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

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 411 332 183
Rank change year-on-year -79 -149 +67
Contract jobs citing C 225 172 561
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.59% 1.29%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.74% 1.73% 4.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 68 241
10th Percentile £353 £269 £325
25th Percentile £413 £322 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -11.21% -4.46%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £626 £671 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £413 £538
% change year-on-year +19.70% -23.33% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 40 191
10th Percentile £60.00 £54.70 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £59.50
Median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% +11.11%
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile - £87.50 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% -

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 12,906 9,960 12,853
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 27.06% 34.01% 29.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,501 6,764 9,145
10th Percentile £355 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £713 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £488
% change year-on-year - -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 565 252 490
10th Percentile £41.73 £23.00 £31.93
25th Percentile £54.55 £34.73 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +1.46% +2.20%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £85.00 £79.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £64.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +1.56% +2.40% +2.17%

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 7 May 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 7 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for C in the UK

C
Top 17 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 7 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
England -40 213 £494 -1.25% 344
UK excluding London -25 174 £494 +19.70% 333
Work from Home -15 73 £468 -6.50% 113
East of England -1 68 £525 +31.25% 68
South West -4 48 £475 -20.83% 53
London -76 44 £447 -12.78% 34
South East -16 40 £500 - 113
Midlands -73 6 £525 +213.43% 28
North of England -54 5 £625 - 57
Northern Ireland - 5 £425 -
West Midlands - 5 £488 - 14
Scotland -11 2 - - 18
North East -15 2 £625 - 12
North West - 2 - - 29
Wales -15 1 £460 -12.38% 5
East Midlands -35 1 £525 +213.43% 14
Yorkshire -52 1 - - 16

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 (1.78%) Confluence
2 2 (0.89%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.89%) Oracle Workflow
3 1 (0.44%) Apache
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.44%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (4.00%) Simulink
2 4 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (2.22%) BASE24
1 5 (2.22%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (1.33%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.44%) Actimize
3 1 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.44%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.44%) Loan IQ
3 1 (0.44%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.44%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 12 (5.33%) Azure
2 11 (4.89%) AWS
3 9 (4.00%) GitHub
4 6 (2.67%) Azure DevOps
5 5 (2.22%) Power Platform
6 3 (1.33%) GCP
6 3 (1.33%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (0.89%) Amazon S3
7 2 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (0.89%) AWS IoT
7 2 (0.89%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (0.89%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (0.89%) GitHub Copilot
7 2 (0.89%) IaaS
8 1 (0.44%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (0.44%) Azure AKS
8 1 (0.44%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 1 (0.44%) Power Automate
8 1 (0.44%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 24 (10.67%) Ethernet
2 17 (7.56%) Wireless
3 16 (7.11%) Software-Defined Radio
4 6 (2.67%) Modbus
4 6 (2.67%) RS-232
4 6 (2.67%) RS-485
4 6 (2.67%) TCP/IP
5 5 (2.22%) 3GPP
6 4 (1.78%) Network Security
7 3 (1.33%) Bluetooth
7 3 (1.33%) DNS
7 3 (1.33%) MQTT
7 3 (1.33%) MVNO
7 3 (1.33%) RS-422
7 3 (1.33%) SMPP
7 3 (1.33%) SMS
7 3 (1.33%) SpaceWire
7 3 (1.33%) VXLAN
8 2 (0.89%) 5G
8 2 (0.89%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.67%) NonStop SQL
2 5 (2.22%) OLTP
2 5 (2.22%) Power BI
2 5 (2.22%) SQL Server
3 4 (1.78%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.33%) MongoDB
4 3 (1.33%) NoSQL
4 3 (1.33%) Tableau
5 2 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.89%) Metadata
5 2 (0.89%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.44%) Apache Hudi
6 1 (0.44%) Apache Iceberg
6 1 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.44%) MySQL
6 1 (0.44%) Oracle Exadata
6 1 (0.44%) Redis
6 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 29 (12.89%) Rational DOORS
2 23 (10.22%) Git
3 17 (7.56%) JIRA
4 15 (6.67%) Rational Rhapsody
5 9 (4.00%) GitLab
6 8 (3.56%) PVCS
7 6 (2.67%) Visual Studio
8 3 (1.33%) Subversion
9 2 (0.89%) Jenkins
10 1 (0.44%) Appium
10 1 (0.44%) CMake
10 1 (0.44%) Crashlytics
10 1 (0.44%) ER Studio
10 1 (0.44%) fastlane
10 1 (0.44%) git-flow
10 1 (0.44%) GoogleTest
10 1 (0.44%) Postman
10 1 (0.44%) Robot Framework
10 1 (0.44%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.44%) XCUITest
General
1 43 (19.11%) Social Skills
2 30 (13.33%) Electronics
3 26 (11.56%) Aerospace
4 19 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (6.67%) Finance
6 13 (5.78%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (5.78%) Law
7 10 (4.44%) Manufacturing
8 7 (3.11%) Banking
9 5 (2.22%) Automotive
9 5 (2.22%) Public Sector
10 4 (1.78%) Avionics
10 4 (1.78%) Games
11 3 (1.33%) Military
11 3 (1.33%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.89%) Japanese Language
12 2 (0.89%) Publishing
13 1 (0.44%) Korean Language
13 1 (0.44%) Local Government
13 1 (0.44%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 94 (41.78%) Software Engineer
2 81 (36.00%) Embedded Engineer
3 58 (25.78%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 34 (15.11%) Developer
5 27 (12.00%) C Software Engineer
6 24 (10.67%) C++ Software Engineer
7 23 (10.22%) C/C++ Software Engineer
8 17 (7.56%) Embedded C Engineer
8 17 (7.56%) Embedded C Software Engineer
9 13 (5.78%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
9 13 (5.78%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
9 13 (5.78%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
9 13 (5.78%) Embedded C++ Engineer
9 13 (5.78%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
10 12 (5.33%) Senior
11 11 (4.89%) Lead
12 10 (4.44%) Software Developer
12 10 (4.44%) Validation Engineer
13 9 (4.00%) FPGA Engineer
13 9 (4.00%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.67%) Yocto
2 7 (3.11%) .NET
3 6 (2.67%) Middleware
3 6 (2.67%) WinForms
4 4 (1.78%) HTML
4 4 (1.78%) Kafka
5 3 (1.33%) ARM Templates
5 3 (1.33%) Itk
5 3 (1.33%) JSON
5 3 (1.33%) Qt
5 3 (1.33%) REST
6 2 (0.89%) HTML5
6 2 (0.89%) RESTful
7 1 (0.44%) Django
7 1 (0.44%) J2EE
7 1 (0.44%) OAuth
7 1 (0.44%) OpenID
7 1 (0.44%) SQLAlchemy
7 1 (0.44%) WCF
7 1 (0.44%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 43 (19.11%) Embedded Systems
2 39 (17.33%) FPGA
3 20 (8.89%) PCIe
4 13 (5.78%) VHDL
5 9 (4.00%) Algorithms
5 9 (4.00%) Device Driver
6 8 (3.56%) Verilog
7 7 (3.11%) MicroBlaze
7 7 (3.11%) RISC-V
8 6 (2.67%) IoT
8 6 (2.67%) Tandem
9 5 (2.22%) Data Centre
9 5 (2.22%) EMV
10 3 (1.33%) ARM Cortex
10 3 (1.33%) Cloud Native
10 3 (1.33%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (1.33%) Java Card
10 3 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
11 2 (0.89%) Data Structures
11 2 (0.89%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 57 (25.33%) Linux
2 21 (9.33%) Embedded Linux
3 14 (6.22%) FreeRTOS
4 11 (4.89%) Windows
5 3 (1.33%) Unix
6 1 (0.44%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.44%) Debian
6 1 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (56.00%) Software Engineering
2 45 (20.00%) Validation
3 38 (16.89%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (14.67%) Test Automation
5 30 (13.33%) Workflow
6 27 (12.00%) CI/CD
7 25 (11.11%) Signal Processing
8 21 (9.33%) Digital Signal Processing
9 19 (8.44%) Embedded Software Development
10 18 (8.00%) Agile
11 17 (7.56%) Unit Testing
11 17 (7.56%) Workflow Management
12 16 (7.11%) DevOps
12 16 (7.11%) Requirements Analysis
12 16 (7.11%) Verification and Validation
13 14 (6.22%) UML
14 13 (5.78%) Software Testing
14 13 (5.78%) Technical Leadership
15 12 (5.33%) TDD
16 11 (4.89%) Systems Engineering
Programming Languages
1 120 (53.33%) C++
2 54 (24.00%) Python
3 44 (19.56%) Embedded C
4 29 (12.89%) Ada
5 24 (10.67%) SQL
6 21 (9.33%) MATLAB
7 20 (8.89%) Embedded C++
8 18 (8.00%) Java
9 11 (4.89%) Bash
10 9 (4.00%) C#
11 7 (3.11%) PL/SQL
11 7 (3.11%) SystemVerilog
12 6 (2.67%) Shell Script
13 5 (2.22%) COBOL
13 5 (2.22%) Rust
14 4 (1.78%) JavaScript
14 4 (1.78%) ProC
15 2 (0.89%) Perl
15 2 (0.89%) VB
16 1 (0.44%) Swift
Qualifications
1 60 (26.67%) Security Cleared
2 45 (20.00%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.67%) Degree
4 9 (4.00%) DV Cleared
5 8 (3.56%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.89%) CCNA
6 2 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.89%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.44%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.44%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 1 (0.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.44%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.44%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.89%) Def Stans
2 12 (5.33%) QA
3 7 (3.11%) MISRA
4 6 (2.67%) DO-178B
5 5 (2.22%) IEC 61508
5 5 (2.22%) ISO 8583
6 4 (1.78%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.33%) Data Quality
7 3 (1.33%) MIL-STD-1553
8 1 (0.44%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.44%) DICOM
8 1 (0.44%) DO-254
8 1 (0.44%) HL7
8 1 (0.44%) IFRS
8 1 (0.44%) IFRS 9
8 1 (0.44%) ISO 14001
8 1 (0.44%) ISO 26262
8 1 (0.44%) ISO 9001
8 1 (0.44%) MiFID
8 1 (0.44%) MISRA C
System Software
1 23 (10.22%) Firmware
2 12 (5.33%) Docker
3 11 (4.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (4.44%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (4.00%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.89%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.89%) vCloud
6 2 (0.89%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.89%) vSphere
7 1 (0.44%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 9 (4.00%) Kubernetes
2 7 (3.11%) Terraform
3 4 (1.78%) Ansible
4 2 (0.89%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.44%) Grafana
5 1 (0.44%) HP ALM
5 1 (0.44%) Nagios
Vendors
1 16 (7.11%) IBM
2 11 (4.89%) VMware
3 9 (4.00%) Xilinx
4 8 (3.56%) ANSYS
4 8 (3.56%) Cisco
4 8 (3.56%) Intel
4 8 (3.56%) Oracle
5 7 (3.11%) HP
5 7 (3.11%) MathWorks
5 7 (3.11%) Microsoft
6 5 (2.22%) Microsemi
7 4 (1.78%) Lauterbach
7 4 (1.78%) SAP
8 3 (1.33%) Google
8 3 (1.33%) Thales
9 2 (0.89%) Dell
9 2 (0.89%) Perforce
10 1 (0.44%) Citrix
10 1 (0.44%) QNX
10 1 (0.44%) Veritas