Data Centre Contract Job Trends
Data Center
UK
The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 30 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.
| 6 months to 30 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 132 | 136 | 120 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +4 | -16 | -27 |
| Contract jobs citing Data Centre | 1,174 | 730 | 740 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 2.14% | 2.13% | 2.02% |
| As % of the Miscellaneous category | 6.00% | 5.95% | 6.56% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 720 | 463 | 449 |
| 10th Percentile | £325 | £250 | £362 |
| 25th Percentile | £423 | £378 | £450 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £500 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -4.76% | -2.78% |
| 75th Percentile | £650 | £600 | £619 |
| 90th Percentile | £750 | £712 | £715 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £514 | £475 | £525 |
| % change year-on-year | +8.21% | -9.52% | +4.91% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 81 | 43 | 34 |
| 10th Percentile | £17.50 | £20.25 | £11.81 |
| 25th Percentile | £25.00 | - | £12.08 |
| Median hourly rate | £37.50 | £25.15 | £22.05 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +49.11% | +14.08% | -4.15% |
| 75th Percentile | £56.00 | £35.00 | £24.18 |
| 90th Percentile | £78.75 | £67.25 | £28.75 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £25.50 | £25.15 | £20.80 |
| % change year-on-year | +1.39% | +20.94% | -9.59% |
All Generic Skills
UK
Data Centre 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 citing generic IT skills.
| 6 months to 30 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies citing generic IT skills | 19,559 | 12,259 | 11,273 |
| As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK | 35.68% | 35.82% | 30.71% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 11,685 | 7,536 | 6,689 |
| 10th Percentile | £319 | £283 | £275 |
| 25th Percentile | £423 | £406 | £410 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £513 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +2.44% | -2.38% | -4.55% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £638 | £660 |
| 90th Percentile | £745 | £750 | £788 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £475 | £490 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -3.06% | -2.00% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 1,491 | 662 | 357 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.69 | £13.54 | £16.99 |
| 25th Percentile | £17.36 | £18.22 | £22.50 |
| Median hourly rate | £35.00 | £27.00 | £42.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +29.63% | -36.47% | -3.23% |
| 75th Percentile | £67.50 | £50.94 | £70.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £85.00 | £72.50 | £75.16 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £32.50 | £25.15 | £45.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +29.22% | -44.11% | -2.24% |
Data Centre Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.
Data Centre Daily Rate Trend
Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Centre.
Data Centre Daily Rate Histogram
Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre over the 6 months to 30 October 2026.
Data Centre Hourly Rate Trend
Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Centre.
Data Centre Hourly Rate Histogram
Hourly rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre over the 6 months to 30 October 2026.
Data Centre Top 18 Contract Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Centre within the UK over the 6 months to 30 October 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 |
Job Ads Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months |
Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year |
Live Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | -1 | 1,009 | £550 | +8.70% | 255 |
| UK excluding London | -18 | 614 | £514 | +8.21% | 168 |
| London | +1 | 429 | £550 | +4.76% | 116 |
| Work from Home | -6 | 282 | £550 | +4.76% | 98 |
| North of England | -15 | 204 | £514 | +5.01% | 37 |
| South East | +10 | 167 | £525 | +25.37% | 52 |
| Yorkshire | +10 | 124 | £500 | +7.41% | 11 |
| Midlands | -62 | 72 | £475 | +7.10% | 26 |
| North West | -48 | 64 | £538 | -0.92% | 24 |
| West Midlands | -50 | 57 | £525 | +10.53% | 10 |
| South West | -16 | 50 | £650 | +18.18% | 37 |
| East of England | +2 | 49 | £500 | -16.67% | 13 |
| Scotland | -4 | 46 | £413 | -5.71% | 3 |
| Wales | +6 | 31 | £453 | +57.39% | 5 |
| North East | -23 | 20 | £625 | +257.14% | 2 |
| East Midlands | -28 | 15 | £425 | +18.72% | 16 |
| Channel Islands | - | 1 | £575 | - | |
| Northern Ireland | - | 1 | - | - |
Data Centre Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Miscellaneous
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hybrid Cloud | 7.4% | 87 |
| 2 | Public Cloud | 4.3% | 51 |
| 3 | Private Cloud | 3.2% | 37 |
| 4 | Enterprise Storage | 3.0% | 35 |
| 4 | Onboarding | 3.0% | 35 |
| 6 | Operational Technology | 2.8% | 33 |
| 7 | PKI | 2.7% | 32 |
| 8 | Cloud Native | 2.6% | 30 |
| 9 | Replication | 2.4% | 28 |
| 10 | Data Protection Act | 2.1% | 25 |
| 11 | Clustering | 2.0% | 24 |
| 11 | Management Information System | 2.0% | 24 |
| 11 | Self-Motivation | 2.0% | 24 |
| 14 | CMDB | 1.7% | 20 |
| 15 | SCADA | 1.5% | 18 |
| 16 | Analytical Mindset | 1.3% | 15 |
| 17 | Product Ownership | 1.2% | 14 |
| 18 | Driving Licence | 1.1% | 13 |
| 18 | Fibre Optics | 1.1% | 13 |
| 20 | Enterprise Software | 0.9% | 11 |