Programmer Contracts

Programmer
UK

The median Programmer daily rate in the UK is £400, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 July 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
3 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 496 436 591
Rank change year-on-year -60 +155 +175
Contract jobs requiring a Programmer 43 155 94
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.14% 0.36% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.15% 0.38% 0.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 72 30
10th Percentile £295 £325 £372
25th Percentile £334 £486 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £535 £450
Median % change year-on-year -25.23% +18.89% -
75th Percentile £468 £550 £497
90th Percentile £513 £588 £578
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £534 £425
% change year-on-year -25.02% +25.53% +9.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 56 6
10th Percentile - £15.25 £35.63
25th Percentile - £16.58 £44.75
Median hourly rate - £18.32 £63.75
Median % change year-on-year - -71.27% +2.00%
75th Percentile - £20.09 £65.00
90th Percentile - £33.49 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £18.13 £42.16
% change year-on-year - -56.99% -

All Contract 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 28,823 40,432 52,711
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 93.00% 94.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,389 25,993 36,631
10th Percentile £288 £285 £313
25th Percentile £401 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.42%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £494 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,297 2,846 1,533
10th Percentile £13.85 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.44 £16.65 £19.00
Median hourly rate £26.50 £37.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.33% -12.79% +68.63%
75th Percentile £55.25 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.45 £74.00 £76.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -37.13% - +96.08%

Programmer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Programmer in the UK

Programmer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Programmer in the UK

Programmer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Programmer over the 6 months to 3 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Programmer in the UK

Programmer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Programmer in the UK

Programmer
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Programmer within the UK over the 6 months to 3 July 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 -54 24 £405 -24.30% 654
UK excluding London -61 22 £400 -25.02% 527
Work from Home -5 16 £475 -11.26% 319
London +43 14 £393 -28.64% 169
Scotland - 12 £340 - 31
Yorkshire +2 3 £400 -23.81% 51
North of England -13 3 £400 -23.81% 155
Midlands -48 3 £370 -30.84% 90
East of England +14 2 £485 +61.67% 77
East Midlands -1 2 - - 31
Wales - 2 - - 18
West Midlands -49 1 £370 -30.84% 59

Programmer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 July 2025, Programmer 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 Programmer in the job title.

1 19 (44.19%) Mainframe
2 16 (37.21%) zOS
2 16 (37.21%) Python
3 14 (32.56%) REXX
4 13 (30.23%) IBM
4 13 (30.23%) JCL
5 12 (27.91%) ISPF
5 12 (27.91%) OMEGAMON
5 12 (27.91%) Time Sharing Option
6 11 (25.58%) Technical Analysis
6 11 (25.58%) Management Information System
6 11 (25.58%) OO
6 11 (25.58%) CICS
6 11 (25.58%) Assembly Language
6 11 (25.58%) Linux
6 11 (25.58%) Social Skills
7 10 (23.26%) Unix
7 10 (23.26%) Perl
7 10 (23.26%) CLIST
7 10 (23.26%) Storage Management
7 10 (23.26%) Capacity Management
8 8 (18.60%) Data Sharing
9 7 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (16.28%) High Availability
9 7 (16.28%) Performance Monitoring
9 7 (16.28%) DB2
9 7 (16.28%) SAS
10 6 (13.95%) RACF
10 6 (13.95%) ITIL
10 6 (13.95%) Risk Management

Programmer 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:

Application Platforms
1 11 (25.58%) CICS
2 7 (16.28%) SAS
3 1 (2.33%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 2 (4.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (2.33%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 1 (2.33%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.33%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (16.28%) DB2
Development Applications
1 2 (4.65%) GCC
General
1 11 (25.58%) Social Skills
2 5 (11.63%) Banking
2 5 (11.63%) Finance
3 1 (2.33%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (2.33%) Financial Institution
3 1 (2.33%) Local Government
3 1 (2.33%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (27.91%) ISPF
2 2 (4.65%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (4.65%) RESTful
2 2 (4.65%) Web Services
3 1 (2.33%) Akka
3 1 (2.33%) Middleware
3 1 (2.33%) Play Framework
3 1 (2.33%) React
3 1 (2.33%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 19 (44.19%) Mainframe
2 11 (25.58%) Management Information System
3 5 (11.63%) Replication
4 2 (4.65%) Onboarding
5 1 (2.33%) AS400
5 1 (2.33%) iSeries
5 1 (2.33%) Legacy Applications
5 1 (2.33%) N-Tier
5 1 (2.33%) VAX
Operating Systems
1 16 (37.21%) zOS
2 11 (25.58%) Linux
3 10 (23.26%) Unix
4 2 (4.65%) OS/2
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (25.58%) OO
1 11 (25.58%) Technical Analysis
2 10 (23.26%) Capacity Management
2 10 (23.26%) Storage Management
3 8 (18.60%) Data Sharing
4 7 (16.28%) High Availability
4 7 (16.28%) Performance Monitoring
4 7 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (13.95%) ITIL
5 6 (13.95%) Risk Management
6 5 (11.63%) Disaster Recovery
7 4 (9.30%) Change Data Capture
7 4 (9.30%) Cost Reduction
7 4 (9.30%) Performance Tuning
7 4 (9.30%) Root Cause Analysis
7 4 (9.30%) Runbook
8 3 (6.98%) Agile
8 3 (6.98%) Problem Management
9 2 (4.65%) Data Analysis
9 2 (4.65%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 16 (37.21%) Python
2 14 (32.56%) REXX
3 13 (30.23%) JCL
4 11 (25.58%) Assembly Language
5 10 (23.26%) CLIST
5 10 (23.26%) Perl
6 5 (11.63%) COBOL
7 4 (9.30%) Java
8 3 (6.98%) PL/1
8 3 (6.98%) SQL
9 2 (4.65%) PowerShell
10 1 (2.33%) C#
10 1 (2.33%) C++
10 1 (2.33%) PHP
10 1 (2.33%) VB
Qualifications
1 1 (2.33%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (2.33%) Degree
1 1 (2.33%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.33%) GDPR
1 1 (2.33%) QA
1 1 (2.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 12 (27.91%) Time Sharing Option
2 6 (13.95%) RACF
3 3 (6.98%) Job Entry Subsystem
4 1 (2.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 12 (27.91%) OMEGAMON
2 3 (6.98%) Tivoli NetView
3 1 (2.33%) CA Endevor
3 1 (2.33%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 13 (30.23%) IBM
2 1 (2.33%) Google
2 1 (2.33%) Progress