R Contract Job Trends

R
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring R skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 410 337 366
Rank change year-on-year -73 +29 +37
Contract jobs citing R 181 209 241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.49% 0.63% 0.56%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.58% 1.93% 1.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 116 172
10th Percentile £282 £310 £316
25th Percentile £398 £356 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £491 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.80% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £584 £612 £638
90th Percentile £688 £768 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +5.26% - +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 10 13
10th Percentile £21.67 £20.11 £25.40
25th Percentile £23.43 £21.25 £26.24
Median hourly rate £26.46 £26.25 £35.63
Median % change year-on-year +0.79% -26.33% +37.04%
75th Percentile £29.69 £53.75 £48.75
90th Percentile £31.88 £54.45 £49.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.42 £21.37 £47.50
% change year-on-year +18.94% -55.02% +122.85%

All Programming Languages
UK

R 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 11,483 10,803 13,073
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.95% 32.57% 30.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,613 6,900 9,306
10th Percentile £350 £350 £355
25th Percentile £413 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% -4.55% -2.65%
75th Percentile £618 £645 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.95% -2.50% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 379 244 418
10th Percentile £32.32 £21.25 £35.35
25th Percentile £51.11 £38.44 £47.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -0.13%
75th Percentile £69.72 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £76.40 £85.00 £78.23
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year +3.17% -3.08% -

R
Job Vacancy Trend

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

R job vacancy trend in the UK

R
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

R
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing R over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for R in the UK

R
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

R
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing R within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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
England -59 162 £496 -3.22% 255
London -30 86 £500 -4.76% 127
UK excluding London -62 72 £500 +5.26% 168
Work from Home +8 62 £518 +2.22% 57
Midlands -34 20 £435 +12.26% 27
South East -9 19 £600 +17.07% 50
North of England -49 16 £465 +30.62% 51
North West -18 14 £479 +34.41% 26
East Midlands -14 13 £385 +13.24% 13
East of England -17 8 £641 -1.38% 18
West Midlands -32 7 £475 -12.60% 14
Wales -1 5 £366 - 3
Scotland 0 2 £569 +21.66% 9
South West -19 2 - - 10
Yorkshire -51 2 £450 +20.00% 20

R
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 23 (12.71%) Apache Spark
2 17 (9.39%) SAS
3 8 (4.42%) SharePoint
4 5 (2.76%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (2.21%) Apache
6 3 (1.66%) Confluence
7 1 (0.55%) Jupyter
Applications
1 24 (13.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (4.97%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.55%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.55%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 2 (1.10%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.55%) NEC Housing
2 1 (0.55%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.55%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.55%) SAP IBP
2 1 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.55%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 71 (39.23%) Power Platform
2 55 (30.39%) Azure
3 39 (21.55%) AWS
4 26 (14.36%) GCP
5 10 (5.52%) Snowflake
6 9 (4.97%) Power Automate
6 9 (4.97%) PowerApps
7 8 (4.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 7 (3.87%) Azure Machine Learning
9 6 (3.31%) Azure Data Factory
10 4 (2.21%) Azure AKS
10 4 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (2.21%) Microsoft Purview
11 3 (1.66%) Adobe Analytics
11 3 (1.66%) Amazon Bedrock
11 3 (1.66%) Copilot Studio
11 3 (1.66%) dbt
11 3 (1.66%) Google Analytics
12 2 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
12 2 (1.10%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.10%) 2G
1 2 (1.10%) 5G
1 2 (1.10%) LTE
1 2 (1.10%) Mobile Backhaul
1 2 (1.10%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (39.23%) Power BI
2 47 (25.97%) Tableau
3 24 (13.26%) Big Data
4 20 (11.05%) Data Warehouse
5 17 (9.39%) Hadoop
6 12 (6.63%) Data Lake
7 9 (4.97%) Data Mining
8 8 (4.42%) Looker
8 8 (4.42%) NoSQL
8 8 (4.42%) Power Query
9 6 (3.31%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (3.31%) Delta Lake
9 6 (3.31%) Metadata
10 5 (2.76%) Relational Database
10 5 (2.76%) Spark SQL
11 4 (2.21%) SQL Server
12 3 (1.66%) BigQuery
12 3 (1.66%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 3 (1.66%) Impala
12 3 (1.66%) Spotfire
Development Applications
1 14 (7.73%) Git
2 5 (2.76%) Jenkins
3 4 (2.21%) JIRA
3 4 (2.21%) MLflow
4 2 (1.10%) GoCD
4 2 (1.10%) SonarQube
4 2 (1.10%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (1.10%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.55%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.55%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.55%) Maven
5 1 (0.55%) RStudio
General
1 64 (35.36%) Social Skills
2 58 (32.04%) Analytical Skills
3 47 (25.97%) Finance
4 18 (9.94%) Marketing
4 18 (9.94%) Public Sector
5 13 (7.18%) Banking
5 13 (7.18%) Pharmaceutical
6 6 (3.31%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (2.76%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.21%) Legal
9 3 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.66%) Local Government
10 2 (1.10%) Digital Health
10 2 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.10%) Retail
10 2 (1.10%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.55%) Advertising
11 1 (0.55%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 45 (24.86%) Data Scientist
2 38 (20.99%) Analyst
3 28 (15.47%) Data Analyst
4 20 (11.05%) Senior
5 18 (9.94%) Data Engineer
6 17 (9.39%) Developer
7 14 (7.73%) Architect
8 10 (5.52%) Lead
9 8 (4.42%) Senior Data Scientist
9 8 (4.42%) Software Engineer
10 7 (3.87%) Business Intelligence Developer
11 6 (3.31%) Azure Engineer
11 6 (3.31%) Consultant
11 6 (3.31%) Power BI Developer
12 5 (2.76%) Business Analyst
13 4 (2.21%) Machine Learning Engineer
13 4 (2.21%) Python Engineer
13 4 (2.21%) Senior Analyst
13 4 (2.21%) SQL Analyst
13 4 (2.21%) SQL Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (7.73%) scikit-learn
1 14 (7.73%) TensorFlow
2 11 (6.08%) Pandas
2 11 (6.08%) PyTorch
3 8 (4.42%) PySpark
4 5 (2.76%) Kafka
5 4 (2.21%) YAML
6 3 (1.66%) FastAPI
6 3 (1.66%) FHIR
6 3 (1.66%) JSON
6 3 (1.66%) Matplotlib
6 3 (1.66%) NumPy
6 3 (1.66%) Seaborn
6 3 (1.66%) Shiny
7 2 (1.10%) Google JAX
7 2 (1.10%) JAX
7 2 (1.10%) LangChain
7 2 (1.10%) LangGraph
7 2 (1.10%) NLTK
7 2 (1.10%) Plotly
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.29%) Algorithms
2 12 (6.63%) Credit Risk
3 9 (4.97%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (4.42%) Data Structures
5 7 (3.87%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.31%) Product Ownership
7 5 (2.76%) Management Information System
8 4 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (2.21%) NHS
9 3 (1.66%) IoT
9 3 (1.66%) Multi-touch
10 2 (1.10%) AI Agents
10 2 (1.10%) Distributed Computing
10 2 (1.10%) Genomics
10 2 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (1.10%) Mobile App
10 2 (1.10%) Onboarding
10 2 (1.10%) Security Posture
11 1 (0.55%) CRISPR
Operating Systems
1 3 (1.66%) Linux
2 2 (1.10%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (48.62%) Data Science
2 82 (45.30%) Analytics
3 75 (41.44%) Business Intelligence
4 70 (38.67%) Machine Learning
5 62 (34.25%) Visualisation
6 48 (26.52%) Data Analysis
7 47 (25.97%) Decision-Making
8 46 (25.41%) Data Modelling
9 44 (24.31%) Problem-Solving
10 36 (19.89%) Agile
11 35 (19.34%) Actionable Insight
12 34 (18.78%) Data Governance
12 34 (18.78%) Statistical Modelling
13 33 (18.23%) Data Visualisation
14 30 (16.57%) AI
15 29 (16.02%) Validation
16 26 (14.36%) CI/CD
17 22 (12.15%) Data Analytics
18 21 (11.60%) Data Pipeline
18 21 (11.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 171 (94.48%) Python
2 125 (69.06%) SQL
3 15 (8.29%) Java
4 13 (7.18%) C++
5 9 (4.97%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 9 (4.97%) Scala
6 8 (4.42%) MATLAB
7 5 (2.76%) JavaScript
8 4 (2.21%) PL/SQL
8 4 (2.21%) VBA
9 3 (1.66%) C
9 3 (1.66%) Go
10 2 (1.10%) Ada
10 2 (1.10%) C#
10 2 (1.10%) Rust
10 2 (1.10%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.55%) Fortran
11 1 (0.55%) Korn
11 1 (0.55%) PowerShell
11 1 (0.55%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 33 (18.23%) Degree
2 24 (13.26%) Security Cleared
3 19 (10.50%) SC Cleared
4 12 (6.63%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (4.42%) BPSS Clearance
5 8 (4.42%) Master's Degree
6 5 (2.76%) PhD
7 4 (2.21%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.10%) Azure Certification
8 2 (1.10%) MCP
8 2 (1.10%) Tableau Certification
9 1 (0.55%) ACCA
9 1 (0.55%) CFA
9 1 (0.55%) CIMA
9 1 (0.55%) CTC Cleared
9 1 (0.55%) DBS Check
9 1 (0.55%) GIAC
9 1 (0.55%) Numerate Degree
9 1 (0.55%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (16.57%) Data Quality
2 9 (4.97%) GDPR
3 8 (4.42%) QA
4 4 (2.21%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (1.10%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.10%) DICOM
5 2 (1.10%) EU AI Act
5 2 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.10%) NIST
5 2 (1.10%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.55%) HL7
6 1 (0.55%) IFRS
6 1 (0.55%) IFRS 9
6 1 (0.55%) LOINC
6 1 (0.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.55%) SNOMED CT
6 1 (0.55%) WCAG
System Software
1 10 (5.52%) Docker
2 2 (1.10%) HDFS
3 1 (0.55%) Lustre
3 1 (0.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 13 (7.18%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.10%) Ansible
2 2 (1.10%) rkt
2 2 (1.10%) Terraform
3 1 (0.55%) Packer
3 1 (0.55%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 25 (13.81%) Databricks
2 22 (12.15%) Microsoft
3 9 (4.97%) Oracle
4 7 (3.87%) Pega
5 6 (3.31%) Google
6 4 (2.21%) SAP
6 4 (2.21%) ServiceNow
7 3 (1.66%) Adobe
7 3 (1.66%) Cognos
7 3 (1.66%) Informatica
7 3 (1.66%) Splunk
7 3 (1.66%) TIBCO
8 2 (1.10%) Alteryx
8 2 (1.10%) Amplitude
8 2 (1.10%) Bloomberg
8 2 (1.10%) Dynatrace
8 2 (1.10%) OpenAI
8 2 (1.10%) Red Hat
8 2 (1.10%) Refinitiv
9 1 (0.55%) TikTok