Clustering Contracts

Clustering
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Clustering in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Clustering over the 6 months leading up to 22 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 442 433 443
Rank change year-on-year -9 +10 +12
Contract jobs citing Clustering 101 150 273
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.34% 0.34% 0.49%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.97% 1.15% 1.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 100 170
10th Percentile £413 £209 £399
25th Percentile £463 £300 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £495 £550
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £598 £600 £650
90th Percentile £688 £850 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £383 £550
% change year-on-year +43.79% -30.45% +20.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 13 1
Median hourly rate - £40.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year - -38.46% -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £40.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -38.46% +18.18%

All Generic Skills
UK

Clustering falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 10,377 13,098 18,355
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.59% 29.87% 33.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,460 8,302 12,637
10th Percentile £300 £280 £313
25th Percentile £406 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £650 £663 £676
90th Percentile £775 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +1.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 461 945 593
10th Percentile £15.50 £12.25 £9.80
25th Percentile £19.00 £15.39 £10.63
Median hourly rate £31.76 £35.65 £22.49
Median % change year-on-year -10.91% +58.55% -16.72%
75th Percentile £58.75 £61.50 £58.75
90th Percentile £81.01 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.50 £35.50 £22.00
% change year-on-year -14.08% +61.36% +2.33%

Clustering
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Clustering as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Clustering in the UK

Clustering
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Clustering.

Daily rate trend for Clustering in the UK

Clustering
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Clustering over the 6 months to 22 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Clustering in the UK

Clustering
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Clustering.

Hourly rate trend for Clustering in the UK

Clustering
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Clustering within the UK over the 6 months to 22 June 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 +23 86 £550 +10.00% 284
UK excluding London +27 57 £550 +43.79% 220
London +17 35 £575 +2.68% 104
Work from Home +6 35 £545 -3.11% 67
South East +56 19 £575 - 64
South West +41 15 £550 +4.76% 21
North of England +5 8 £425 -5.56% 48
Scotland +2 8 £575 +68.97% 12
East of England +20 6 £467 +94.38% 28
Yorkshire +4 5 £500 -11.11% 18
North West +9 3 £425 +93.18% 24
Wales +6 1 £183 -69.58% 6
West Midlands +4 1 £535 +86.09% 23
Midlands +1 1 £535 +86.09% 35

Clustering
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 12 (11.88%) Confluence
1 12 (11.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (6.93%) IIS
3 4 (3.96%) CICS
4 2 (1.98%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (1.98%) OpenEdge
4 2 (1.98%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.98%) WebLogic
Applications
1 9 (8.91%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (3.96%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 28 (27.72%) Azure
2 24 (23.76%) AWS
3 14 (13.86%) IaaS
4 13 (12.87%) GCP
4 13 (12.87%) OpenShift
5 12 (11.88%) Nutanix
5 12 (11.88%) PaaS
6 10 (9.90%) GitHub
7 6 (5.94%) Amazon S3
8 5 (4.95%) Amazon EC2
8 5 (4.95%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (4.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 4 (3.96%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (3.96%) Cloud Computing
9 4 (3.96%) OCI
10 3 (2.97%) Azure Data Factory
10 3 (2.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 3 (2.97%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (2.97%) Power Platform
10 3 (2.97%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 34 (33.66%) DNS
2 15 (14.85%) DHCP
2 15 (14.85%) SMTP
3 13 (12.87%) Firewall
4 10 (9.90%) VPN
5 9 (8.91%) TCP/IP
6 6 (5.94%) NAS
6 6 (5.94%) SAN
6 6 (5.94%) VSAN
7 5 (4.95%) Fibre Channel
7 5 (4.95%) NetScaler
8 4 (3.96%) Network Security
8 4 (3.96%) SSL
9 3 (2.97%) Kerberos
10 1 (0.99%) iSCSI
10 1 (0.99%) Multicast
10 1 (0.99%) SSH
10 1 (0.99%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (22.77%) SQL Server
2 13 (12.87%) Amazon RDS
3 10 (9.90%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (8.91%) Big Data
4 9 (8.91%) Elasticsearch
5 6 (5.94%) Oracle Database
5 6 (5.94%) Oracle Exadata
6 5 (4.95%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (4.95%) MariaDB
6 5 (4.95%) Snowflake Schema
7 4 (3.96%) MySQL
7 4 (3.96%) RDBMS
7 4 (3.96%) Relational Database
8 3 (2.97%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (2.97%) MongoDB
8 3 (2.97%) Power BI
8 3 (2.97%) Star Schema
9 2 (1.98%) InterSystems Cache
9 2 (1.98%) NoSQL
9 2 (1.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 12 (11.88%) JIRA
2 7 (6.93%) TeamCity
3 6 (5.94%) Subversion
4 5 (4.95%) Git
5 3 (2.97%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.98%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 1 (0.99%) Maven
7 1 (0.99%) Postman
7 1 (0.99%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.99%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.99%) tSQLt
General
1 25 (24.75%) Social Skills
2 19 (18.81%) Finance
2 19 (18.81%) Public Sector
3 16 (15.84%) Banking
4 14 (13.86%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (4.95%) Investment Banking
6 3 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.98%) Retail
7 2 (1.98%) Retail Banking
8 1 (0.99%) Arabic Language
8 1 (0.99%) Digital Health
8 1 (0.99%) Digital Healthcare
8 1 (0.99%) French Language
8 1 (0.99%) German Language
8 1 (0.99%) Japanese Language
8 1 (0.99%) Korean Language
8 1 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.99%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 19 (18.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 15 (14.85%) Administrator
2 15 (14.85%) Virtualisation Engineer
3 14 (13.86%) DBA
4 12 (11.88%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 12 (11.88%) Senior
5 10 (9.90%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
5 10 (9.90%) Support Engineer
6 9 (8.91%) 3rd Line Support
6 9 (8.91%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 9 (8.91%) Developer
7 8 (7.92%) Linux Administrator
8 7 (6.93%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Support
8 7 (6.93%) Infrastructure Support
8 7 (6.93%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
9 5 (4.95%) Azure Engineer
9 5 (4.95%) Consultant
9 5 (4.95%) Database Engineer
10 4 (3.96%) CICS Engineer
10 4 (3.96%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (10.89%) Flash
2 10 (9.90%) Middleware
2 10 (9.90%) REST
3 7 (6.93%) LDAP
4 4 (3.96%) Kafka
5 3 (2.97%) FIX Protocol
5 3 (2.97%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 2 (1.98%) FHIR
7 1 (0.99%) JDBC
7 1 (0.99%) MyBatis
7 1 (0.99%) ODBC
7 1 (0.99%) PostGIS
7 1 (0.99%) SOAP
7 1 (0.99%) Web Services
7 1 (0.99%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (28.71%) Replication
2 16 (15.84%) PKI
3 11 (10.89%) Data Centre
4 6 (5.94%) Mainframe
5 5 (4.95%) IBM Mainframe
6 4 (3.96%) Data Structures
7 3 (2.97%) Distributed Computing
7 3 (2.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 3 (2.97%) Virtual Team
8 2 (1.98%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (1.98%) Fat Client
8 2 (1.98%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (1.98%) Thin Client
9 1 (0.99%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.99%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 41 (40.59%) Windows
2 34 (33.66%) Linux
3 29 (28.71%) Windows Server
4 13 (12.87%) Solaris
5 11 (10.89%) Windows Server 2003
6 7 (6.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (5.94%) Windows 10
8 4 (3.96%) AIX
8 4 (3.96%) Unix
9 3 (2.97%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (1.98%) CentOS
10 2 (1.98%) VMS
10 2 (1.98%) Windows 7
10 2 (1.98%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (1.98%) zOS
11 1 (0.99%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (50.50%) High Availability
2 29 (28.71%) Performance Tuning
3 28 (27.72%) Disaster Recovery
3 28 (27.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 27 (26.73%) DevOps
5 17 (16.83%) CI/CD
6 15 (14.85%) Problem-Solving
7 14 (13.86%) Service Management
8 13 (12.87%) Agile
8 13 (12.87%) Migration
8 13 (12.87%) Power Management
9 11 (10.89%) ITIL
9 11 (10.89%) NsoIT
9 11 (10.89%) System Testing
9 11 (10.89%) Validation
10 10 (9.90%) Computer Science
10 10 (9.90%) Database Security
10 10 (9.90%) Database Tuning
11 9 (8.91%) Critical Thinking
11 9 (8.91%) Software Deployment
Programming Languages
1 25 (24.75%) PowerShell
2 22 (21.78%) SQL
3 21 (20.79%) Python
4 13 (12.87%) Bash
5 11 (10.89%) Perl
6 10 (9.90%) Shell Script
7 4 (3.96%) Java
7 4 (3.96%) PL/SQL
8 3 (2.97%) T-SQL
9 1 (0.99%) AWK
9 1 (0.99%) C#
9 1 (0.99%) Korn
9 1 (0.99%) sed
Qualifications
1 32 (31.68%) Security Cleared
2 21 (20.79%) Degree
3 20 (19.80%) SC Cleared
4 13 (12.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
5 10 (9.90%) CCNA
5 10 (9.90%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (9.90%) DV Cleared
6 9 (8.91%) Master's Degree
7 3 (2.97%) DBS Check
8 2 (1.98%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.98%) VCAP
9 1 (0.99%) CCNP
9 1 (0.99%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.99%) Sun Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.94%) GDPR
1 6 (5.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
2 5 (4.95%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.98%) HL7
4 1 (0.99%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.99%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.99%) SLA
System Software
1 38 (37.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 35 (34.65%) Active Directory
3 34 (33.66%) VMware ESXi
4 21 (20.79%) Hyper-V
5 18 (17.82%) VMware NSX
6 15 (14.85%) Docker
7 10 (9.90%) BitLocker
7 10 (9.90%) Microsoft App-V
7 10 (9.90%) Terminal Services
8 9 (8.91%) vSphere
9 5 (4.95%) XenApp
9 5 (4.95%) XenDesktop
10 4 (3.96%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 4 (3.96%) Oracle RAC
11 3 (2.97%) NFS
12 2 (1.98%) Firmware
12 2 (1.98%) GPFS
12 2 (1.98%) Veritas File System
12 2 (1.98%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 2 (1.98%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (26.73%) vCenter Server
2 26 (25.74%) Ansible
3 14 (13.86%) Kubernetes
4 13 (12.87%) Puppet
5 12 (11.88%) Nagios
5 12 (11.88%) vMotion
6 11 (10.89%) Failover Clustering
6 11 (10.89%) Microsoft Clustering
7 9 (8.91%) Prometheus
8 8 (7.92%) Terraform
8 8 (7.92%) Tivoli
8 8 (7.92%) WSUS
9 6 (5.94%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (5.94%) QRadar
9 6 (5.94%) Red Hat Satellite
10 5 (4.95%) EMC NetWorker
10 5 (4.95%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 5 (4.95%) Tivoli Storage Manager
11 4 (3.96%) Data Guard
11 4 (3.96%) Grafana
Vendors
1 51 (50.50%) VMware
2 29 (28.71%) Microsoft
3 21 (20.79%) Oracle
4 17 (16.83%) HP
5 16 (15.84%) IBM
6 15 (14.85%) Citrix
7 14 (13.86%) Red Hat
8 13 (12.87%) Cisco
9 12 (11.88%) Dell
9 12 (11.88%) Symantec
10 11 (10.89%) Splunk
11 10 (9.90%) Google
12 9 (8.91%) Atlassian
13 8 (7.92%) Qualys
14 7 (6.93%) CyberArk
15 6 (5.94%) SaltStack
16 5 (4.95%) EMC
16 5 (4.95%) ServiceNow
16 5 (4.95%) SolarWinds
17 4 (3.96%) Dynatrace