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 22 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
22 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 254 220 223
Rank change year-on-year -34 +3 +67
Contract jobs citing IBM 376 415 512
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.05% 1.13% 1.10%
As % of the Vendors category 2.20% 2.52% 2.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 251 194 304
10th Percentile £316 £277 £400
25th Percentile £405 £400 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £480 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -12.73% -
75th Percentile £626 £600 £653
90th Percentile £720 £675 £774
UK excluding London median daily rate £474 £450 £525
% change year-on-year +5.29% -14.29% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 26 16
10th Percentile £25.04 £24.18 -
25th Percentile £25.15 £46.18 £65.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £63.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.67% -9.64% +30.82%
75th Percentile £72.00 £68.75 -
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £63.25 £70.00
% change year-on-year +10.67% -9.64% +34.58%

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 17,086 16,497 21,170
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 47.56% 44.90% 45.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,769 9,710 13,557
10th Percentile £288 £300 £260
25th Percentile £405 £413 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -1.59%
75th Percentile £612 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £720 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 888 529 681
10th Percentile £15.34 £15.25 £14.65
25th Percentile £18.26 £18.75 £20.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £30.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -16.17% -32.58% +73.08%
75th Percentile £42.87 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £72.88 £74.00 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.32 £27.35 £44.50
% change year-on-year -18.41% -38.54% +97.78%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -39 330 £500 +4.17% 220
UK excluding London -40 222 £474 +5.29% 163
Work from Home +2 121 £550 +12.82% 102
London -28 109 £525 +5.00% 75
North of England -21 70 £450 -16.67% 22
North West +7 55 £450 +25.00% 17
Midlands -6 53 £425 -3.41% 23
West Midlands +2 42 £445 +3.49% 16
South East -31 39 £563 +25.70% 63
East of England -2 25 £475 +11.76% 26
Scotland +1 18 £450 - 8
South West -33 16 £633 +5.42% 34
Yorkshire -58 15 £473 -21.24% 5
East Midlands -10 11 £415 -13.54% 7
Northern Ireland - 4 £350 - 1
Wales -4 1 £633 +201.19% 1

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 (10.37%) WebSphere
2 26 (6.91%) Confluence
3 24 (6.38%) Apache
4 18 (4.79%) IIS
5 17 (4.52%) WebSphere Application Server
6 16 (4.26%) CICS
7 15 (3.99%) JBoss
8 13 (3.46%) SharePoint
9 12 (3.19%) MQSeries
10 11 (2.93%) ArcGIS
11 10 (2.66%) iPlanet
12 7 (1.86%) WebLogic
13 6 (1.60%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 6 (1.60%) SAS
14 4 (1.06%) FileNet
15 3 (0.80%) Tomcat
16 2 (0.53%) nginx
17 1 (0.27%) Anypoint
17 1 (0.27%) IBM Transformation Extender
Applications
1 12 (3.19%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.86%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.80%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.53%) Sketch
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 47 (12.50%) Maximo
2 5 (1.33%) BusinessWorks
3 4 (1.06%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 3 (0.80%) Oracle 11i
4 3 (0.80%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.80%) SAP PM
4 3 (0.80%) SAP PP
4 3 (0.80%) SAP QM
4 3 (0.80%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.80%) SAP WM
5 2 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.27%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.27%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.27%) Cognos Controller
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 1 (0.27%) TIBCO BusinessEvents
6 1 (0.27%) TRIRIGA
Cloud Services
1 95 (25.27%) AWS
2 59 (15.69%) Azure
3 28 (7.45%) GCP
4 22 (5.85%) OpenShift
5 13 (3.46%) Serverless
6 12 (3.19%) AWS CloudFormation
6 12 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
7 11 (2.93%) IBM Cloud
8 10 (2.66%) Datadog
9 9 (2.39%) Amazon ECS
9 9 (2.39%) Amazon S3
9 9 (2.39%) GitHub
10 8 (2.13%) OCI
10 8 (2.13%) Power Platform
10 8 (2.13%) SaaS
11 7 (1.86%) Azure API Management
11 7 (1.86%) PaaS
12 5 (1.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 5 (1.33%) Azure Sentinel
12 5 (1.33%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 13 (3.46%) SSH
2 12 (3.19%) HTTPS
3 11 (2.93%) VSAN
4 10 (2.66%) Kerberos
5 8 (2.13%) SAN
5 8 (2.13%) SSL
6 7 (1.86%) Firewall
6 7 (1.86%) VPN
7 4 (1.06%) HTTP
7 4 (1.06%) LAN
7 4 (1.06%) Network Security
7 4 (1.06%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.80%) SNA
8 3 (0.80%) WAN
9 2 (0.53%) APPN
9 2 (0.53%) Calico
9 2 (0.53%) DNS
9 2 (0.53%) DWDM
9 2 (0.53%) SDH
10 1 (0.27%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (9.57%) DB2
2 30 (7.98%) SQL Server
3 23 (6.12%) Oracle Database
4 21 (5.59%) Amazon RDS
4 21 (5.59%) Relational Database
5 15 (3.99%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (2.93%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (2.39%) DataStage
7 9 (2.39%) GIS
8 8 (2.13%) Amazon Athena
8 8 (2.13%) NoSQL
9 6 (1.60%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (1.60%) Couchbase
9 6 (1.60%) Metadata
9 6 (1.60%) Oracle Reports
10 5 (1.33%) DynamoDB
10 5 (1.33%) IBM InfoSphere
10 5 (1.33%) Power BI
11 3 (0.80%) Cognos Framework Manager
11 3 (0.80%) Cognos Report Studio
Development Applications
1 41 (10.90%) JIRA
2 26 (6.91%) Git
3 25 (6.65%) Jenkins
4 20 (5.32%) GitLab
5 17 (4.52%) Rational DOORS
6 10 (2.66%) Bitbucket Server
6 10 (2.66%) CA Release Automation
7 9 (2.39%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (1.33%) Bitbucket
8 5 (1.33%) ERwin
8 5 (1.33%) SoapUI
9 4 (1.06%) JUnit
9 4 (1.06%) Rational Rhapsody
9 4 (1.06%) Selenium
10 3 (0.80%) Ant
10 3 (0.80%) IBM UrbanCode
10 3 (0.80%) Log4j
10 3 (0.80%) Maven
10 3 (0.80%) PVCS
10 3 (0.80%) Visual Studio
General
1 106 (28.19%) Social Skills
2 85 (22.61%) Finance
3 57 (15.16%) Banking
4 39 (10.37%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (6.12%) Public Sector
6 16 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
7 14 (3.72%) Presentation Skills
8 11 (2.93%) Aerospace
9 8 (2.13%) Financial Institution
9 8 (2.13%) Private Banking
10 5 (1.33%) Electronics
10 5 (1.33%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.06%) International Banking
11 4 (1.06%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.06%) Law
12 3 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.80%) Legal
12 3 (0.80%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.80%) Police
12 3 (0.80%) Retail
Job Titles
1 68 (18.09%) Developer
2 56 (14.89%) Analyst
3 43 (11.44%) Architect
4 34 (9.04%) Consultant
5 29 (7.71%) Solutions Architect
6 22 (5.85%) Senior
7 19 (5.05%) Platform Engineer
8 16 (4.26%) Lead
9 15 (3.99%) Infrastructure Analyst
9 15 (3.99%) Management Consultant
10 14 (3.72%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.19%) Maximo Consultant
11 12 (3.19%) webMethods Developer
12 11 (2.93%) Programmer
13 10 (2.66%) Software Engineer
14 9 (2.39%) DevOps Engineer
14 9 (2.39%) Maximo Architect
14 9 (2.39%) Storage Analyst
15 8 (2.13%) Administrator
15 8 (2.13%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (11.44%) XML
2 29 (7.71%) Kafka
3 27 (7.18%) OAuth
3 27 (7.18%) SOAP
4 22 (5.85%) JSON
4 22 (5.85%) LDAP
5 21 (5.59%) SAML
6 20 (5.32%) JMS
6 20 (5.32%) OpenID
7 18 (4.79%) Middleware
8 16 (4.26%) Web Services
9 15 (3.99%) Spring
10 12 (3.19%) ISPF
11 10 (2.66%) Flash
11 10 (2.66%) REST
12 9 (2.39%) Hibernate
12 9 (2.39%) XSLT
13 7 (1.86%) EDI
14 6 (1.60%) WSDL
14 6 (1.60%) XSD
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.70%) Mainframe
2 26 (6.91%) Legacy Systems
2 26 (6.91%) Replication
3 20 (5.32%) Linux Command Line
4 16 (4.26%) IBM Mainframe
5 14 (3.72%) AS400
5 14 (3.72%) Data Centre
6 13 (3.46%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.46%) Tandem
7 10 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
7 10 (2.66%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (2.13%) DataPower
8 8 (2.13%) VSAM
9 6 (1.60%) CMDB
9 6 (1.60%) Onboarding
9 6 (1.60%) PKI
9 6 (1.60%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 5 (1.33%) Clustering
10 5 (1.33%) iSeries
10 5 (1.33%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 75 (19.95%) Linux
2 68 (18.09%) Windows
3 41 (10.90%) Unix
4 25 (6.65%) zOS
5 19 (5.05%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.66%) AIX
7 7 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (1.60%) Windows 10
8 6 (1.60%) Windows 7
8 6 (1.60%) Windows Server 2003
8 6 (1.60%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.80%) MVS
10 2 (0.53%) Android
10 2 (0.53%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.53%) CentOS
10 2 (0.53%) OS/2
10 2 (0.53%) Solaris
10 2 (0.53%) VMS
11 1 (0.27%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (18.62%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (18.09%) Agile
3 61 (16.22%) DevOps
4 59 (15.69%) Migration
5 58 (15.43%) CI/CD
6 48 (12.77%) Stakeholder Management
7 35 (9.31%) Asset Management
8 34 (9.04%) Incident Response
9 30 (7.98%) Computer Science
9 30 (7.98%) Containerisation
10 29 (7.71%) ITIL
11 27 (7.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 26 (6.91%) Data Protection
12 26 (6.91%) High Availability
13 25 (6.65%) Performance Tuning
13 25 (6.65%) Roadmaps
14 24 (6.38%) Continuous Improvement
15 22 (5.85%) ETL
16 21 (5.59%) Platform Engineering
16 21 (5.59%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 59 (15.69%) SQL
2 51 (13.56%) Python
3 42 (11.17%) Java
4 25 (6.65%) Shell Script
5 20 (5.32%) JavaScript
6 19 (5.05%) JCL
7 17 (4.52%) REXX
8 15 (3.99%) CLIST
9 12 (3.19%) RPG
10 10 (2.66%) COBOL
10 10 (2.66%) Groovy
11 8 (2.13%) C++
11 8 (2.13%) PL/SQL
11 8 (2.13%) PowerShell
12 7 (1.86%) Perl
13 6 (1.60%) Assembly Language
13 6 (1.60%) Bash
13 6 (1.60%) C
13 6 (1.60%) Korn
13 6 (1.60%) XPath
Qualifications
1 84 (22.34%) Security Cleared
2 64 (17.02%) SC Cleared
3 38 (10.11%) Degree
4 28 (7.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (4.79%) AWS Certification
6 10 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 9 (2.39%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 8 (2.13%) CISSP
9 7 (1.86%) Azure Certification
9 7 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.60%) CISM
10 6 (1.60%) Master's Degree
11 5 (1.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Certification
13 3 (0.80%) Cisco Certification
13 3 (0.80%) GCIH
13 3 (0.80%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 3 (0.80%) PMI Certification
13 3 (0.80%) PMP
13 3 (0.80%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (5.32%) QA
2 12 (3.19%) GDPR
3 9 (2.39%) HIPAA
4 8 (2.13%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.33%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.33%) SEPA
6 4 (1.06%) NIST
6 4 (1.06%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.06%) SLA
7 3 (0.80%) Basel III
7 3 (0.80%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 19770
8 2 (0.53%) MISRA
8 2 (0.53%) MISRA C
8 2 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.27%) GAAP
9 1 (0.27%) GRC
9 1 (0.27%) ISO 19650
9 1 (0.27%) MiFID
System Software
1 26 (6.91%) Docker
1 26 (6.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (5.59%) vSphere
3 15 (3.99%) Active Directory
4 13 (3.46%) Time Sharing Option
5 12 (3.19%) GPFS
5 12 (3.19%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (2.93%) NFS
7 9 (2.39%) RACF
8 8 (2.13%) Tivoli Directory Server
9 6 (1.60%) Job Entry Subsystem
9 6 (1.60%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.80%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
11 1 (0.27%) Hyper-V
11 1 (0.27%) KVM
11 1 (0.27%) SRDF
11 1 (0.27%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.27%) Xen
Systems Management
1 30 (7.98%) Kubernetes
2 24 (6.38%) Terraform
3 19 (5.05%) vRealize
4 13 (3.46%) OMEGAMON
5 11 (2.93%) Ansible
5 11 (2.93%) Progress Chef
5 11 (2.93%) Tivoli
6 10 (2.66%) CA Single Sign-On
6 10 (2.66%) CA Wily
7 9 (2.39%) CA Endevor
7 9 (2.39%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (2.39%) VxRail
8 8 (2.13%) Tivoli Identity Manager
8 8 (2.13%) Tivoli NetView
9 7 (1.86%) Control-M
10 6 (1.60%) QRadar
11 5 (1.33%) TIBCO Hawk
11 5 (1.33%) Tivoli Storage Manager
12 3 (0.80%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.80%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 71 (18.88%) Oracle
2 65 (17.29%) Microsoft
3 32 (8.51%) VMware
4 28 (7.45%) Cisco
5 24 (6.38%) ServiceNow
6 20 (5.32%) AppDynamics
6 20 (5.32%) Splunk
7 18 (4.79%) HP
7 18 (4.79%) SAP
8 16 (4.26%) Dell
9 13 (3.46%) Broadcom
10 12 (3.19%) Citrix
10 12 (3.19%) Cognos
10 12 (3.19%) Red Hat
10 12 (3.19%) Software AG
10 12 (3.19%) webMethods
11 11 (2.93%) Google
12 10 (2.66%) Commvault
12 10 (2.66%) SolarWinds
13 8 (2.13%) TIBCO