4 8 (3.81%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (1.90%) Android
5 4 (1.90%) Apple iOS
6 3 (1.43%) CentOS
6 3 (1.43%) Mac OS
6 3 (1.43%) Unix
7 1 (0.48%) Debian
7 1 (0.48%) OpenVMS
7 1 (0.48%) Robot Operating System
7 1 (0.48%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (50.95%) Software Engineering
2 39 (18.57%) Validation
3 30 (14.29%) CI/CD
4 27 (12.86%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (8.10%) Agile
6 16 (7.62%) Unit Testing
6 16 (7.62%) Workflow
7 15 (7.14%) Containerisation
7 15 (7.14%) DevOps
7 15 (7.14%) Software Testing
8 14 (6.67%) Signal Processing
9 13 (6.19%) Mathematics
9 13 (6.19%) Systems Engineering
10 12 (5.71%) AI
10 12 (5.71%) Test Automation
10 12 (5.71%) UML
11 11 (5.24%) Requirements Analysis
12 10 (4.76%) FPGA Design
13 9 (4.29%) Collaborative Culture
13 9 (4.29%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 123 (58.57%) C++
2 55 (26.19%) Python
3 41 (19.52%) Java
4 29 (13.81%) Ada
5 26 (12.38%) Embedded C
5 26 (12.38%) JavaScript
6 22 (10.48%) Shell Script
7 21 (10.00%) SQL
8 16 (7.62%) Embedded C++
8 16 (7.62%) MATLAB
9 12 (5.71%) Bash
10 10 (4.76%) C#
11 8 (3.81%) Fortran
12 7 (3.33%) Rust
13 6 (2.86%) Perl
13 6 (2.86%) SystemVerilog
14 5 (2.38%) COBOL
14 5 (2.38%) PL/SQL
15 4 (1.90%) Tcl
15 4 (1.90%) VBA
Qualifications
1 67 (31.90%) Security Cleared
2 53 (25.24%) SC Cleared
3 21 (10.00%) Degree
4 8 (3.81%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
7 2 (0.95%) ISTQB
7 2 (0.95%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.95%) PhD
7 2 (0.95%) Postgraduate
8 1 (0.48%) CCNA
8 1 (0.48%) CCSAS
8 1 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (0.48%) GPEN
8 1 (0.48%) GWAPT
8 1 (0.48%) GXPN
8 1 (0.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.48%) OSCE
8 1 (0.48%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (9.52%) Def Stans
2 13 (6.19%) MISRA
3 11 (5.24%) DO-178B
3 11 (5.24%) QA
4 10 (4.76%) IEC 61508
5 5 (2.38%) ISO 26262
5 5 (2.38%) ISO 8583
6 4 (1.90%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.43%) IEC 62304
7 3 (1.43%) MISRA C
8 2 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
9 1 (0.48%) AUTOSAR
9 1 (0.48%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.48%) DICOM
9 1 (0.48%) DO-254
9 1 (0.48%) HL7
9 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.48%) MiFID
9 1 (0.48%) NIST
System Software
1 24 (11.43%) Firmware
2 17 (8.10%) Docker
3 12 (5.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (4.29%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.38%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.95%) vCloud
6 2 (0.95%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.95%) vSphere
7 1 (0.48%) KVM
Systems Management
1 12 (5.71%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.81%) Terraform
3 3 (1.43%) Ansible
3 3 (1.43%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.95%) Grafana
4 2 (0.95%) Podman
5 1 (0.48%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 17 (8.10%) Oracle
2 16 (7.62%) Red Hat
3 13 (6.19%) IBM
4 12 (5.71%) VMware
5 9 (4.29%) NetApp
6 8 (3.81%) ANSYS
6 8 (3.81%) MathWorks
7 7 (3.33%) HP
7 7 (3.33%) Intel
8 5 (2.38%) Microsemi
8 5 (2.38%) Microsoft
8 5 (2.38%) Xilinx
9 4 (1.90%) Cisco
10 3 (1.43%) Atlassian
10 3 (1.43%) Dynatrace
10 3 (1.43%) Thales
11 2 (0.95%) Dell
11 2 (0.95%) SAP
11 2 (0.95%) Siemens
12 1 (0.48%) Veritas