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

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 386 256 205
Rank change year-on-year -130 -51 +71
Contract jobs citing C 206 340 554
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.93% 1.21%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.79% 2.90% 3.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 131 249
10th Percentile £68 £400 £325
25th Percentile £414 £456 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £540
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% -0.46% -10.00%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £810 £786
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £501 £525
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.67% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 48 145
10th Percentile £52.00 £49.95 £51.75
25th Percentile £62.00 £58.64 £57.50
Median hourly rate £68.00 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% - +13.04%
75th Percentile £73.75 £77.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £95.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.75 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +0.37% +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 11,525 11,717 14,140
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.98% 32.12% 30.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,604 7,488 10,072
10th Percentile £350 £350 £360
25th Percentile £413 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% -2.65%
75th Percentile £620 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £756 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 341 301 433
10th Percentile £30.00 £22.00 £32.06
25th Percentile £48.75 £40.58 £47.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 £63.00 £60.14
Median % change year-on-year +0.79% +4.76% +0.23%
75th Percentile £68.00 £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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -120 182 £500 -5.66% 402
UK excluding London -88 144 £500 -0.10% 413
East of England -11 57 £475 -11.63% 121
London -52 48 £577 +3.50% 45
Work from Home -36 43 £475 -12.04% 189
South West -30 42 £500 -0.20% 80
Scotland +8 17 £438 -48.53% 35
North of England -53 14 £475 -6.86% 38
South East -41 11 £500 +6.95% 127
North West -25 9 £463 +1.65% 19
Yorkshire -36 5 £500 -17.36% 12
Midlands -35 3 - - 41
East Midlands - 2 - - 20
West Midlands -27 1 - - 21

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 (7.77%) WebLogic
2 15 (7.28%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.94%) Confluence
4 3 (1.46%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.97%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.49%) nginx
6 1 (0.49%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.49%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 13 (6.31%) Simulink
2 9 (4.37%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (2.91%) Stateflow
4 5 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (2.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.97%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.49%) Actimize
2 1 (0.49%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 28 (13.59%) AWS
2 24 (11.65%) Azure
3 19 (9.22%) GitHub
4 13 (6.31%) GCP
5 5 (2.43%) OpenShift
6 4 (1.94%) Amazon S3
7 3 (1.46%) Amazon ECS
7 3 (1.46%) Amazon EKS
7 3 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
7 3 (1.46%) AWS Lambda
7 3 (1.46%) IaaS
7 3 (1.46%) Serverless
8 2 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (0.97%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.97%) npm
8 2 (0.97%) PaaS
8 2 (0.97%) SaaS
9 1 (0.49%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.49%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.49%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (4.37%) Ethernet
2 7 (3.40%) RS-232
3 5 (2.43%) SpaceWire
4 4 (1.94%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.46%) 3GPP
5 3 (1.46%) Firewall
5 3 (1.46%) HTTP
5 3 (1.46%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.97%) AMQP
6 2 (0.97%) Anycast
6 2 (0.97%) BGP
6 2 (0.97%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (0.97%) Internet
6 2 (0.97%) Modbus
6 2 (0.97%) Network Security
6 2 (0.97%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (0.97%) RS-485
6 2 (0.97%) Software-Defined Networking
6 2 (0.97%) VXLAN
6 2 (0.97%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.37%) Oracle Database
2 5 (2.43%) Big Data
2 5 (2.43%) HPCC
3 3 (1.46%) Data Lake
3 3 (1.46%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (1.46%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.97%) Data Mining
4 2 (0.97%) InfluxDB
4 2 (0.97%) MongoDB
4 2 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.97%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.49%) DB2
5 1 (0.49%) Metadata
5 1 (0.49%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 22 (10.68%) Git
2 18 (8.74%) Rational DOORS
3 13 (6.31%) Jenkins
4 11 (5.34%) GitLab
5 9 (4.37%) ClearCase
5 9 (4.37%) JIRA
6 8 (3.88%) Gradle
7 6 (2.91%) Rational Team Concert
8 5 (2.43%) Maven
9 4 (1.94%) Artifactory
9 4 (1.94%) Clang
9 4 (1.94%) GCC
9 4 (1.94%) Rational Rhapsody
9 4 (1.94%) Visual Studio
9 4 (1.94%) Xcode
10 3 (1.46%) Bitbucket
10 3 (1.46%) KGDB
10 3 (1.46%) PVCS
11 2 (0.97%) CMake
12 1 (0.49%) SonarQube
General
1 35 (16.99%) Social Skills
2 27 (13.11%) Electronics
3 23 (11.17%) Finance
4 20 (9.71%) Aerospace
5 17 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (7.28%) Public Sector
7 11 (5.34%) Law
8 10 (4.85%) Banking
8 10 (4.85%) Telecoms
9 7 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (3.40%) Manufacturing
10 6 (2.91%) Marketing
10 6 (2.91%) Military
11 5 (2.43%) Aviation
12 4 (1.94%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.97%) Automotive
13 2 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.97%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.49%) Health Technology
14 1 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 56 (27.18%) Software Engineer
2 31 (15.05%) Developer
3 24 (11.65%) Embedded Engineer
4 21 (10.19%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 16 (7.77%) Support Engineer
6 15 (7.28%) Consultant
7 12 (5.83%) Architect
7 12 (5.83%) C Software Engineer
7 12 (5.83%) Product Engineer
7 12 (5.83%) Products Support Engineer
7 12 (5.83%) Senior
7 12 (5.83%) Software Support Engineer
8 11 (5.34%) Design Engineer
8 11 (5.34%) Systems Engineer
9 10 (4.85%) C++ Software Engineer
9 10 (4.85%) Digital Design Engineer
10 9 (4.37%) C++ Developer
11 8 (3.88%) Embedded C Engineer
11 8 (3.88%) Embedded C Software Engineer
12 7 (3.40%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (15.53%) HTML
2 27 (13.11%) Middleware
3 22 (10.68%) Node.js
4 17 (8.25%) .NET
5 10 (4.85%) Flash
6 9 (4.37%) CSS
6 9 (4.37%) JSON
7 8 (3.88%) XML
8 7 (3.40%) React
8 7 (3.40%) REST
9 5 (2.43%) PyTorch
9 5 (2.43%) Spring
10 4 (1.94%) AngularJS
10 4 (1.94%) Google JAX
10 4 (1.94%) JAX
10 4 (1.94%) RESTful
10 4 (1.94%) TensorFlow
10 4 (1.94%) Yocto
11 3 (1.46%) OpenEmbedded
11 3 (1.46%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 20 (9.71%) Embedded Systems
2 19 (9.22%) FPGA
3 13 (6.31%) VHDL
4 7 (3.40%) Analogue Electronics
4 7 (3.40%) CUDA
4 7 (3.40%) Distributed Systems
4 7 (3.40%) Self-Motivation
5 5 (2.43%) PCIe
6 4 (1.94%) Algorithms
6 4 (1.94%) CAN bus
6 4 (1.94%) Cloud Native
6 4 (1.94%) Data Centre
6 4 (1.94%) Device Driver
6 4 (1.94%) Hedge funds
6 4 (1.94%) Mobile App
6 4 (1.94%) Mobile Banking
6 4 (1.94%) Verilog
7 3 (1.46%) Distributed Computing
7 3 (1.46%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.97%) CBDC
Operating Systems
1 65 (31.55%) Linux
2 29 (14.08%) Windows
3 13 (6.31%) Ubuntu
4 12 (5.83%) Unix
5 9 (4.37%) FreeRTOS
6 5 (2.43%) Android
6 5 (2.43%) CentOS
7 4 (1.94%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.46%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.49%) Debian
10 1 (0.49%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.49%) Robot Operating System
10 1 (0.49%) VMS
10 1 (0.49%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.49%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (41.75%) Software Engineering
2 30 (14.56%) CI/CD
3 26 (12.62%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (12.14%) Agile
5 21 (10.19%) AI
6 19 (9.22%) DevOps
6 19 (9.22%) Validation
7 17 (8.25%) Mathematics
7 17 (8.25%) Software Testing
8 15 (7.28%) Requirements Gathering
9 14 (6.80%) Signal Processing
10 13 (6.31%) Containerisation
10 13 (6.31%) Machine Learning
10 13 (6.31%) UML
11 12 (5.83%) TDD
11 12 (5.83%) Unit Testing
12 11 (5.34%) Computer Science
12 11 (5.34%) Data Pipeline
12 11 (5.34%) Systems Engineering
12 11 (5.34%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 141 (68.45%) C++
2 80 (38.83%) Python
3 74 (35.92%) Java
4 29 (14.08%) JavaScript
5 28 (13.59%) Shell Script
6 22 (10.68%) SQL
7 20 (9.71%) Ada
8 16 (7.77%) MATLAB
9 15 (7.28%) Bash
9 15 (7.28%) Embedded C
9 15 (7.28%) PHP
10 13 (6.31%) C#
11 9 (4.37%) Fortran
11 9 (4.37%) Perl
11 9 (4.37%) PowerShell
12 8 (3.88%) Embedded C++
13 7 (3.40%) Go
14 6 (2.91%) PL/SQL
14 6 (2.91%) Tcl
15 5 (2.43%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 70 (33.98%) Security Cleared
2 53 (25.73%) SC Cleared
3 19 (9.22%) Degree
4 10 (4.85%) DV Cleared
5 5 (2.43%) Master's Degree
5 5 (2.43%) PhD
6 3 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (0.97%) CCIE
7 2 (0.97%) Cisco Certification
7 2 (0.97%) CISSP
7 2 (0.97%) JNCIE
7 2 (0.97%) Postgraduate
8 1 (0.49%) CCSAS
8 1 (0.49%) GPEN
8 1 (0.49%) GWAPT
8 1 (0.49%) GXPN
8 1 (0.49%) ISTQB
8 1 (0.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.49%) OSCE
8 1 (0.49%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.31%) QA
2 9 (4.37%) MISRA
3 7 (3.40%) Def Stans
3 7 (3.40%) DO-178B
4 5 (2.43%) IEC 61508
4 5 (2.43%) ISO 26262
4 5 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.46%) EU AI Act
5 3 (1.46%) GDPR
5 3 (1.46%) IEC 62304
5 3 (1.46%) MISRA C
5 3 (1.46%) NIST
6 2 (0.97%) AUTOSAR
6 2 (0.97%) Software Quality Assurance
7 1 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.49%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.49%) DO-254
7 1 (0.49%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.49%) MiFID
System Software
1 24 (11.65%) Firmware
2 22 (10.68%) Docker
3 6 (2.91%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (2.43%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.97%) Active Directory
7 1 (0.49%) KVM
Systems Management
1 20 (9.71%) Kubernetes
2 11 (5.34%) Terraform
3 8 (3.88%) Ansible
4 4 (1.94%) Grafana
5 2 (0.97%) Istio
5 2 (0.97%) Podman
5 2 (0.97%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.49%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.49%) Rsyslog
6 1 (0.49%) SCOM
Vendors
1 18 (8.74%) Oracle
1 18 (8.74%) Red Hat
2 16 (7.77%) Dynatrace
3 10 (4.85%) Microsoft
4 9 (4.37%) NetApp
5 8 (3.88%) SAP
6 6 (2.91%) IBM
6 6 (2.91%) MathWorks
7 5 (2.43%) VMware
8 3 (1.46%) ANSYS
8 3 (1.46%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.46%) Cisco
8 3 (1.46%) ServiceNow
9 2 (0.97%) Hitachi
9 2 (0.97%) HP
9 2 (0.97%) Intel
9 2 (0.97%) Salesforce
9 2 (0.97%) Siemens
9 2 (0.97%) Splunk
9 2 (0.97%) Wind River