MQSeries Contract Job Trends

IBM MQSeries
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring MQSeries skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 503 571
Rank change year-on-year -70 +68 +178
Contract jobs citing MQSeries 11 26 9
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.029% 0.082% 0.021%
As % of the Application Platforms category 0.29% 0.74% 0.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 12 6
10th Percentile - £463 £491
25th Percentile £525 £509 £508
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £633 £544
Median % change year-on-year -5.14% +16.32% +16.00%
75th Percentile - £729 £563
90th Percentile £630 £759 £644
UK excluding London median daily rate - £475 £494
% change year-on-year - -3.80% +25.40%

All Application Platform Skills
UK

MQSeries falls under the Application Platforms category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring application platform skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for application platform skills 3,799 3,518 4,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.02% 11.10% 9.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,639 2,166 2,862
10th Percentile £290 £250 £250
25th Percentile £400 £383 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £600
90th Percentile £693 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +5.56% - -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 70 147
10th Percentile £14.60 £17.07 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.50 £21.44 £16.59
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% +56.86% +36.00%
75th Percentile £69.25 £62.50 £54.75
90th Percentile £82.40 £66.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £50.91 £24.00
% change year-on-year -55.80% +112.11% +35.44%

MQSeries
Job Vacancy Trend

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

MQSeries job vacancy trend in the UK

MQSeries
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MQSeries

MQSeries
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing MQSeries over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for MQSeries in the UK

MQSeries
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing MQSeries

MQSeries
Top 3 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing MQSeries within the UK over the 6 months to 23 January 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
London -31 10 £600 -16.08%
England -59 10 £600 +4.35%
Work from Home -22 2 £613 -11.23%

MQSeries
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 (9.09%) CICS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (9.09%) DB2
General
1 7 (63.64%) Banking
1 7 (63.64%) Finance
1 7 (63.64%) Private Banking
2 4 (36.36%) Financial Institution
3 1 (9.09%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 10 (90.91%) Developer
2 6 (54.55%) Analyst
2 6 (54.55%) Analyst Developer
3 5 (45.45%) AS400 Developer
4 3 (27.27%) Java Developer
4 3 (27.27%) Kafka Developer
5 2 (18.18%) RPG Developer
6 1 (9.09%) Mainframe Programmer
6 1 (9.09%) Mainframe Systems Programmer
6 1 (9.09%) Programmer
6 1 (9.09%) Systems Programmer
6 1 (9.09%) z/OS Systems Programmer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (63.64%) XML
2 3 (27.27%) Kafka
3 1 (9.09%) ISPF
3 1 (9.09%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 7 (63.64%) AS400
2 3 (27.27%) iSeries
2 3 (27.27%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (9.09%) IBM Mainframe
3 1 (9.09%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 1 (9.09%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (54.55%) Change Control
2 5 (45.45%) Integration Testing
2 5 (45.45%) Portfolio Management
2 5 (45.45%) Wealth Management
3 4 (36.36%) Continuous Improvement
3 4 (36.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 4 (36.36%) Translating Business Requirements
4 2 (18.18%) Migration
5 1 (9.09%) Capacity Planning
5 1 (9.09%) Code Quality
5 1 (9.09%) Disaster Recovery
5 1 (9.09%) High Availability
5 1 (9.09%) Performance Tuning
5 1 (9.09%) Problem-Solving
5 1 (9.09%) Storage Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (81.82%) Java
2 7 (63.64%) RPG
2 7 (63.64%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (27.27%) SC Cleared
1 3 (27.27%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (45.45%) QA
System Software
1 1 (9.09%) Job Entry Subsystem
1 1 (9.09%) RACF
1 1 (9.09%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 6 (54.55%) Control-M
Vendors
1 10 (90.91%) IBM