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

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 389 292 190
Rank change year-on-year -97 -102 +74
Contract jobs citing C 210 268 568
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 0.87% 1.26%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.79% 2.59% 4.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 94 221
10th Percentile £68 £400 £325
25th Percentile £381 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £534 £535
Median % change year-on-year -11.01% -0.23% -10.83%
75th Percentile £594 £638 £598
90th Percentile £650 £810 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £535
% change year-on-year -5.00% -6.54% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 39 198
10th Percentile £60.00 £57.53 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £56.35
Median hourly rate £67.50 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.74% +4.62% +13.04%
75th Percentile £70.00 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £95.00 £90.00
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 11,756 10,367 13,325
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.36% 33.58% 29.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,794 6,524 9,448
10th Percentile £350 £356 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -4.87%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £716 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -2.63% -1.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 449 240 516
10th Percentile £39.58 £21.25 £35.58
25th Percentile £52.50 £36.50 £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 £68.00 £69.62
90th Percentile £77.00 £85.00 £77.50
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 3 February 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 3 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for C in the UK

C
Top 16 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 3 February 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 -104 196 £488 -8.67% 378
UK excluding London -55 162 £475 -5.00% 382
East of England -4 64 £463 -3.90% 65
South West -7 61 £475 -20.17% 85
Work from Home -39 55 £442 -14.95% 164
London -74 38 £488 -18.75% 48
North of England -57 12 £475 +18.75% 39
South East -50 11 £500 +6.10% 115
North West -28 9 £463 +15.63% 18
Scotland +9 6 £65 - 46
Northern Ireland +3 5 £425 - 1
Midlands -60 3 £575 +76.65% 44
East Midlands -27 2 - - 33
Yorkshire -53 2 £531 - 15
West Midlands -40 1 £575 - 11
North East - 1 £625 - 6

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 3 (1.43%) Confluence
2 1 (0.48%) Apache
2 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.48%) nginx
2 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (5.71%) Simulink
2 5 (2.38%) Stateflow
3 3 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
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%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.48%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.48%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 17 (8.10%) AWS
2 15 (7.14%) Azure
3 10 (4.76%) GitHub
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
7 2 (0.95%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (0.95%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 1 (0.48%) ChatGPT
8 1 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.48%) GitHub Copilot
8 1 (0.48%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 17 (8.10%) Ethernet
2 8 (3.81%) RS-232
3 6 (2.86%) SpaceWire
4 5 (2.38%) Network Security
5 4 (1.90%) 3GPP
5 4 (1.90%) Bluetooth
5 4 (1.90%) TCP/IP
6 3 (1.43%) HTTP
6 3 (1.43%) Modbus
6 3 (1.43%) MVNO
6 3 (1.43%) RS-485
6 3 (1.43%) SMPP
6 3 (1.43%) SMS
6 3 (1.43%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.95%) SSL
7 2 (0.95%) VSAN
7 2 (0.95%) Wireless
8 1 (0.48%) 5G NR
8 1 (0.48%) Firewall
8 1 (0.48%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.33%) NonStop SQL
2 5 (2.38%) OLTP
2 5 (2.38%) Oracle Database
3 3 (1.43%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.48%) Metadata
5 1 (0.48%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.48%) MySQL
5 1 (0.48%) Oracle Exadata
5 1 (0.48%) Power BI
5 1 (0.48%) SQL Server
5 1 (0.48%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.48%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 27 (12.86%) Rational DOORS
2 18 (8.57%) Git
3 12 (5.71%) JIRA
4 11 (5.24%) Jenkins
4 11 (5.24%) Rational Rhapsody
5 8 (3.81%) PVCS
6 7 (3.33%) GitLab
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%) ClearCase
9 3 (1.43%) Gradle
9 3 (1.43%) KGDB
10 2 (0.95%) Selenium
10 2 (0.95%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.95%) Subversion
11 1 (0.48%) CircleCI
11 1 (0.48%) Crashlytics
11 1 (0.48%) Polyspace
General
1 32 (15.24%) Electronics
2 29 (13.81%) Social Skills
3 23 (10.95%) Aerospace
4 22 (10.48%) Finance
5 21 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (6.67%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (6.19%) Law
8 11 (5.24%) Public Sector
9 10 (4.76%) Banking
10 7 (3.33%) Military
10 7 (3.33%) Telecoms
11 5 (2.38%) Manufacturing
12 4 (1.90%) Automotive
12 4 (1.90%) Aviation
13 3 (1.43%) Financial Institution
13 3 (1.43%) Games
14 2 (0.95%) Avionics
14 2 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.95%) Marketing
14 2 (0.95%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 79 (37.62%) Software Engineer
2 58 (27.62%) Embedded Engineer
3 43 (20.48%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 36 (17.14%) Developer
5 27 (12.86%) C Software Engineer
6 22 (10.48%) C++ Software Engineer
7 21 (10.00%) C/C++ Software Engineer
8 19 (9.05%) Embedded C Engineer
8 19 (9.05%) Embedded C Software Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) C/C++ Embedded Software Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Embedded C++ Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
9 13 (6.19%) Senior
9 13 (6.19%) Support Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Product Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Products Support Engineer
10 12 (5.71%) Software Support Engineer
11 11 (5.24%) FPGA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (8.57%) Middleware
2 11 (5.24%) HTML
3 9 (4.29%) Yocto
4 8 (3.81%) CSS
5 7 (3.33%) Flash
6 6 (2.86%) Node.js
6 6 (2.86%) REST
7 4 (1.90%) AngularJS
7 4 (1.90%) React
7 4 (1.90%) RESTful
8 3 (1.43%) Electron
8 3 (1.43%) JNI
8 3 (1.43%) JSON
8 3 (1.43%) OpenEmbedded
9 2 (0.95%) Elastic Stack
9 2 (0.95%) Kafka
9 2 (0.95%) OpenMP
9 2 (0.95%) Protocol Buffers
9 2 (0.95%) Qt
9 2 (0.95%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 34 (16.19%) FPGA
2 29 (13.81%) Embedded Systems
3 17 (8.10%) VHDL
4 15 (7.14%) PCIe
5 7 (3.33%) Tandem
6 6 (2.86%) CAN bus
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%) 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 55 (26.19%) Linux
2 13 (6.19%) Ubuntu
3 11 (5.24%) Windows
4 8 (3.81%) Embedded Linux
4 8 (3.81%) FreeRTOS
5 4 (1.90%) Android
5 4 (1.90%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.90%) Unix
6 3 (1.43%) CentOS
6 3 (1.43%) Mac OS
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
1 112 (53.33%) Software Engineering
2 42 (20.00%) Validation
3 30 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (13.33%) CI/CD
5 17 (8.10%) Workflow
6 16 (7.62%) Agile
6 16 (7.62%) Containerisation
6 16 (7.62%) Unit Testing
7 15 (7.14%) Software Testing
8 14 (6.67%) DevOps
8 14 (6.67%) Signal Processing
8 14 (6.67%) Test Automation
9 13 (6.19%) AI
9 13 (6.19%) Systems Engineering
10 12 (5.71%) Mathematics
10 12 (5.71%) Requirements Analysis
11 11 (5.24%) Embedded Software Development
11 11 (5.24%) UML
12 10 (4.76%) FPGA Design
13 9 (4.29%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 122 (58.10%) C++
2 55 (26.19%) Python
3 32 (15.24%) Ada
3 32 (15.24%) Java
4 28 (13.33%) Embedded C
5 26 (12.38%) JavaScript
6 18 (8.57%) Embedded C++
7 17 (8.10%) Shell Script
8 16 (7.62%) MATLAB
8 16 (7.62%) SQL
9 12 (5.71%) Bash
10 9 (4.29%) C#
11 8 (3.81%) Fortran
11 8 (3.81%) Rust
12 6 (2.86%) Perl
12 6 (2.86%) PL/SQL
12 6 (2.86%) SystemVerilog
13 5 (2.38%) COBOL
13 5 (2.38%) ProC
14 4 (1.90%) VBA
Qualifications
1 69 (32.86%) Security Cleared
2 55 (26.19%) SC Cleared
3 20 (9.52%) 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 21 (10.00%) Def Stans
2 12 (5.71%) MISRA
3 11 (5.24%) DO-178B
4 10 (4.76%) IEC 61508
5 9 (4.29%) QA
6 5 (2.38%) ISO 26262
6 5 (2.38%) ISO 8583
7 4 (1.90%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.43%) IEC 62304
9 2 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 2 (0.95%) MIL-STD-1553
9 2 (0.95%) MISRA C
9 2 (0.95%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.48%) AUTOSAR
10 1 (0.48%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.48%) DO-254
10 1 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.48%) MiFID
10 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 16 (7.62%) Red Hat
2 12 (5.71%) IBM
2 12 (5.71%) Oracle
2 12 (5.71%) VMware
3 8 (3.81%) ANSYS
3 8 (3.81%) MathWorks
4 7 (3.33%) HP
4 7 (3.33%) Intel
5 6 (2.86%) Microsoft
6 5 (2.38%) Microsemi
6 5 (2.38%) Xilinx
7 4 (1.90%) Cisco
8 3 (1.43%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.43%) NetApp
8 3 (1.43%) Thales
9 2 (0.95%) Dell
9 2 (0.95%) SAP
9 2 (0.95%) Siemens
10 1 (0.48%) Bloomberg
10 1 (0.48%) Salesforce