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 2 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 381 277 198
Rank change year-on-year -104 -79 +81
Contract jobs citing C 204 324 550
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.91% 1.21%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.80% 2.81% 3.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 69 125 243
10th Percentile £68 £400 £325
25th Percentile £400 £454 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -3.64% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £654 £810 £783
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 47 147
10th Percentile £52.00 £51.15 £51.75
25th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £57.50
Median hourly rate £67.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% - +13.04%
75th Percentile £73.75 £85.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.50 £95.00 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £67.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year - +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 11,354 11,523 14,058
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.56% 32.29% 30.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,482 7,369 9,999
10th Percentile £345 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% -3.08%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -3.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 340 285 431
10th Percentile £30.89 £22.00 £31.50
25th Percentile £49.13 £40.06 £47.50
Median hourly rate £64.82 £63.00 £60.21
Median % change year-on-year +2.88% +4.63% -3.66%
75th Percentile £68.00 £69.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.50 £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 2 December 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 2 December 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 2 December 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 -122 181 £500 -5.21% 758
UK excluding London -74 149 £500 - 744
East of England -6 61 £475 -11.63% 164
Work from Home -37 45 £475 -5.00% 495
South West -24 44 £500 -0.20% 108
London -47 42 £568 +0.26% 97
Scotland +17 17 £438 - 37
North of England -53 13 £475 +5.67% 73
South East -35 11 £500 +6.95% 306
North West -27 8 £463 +4.17% 37
Yorkshire -35 5 £500 -28.57% 27
Midlands -33 3 - - 73
East Midlands - 2 - - 40
West Midlands -35 1 - - 32

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 (7.84%) WebLogic
2 15 (7.35%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.96%) Confluence
4 2 (0.98%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.49%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.49%) nginx
5 1 (0.49%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.49%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 14 (6.86%) Simulink
2 9 (4.41%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (2.94%) Stateflow
4 5 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
4 5 (2.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.98%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.49%) Actimize
2 1 (0.49%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 24 (11.76%) AWS
2 21 (10.29%) Azure
3 17 (8.33%) GitHub
4 12 (5.88%) GCP
5 5 (2.45%) OpenShift
6 4 (1.96%) Amazon S3
7 3 (1.47%) Amazon ECS
7 3 (1.47%) Amazon EKS
7 3 (1.47%) AWS CloudFormation
7 3 (1.47%) AWS Lambda
7 3 (1.47%) IaaS
7 3 (1.47%) Serverless
8 2 (0.98%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (0.98%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (0.98%) npm
8 2 (0.98%) PaaS
8 2 (0.98%) SaaS
9 1 (0.49%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.49%) Amazon Kinesis
9 1 (0.49%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (4.41%) Ethernet
2 7 (3.43%) RS-232
3 5 (2.45%) SpaceWire
4 4 (1.96%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.47%) 3GPP
5 3 (1.47%) Firewall
5 3 (1.47%) HTTP
5 3 (1.47%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.98%) AMQP
6 2 (0.98%) Anycast
6 2 (0.98%) BGP
6 2 (0.98%) Bluetooth
6 2 (0.98%) DNS
6 2 (0.98%) Modbus
6 2 (0.98%) Network Security
6 2 (0.98%) Radio Access Network
6 2 (0.98%) RS-485
6 2 (0.98%) Software-Defined Networking
6 2 (0.98%) VXLAN
6 2 (0.98%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.41%) Oracle Database
2 3 (1.47%) Big Data
2 3 (1.47%) Data Lake
2 3 (1.47%) Elasticsearch
2 3 (1.47%) HPCC
3 2 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.98%) InfluxDB
3 2 (0.98%) MongoDB
3 2 (0.98%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (0.98%) RDBMS
3 2 (0.98%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.49%) Data Mining
4 1 (0.49%) Metadata
4 1 (0.49%) NonStop SQL
Development Applications
1 19 (9.31%) Git
1 19 (9.31%) Rational DOORS
2 12 (5.88%) Jenkins
3 10 (4.90%) JIRA
4 9 (4.41%) ClearCase
4 9 (4.41%) GitLab
5 7 (3.43%) Gradle
6 6 (2.94%) Rational Team Concert
7 5 (2.45%) Maven
7 5 (2.45%) Rational Rhapsody
8 4 (1.96%) Artifactory
8 4 (1.96%) Clang
8 4 (1.96%) GCC
8 4 (1.96%) PVCS
8 4 (1.96%) Visual Studio
9 3 (1.47%) Bitbucket
9 3 (1.47%) KGDB
9 3 (1.47%) Xcode
10 2 (0.98%) CMake
11 1 (0.49%) GDB
General
1 34 (16.67%) Social Skills
2 29 (14.22%) Electronics
3 22 (10.78%) Finance
4 20 (9.80%) Aerospace
5 17 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (7.84%) Public Sector
7 12 (5.88%) Law
8 10 (4.90%) Telecoms
9 7 (3.43%) Banking
9 7 (3.43%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (3.43%) Manufacturing
9 7 (3.43%) Military
10 6 (2.94%) Marketing
11 5 (2.45%) Aviation
12 4 (1.96%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.98%) Automotive
13 2 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 1 (0.49%) Back Office
14 1 (0.49%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 59 (28.92%) Software Engineer
2 28 (13.73%) Developer
3 27 (13.24%) Embedded Engineer
4 24 (11.76%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 16 (7.84%) Support Engineer
6 15 (7.35%) Consultant
7 14 (6.86%) C Software Engineer
8 13 (6.37%) Architect
9 12 (5.88%) Design Engineer
9 12 (5.88%) Product Engineer
9 12 (5.88%) Products Support Engineer
9 12 (5.88%) Senior
9 12 (5.88%) Software Support Engineer
10 11 (5.39%) C++ Software Engineer
10 11 (5.39%) Systems Engineer
11 10 (4.90%) Digital Design Engineer
11 10 (4.90%) Embedded C Engineer
11 10 (4.90%) Embedded C Software Engineer
12 8 (3.92%) C/C++ Software Engineer
13 7 (3.43%) Linux Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (14.22%) Middleware
2 28 (13.73%) HTML
3 21 (10.29%) Node.js
4 17 (8.33%) .NET
5 10 (4.90%) Flash
6 8 (3.92%) CSS
7 7 (3.43%) REST
8 6 (2.94%) JSON
8 6 (2.94%) React
9 5 (2.45%) PyTorch
9 5 (2.45%) XML
10 4 (1.96%) AngularJS
10 4 (1.96%) Google JAX
10 4 (1.96%) JAX
10 4 (1.96%) RESTful
10 4 (1.96%) Spring
10 4 (1.96%) TensorFlow
10 4 (1.96%) Yocto
11 3 (1.47%) JNI
11 3 (1.47%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 21 (10.29%) Embedded Systems
2 20 (9.80%) FPGA
3 14 (6.86%) VHDL
4 7 (3.43%) Analogue Electronics
4 7 (3.43%) CUDA
4 7 (3.43%) Self-Motivation
5 6 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (2.45%) PCIe
7 4 (1.96%) Algorithms
7 4 (1.96%) CAN bus
7 4 (1.96%) Cloud Native
7 4 (1.96%) Data Centre
7 4 (1.96%) Device Driver
7 4 (1.96%) Hedge funds
7 4 (1.96%) Verilog
8 3 (1.47%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.47%) Mobile Banking
8 3 (1.47%) Security Posture
9 2 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.98%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 63 (30.88%) Linux
2 27 (13.24%) Windows
3 13 (6.37%) Ubuntu
4 9 (4.41%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (4.41%) Unix
5 5 (2.45%) CentOS
6 4 (1.96%) Android
7 3 (1.47%) Apple iOS
7 3 (1.47%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.49%) Debian
9 1 (0.49%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.49%) Robot Operating System
9 1 (0.49%) VMS
9 1 (0.49%) VxWorks
9 1 (0.49%) Windows Embedded Compact
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (43.63%) Software Engineering
2 29 (14.22%) CI/CD
3 26 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (10.78%) Agile
5 20 (9.80%) AI
5 20 (9.80%) Validation
6 19 (9.31%) DevOps
7 17 (8.33%) Mathematics
7 17 (8.33%) Software Testing
8 15 (7.35%) Requirements Gathering
8 15 (7.35%) Signal Processing
9 13 (6.37%) Containerisation
9 13 (6.37%) UML
10 12 (5.88%) Systems Engineering
10 12 (5.88%) Unit Testing
11 11 (5.39%) Data Pipeline
11 11 (5.39%) Machine Learning
11 11 (5.39%) Test Automation
12 10 (4.90%) Computer Science
12 10 (4.90%) Integration Testing
Programming Languages
1 136 (66.67%) C++
2 74 (36.27%) Python
3 68 (33.33%) Java
4 28 (13.73%) JavaScript
5 25 (12.25%) Shell Script
6 20 (9.80%) Ada
7 19 (9.31%) SQL
8 17 (8.33%) Embedded C
9 16 (7.84%) MATLAB
10 15 (7.35%) Bash
10 15 (7.35%) PHP
11 13 (6.37%) C#
12 9 (4.41%) Embedded C++
12 9 (4.41%) Fortran
12 9 (4.41%) Perl
12 9 (4.41%) PowerShell
13 7 (3.43%) PL/SQL
14 6 (2.94%) Go
14 6 (2.94%) Tcl
15 5 (2.45%) Rust
Qualifications
1 72 (35.29%) Security Cleared
2 55 (26.96%) SC Cleared
3 18 (8.82%) Degree
4 10 (4.90%) DV Cleared
5 3 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (1.47%) Master's Degree
5 3 (1.47%) PhD
6 2 (0.98%) CCIE
6 2 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (0.98%) CISSP
6 2 (0.98%) JNCIE
6 2 (0.98%) Postgraduate
7 1 (0.49%) CCSAS
7 1 (0.49%) GPEN
7 1 (0.49%) GWAPT
7 1 (0.49%) GXPN
7 1 (0.49%) ISTQB
7 1 (0.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.49%) OSCE
7 1 (0.49%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (6.37%) QA
2 10 (4.90%) MISRA
3 9 (4.41%) Def Stans
4 8 (3.92%) DO-178B
5 6 (2.94%) IEC 61508
6 5 (2.45%) ISO 26262
6 5 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.47%) EU AI Act
7 3 (1.47%) GDPR
7 3 (1.47%) IEC 62304
7 3 (1.47%) MISRA C
7 3 (1.47%) NIST
8 2 (0.98%) AUTOSAR
8 2 (0.98%) Software Quality Assurance
9 1 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.49%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.49%) DO-254
9 1 (0.49%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.49%) MiFID
System Software
1 25 (12.25%) Firmware
2 21 (10.29%) Docker
3 6 (2.94%) Embedded Firmware
3 6 (2.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (2.45%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.98%) Active Directory
6 1 (0.49%) KVM
Systems Management
1 18 (8.82%) Kubernetes
2 11 (5.39%) Terraform
3 8 (3.92%) Ansible
4 4 (1.96%) Grafana
5 2 (0.98%) Podman
5 2 (0.98%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.49%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.49%) Istio
6 1 (0.49%) Rsyslog
6 1 (0.49%) SCOM
Vendors
1 19 (9.31%) Oracle
2 18 (8.82%) Red Hat
3 15 (7.35%) Dynatrace
4 9 (4.41%) NetApp
5 8 (3.92%) Microsoft
5 8 (3.92%) SAP
6 6 (2.94%) IBM
6 6 (2.94%) MathWorks
6 6 (2.94%) VMware
7 4 (1.96%) ANSYS
8 3 (1.47%) Atlassian
8 3 (1.47%) Cisco
8 3 (1.47%) Intel
8 3 (1.47%) ServiceNow
9 2 (0.98%) Arista
9 2 (0.98%) HP
9 2 (0.98%) Salesforce
9 2 (0.98%) Siemens
9 2 (0.98%) Wind River
10 1 (0.49%) Atmel