Mainframe Contracts

Mainframes
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Mainframe in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Mainframe over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 377 409 519
Rank change year-on-year +32 +110 +91
Contract jobs citing Mainframe 143 193 194
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.49% 0.44% 0.33%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.44% 1.46% 0.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 130 106
10th Percentile £361 £360 £328
25th Percentile £400 £430 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £558
Median % change year-on-year - -10.31% +6.19%
75th Percentile £573 £588 £650
90th Percentile £669 £700 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £514 £450 £553
% change year-on-year +14.17% -18.55% +12.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £20.45 - -
Median hourly rate £22.04 - -
75th Percentile £31.16 - -
90th Percentile £44.71 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 - -

All Generic Skills
UK

Mainframe 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 9,915 13,252 19,898
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.91% 30.40% 33.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,331 8,505 13,670
10th Percentile £300 £263 £308
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.42% -2.18% -
75th Percentile £650 £660 £680
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £496 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.90% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 394 910 640
10th Percentile £16.46 £12.25 £9.80
25th Percentile £21.00 £15.17 £10.63
Median hourly rate £32.05 £30.00 £22.49
Median % change year-on-year +6.83% +33.42% -18.24%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.99 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.93 £27.75 £22.00
% change year-on-year +11.46% +26.14% +9.64%

Mainframe
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Mainframe as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Mainframe in the UK

Mainframe
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Mainframe.

Daily rate trend for Mainframe in the UK

Mainframe
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Mainframe over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Mainframe in the UK

Mainframe
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Mainframe.

Hourly rate trend for Mainframe in the UK

Mainframe
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Mainframe over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Mainframe in the UK

Mainframe
Top 15 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Mainframe within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +20 105 £474 -5.20% 36
UK excluding London +36 83 £514 +14.17% 23
Work from Home +19 65 £525 +9.38% 55
London +23 42 £474 -20.00% 15
North of England +11 37 £447 -0.67% 7
Scotland +24 27 £514 +2.75% 3
North West +26 20 £402 -21.56% 2
Yorkshire -16 17 £525 +22.09% 5
South West +51 9 £593 -7.96% 5
Midlands +15 5 £503 +38.05% 2
South East +32 3 £525 +46.65% 6
East Midlands - 3 £403 - 1
West Midlands +4 2 £613 +68.27% 1
Wales +5 1 £525 +16.67%
Northern Ireland -11 1 £525 +5.00%

Mainframe
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 30 (20.98%) CICS
2 9 (6.29%) Confluence
3 7 (4.90%) SAS
4 5 (3.50%) CMS
5 3 (2.10%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.70%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (3.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.10%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.40%) BASE24
1 2 (1.40%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 13 (9.09%) AWS
2 6 (4.20%) Azure
3 2 (1.40%) GCP
4 1 (0.70%) Apigee
4 1 (0.70%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (0.70%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (0.70%) IaaS
4 1 (0.70%) OpenShift
4 1 (0.70%) PaaS
4 1 (0.70%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.90%) SNA
1 7 (4.90%) TCP/IP
2 5 (3.50%) Network Security
3 4 (2.80%) VPN
4 2 (1.40%) ATM
5 1 (0.70%) DWDM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (13.99%) DB2
2 3 (2.10%) Easytrieve
2 3 (2.10%) NoSQL
3 2 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (1.40%) Hadoop
3 2 (1.40%) NonStop SQL
3 2 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.70%) Adabas
4 1 (0.70%) Big Data
4 1 (0.70%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.70%) Power BI
4 1 (0.70%) Redis
4 1 (0.70%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (9.09%) JIRA
2 7 (4.90%) Jenkins
2 7 (4.90%) Selenium
3 5 (3.50%) JUnit
4 4 (2.80%) GitLab
4 4 (2.80%) Maven
4 4 (2.80%) Subversion
5 3 (2.10%) CA Release Automation
5 3 (2.10%) ChangeMan
5 3 (2.10%) Git
5 3 (2.10%) Gradle
5 3 (2.10%) HP UFT
5 3 (2.10%) IntelliJ
5 3 (2.10%) NetBeans
6 2 (1.40%) SOAtest
7 1 (0.70%) Postman
7 1 (0.70%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.70%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.70%) SpecFlow
7 1 (0.70%) XCTest
General
1 48 (33.57%) Finance
2 37 (25.87%) Banking
3 36 (25.17%) Social Skills
4 30 (20.98%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (3.50%) General Ledger
5 5 (3.50%) Organisational Skills
5 5 (3.50%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.80%) Retail
7 3 (2.10%) Local Government
7 3 (2.10%) Retail Banking
8 2 (1.40%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.40%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.70%) Dutch Language
9 1 (0.70%) Electronics
9 1 (0.70%) French Language
9 1 (0.70%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.70%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.70%) Marketing
9 1 (0.70%) Police
9 1 (0.70%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 28 (19.58%) Consultant
2 20 (13.99%) Mainframe Consultant
3 17 (11.89%) Architect
4 14 (9.79%) Storage Consultant
5 12 (8.39%) Developer
6 11 (7.69%) Programmer
7 10 (6.99%) Senior
7 10 (6.99%) Systems Programmer
7 10 (6.99%) z/OS Systems Programmer
8 9 (6.29%) Administrator
8 9 (6.29%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (5.59%) Infrastructure Architect
9 8 (5.59%) Mainframe Developer
10 7 (4.90%) CICS Engineer
10 7 (4.90%) Security Administrator
11 6 (4.20%) Infrastructure Solutions Architect
11 6 (4.20%) Project Manager
12 5 (3.50%) COBOL Developer
13 4 (2.80%) Automation Engineer
13 4 (2.80%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (10.49%) ISPF
2 14 (9.79%) Middleware
3 9 (6.29%) Web Services
4 6 (4.20%) J2EE
5 5 (3.50%) Kafka
5 5 (3.50%) Spring Boot
6 4 (2.80%) AngularJS
6 4 (2.80%) Bootstrap
6 4 (2.80%) CSS
6 4 (2.80%) Hibernate
6 4 (2.80%) HTML
6 4 (2.80%) HTML5
6 4 (2.80%) Spring
6 4 (2.80%) Spring MVC
7 3 (2.10%) Ajax
7 3 (2.10%) jQuery
7 3 (2.10%) Node.js
7 3 (2.10%) REST
7 3 (2.10%) Spring Integration
8 2 (1.40%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 18 (12.59%) IBM Mainframe
2 13 (9.09%) VSAM
3 8 (5.59%) Clustering
3 8 (5.59%) Legacy Systems
3 8 (5.59%) Product Ownership
4 7 (4.90%) Data Centre
4 7 (4.90%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (4.90%) Management Information System
4 7 (4.90%) Replication
5 4 (2.80%) Algorithms
5 4 (2.80%) Linux Command Line
6 3 (2.10%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (2.10%) Data Structures
6 3 (2.10%) iSeries
6 3 (2.10%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.40%) DataPower
7 2 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (1.40%) EMV
7 2 (1.40%) Mobile Payment
7 2 (1.40%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 37 (25.87%) zOS
2 16 (11.19%) Linux
3 15 (10.49%) Windows
4 11 (7.69%) Unix
5 7 (4.90%) HPUX
5 7 (4.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (4.90%) Solaris
6 5 (3.50%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (25.17%) Migration
2 34 (23.78%) Problem-Solving
3 27 (18.88%) Agile
4 22 (15.38%) DevOps
5 18 (12.59%) Data Migration
6 15 (10.49%) CI/CD
7 13 (9.09%) Disaster Recovery
8 12 (8.39%) High Availability
9 10 (6.99%) Project Delivery
9 10 (6.99%) SDLC
9 10 (6.99%) Test Automation
10 9 (6.29%) Project Management
10 9 (6.29%) Task Automation
11 8 (5.59%) Change Management
11 8 (5.59%) Data Protection
11 8 (5.59%) Microservices
12 7 (4.90%) Capacity Planning
12 7 (4.90%) Risk Management
12 7 (4.90%) Software Engineering
12 7 (4.90%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 36 (25.17%) JCL
2 34 (23.78%) REXX
3 24 (16.78%) COBOL
4 15 (10.49%) Assembly Language
5 12 (8.39%) Java
6 9 (6.29%) CLIST
6 9 (6.29%) SQL
7 8 (5.59%) Python
8 5 (3.50%) JavaScript
9 4 (2.80%) C
10 3 (2.10%) Natural
10 3 (2.10%) TypeScript
11 2 (1.40%) C#
11 2 (1.40%) C++
11 2 (1.40%) HLASM
12 1 (0.70%) Groovy
12 1 (0.70%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 9 (6.29%) Security Cleared
2 6 (4.20%) CISSP
2 6 (4.20%) IBM Certification
2 6 (4.20%) SC Cleared
3 2 (1.40%) Degree
3 2 (1.40%) ISTQB
4 1 (0.70%) CTC Cleared
4 1 (0.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
4 1 (0.70%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.59%) QA
2 2 (1.40%) ISO 8583
2 2 (1.40%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.70%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.70%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (9.79%) Time Sharing Option
2 12 (8.39%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (5.59%) Docker
3 8 (5.59%) RACF
4 2 (1.40%) ACF2
4 2 (1.40%) Job Entry Subsystem
5 1 (0.70%) Microcode
Systems Management
1 9 (6.29%) OMEGAMON
2 7 (4.90%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.50%) Tivoli NetView
4 4 (2.80%) CA Endevor
4 4 (2.80%) Control-M
5 3 (2.10%) Progress Chef
5 3 (2.10%) Puppet
6 2 (1.40%) Ansible
6 2 (1.40%) Terraform
6 2 (1.40%) Tivoli
7 1 (0.70%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 62 (43.36%) IBM
2 13 (9.09%) BMC
3 9 (6.29%) Broadcom
4 7 (4.90%) Sun
4 7 (4.90%) Unisys
5 5 (3.50%) HP
5 5 (3.50%) Oracle
6 4 (2.80%) CA Agile Central
7 3 (2.10%) Dynatrace
7 3 (2.10%) Fujitsu
7 3 (2.10%) Micro Focus
7 3 (2.10%) Microsoft
7 3 (2.10%) Splunk
8 2 (1.40%) Ab Initio
8 2 (1.40%) Guidewire
8 2 (1.40%) Informatica
8 2 (1.40%) Parasoft
8 2 (1.40%) Software AG
9 1 (0.70%) BT
9 1 (0.70%) MuleSoft