OLE Contracts

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring OLE skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited OLE over the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 518 574 688
Rank change year-on-year +56 +114 +172
Contract jobs citing OLE 4 5 6
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.014% 0.012% 0.010%
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 0.061% 0.056% 0.045%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 5 1
10th Percentile £380 - -
25th Percentile £425 £505 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £510 £488
Median % change year-on-year +7.84% +4.62% -8.88%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £506
90th Percentile - £603 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £588 £488
% change year-on-year -23.40% +20.51% -8.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £29.07 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK

OLE falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 6,586 8,906 13,256
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.58% 20.94% 23.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,515 6,185 9,677
10th Percentile £363 £350 £400
25th Percentile £419 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% -
75th Percentile £644 £650 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 247 144
10th Percentile £30.15 £21.25 £25.75
25th Percentile £50.00 £43.00 £50.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.84% -26.92% +30.00%
75th Percentile £68.75 £65.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £82.19 £74.46 £80.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +36.84% -26.92% +30.00%

OLE
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for OLE in the UK

OLE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for OLE in the UK

OLE
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing OLE over the 6 months to 21 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for OLE in the UK

OLE
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for OLE in the UK

OLE
Top 7 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing OLE within the UK over the 6 months to 21 May 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 +44 3 £450 -23.40% 9
UK excluding London +55 2 £450 -23.40% 6
North of England +21 1 £550 -12.00% 4
Midlands +16 1 £350 -36.36% 1
West Midlands +10 1 £350 -36.36%
London - 1 - - 4
North West - 1 £550 - 1

OLE
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 (25.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (25.00%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 2 (50.00%) AWS
1 2 (50.00%) Azure
2 1 (25.00%) Akamai
2 1 (25.00%) Anthropic Claude
2 1 (25.00%) Azure AI
2 1 (25.00%) GCP
2 1 (25.00%) Google Gemini
2 1 (25.00%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (25.00%) DMZ
1 1 (25.00%) DNS
1 1 (25.00%) Firewall
1 1 (25.00%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (25.00%) MS Access
1 1 (25.00%) Neo4j
1 1 (25.00%) Power BI
1 1 (25.00%) Power Query
1 1 (25.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 1 (25.00%) Git
General
1 3 (75.00%) Finance
1 3 (75.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (25.00%) Legal
3 1 (25.00%) Local Government
3 1 (25.00%) Manufacturing
3 1 (25.00%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 2 (50.00%) Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
2 1 (25.00%) Business Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Compliance Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Compliance Business Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Data Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Data Business Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Data Compliance Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Data Migration Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Data Migration Business Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Functional Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Functional Business Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Information Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Information Officer
2 1 (25.00%) Migration Analyst
2 1 (25.00%) Senior
2 1 (25.00%) Subject Matter Expert
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) PyTorch
1 1 (25.00%) TensorFlow
1 1 (25.00%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Algorithms
1 1 (25.00%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
1 1 (25.00%) Onboarding
1 1 (25.00%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Computer Science
2 2 (50.00%) Business Analysis
2 2 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 2 (50.00%) Data Analysis
2 2 (50.00%) Data Modelling
2 2 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (50.00%) SDLC
3 1 (25.00%) Application Security
3 1 (25.00%) Artificial Intelligence
3 1 (25.00%) Conflict Resolution
3 1 (25.00%) Containerisation
3 1 (25.00%) Economics
3 1 (25.00%) Feature Engineering
3 1 (25.00%) Generative AI
3 1 (25.00%) LLM
3 1 (25.00%) Mathematics
3 1 (25.00%) Multi-Agent System
3 1 (25.00%) Roadmaps
3 1 (25.00%) Statistics
3 1 (25.00%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 1 (25.00%) Python
1 1 (25.00%) R
1 1 (25.00%) SQL
1 1 (25.00%) VBA
Qualifications
1 2 (50.00%) Degree
2 1 (25.00%) CISM
2 1 (25.00%) CISSP
2 1 (25.00%) Computer Science Degree
2 1 (25.00%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (25.00%) QA
System Software
1 1 (25.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (25.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (25.00%) Ariba
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft
1 1 (25.00%) SAP