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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 364 253 202
Rank change year-on-year -111 -51 +82
Contract jobs citing C 208 342 574
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.59% 0.93% 1.23%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.82% 2.92% 3.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 137 270
10th Percentile £68 £400 £350
25th Percentile £405 £455 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £545
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -1.38% -9.17%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £679 £810 £785
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -4.41% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 49 146
10th Percentile £49.85 £47.20 £51.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £57.50 £55.31
Median hourly rate £68.00 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% - +13.04%
75th Percentile £73.75 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £95.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.75 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.23% - -

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 11,446 11,729 14,641
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.23% 32.02% 31.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,541 7,557 10,442
10th Percentile £345 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -4.55% -2.65%
75th Percentile £623 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 281 447
10th Percentile £29.13 £22.00 £31.40
25th Percentile £45.88 £38.50 £47.50
Median hourly rate £62.50 £62.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -
75th Percentile £67.92 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for C in the UK

C
Top 14 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 15 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
England -125 183 £500 -6.98% 811
UK excluding London -86 144 £488 -4.41% 710
East of England -14 54 £475 -5.00% 171
London -48 49 £586 +3.72% 177
South West -30 42 £525 +1.11% 114
Work from Home -39 41 £475 -12.24% 533
Scotland +8 17 £438 -48.53% 41
North of England -45 17 £450 -11.76% 54
North West -22 12 £415 -14.87% 26
South East -39 11 £500 -4.31% 286
Yorkshire -34 5 £500 -1.96% 19
Midlands -34 3 - - 59
East Midlands - 2 - - 36
West Midlands -34 1 - - 23

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 16 (7.69%) WebLogic
2 15 (7.21%) WebSphere
3 6 (2.88%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.44%) Confluence
5 2 (0.96%) nginx
5 2 (0.96%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.48%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 13 (6.25%) Simulink
2 9 (4.33%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (2.88%) Stateflow
4 5 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (2.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.48%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 31 (14.90%) AWS
2 24 (11.54%) Azure
3 16 (7.69%) GitHub
4 14 (6.73%) GCP
5 5 (2.40%) OpenShift
6 3 (1.44%) Amazon ECS
6 3 (1.44%) Amazon EKS
6 3 (1.44%) Amazon S3
6 3 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
6 3 (1.44%) AWS Lambda
6 3 (1.44%) IaaS
6 3 (1.44%) Serverless
7 2 (0.96%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (0.96%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (0.96%) npm
7 2 (0.96%) PaaS
7 2 (0.96%) SaaS
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.48%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.37%) Ethernet
2 5 (2.40%) RS-232
2 5 (2.40%) SpaceWire
3 4 (1.92%) Firewall
3 4 (1.92%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.44%) 3GPP
4 3 (1.44%) HTTP
4 3 (1.44%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.96%) AMQP
5 2 (0.96%) Anycast
5 2 (0.96%) BGP
5 2 (0.96%) Bluetooth
5 2 (0.96%) DNS
5 2 (0.96%) Ethernet VPN
5 2 (0.96%) Internet
5 2 (0.96%) Network Security
5 2 (0.96%) Radio Access Network
5 2 (0.96%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.96%) VXLAN
5 2 (0.96%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.33%) Oracle Database
2 6 (2.88%) Big Data
3 5 (2.40%) HPCC
4 4 (1.92%) Data Mining
5 3 (1.44%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.44%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (1.44%) MongoDB
5 3 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.44%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.96%) InfluxDB
6 2 (0.96%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.48%) DB2
7 1 (0.48%) NonStop SQL
7 1 (0.48%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 24 (11.54%) Git
2 17 (8.17%) Rational DOORS
3 15 (7.21%) Jenkins
4 11 (5.29%) Gradle
5 10 (4.81%) GitLab
6 9 (4.33%) ClearCase
7 7 (3.37%) JIRA
7 7 (3.37%) Xcode
8 6 (2.88%) Rational Team Concert
9 5 (2.40%) Maven
10 4 (1.92%) Artifactory
10 4 (1.92%) Clang
10 4 (1.92%) GCC
10 4 (1.92%) Rational Rhapsody
10 4 (1.92%) Visual Studio
11 3 (1.44%) Bitbucket
11 3 (1.44%) KGDB
12 2 (0.96%) CMake
12 2 (0.96%) PVCS
13 1 (0.48%) JMeter
General
1 35 (16.83%) Social Skills
2 25 (12.02%) Electronics
3 23 (11.06%) Finance
4 20 (9.62%) Aerospace
5 18 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (7.21%) Public Sector
7 13 (6.25%) Banking
8 11 (5.29%) Law
9 10 (4.81%) Telecoms
10 7 (3.37%) Manufacturing
11 6 (2.88%) Documentation Skills
11 6 (2.88%) Marketing
11 6 (2.88%) Military
12 5 (2.40%) Aviation
13 4 (1.92%) Financial Institution
14 3 (1.44%) Investment Banking
15 2 (0.96%) Automotive
15 2 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 1 (0.48%) Health Technology
16 1 (0.48%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 54 (25.96%) Software Engineer
2 34 (16.35%) Developer
3 19 (9.13%) Embedded Engineer
4 18 (8.65%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 16 (7.69%) Support Engineer
6 15 (7.21%) Consultant
7 12 (5.77%) Architect
7 12 (5.77%) Product Engineer
7 12 (5.77%) Products Support Engineer
7 12 (5.77%) Software Support Engineer
8 11 (5.29%) C Software Engineer
8 11 (5.29%) Design Engineer
8 11 (5.29%) Senior
9 10 (4.81%) C++ Software Engineer
9 10 (4.81%) Digital Design Engineer
9 10 (4.81%) Systems Engineer
10 9 (4.33%) C++ Developer
11 7 (3.37%) C/C++ Software Engineer
11 7 (3.37%) Lead
11 7 (3.37%) Linux Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (16.35%) HTML
2 27 (12.98%) Middleware
3 23 (11.06%) Node.js
4 17 (8.17%) .NET
5 12 (5.77%) CSS
6 10 (4.81%) Flash
7 8 (3.85%) JSON
7 8 (3.85%) React
7 8 (3.85%) XML
8 7 (3.37%) REST
9 5 (2.40%) AngularJS
9 5 (2.40%) PyTorch
9 5 (2.40%) Spring
10 4 (1.92%) Google JAX
10 4 (1.92%) JAX
10 4 (1.92%) TensorFlow
10 4 (1.92%) Yocto
11 3 (1.44%) Electron
11 3 (1.44%) OpenEmbedded
11 3 (1.44%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 19 (9.13%) FPGA
2 18 (8.65%) Embedded Systems
3 13 (6.25%) VHDL
4 8 (3.85%) Distributed Systems
5 7 (3.37%) Analogue Electronics
5 7 (3.37%) CUDA
5 7 (3.37%) Mobile App
5 7 (3.37%) Mobile Banking
5 7 (3.37%) Self-Motivation
6 6 (2.88%) Distributed Computing
7 5 (2.40%) Data Centre
7 5 (2.40%) PCIe
8 4 (1.92%) Algorithms
8 4 (1.92%) CAN bus
8 4 (1.92%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.92%) Device Driver
8 4 (1.92%) Hedge funds
8 4 (1.92%) Verilog
9 3 (1.44%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.96%) CBDC
Operating Systems
1 67 (32.21%) Linux
2 30 (14.42%) Windows
3 13 (6.25%) Ubuntu
3 13 (6.25%) Unix
4 8 (3.85%) Android
5 7 (3.37%) Apple iOS
5 7 (3.37%) FreeRTOS
6 5 (2.40%) CentOS
7 3 (1.44%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.48%) Debian
9 1 (0.48%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.48%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.48%) VMS
9 1 (0.48%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.48%) Windows Embedded Compact
9 1 (0.48%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 83 (39.90%) Software Engineering
2 29 (13.94%) CI/CD
3 28 (13.46%) Agile
4 26 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (10.58%) AI
6 18 (8.65%) DevOps
7 17 (8.17%) Mathematics
7 17 (8.17%) Software Testing
7 17 (8.17%) Validation
8 16 (7.69%) Machine Learning
9 15 (7.21%) Requirements Gathering
9 15 (7.21%) TDD
10 14 (6.73%) Containerisation
10 14 (6.73%) Signal Processing
10 14 (6.73%) Unit Testing
11 13 (6.25%) UML
12 12 (5.77%) Scrum
13 11 (5.29%) Computer Science
13 11 (5.29%) Roadmaps
14 10 (4.81%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 145 (69.71%) C++
2 86 (41.35%) Python
3 83 (39.90%) Java
4 33 (15.87%) JavaScript
5 31 (14.90%) Shell Script
6 24 (11.54%) SQL
7 20 (9.62%) Ada
8 17 (8.17%) Bash
9 16 (7.69%) MATLAB
10 15 (7.21%) PHP
11 14 (6.73%) C#
12 11 (5.29%) Embedded C
12 11 (5.29%) PowerShell
13 9 (4.33%) Fortran
13 9 (4.33%) Go
13 9 (4.33%) Perl
14 8 (3.85%) Ruby
14 8 (3.85%) Scala
15 7 (3.37%) Objective-C
15 7 (3.37%) Swift
Qualifications
1 70 (33.65%) Security Cleared
2 52 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 21 (10.10%) Degree
4 11 (5.29%) DV Cleared
5 7 (3.37%) Master's Degree
5 7 (3.37%) PhD
6 3 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (0.96%) CCIE
7 2 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (0.96%) CISSP
7 2 (0.96%) JNCIE
7 2 (0.96%) Postgraduate
8 1 (0.48%) CCSAS
8 1 (0.48%) GPEN
8 1 (0.48%) GWAPT
8 1 (0.48%) GXPN
8 1 (0.48%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.48%) OSCE
8 1 (0.48%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.25%) QA
2 8 (3.85%) MISRA
3 6 (2.88%) Def Stans
3 6 (2.88%) DO-178B
4 5 (2.40%) IEC 61508
4 5 (2.40%) ISO 26262
4 5 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.44%) EU AI Act
5 3 (1.44%) GDPR
5 3 (1.44%) IEC 62304
5 3 (1.44%) MISRA C
5 3 (1.44%) NIST
6 2 (0.96%) AUTOSAR
6 2 (0.96%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.48%) DO-254
7 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 22 (10.58%) Docker
2 21 (10.10%) Firmware
3 4 (1.92%) Embedded Firmware
3 4 (1.92%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.96%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.48%) KVM
Systems Management
1 21 (10.10%) Kubernetes
2 11 (5.29%) Terraform
3 9 (4.33%) Ansible
4 4 (1.92%) Grafana
5 3 (1.44%) Istio
5 3 (1.44%) Podman
6 2 (0.96%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.48%) Functional Safety
7 1 (0.48%) ITRS Geneos
7 1 (0.48%) Rsyslog
7 1 (0.48%) SCOM
Vendors
1 18 (8.65%) Oracle
1 18 (8.65%) Red Hat
2 16 (7.69%) Dynatrace
3 9 (4.33%) Microsoft
3 9 (4.33%) NetApp
4 8 (3.85%) SAP
5 6 (2.88%) MathWorks
6 5 (2.40%) IBM
7 4 (1.92%) ServiceNow
7 4 (1.92%) VMware
8 3 (1.44%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.44%) Hitachi
9 2 (0.96%) ANSYS
9 2 (0.96%) Arista
9 2 (0.96%) Cisco
9 2 (0.96%) HP
9 2 (0.96%) Intel
9 2 (0.96%) Siemens
9 2 (0.96%) Splunk
9 2 (0.96%) Wind River