PHP Contract Job Trends

PHP
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs citing PHP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 626 399 326
Rank change year-on-year -227 -73 -6
Contract jobs citing PHP 66 169 237
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.49% 0.65%
As % of the Programming Languages category 0.45% 1.52% 2.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 111 169
10th Percentile £363 £300 £313
25th Percentile £422 £356 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £413 £425
Median % change year-on-year +15.15% -2.94% -5.56%
75th Percentile £538 £484 £544
90th Percentile - £569 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £413 £438
% change year-on-year +27.27% -5.71% +5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 2
10th Percentile - - £34.89
25th Percentile - £33.25 £37.62
Median hourly rate - £34.50 £42.79
Median % change year-on-year - -19.36% +93.25%
75th Percentile - £38.30 £48.58
90th Percentile - £42.89 £51.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Programming Languages
UK

PHP falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing coding skills.

6 months to
31 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing coding skills 14,562 11,142 11,711
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 26.72% 32.46% 32.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,491 7,305 7,577
10th Percentile £363 £340 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £505 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -3.81% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £618 £645
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 589 314 293
10th Percentile £21.01 £29.00 £25.26
25th Percentile £42.00 £42.25 £40.58
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.61 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.24% -3.02% -
75th Percentile £71.00 £67.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.32 £78.03 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00

PHP Job Vacancy Trend

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

PHP job vacancy trend in the UK

PHP Daily Rate Trend

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

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

PHP Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PHP over the 6 months to 31 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PHP in the UK

PHP Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

PHP Top 10 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PHP within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -185 61 £475 +18.01% 62
UK excluding London -117 37 £525 +27.27% 57
London -122 22 £450 +12.50% 10
Work from Home -88 21 £450 +9.09% 36
South West -8 19 £525 +75.00% 6
North of England -81 14 £375 +4.46% 11
Yorkshire -38 9 £375 -3.23% 6
South East -64 4 £444 -22.83% 22
North West -50 3 £345 -3.63% 4
North East -33 2 £375 - 1

PHP Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Programming Languages

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1JavaScript28.8%19
2SQL18.2%12
3TypeScript13.6%9
4Go12.1%8
5C#9.1%6
6Python6.1%4
7Java3.0%2
7PowerShell3.0%2
9Dart1.5%1
9Kotlin1.5%1