IBM Contract Job Trends

IBM
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of IBM products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited IBM over the 6 months leading up to 12 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within the International Business Machines Corporation.

6 months to
12 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 260 210 219
Rank change year-on-year -50 +9 +64
Contract jobs citing IBM 368 412 519
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.05% 1.14% 1.11%
As % of the Vendors category 2.20% 2.53% 2.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 193 311
10th Percentile £315 £300 £400
25th Percentile £407 £400 £461
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £540
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -12.04% -1.82%
75th Percentile £649 £600 £650
90th Percentile £703 £718 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £472 £450 £525
% change year-on-year +4.84% -14.29% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 27 16
10th Percentile £25.04 £24.18 -
25th Percentile £25.15 £46.18 £65.00
Median hourly rate £63.75 £64.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.39% -8.57% +27.27%
75th Percentile £72.25 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £75.65 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £64.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year +9.38% -8.57% +27.27%

All Vendors
UK

IBM falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 16,731 16,288 21,060
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 47.55% 44.94% 45.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,491 9,583 13,551
10th Percentile £285 £300 £259
25th Percentile £405 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -1.41%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £717 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 856 512 675
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.49 £14.57
25th Percentile £17.96 £17.91 £20.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £30.21 £43.86
Median % change year-on-year -17.23% -31.13% +75.44%
75th Percentile £39.63 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.25 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.32 £28.00 £43.38
% change year-on-year -20.30% -35.45% +99.15%

IBM
Job Vacancy Trend

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

IBM job vacancy trend in the UK

IBM
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

IBM
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing IBM over the 6 months to 12 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

IBM
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing IBM over the 6 months to 12 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for IBM in the UK

IBM
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing IBM within the UK over the 6 months to 12 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 -33 323 £500 +3.63% 221
UK excluding London -38 218 £472 +4.84% 175
Work from Home +10 123 £556 +20.27% 95
London -24 108 £588 +17.50% 68
North of England -24 72 £452 -24.75% 24
North West +8 55 £452 -8.32% 19
Midlands -2 50 £420 -4.55% 28
South East -25 40 £563 +26.40% 55
West Midlands -6 37 £448 +4.07% 16
East of England -8 23 £475 -5.00% 35
Scotland +10 20 £450 - 15
Yorkshire -48 17 £461 -23.12% 5
East Midlands -6 13 £413 -14.06% 11
South West -32 13 £513 -14.58% 26
Northern Ireland - 4 £350 - 1
Wales -4 1 £633 +201.19% 4

IBM
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 39 (10.60%) WebSphere
2 25 (6.79%) Confluence
3 24 (6.52%) Apache
4 18 (4.89%) IIS
5 17 (4.62%) WebSphere Application Server
6 15 (4.08%) CICS
7 14 (3.80%) JBoss
8 13 (3.53%) SharePoint
9 11 (2.99%) MQSeries
10 10 (2.72%) ArcGIS
10 10 (2.72%) iPlanet
11 8 (2.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 7 (1.90%) WebLogic
13 5 (1.36%) SAS
14 4 (1.09%) FileNet
15 3 (0.82%) Tomcat
16 2 (0.54%) nginx
17 1 (0.27%) Anypoint
17 1 (0.27%) HCL Domino
17 1 (0.27%) IBM Transformation Extender
Applications
1 11 (2.99%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (1.36%) Chatbot
4 4 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.09%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.82%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 44 (11.96%) Maximo
2 5 (1.36%) BusinessWorks
3 4 (1.09%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.54%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (0.54%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.54%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 2 (0.54%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.27%) Algo Collateral
5 1 (0.27%) Cloudability
5 1 (0.27%) Cognos Controller
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle 11i
5 1 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.27%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.27%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
5 1 (0.27%) TRIRIGA
Cloud Services
1 94 (25.54%) AWS
2 54 (14.67%) Azure
3 30 (8.15%) GCP
4 24 (6.52%) OpenShift
5 12 (3.26%) AWS CloudFormation
6 11 (2.99%) Amazon S3
6 11 (2.99%) IBM Cloud
7 10 (2.72%) GitHub
7 10 (2.72%) Serverless
8 9 (2.45%) Amazon ECS
8 9 (2.45%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (2.17%) Datadog
9 8 (2.17%) OCI
9 8 (2.17%) PaaS
9 8 (2.17%) Power Platform
9 8 (2.17%) SaaS
10 6 (1.63%) IaaS
10 6 (1.63%) IBM Watson
11 5 (1.36%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (1.09%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 13 (3.53%) SSH
2 12 (3.26%) HTTPS
3 10 (2.72%) Kerberos
4 8 (2.17%) SAN
4 8 (2.17%) SSL
4 8 (2.17%) VSAN
5 7 (1.90%) VPN
6 6 (1.63%) Firewall
7 4 (1.09%) LAN
7 4 (1.09%) Network Security
8 3 (0.82%) SMS
8 3 (0.82%) WAN
9 2 (0.54%) Calico
9 2 (0.54%) DNS
9 2 (0.54%) DWDM
9 2 (0.54%) SDH
9 2 (0.54%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.54%) VLAN
10 1 (0.27%) SNA
10 1 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (9.51%) DB2
2 32 (8.70%) SQL Server
3 21 (5.71%) Amazon RDS
3 21 (5.71%) Oracle Database
3 21 (5.71%) Relational Database
4 14 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (2.45%) DataStage
7 8 (2.17%) Amazon Athena
7 8 (2.17%) GIS
7 8 (2.17%) NoSQL
8 6 (1.63%) Amazon Redshift
8 6 (1.63%) Couchbase
8 6 (1.63%) Metadata
8 6 (1.63%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (1.36%) IBM InfoSphere
9 5 (1.36%) Power BI
10 4 (1.09%) MongoDB
11 2 (0.54%) Adabas
11 2 (0.54%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 43 (11.68%) JIRA
2 25 (6.79%) Jenkins
3 24 (6.52%) Git
4 17 (4.62%) GitLab
4 17 (4.62%) Rational DOORS
5 10 (2.72%) Bitbucket Server
5 10 (2.72%) CA Release Automation
6 9 (2.45%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (1.36%) Bitbucket
7 5 (1.36%) ERwin
8 4 (1.09%) Rational Rhapsody
9 3 (0.82%) IBM UrbanCode
9 3 (0.82%) Log4j
9 3 (0.82%) Maven
9 3 (0.82%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.54%) GCC
10 2 (0.54%) JUnit
10 2 (0.54%) PowerDesigner
10 2 (0.54%) PVCS
10 2 (0.54%) Selenium
General
1 94 (25.54%) Social Skills
2 84 (22.83%) Finance
3 58 (15.76%) Banking
4 39 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (5.16%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.26%) Presentation Skills
7 11 (2.99%) Aerospace
8 9 (2.45%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (2.17%) Financial Institution
9 8 (2.17%) Private Banking
10 5 (1.36%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.09%) Electronics
11 4 (1.09%) International Banking
11 4 (1.09%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.82%) Law
12 3 (0.82%) Legal
12 3 (0.82%) Retail
13 2 (0.54%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.54%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 62 (16.85%) Developer
2 53 (14.40%) Analyst
3 43 (11.68%) Consultant
4 39 (10.60%) Architect
5 27 (7.34%) Solutions Architect
6 21 (5.71%) Senior
7 19 (5.16%) Platform Engineer
8 15 (4.08%) Lead
8 15 (4.08%) Management Consultant
9 14 (3.80%) Data Engineer
10 12 (3.26%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 12 (3.26%) Maximo Consultant
10 12 (3.26%) webMethods Developer
11 10 (2.72%) Programmer
12 9 (2.45%) DevOps Engineer
12 9 (2.45%) Maximo Architect
12 9 (2.45%) Software Engineer
12 9 (2.45%) Technical Analyst
13 7 (1.90%) AWS Engineer
13 7 (1.90%) RPG Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (11.41%) XML
2 28 (7.61%) Kafka
2 28 (7.61%) OAuth
3 24 (6.52%) LDAP
3 24 (6.52%) SOAP
4 23 (6.25%) JSON
4 23 (6.25%) SAML
5 22 (5.98%) OpenID
6 20 (5.43%) JMS
7 17 (4.62%) Middleware
7 17 (4.62%) Spring
8 16 (4.35%) Web Services
9 11 (2.99%) Hibernate
9 11 (2.99%) ISPF
10 10 (2.72%) Flash
10 10 (2.72%) REST
11 9 (2.45%) EntireX
11 9 (2.45%) XSLT
12 6 (1.63%) WSDL
12 6 (1.63%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 35 (9.51%) Mainframe
2 26 (7.07%) Replication
3 24 (6.52%) Legacy Systems
4 17 (4.62%) Linux Command Line
5 16 (4.35%) IBM Mainframe
6 14 (3.80%) AS400
6 14 (3.80%) Data Centre
6 14 (3.80%) Tandem
7 12 (3.26%) Cloud Native
8 10 (2.72%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (2.45%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (1.90%) VSAM
11 6 (1.63%) CMDB
11 6 (1.63%) Onboarding
11 6 (1.63%) PKI
11 6 (1.63%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 5 (1.36%) iSeries
12 5 (1.36%) Legacy Applications
12 5 (1.36%) Management Information System
13 4 (1.09%) DataPower
Operating Systems
1 70 (19.02%) Linux
2 62 (16.85%) Windows
3 37 (10.05%) Unix
4 20 (5.43%) zOS
5 19 (5.16%) Windows Server
6 7 (1.90%) AIX
6 7 (1.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (1.63%) Windows 10
7 6 (1.63%) Windows 7
7 6 (1.63%) Windows Server 2003
7 6 (1.63%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.82%) MVS
9 2 (0.54%) Android
9 2 (0.54%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.54%) CentOS
9 2 (0.54%) OS/2
9 2 (0.54%) Solaris
9 2 (0.54%) VMS
10 1 (0.27%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (17.93%) Agile
2 65 (17.66%) Problem-Solving
3 61 (16.58%) DevOps
4 57 (15.49%) CI/CD
4 57 (15.49%) Migration
5 46 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
6 35 (9.51%) Incident Response
7 33 (8.97%) Asset Management
8 30 (8.15%) Containerisation
9 28 (7.61%) Computer Science
9 28 (7.61%) ITIL
10 26 (7.07%) Roadmaps
11 25 (6.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 24 (6.52%) Continuous Improvement
13 23 (6.25%) High Availability
14 22 (5.98%) Change Management
14 22 (5.98%) Data Protection
14 22 (5.98%) ETL
15 20 (5.43%) Performance Tuning
15 20 (5.43%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 56 (15.22%) SQL
2 47 (12.77%) Python
3 41 (11.14%) Java
4 21 (5.71%) JavaScript
4 21 (5.71%) Shell Script
5 16 (4.35%) JCL
6 14 (3.80%) REXX
7 13 (3.53%) CLIST
7 13 (3.53%) RPG
8 11 (2.99%) COBOL
9 10 (2.72%) Groovy
10 8 (2.17%) PowerShell
11 7 (1.90%) C++
12 6 (1.63%) Bash
12 6 (1.63%) PL/SQL
12 6 (1.63%) XPath
13 5 (1.36%) Assembly Language
13 5 (1.36%) C
14 4 (1.09%) PL/1
15 3 (0.82%) Korn
Qualifications
1 85 (23.10%) Security Cleared
2 72 (19.57%) SC Cleared
3 37 (10.05%) Degree
4 26 (7.07%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (4.89%) AWS Certification
6 9 (2.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 7 (1.90%) Azure Certification
7 7 (1.90%) CISSP
7 7 (1.90%) DV Cleared
8 5 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.36%) CISM
8 5 (1.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 5 (1.36%) Master's Degree
9 4 (1.09%) GCIH
9 4 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.82%) CEH
10 3 (0.82%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.82%) PMI Certification
10 3 (0.82%) PMP
10 3 (0.82%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (5.16%) QA
2 11 (2.99%) GDPR
3 9 (2.45%) HIPAA
4 8 (2.17%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.17%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.36%) SEPA
6 4 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.09%) NIST
6 4 (1.09%) SLA
7 3 (0.82%) Basel III
7 3 (0.82%) NIST 800
7 3 (0.82%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.54%) GAAP
8 2 (0.54%) ISO 15022
8 2 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 2 (0.54%) MISRA
8 2 (0.54%) MISRA C
9 1 (0.27%) GRC
9 1 (0.27%) IFRS
9 1 (0.27%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 26 (7.07%) Docker
2 21 (5.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.89%) vSphere
4 15 (4.08%) Active Directory
5 13 (3.53%) Time Sharing Option
6 12 (3.26%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (2.72%) GPFS
7 10 (2.72%) NFS
8 8 (2.17%) Tivoli Directory Server
9 7 (1.90%) RACF
10 5 (1.36%) Job Entry Subsystem
10 5 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (1.09%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
12 1 (0.27%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.27%) KVM
12 1 (0.27%) SRDF
12 1 (0.27%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.27%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (7.88%) Kubernetes
2 23 (6.25%) Terraform
3 16 (4.35%) vRealize
4 12 (3.26%) OMEGAMON
4 12 (3.26%) Tivoli
5 11 (2.99%) Progress Chef
6 10 (2.72%) CA Single Sign-On
6 10 (2.72%) CA Wily
6 10 (2.72%) Tivoli Identity Manager
7 9 (2.45%) Ansible
7 9 (2.45%) CA Endevor
7 9 (2.45%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (2.17%) Control-M
9 7 (1.90%) VxRail
10 6 (1.63%) QRadar
10 6 (1.63%) Tivoli NetView
11 5 (1.36%) TIBCO Hawk
11 5 (1.36%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 4 (1.09%) NetBackup
13 3 (0.82%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 70 (19.02%) Oracle
2 68 (18.48%) Microsoft
3 27 (7.34%) VMware
4 25 (6.79%) Cisco
5 23 (6.25%) ServiceNow
6 21 (5.71%) Software AG
6 21 (5.71%) Splunk
7 19 (5.16%) AppDynamics
8 17 (4.62%) HP
9 15 (4.08%) SAP
10 14 (3.80%) Dell
11 13 (3.53%) Citrix
12 12 (3.26%) Broadcom
12 12 (3.26%) Red Hat
12 12 (3.26%) webMethods
13 11 (2.99%) Cognos
14 10 (2.72%) Google
15 9 (2.45%) Ping Identity
16 8 (2.17%) Commvault
16 8 (2.17%) SolarWinds