PHP Contract Job Trends

PHP
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring PHP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 419 331 300
Rank change year-on-year -88 -31 +50
Contract jobs citing PHP 176 228 341
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.63% 0.75%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.53% 1.96% 2.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 163 268
10th Percentile £300 £319 £263
25th Percentile £356 £340 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £411 £450 £425
Median % change year-on-year -8.61% +5.88% -5.56%
75th Percentile £463 £550 £575
90th Percentile £563 £600 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £450 £400
% change year-on-year -8.33% +12.50% -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 7
10th Percentile - - £16.48
25th Percentile £43.84 £51.25 £17.31
Median hourly rate £44.90 £52.50 £26.78
Median % change year-on-year -14.49% +96.04% -63.93%
75th Percentile £45.95 £53.75 £43.44
90th Percentile - - £56.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £22.14
% change year-on-year - - +26.73%

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 requiring coding skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 11,469 11,649 13,970
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.46% 32.37% 30.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,571 7,464 9,944
10th Percentile £347 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% -2.65%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £754 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 344 285 430
10th Percentile £30.08 £22.00 £31.48
25th Percentile £48.44 £40.58 £47.50
Median hourly rate £63.75 £63.00 £60.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% +4.13% -3.20%
75th Percentile £68.00 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.00 £78.08
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 6 December 2025.

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 16 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 6 December 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 -52 151 £400 -5.88% 235
UK excluding London -80 76 £413 -8.33% 232
Work from Home -32 62 £413 -3.45% 130
London -35 61 £400 - 31
North of England -41 29 £363 -26.77% 78
North West -20 20 £358 -15.76% 38
East of England -7 17 £438 +21.53% 13
Midlands -33 14 £510 +27.50% 40
South East -22 11 £425 -22.73% 61
East Midlands -10 8 £515 +28.75% 16
West Midlands -28 6 £419 +8.06% 24
Yorkshire -37 6 £408 -20.49% 38
Scotland -3 3 £69 -80.29% 4
North East - 3 - - 2
South West -7 1 £300 -14.89% 37
Wales -16 1 £425 -20.93% 1

PHP
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 15 (8.52%) WebLogic
1 15 (8.52%) WebSphere
2 13 (7.39%) SugarCRM
3 10 (5.68%) WordPress
4 9 (5.11%) Drupal
5 5 (2.84%) Confluence
6 4 (2.27%) Apache
6 4 (2.27%) CMS
6 4 (2.27%) SharePoint
7 3 (1.70%) SAS
8 2 (1.14%) FileNet
9 1 (0.57%) Moodle
9 1 (0.57%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (2.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (1.70%) Magento
2 2 (1.14%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 59 (33.52%) AWS
2 32 (18.18%) Azure
3 21 (11.93%) GitHub
4 16 (9.09%) SaaS
5 11 (6.25%) PaaS
6 10 (5.68%) IaaS
6 10 (5.68%) OpenShift
7 8 (4.55%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (3.98%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (3.98%) GCP
9 6 (3.41%) Serverless
10 5 (2.84%) Azure Functions
10 5 (2.84%) ChatGPT
10 5 (2.84%) GitHub Copilot
11 3 (1.70%) Azure API Management
11 3 (1.70%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.70%) Entra ID
12 2 (1.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 2 (1.14%) Intacct
12 2 (1.14%) Stripe
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.70%) TCP/IP
2 2 (1.14%) Firewall
2 2 (1.14%) HTTP
2 2 (1.14%) SSL
3 1 (0.57%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (26.14%) MySQL
2 26 (14.77%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (12.50%) Relational Database
4 11 (6.25%) SQL Server
5 5 (2.84%) Oracle Database
5 5 (2.84%) Redis
6 4 (2.27%) RDBMS
6 4 (2.27%) SQLPlus
7 3 (1.70%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (1.70%) MariaDB
8 2 (1.14%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (1.14%) ImageNet
8 2 (1.14%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.57%) Amazon Aurora
9 1 (0.57%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.57%) CouchDB
9 1 (0.57%) Power BI
9 1 (0.57%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 33 (18.75%) Git
2 20 (11.36%) JIRA
3 10 (5.68%) Jenkins
4 6 (3.41%) Bitbucket
4 6 (3.41%) PHPUnit
5 4 (2.27%) Toad
6 3 (1.70%) JUnit
6 3 (1.70%) Postman
6 3 (1.70%) Subversion
7 2 (1.14%) Cypress.io
7 2 (1.14%) GitLab
7 2 (1.14%) JMeter
7 2 (1.14%) Mercurial
7 2 (1.14%) MSI
7 2 (1.14%) Robot Framework
7 2 (1.14%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (1.14%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.57%) Selenium
General
1 44 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.36%) Public Sector
3 19 (10.80%) Finance
4 14 (7.95%) Marketing
5 8 (4.55%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (3.41%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.84%) Games
8 4 (2.27%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.70%) Billing
9 3 (1.70%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.70%) Military
10 2 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.14%) Electronics
10 2 (1.14%) Retail
11 1 (0.57%) Automotive
11 1 (0.57%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.57%) Law
11 1 (0.57%) Legal
11 1 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 87 (49.43%) Developer
2 34 (19.32%) PHP Developer
3 21 (11.93%) Senior
4 16 (9.09%) Software Engineer
5 14 (7.95%) Consultant
6 11 (6.25%) Lead
7 10 (5.68%) Senior Developer
8 8 (4.55%) Full-Stack Developer
8 8 (4.55%) Oracle Developer
9 7 (3.98%) .NET Developer
10 6 (3.41%) Architect
10 6 (3.41%) DevOps Engineer
11 5 (2.84%) Backend Developer
11 5 (2.84%) C# Developer
11 5 (2.84%) Senior DevOps
12 4 (2.27%) AWS Engineer
12 4 (2.27%) C# .NET Developer
12 4 (2.27%) PHP Software Engineer
12 4 (2.27%) Senior C# Developer
12 4 (2.27%) Senior DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (27.84%) HTML
2 45 (25.57%) .NET
3 40 (22.73%) Node.js
4 36 (20.45%) REST
5 33 (18.75%) CSS
6 20 (11.36%) Laravel
7 16 (9.09%) Middleware
7 16 (9.09%) Vue
8 14 (7.95%) GraphQL
8 14 (7.95%) SOAP
9 12 (6.82%) React
10 10 (5.68%) AngularJS
10 10 (5.68%) Symfony
11 8 (4.55%) HTML5
11 8 (4.55%) RESTful
11 8 (4.55%) Web Services
12 7 (3.98%) CSS3
13 5 (2.84%) OAuth
13 5 (2.84%) Ruby on Rails
13 5 (2.84%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 9 (5.11%) Legacy Systems
2 7 (3.98%) Linux Command Line
3 5 (2.84%) Legacy Code
3 5 (2.84%) Mobile App
3 5 (2.84%) Virtual Team
4 4 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
4 4 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (2.27%) Virtual Reality
5 3 (1.70%) Blog
5 3 (1.70%) Cloud Native
5 3 (1.70%) e-Learning
5 3 (1.70%) NHS
5 3 (1.70%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.14%) 3D Graphics
6 2 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (1.14%) Mixed Reality
6 2 (1.14%) PACS
6 2 (1.14%) PKI
6 2 (1.14%) TM Forum
6 2 (1.14%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 32 (18.18%) Linux
2 23 (13.07%) Windows
3 9 (5.11%) Unix
4 4 (2.27%) Android
4 4 (2.27%) CentOS
4 4 (2.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (2.27%) Windows Server
5 3 (1.70%) Apple iOS
6 2 (1.14%) Debian
6 2 (1.14%) Ubuntu
6 2 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.57%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (30.11%) CI/CD
2 47 (26.70%) Agile
3 36 (20.45%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (15.91%) Containerisation
4 28 (15.91%) DevOps
5 26 (14.77%) Migration
6 21 (11.93%) API Integration
7 20 (11.36%) AI
7 20 (11.36%) Software Engineering
7 20 (11.36%) User Experience
8 19 (10.80%) CRM
9 18 (10.23%) Microservices
10 17 (9.66%) Requirements Gathering
11 16 (9.09%) Full-Stack Development
11 16 (9.09%) MVC
11 16 (9.09%) Observability
12 15 (8.52%) ETL
13 12 (6.82%) Performance Optimisation
14 11 (6.25%) Mentoring
14 11 (6.25%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 59 (33.52%) Python
2 54 (30.68%) JavaScript
3 39 (22.16%) SQL
4 36 (20.45%) Java
5 31 (17.61%) C#
6 24 (13.64%) C++
7 15 (8.52%) C
8 13 (7.39%) Bash
9 12 (6.82%) PL/SQL
10 10 (5.68%) PowerShell
11 8 (4.55%) Ruby
12 7 (3.98%) TypeScript
13 6 (3.41%) Perl
14 5 (2.84%) Delphi
15 4 (2.27%) Go
16 3 (1.70%) VB
17 2 (1.14%) Kotlin
17 2 (1.14%) Shell Script
18 1 (0.57%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 16 (9.09%) Security Cleared
2 10 (5.68%) BPSS Clearance
3 7 (3.98%) SC Cleared
4 6 (3.41%) Degree
5 5 (2.84%) Cisco Certification
6 3 (1.70%) AWS Certification
6 3 (1.70%) CCNA
6 3 (1.70%) CCNP
6 3 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.70%) Master's Degree
7 2 (1.14%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 2 (1.14%) CEH
7 2 (1.14%) CISSP
7 2 (1.14%) DV Cleared
8 1 (0.57%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
8 1 (0.57%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.57%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (13.64%) QA
2 5 (2.84%) Accessibility
3 4 (2.27%) GDPR
4 3 (1.70%) Data Quality
5 2 (1.14%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 2 (1.14%) HIPAA
5 2 (1.14%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.57%) HL7
6 1 (0.57%) Software Quality Assurance
6 1 (0.57%) WCAG
System Software
1 42 (23.86%) Docker
2 7 (3.98%) Active Directory
2 7 (3.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.70%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.14%) Varnish
4 2 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.14%) VirtualBox
4 2 (1.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 31 (17.61%) Kubernetes
2 16 (9.09%) Grafana
3 14 (7.95%) Terraform
4 10 (5.68%) Ansible
5 5 (2.84%) Puppet
6 3 (1.70%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.14%) Icinga
7 2 (1.14%) Kibana
7 2 (1.14%) logstash
7 2 (1.14%) Nagios
7 2 (1.14%) Progress Chef
7 2 (1.14%) Salt
7 2 (1.14%) WMI
8 1 (0.57%) Bitnami
8 1 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 26 (14.77%) Oracle
2 18 (10.23%) Microsoft
3 15 (8.52%) Dynatrace
4 10 (5.68%) AppDynamics
5 7 (3.98%) VMware
6 6 (3.41%) Salesforce
7 5 (2.84%) Google
8 4 (2.27%) Zend
9 3 (1.70%) SAP
10 2 (1.14%) Cisco
10 2 (1.14%) Genesys
10 2 (1.14%) KANA
10 2 (1.14%) New Relic
10 2 (1.14%) Rackspace
10 2 (1.14%) YouTube
11 1 (0.57%) GoCardless
11 1 (0.57%) mParticle
11 1 (0.57%) OneLogin
11 1 (0.57%) OpenAI
11 1 (0.57%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud