Junior Contract Job Trends

Junior
UK

The median Junior daily rate in the UK is £315, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 October 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 450 374 353
Rank change year-on-year -76 -21 +24
Contract jobs requiring a Junior 235 182 223
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.55% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.47% 0.60% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 94 145
10th Percentile £163 £150 £125
25th Percentile £225 £201 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £315 £263 £290
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -9.48% -3.33%
75th Percentile £438 £350 £380
90th Percentile £488 £444 £511
UK excluding London median daily rate £340 £250 £300
% change year-on-year +36.00% -16.67% +1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 14 5
10th Percentile £11.32 £13.85 -
25th Percentile £12.71 £16.60 £12.30
Median hourly rate £15.99 £23.50 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.96% +62.07% -27.82%
75th Percentile £21.75 £43.75 £19.59
90th Percentile £24.80 - £24.04
UK excluding London median hourly rate £14.00 £34.00 £14.50
% change year-on-year -58.82% +134.48% -17.14%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 50,251 30,087 35,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.06% 90.83% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,471 18,979 21,309
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £494
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.75% -1.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,065 1,640 1,482
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £42.03
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -40.16% -5.55%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £68.00 £74.37
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.91
% change year-on-year +66.84% -41.74% -3.03%

Junior
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Junior' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Junior job vacancy trend in the UK

Junior
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in the UK

Junior
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Junior over the 6 months to 10 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Junior in the UK

Junior
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Junior job vacancies in the UK

Junior
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Junior over the 6 months to 10 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Junior in the UK

Junior
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 Junior within the UK over the 6 months to 10 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -85 207 £313 +19.05% 346
London -51 115 £310 +12.73% 174
UK excluding London -70 106 £340 +36.00% 204
Work from Home -65 50 £295 +2.61% 94
South West -1 34 £425 +29.38% 35
West Midlands -34 23 £162 -48.16% 17
Midlands -46 23 £162 -22.86% 30
South East -76 14 £310 +12.73% 55
North of England -76 14 £320 +31.28% 47
Scotland -9 13 £318 -14.92% 11
North West -51 10 £320 +21.90% 26
Northern Ireland +8 3 £190 -36.67% 6
Wales -10 3 - - 7
North East - 3 - - 6
East of England -47 2 £300 +100.00% 14
Yorkshire -33 1 £355 +77.50% 15

Junior Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 10 October 2026, Junior contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Junior in the job title.

1 59 (25.11%) Agile
2 53 (22.55%) Microsoft
3 44 (18.72%) Problem-Solving
4 41 (17.45%) Security Cleared
5 36 (15.32%) Azure
6 34 (14.47%) SC Cleared
7 31 (13.19%) Python
8 30 (12.77%) Degree
8 30 (12.77%) SQL
9 26 (11.06%) AWS
10 25 (10.64%) Continuous Improvement
11 24 (10.21%) DevOps
12 22 (9.36%) AI
12 22 (9.36%) Microsoft Excel
13 21 (8.94%) Analytics
13 21 (8.94%) Business Intelligence
13 21 (8.94%) Project Management
14 20 (8.51%) Git
14 20 (8.51%) Stakeholder Management
15 19 (8.09%) Scrum
16 18 (7.66%) Data Quality
17 17 (7.23%) Customer Service
18 16 (6.81%) Power BI
18 16 (6.81%) Power Platform
18 16 (6.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 15 (6.38%) Computer Science
19 15 (6.38%) Data Modelling
19 15 (6.38%) Decision-Making
19 15 (6.38%) Java
19 15 (6.38%) Migration

Junior Skill Set
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 4 (1.70%) IIS
2 3 (1.28%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.28%) Confluence
2 3 (1.28%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.43%) Apache
3 1 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.43%) WebLogic
Applications
1 22 (9.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (4.26%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (4.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.70%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (1.70%) Trello
3 4 (1.70%) UserZoom
4 3 (1.28%) Adobe After Effects
4 3 (1.28%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (1.28%) Photoshop
5 2 (0.85%) InDesign
5 2 (0.85%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.70%) Magento
2 2 (0.85%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.85%) SAP SD
3 1 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.43%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.43%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.43%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.43%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.43%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.43%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 36 (15.32%) Azure
2 26 (11.06%) AWS
3 16 (6.81%) Power Platform
4 12 (5.11%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (4.68%) Azure DevOps
5 11 (4.68%) GitHub
6 8 (3.40%) Figma
7 7 (2.98%) Dynamics 365
7 7 (2.98%) GCP
8 6 (2.55%) Azure Data Factory
9 5 (2.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 5 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (2.13%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (2.13%) Miro
10 4 (1.70%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 4 (1.70%) Amazon OpenSearch
10 4 (1.70%) dbt
11 3 (1.28%) Amazon S3
11 3 (1.28%) Canva
11 3 (1.28%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.40%) TCP/IP
2 7 (2.98%) Internet
3 6 (2.55%) LAN
3 6 (2.55%) WAN
4 3 (1.28%) BGP
4 3 (1.28%) DHCP
4 3 (1.28%) DNS
4 3 (1.28%) Network Security
5 2 (0.85%) Firewall
5 2 (0.85%) Intranet
5 2 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.43%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.43%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.43%) VPN
6 1 (0.43%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (6.81%) Power BI
2 12 (5.11%) Relational Database
3 11 (4.68%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (3.83%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (2.55%) MongoDB
6 5 (2.13%) Data Vault
6 5 (2.13%) DTS
6 5 (2.13%) SQL Server
6 5 (2.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (1.70%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (1.70%) MySQL
7 4 (1.70%) Redis
7 4 (1.70%) Tableau
8 2 (0.85%) Amazon Athena
8 2 (0.85%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.85%) Delta Lake
8 2 (0.85%) Looker
8 2 (0.85%) Power Query
8 2 (0.85%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.43%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 20 (8.51%) Git
2 10 (4.26%) JIRA
3 8 (3.40%) Jenkins
4 7 (2.98%) Subversion
5 6 (2.55%) Bitbucket
6 5 (2.13%) GitLab
7 3 (1.28%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.85%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.85%) TeamCity
9 1 (0.43%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.43%) Gatling
9 1 (0.43%) git-flow
9 1 (0.43%) JMeter
9 1 (0.43%) LoadRunner
9 1 (0.43%) NeoLoad
9 1 (0.43%) RhodeCode
General
1 88 (37.45%) Social Skills
2 49 (20.85%) Finance
3 41 (17.45%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (11.49%) Public Sector
5 23 (9.79%) Organisational Skills
6 16 (6.81%) Banking
7 14 (5.96%) Retail
8 10 (4.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (3.83%) Legal
10 8 (3.40%) Military
11 6 (2.55%) Marketing
12 4 (1.70%) Documentation Skills
12 4 (1.70%) Investment Banking
12 4 (1.70%) Publishing
12 4 (1.70%) Social Science
13 3 (1.28%) Games
13 3 (1.28%) Police
13 3 (1.28%) Retail Banking
14 2 (0.85%) Front Office
14 2 (0.85%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.40%) REST
2 7 (2.98%) React
2 7 (2.98%) Terraform
2 7 (2.98%) XML
3 6 (2.55%) .NET
3 6 (2.55%) CSS
3 6 (2.55%) HTML
3 6 (2.55%) RESTful
4 5 (2.13%) SOAP
4 5 (2.13%) Spring
4 5 (2.13%) Web Services
5 4 (1.70%) JSON
5 4 (1.70%) Ktor
5 4 (1.70%) VML
5 4 (1.70%) Vue
6 3 (1.28%) .NET Framework
6 3 (1.28%) CSS3
6 3 (1.28%) Django
6 3 (1.28%) Flask
6 3 (1.28%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.66%) Onboarding
2 14 (5.96%) Product Ownership
3 7 (2.98%) Data Centre
4 6 (2.55%) EPoS
4 6 (2.55%) Management Information System
5 5 (2.13%) Data Structures
5 5 (2.13%) Driving Licence
6 4 (1.70%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 4 (1.70%) Public Cloud
7 3 (1.28%) Graphic Design
7 3 (1.28%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.28%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.85%) AI Agents
8 2 (0.85%) Cloud Native
8 2 (0.85%) Derivative
8 2 (0.85%) Housing Association
8 2 (0.85%) Life Science
8 2 (0.85%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.85%) Social Media
9 1 (0.43%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 12 (5.11%) Windows
2 6 (2.55%) Linux
3 2 (0.85%) Unix
3 2 (0.85%) Windows 10
3 2 (0.85%) Windows 7
3 2 (0.85%) Windows Server 2008
4 1 (0.43%) Android
4 1 (0.43%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.43%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.43%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (25.11%) Agile
2 44 (18.72%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (10.64%) Continuous Improvement
4 24 (10.21%) DevOps
5 22 (9.36%) AI
6 21 (8.94%) Analytics
6 21 (8.94%) Business Intelligence
6 21 (8.94%) Project Management
7 20 (8.51%) Stakeholder Management
8 19 (8.09%) Scrum
9 17 (7.23%) Customer Service
10 16 (6.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 15 (6.38%) Computer Science
11 15 (6.38%) Data Modelling
11 15 (6.38%) Decision-Making
11 15 (6.38%) Migration
11 15 (6.38%) Project Delivery
12 13 (5.53%) Data Engineering
12 13 (5.53%) Risk Management
13 12 (5.11%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 31 (13.19%) Python
2 30 (12.77%) SQL
3 15 (6.38%) Java
4 8 (3.40%) C#
5 7 (2.98%) T-SQL
6 6 (2.55%) JavaScript
6 6 (2.55%) Kotlin
6 6 (2.55%) Shell Script
7 5 (2.13%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.70%) Bash
9 3 (1.28%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (1.28%) PowerShell
10 2 (0.85%) C++
10 2 (0.85%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.43%) Bicep
11 1 (0.43%) Korn
11 1 (0.43%) VB
11 1 (0.43%) VBA
Qualifications
1 41 (17.45%) Security Cleared
2 34 (14.47%) SC Cleared
3 30 (12.77%) Degree
4 6 (2.55%) Master's Degree
5 5 (2.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.70%) DBS Check
7 2 (0.85%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.43%) ACCA
8 1 (0.43%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.43%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (0.43%) CIMA
8 1 (0.43%) CISSP
8 1 (0.43%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (0.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.43%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.66%) Data Quality
2 15 (6.38%) PMO
3 11 (4.68%) Accessibility
4 6 (2.55%) GRC
5 4 (1.70%) QA
6 3 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.28%) SLA
7 2 (0.85%) NIST
8 1 (0.43%) GDPR
8 1 (0.43%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.43%) NCSC
8 1 (0.43%) SEPA
8 1 (0.43%) WCAG
System Software
1 10 (4.26%) Docker
2 7 (2.98%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.43%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.43%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.43%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (0.43%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (3.40%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.98%) Ansible
3 4 (1.70%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.28%) Packer
5 1 (0.43%) Grafana
5 1 (0.43%) Kibana
Vendors
1 53 (22.55%) Microsoft
2 7 (2.98%) SAP
3 6 (2.55%) Google
4 4 (1.70%) VMware
5 3 (1.28%) Arista
5 3 (1.28%) Cisco
5 3 (1.28%) Databricks
6 2 (0.85%) Adobe
6 2 (0.85%) Citrix
6 2 (0.85%) Dynatrace
6 2 (0.85%) Fortinet
6 2 (0.85%) IFS
6 2 (0.85%) Oracle
6 2 (0.85%) ServiceNow
6 2 (0.85%) Sitecore
6 2 (0.85%) Snow
7 1 (0.43%) Computacenter
7 1 (0.43%) InterSystems
7 1 (0.43%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.43%) Splunk