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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 428 375 174
Rank change year-on-year -53 -201 +60
Contract jobs citing C 219 158 580
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.53% 1.33%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.62% 1.57% 4.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 68 255
10th Percentile £350 £274 £391
25th Percentile £413 £334 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -6.54% -2.73%
75th Percentile £538 £638 £584
90th Percentile £623 £683 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £391 £538
% change year-on-year +21.48% -27.32% +7.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 32 184
10th Percentile £58.59 £55.00 £46.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £59.75 £56.55
Median hourly rate £67.75 £68.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.37% +4.62% +12.07%
75th Percentile £70.00 £76.56 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.93 £85.00 £85.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £68.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +1.47% +4.62% +8.33%

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 13,503 10,066 13,166
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 26.83% 33.91% 30.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,798 6,822 9,246
10th Percentile £358 £350 £350
25th Percentile £417 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.46% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £715 £756 £765
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +2.91% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 554 235 542
10th Percentile £35.25 £25.98 £31.35
25th Percentile £53.53 £33.91 £46.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £55.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -12.00% +2.97%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.63 £70.00
90th Percentile £77.85 £84.80 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £62.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.84% -4.62% +4.00%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 -39 208 £475 -12.84% 436
UK excluding London -2 174 £475 +21.48% 395
Work from Home -27 67 £500 +5.26% 180
East of England +1 53 £525 +31.25% 98
South East -15 48 £500 - 140
South West -2 43 £463 -22.92% 68
London -87 38 £431 -31.00% 56
Midlands -41 20 £462 +515.33% 31
West Midlands - 19 £450 - 20
North of England -70 4 £625 +66.67% 37
Northern Ireland - 4 £425 - 7
Scotland -22 2 - - 12
North East -31 2 £625 - 1
Wales -11 1 £460 -12.38% 11
East Midlands -23 1 £525 +600.00% 11
North West -41 1 - - 24
Yorkshire -57 1 - - 12

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 5 (2.28%) Tuxedo
2 2 (0.91%) Confluence
2 2 (0.91%) Oracle SOA Suite
2 2 (0.91%) Oracle Workflow
3 1 (0.46%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.46%) WebSphere
Applications
1 10 (4.57%) Simulink
2 4 (1.83%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.83%) BASE24
2 3 (1.37%) Teamcenter
3 2 (0.91%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.46%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.46%) Loan IQ
Cloud Services
1 14 (6.39%) AWS
2 12 (5.48%) Azure
3 9 (4.11%) GitHub
4 6 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
4 6 (2.74%) GitHub Copilot
4 6 (2.74%) Power Platform
5 4 (1.83%) GCP
6 3 (1.37%) Amazon S3
6 3 (1.37%) GitHub Actions
7 2 (0.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 2 (0.91%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (0.91%) AWS IoT
7 2 (0.91%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (0.91%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.46%) AWS CloudTrail
8 1 (0.46%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (0.46%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.46%) Firebase
8 1 (0.46%) Google Drive
8 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 22 (10.05%) Ethernet
2 17 (7.76%) Software-Defined Radio
2 17 (7.76%) Wireless
3 5 (2.28%) 3GPP
3 5 (2.28%) TCP/IP
4 4 (1.83%) DNS
4 4 (1.83%) Modbus
4 4 (1.83%) Network Security
4 4 (1.83%) RS-232
4 4 (1.83%) RS-485
5 3 (1.37%) Bluetooth
5 3 (1.37%) Internet
5 3 (1.37%) MQTT
5 3 (1.37%) MVNO
5 3 (1.37%) RS-422
5 3 (1.37%) SMPP
5 3 (1.37%) SMS
5 3 (1.37%) SpaceWire
5 3 (1.37%) VXLAN
6 2 (0.91%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.57%) Ingres
2 7 (3.20%) SQL Server
3 6 (2.74%) Power BI
3 6 (2.74%) Relational Database
4 5 (2.28%) NonStop SQL
5 4 (1.83%) NoSQL
5 4 (1.83%) RDBMS
6 3 (1.37%) Data Warehouse
6 3 (1.37%) MongoDB
6 3 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (1.37%) Tableau
7 2 (0.91%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.46%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.46%) Apache Hudi
8 1 (0.46%) Apache Iceberg
8 1 (0.46%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.46%) Kdb+
8 1 (0.46%) Metadata
8 1 (0.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 23 (10.50%) Rational DOORS
2 21 (9.59%) Git
3 13 (5.94%) Rational Rhapsody
4 10 (4.57%) JIRA
5 5 (2.28%) GitLab
5 5 (2.28%) Visual Studio
6 4 (1.83%) Team Foundation Server
7 3 (1.37%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (1.37%) PVCS
8 2 (0.91%) Jenkins
8 2 (0.91%) Subversion
9 1 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.46%) CMake
9 1 (0.46%) ERwin
9 1 (0.46%) git-flow
9 1 (0.46%) GoogleTest
9 1 (0.46%) JMeter
9 1 (0.46%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.46%) PowerDesigner
9 1 (0.46%) Xcode
General
1 44 (20.09%) Social Skills
2 29 (13.24%) Aerospace
3 20 (9.13%) Electronics
4 13 (5.94%) Documentation Skills
5 12 (5.48%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (5.48%) Finance
5 12 (5.48%) Law
5 12 (5.48%) Manufacturing
6 7 (3.20%) Banking
6 7 (3.20%) Public Sector
7 6 (2.74%) Automotive
8 4 (1.83%) Avionics
9 3 (1.37%) Games
9 3 (1.37%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.91%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.91%) Japanese Language
10 2 (0.91%) Publishing
11 1 (0.46%) Korean Language
11 1 (0.46%) Military
11 1 (0.46%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 78 (35.62%) Software Engineer
2 64 (29.22%) Embedded Engineer
3 44 (20.09%) Embedded Software Engineer
4 33 (15.07%) Developer
5 21 (9.59%) C++ Software Engineer
6 20 (9.13%) C Software Engineer
6 20 (9.13%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 19 (8.68%) Senior
8 10 (4.57%) Lead
8 10 (4.57%) Software Developer
8 10 (4.57%) Validation Engineer
9 9 (4.11%) Test Leader
10 8 (3.65%) DSP Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C Software Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C/C++ Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C/C++ Software Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C++ Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Embedded C++ Software Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) FPGA Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (6.39%) Yocto
2 9 (4.11%) .NET
3 6 (2.74%) WinForms
4 4 (1.83%) JSON
4 4 (1.83%) Qt
5 3 (1.37%) ADO
5 3 (1.37%) COM
5 3 (1.37%) Itk
5 3 (1.37%) Kafka
5 3 (1.37%) Middleware
5 3 (1.37%) ODBC
5 3 (1.37%) REST
6 2 (0.91%) ARM Templates
6 2 (0.91%) HTML
6 2 (0.91%) HTML5
6 2 (0.91%) QML
6 2 (0.91%) Web Services
7 1 (0.46%) FIX Protocol
7 1 (0.46%) WCF
7 1 (0.46%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 36 (16.44%) FPGA
2 34 (15.53%) Embedded Systems
3 19 (8.68%) PCIe
4 13 (5.94%) VHDL
5 9 (4.11%) Algorithms
5 9 (4.11%) Device Driver
5 9 (4.11%) Verilog
6 7 (3.20%) Legacy Systems
7 6 (2.74%) IoT
7 6 (2.74%) MicroBlaze
7 6 (2.74%) RISC-V
8 5 (2.28%) Tandem
9 4 (1.83%) Data Centre
10 3 (1.37%) ARM Cortex
10 3 (1.37%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (1.37%) EMV
10 3 (1.37%) Java Card
10 3 (1.37%) Low-Code
11 2 (0.91%) ASIC
11 2 (0.91%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 58 (26.48%) Linux
2 20 (9.13%) Embedded Linux
3 13 (5.94%) FreeRTOS
3 13 (5.94%) Windows
4 4 (1.83%) Unix
5 3 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.46%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (50.68%) Software Engineering
2 43 (19.63%) Validation
3 40 (18.26%) Problem-Solving
4 31 (14.16%) Test Automation
5 29 (13.24%) Agile
6 25 (11.42%) CI/CD
6 25 (11.42%) Workflow
7 22 (10.05%) Signal Processing
8 20 (9.13%) Digital Signal Processing
9 18 (8.22%) Embedded Software Development
10 17 (7.76%) Workflow Management
11 15 (6.85%) Verification and Validation
12 14 (6.39%) DevOps
12 14 (6.39%) Migration
13 13 (5.94%) Data Management
13 13 (5.94%) Technical Leadership
13 13 (5.94%) UML
13 13 (5.94%) Unit Testing
14 12 (5.48%) Software Testing
14 12 (5.48%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 109 (49.77%) C++
2 55 (25.11%) Python
3 33 (15.07%) Embedded C
3 33 (15.07%) SQL
4 29 (13.24%) Ada
5 20 (9.13%) MATLAB
6 18 (8.22%) Java
7 14 (6.39%) PL/SQL
8 12 (5.48%) Embedded C++
9 10 (4.57%) Bash
9 10 (4.57%) ProC
10 9 (4.11%) C#
11 7 (3.20%) SystemVerilog
12 6 (2.74%) Shell Script
12 6 (2.74%) VB
13 5 (2.28%) VB6
14 4 (1.83%) Rust
15 3 (1.37%) COBOL
15 3 (1.37%) JavaScript
15 3 (1.37%) Perl
Qualifications
1 63 (28.77%) Security Cleared
2 47 (21.46%) SC Cleared
3 17 (7.76%) Degree
4 9 (4.11%) DV Cleared
5 8 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.91%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.46%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.46%) CCNA
7 1 (0.46%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (0.46%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.46%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 1 (0.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.46%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.46%) PhD
7 1 (0.46%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.46%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.85%) QA
2 14 (6.39%) Def Stans
3 4 (1.83%) MISRA
4 3 (1.37%) IEC 61508
4 3 (1.37%) ISO 8583
4 3 (1.37%) MIL-STD-1553
4 3 (1.37%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.91%) Data Quality
5 2 (0.91%) DO-178B
5 2 (0.91%) ISO 26262
6 1 (0.46%) DICOM
6 1 (0.46%) DO-254
6 1 (0.46%) HL7
6 1 (0.46%) IFRS
6 1 (0.46%) IFRS 9
6 1 (0.46%) ISO 14001
6 1 (0.46%) ISO 15022
6 1 (0.46%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.46%) ISO 9001
6 1 (0.46%) MISRA C
System Software
1 17 (7.76%) Firmware
2 9 (4.11%) Docker
3 7 (3.20%) Embedded Firmware
4 6 (2.74%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (2.74%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.91%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.91%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.91%) vCloud
5 2 (0.91%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.91%) vSphere
6 1 (0.46%) FreeRADIUS
6 1 (0.46%) Slurm Workload Manager
6 1 (0.46%) Squid
Systems Management
1 7 (3.20%) Terraform
2 6 (2.74%) Kubernetes
3 5 (2.28%) Ansible
4 1 (0.46%) Grafana
4 1 (0.46%) HP ALM
4 1 (0.46%) Nagios
4 1 (0.46%) Packer
4 1 (0.46%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.46%) Puppet
Vendors
1 19 (8.68%) Oracle
2 11 (5.02%) IBM
3 10 (4.57%) Xilinx
4 9 (4.11%) Intel
5 7 (3.20%) MathWorks
6 6 (2.74%) Cisco
6 6 (2.74%) HP
6 6 (2.74%) Microsemi
6 6 (2.74%) VMware
7 4 (1.83%) Lauterbach
7 4 (1.83%) Microsoft
7 4 (1.83%) SAP
8 3 (1.37%) Actian
8 3 (1.37%) ANSYS
8 3 (1.37%) Google
8 3 (1.37%) Thales
9 2 (0.91%) Dell
9 2 (0.91%) Perforce
9 2 (0.91%) QNX
10 1 (0.46%) EMC