CLAS Contract Job Trends

CESG Listed Adviser Scheme (CLAS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for CLAS qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 17 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 576 519 561
Rank change year-on-year -57 +42 +186
Contract jobs citing CLAS 4 2 38
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.011% 0.006% 0.088%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.032% 0.021% 0.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 2 28
10th Percentile - £614 £557
25th Percentile £613 £616 £585
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £638 £635
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +0.39% +1.60%
75th Percentile £638 £666 £673
90th Percentile - £671 £695
UK excluding London median daily rate £625 £638 £625
% change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

CLAS falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 12,680 9,503 13,113
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.99% 29.87% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,361 5,752 8,219
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 950 464 795
10th Percentile £16.00 £19.40 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.06 £24.18 £22.81
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.33% -21.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £58.19 £66.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £78.01 £78.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -15.00% +11.11%

CLAS
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing CLAS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

CLAS job vacancy trend in the UK

CLAS
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CLAS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CLAS

CLAS
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CLAS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CLAS

CLAS
Top 4 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CLAS within the UK over the 6 months to 17 January 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 -58 4 £625 -1.96%
South West -13 2 £625 -
UK excluding London -46 2 £625 -1.96%
London - 1 - -

CLAS
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (25.00%) AWS
1 1 (25.00%) Azure
1 1 (25.00%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (25.00%) Firewall
1 1 (25.00%) Intrusion Detection
1 1 (25.00%) Network Security
General
1 2 (50.00%) Electronics
1 2 (50.00%) Finance
1 2 (50.00%) Manufacturing
1 2 (50.00%) Marketing
1 2 (50.00%) Public Sector
1 2 (50.00%) Telecoms
2 1 (25.00%) Influencing Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (50.00%) Consultant
1 2 (50.00%) Security Consultant
2 1 (25.00%) Chief Information Security Officer
2 1 (25.00%) Chief Security Officer
2 1 (25.00%) Head of Information
2 1 (25.00%) Head of Information Security
2 1 (25.00%) Head of Security
2 1 (25.00%) Information Security Officer
2 1 (25.00%) Security Officer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Cyber Threat
1 1 (25.00%) Operational Technology
1 1 (25.00%) PKI
1 1 (25.00%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (50.00%) Business Intelligence
1 2 (50.00%) Digital Marketing
1 2 (50.00%) Information Security
1 2 (50.00%) Programme Management
2 1 (25.00%) Compliance Audit
2 1 (25.00%) Cryptography
2 1 (25.00%) Culture Change
2 1 (25.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
2 1 (25.00%) DevSecOps
2 1 (25.00%) Due Diligence
2 1 (25.00%) Incident Response
2 1 (25.00%) Information Security Governance
2 1 (25.00%) IT Governance
2 1 (25.00%) Penetration Testing
2 1 (25.00%) Red Team
2 1 (25.00%) Regulatory Change
2 1 (25.00%) Security Architecture
2 1 (25.00%) Threat Intelligence
2 1 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
2 1 (25.00%) Zero Trust
Qualifications
1 4 (100.00%) CISSP
2 3 (75.00%) DV Cleared
2 3 (75.00%) Security Cleared
3 2 (50.00%) CESG Certified Professional
3 2 (50.00%) CISM
3 2 (50.00%) SC Cleared
4 1 (25.00%) CREST Certified
4 1 (25.00%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
4 1 (25.00%) Tigerscheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (75.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (75.00%) NIST
2 2 (50.00%) JSP 440
2 2 (50.00%) RMADS
3 1 (25.00%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (25.00%) GRC
3 1 (25.00%) NCSC
Vendors
1 2 (50.00%) SAP
2 1 (25.00%) Intel
2 1 (25.00%) QinetiQ