Manual Tester Contract Job Trends

Manual Tester
UK

The median Manual Tester daily rate in the UK is £338, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 August 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 550 546 625
Rank change year-on-year -4 +79 +191
Contract jobs requiring a Manual Tester 13 26 35
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.040% 0.067% 0.069%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.043% 0.072% 0.073%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 16 27
10th Percentile £264 £314 £206
25th Percentile £295 £324 £290
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £338 £366 £375
Median % change year-on-year -7.85% -2.33% +15.38%
75th Percentile £391 £402 £516
90th Percentile £438 £440 £734
UK excluding London median daily rate £300 £363 £375
% change year-on-year -17.24% -3.33% +7.14%

All DemandTrendContract IT Job Vacancies
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 29,910 35,903 47,906
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.22% 93.02% 94.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,855 22,735 32,984
10th Percentile £280 £300 £305
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -1.83%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,566 1,849 1,472
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.16 £14.65
25th Percentile £17.00 £20.00 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% +1.18% +63.46%
75th Percentile £53.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.58 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £43.95 £40.00
% change year-on-year -42.78% +9.88% +86.05%

Manual Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Manual Tester in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Manual Tester in the UK

Manual Tester
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Manual Tester job vacancies in the UK

Manual Tester
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Manual Tester over the 6 months to 29 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Manual Tester in the UK

Manual Tester
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Manual Tester job vacancies in the UK

Manual Tester
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Manual Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 29 August 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 +13 9 £338 -5.59% 2
UK excluding London +6 8 £300 -17.24% 1
Work from Home +15 6 £325 -13.33% 3
North of England -11 4 £363 -3.33%
South West +24 2 £313 -0.79% 1
London +6 2 £338 -5.59% 1
North West -8 2 £425 +13.33%
Scotland -1 1 £241 -35.73%
Yorkshire -9 1 £288 -
West Midlands - 1 - -
Midlands - 1 - -
North East - 1 £300 -

Manual Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 29 August 2025, Manual Tester contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Manual Tester in the job title.

1 9 (69.23%) Manual Testing
2 8 (61.54%) Social Skills
3 7 (53.85%) Agile
3 7 (53.85%) JIRA
3 7 (53.85%) QA
4 6 (46.15%) Test Scripting
5 5 (38.46%) Software Testing
5 5 (38.46%) Azure
6 4 (30.77%) DevOps
6 4 (30.77%) SDLC
6 4 (30.77%) User Acceptance Testing
6 4 (30.77%) Finance
6 4 (30.77%) End-to-End Testing
6 4 (30.77%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (23.08%) Product Ownership
7 3 (23.08%) SQL
7 3 (23.08%) ISTQB
7 3 (23.08%) Defect Tracking
7 3 (23.08%) Test Planning
7 3 (23.08%) Sprint Planning
7 3 (23.08%) User Stories
7 3 (23.08%) Waterfall
7 3 (23.08%) Functional Testing
8 2 (15.38%) Test Automation
8 2 (15.38%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 2 (15.38%) Security Cleared
8 2 (15.38%) Data Validation
8 2 (15.38%) SC Cleared
8 2 (15.38%) Mentoring
8 2 (15.38%) Integration Testing

Manual Tester Skill Set
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:

Applications
1 1 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (7.69%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (7.69%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 5 (38.46%) Azure
2 4 (30.77%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (7.69%) Algolia
3 1 (7.69%) AWS
3 1 (7.69%) Azure Service Bus
3 1 (7.69%) Bloomreach
3 1 (7.69%) GitHub
3 1 (7.69%) Power Platform
3 1 (7.69%) PowerApps
Development Applications
1 7 (53.85%) JIRA
2 1 (7.69%) Postman
2 1 (7.69%) Visual Studio
General
1 8 (61.54%) Social Skills
2 4 (30.77%) Finance
3 1 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Banking
3 1 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Public Sector
3 1 (7.69%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (7.69%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 3 (23.08%) Product Ownership
2 1 (7.69%) Data Protection Act
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (69.23%) Manual Testing
2 7 (53.85%) Agile
3 6 (46.15%) Test Scripting
4 5 (38.46%) Software Testing
5 4 (30.77%) DevOps
5 4 (30.77%) End-to-End Testing
5 4 (30.77%) SDLC
5 4 (30.77%) User Acceptance Testing
6 3 (23.08%) Defect Tracking
6 3 (23.08%) Functional Testing
6 3 (23.08%) Sprint Planning
6 3 (23.08%) Test Planning
6 3 (23.08%) User Stories
6 3 (23.08%) Waterfall
7 2 (15.38%) Data Validation
7 2 (15.38%) Integration Testing
7 2 (15.38%) Mentoring
7 2 (15.38%) System Integration Testing
7 2 (15.38%) Test Automation
7 2 (15.38%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 3 (23.08%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (23.08%) ISTQB
2 2 (15.38%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 2 (15.38%) SC Cleared
2 2 (15.38%) Security Cleared
3 1 (7.69%) Azure Certification
3 1 (7.69%) Degree
3 1 (7.69%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (53.85%) QA
2 2 (15.38%) Accessibility
3 1 (7.69%) WCAG
Vendors
1 1 (7.69%) IBM
1 1 (7.69%) Microsoft
1 1 (7.69%) Siebel