Industry 4.0 Contract Job Trends

Industry 4.0
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Industry 4.0 in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Industry 4.0 over the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 577 531 596
Rank change year-on-year -46 +65 +192
Contract jobs citing Industry 4.0 7 13 9
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.019% 0.038% 0.020%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.054% 0.12% 0.064%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 0
10th Percentile £513 - -
25th Percentile £531 £461 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £472 -
Median % change year-on-year +21.82% - -
75th Percentile £606 £483 -
90th Percentile £618 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate - £472 -

All Generic Skills
UK

Industry 4.0 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 12,897 10,908 13,970
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 35.02% 31.91% 31.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,055 6,528 9,313
10th Percentile £275 £269 £263
25th Percentile £406 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.05% -2.27% -
75th Percentile £625 £656 £668
90th Percentile £738 £775 £770
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 648 339 495
10th Percentile £13.80 £17.45 £16.50
25th Percentile £18.03 £22.86 £20.50
Median hourly rate £27.21 £33.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.55% -22.35% +21.43%
75th Percentile £59.31 £64.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £78.47 £77.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £45.21
% change year-on-year -15.38% -28.11% +52.12%

Industry 4.0
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Industry 4.0 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Industry 4.0 job vacancy trend in the UK

Industry 4.0
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Industry 4.0.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Industry 4.0.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0
Top 5 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Industry 4.0 within the UK over the 6 months to 19 December 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 7 £575 - 11
London - 4 £575 - 3
Work from Home -5 1 £575 - 1
UK excluding London -47 1 - - 8
East of England - 1 - -

Industry 4.0
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 1 (14.29%) Jupyter
Applications
1 1 (14.29%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 2 (28.57%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (14.29%) LAN
1 1 (14.29%) Modbus
1 1 (14.29%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (14.29%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (14.29%) PostgreSQL
General
1 7 (100.00%) Manufacturing
2 2 (28.57%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (14.29%) Architect
1 1 (14.29%) Data Architect
1 1 (14.29%) IT Manager
1 1 (14.29%) IT Programme Manager
1 1 (14.29%) IT Project Manager
1 1 (14.29%) Project Manager
1 1 (14.29%) SCADA Engineer
1 1 (14.29%) Subject Matter Expert
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (14.29%) FastAPI
1 1 (14.29%) NumPy
1 1 (14.29%) Pandas
1 1 (14.29%) PySpark
1 1 (14.29%) PyTorch
1 1 (14.29%) SQLAlchemy
Miscellaneous
1 4 (57.14%) Operational Technology
1 4 (57.14%) SCADA
2 2 (28.57%) Algorithms
3 1 (14.29%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (14.29%) Industrial Internet of Things
3 1 (14.29%) IoT
3 1 (14.29%) Manufacturing Execution System
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (42.86%) AI
2 2 (28.57%) Analytics
2 2 (28.57%) Continuous Improvement
2 2 (28.57%) Cybersecurity
2 2 (28.57%) Digital Transformation Programme
2 2 (28.57%) Machine Learning
2 2 (28.57%) Smart Manufacturing
3 1 (14.29%) Conversational UI
3 1 (14.29%) Data Analytics
3 1 (14.29%) Data Collection
3 1 (14.29%) Data Science
3 1 (14.29%) Decision-Making
3 1 (14.29%) Digital Twin
3 1 (14.29%) Generative AI
3 1 (14.29%) LLM
3 1 (14.29%) Mentoring
3 1 (14.29%) MLOps
3 1 (14.29%) Observability
3 1 (14.29%) Performance Monitoring
3 1 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 3 (42.86%) Python
2 1 (14.29%) MATLAB
2 1 (14.29%) SQL
Qualifications
1 1 (14.29%) Degree
1 1 (14.29%) Master's Degree
1 1 (14.29%) PMI Certification
1 1 (14.29%) PMP
Systems Management
1 1 (14.29%) Kubernetes
1 1 (14.29%) Terraform
Vendors
1 3 (42.86%) Siemens
2 2 (28.57%) Microsoft
3 1 (14.29%) Allen-Bradley
3 1 (14.29%) AVEVA