TARGET2 Contract Job Trends

TARGET2
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring TARGET2 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 7 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 588 524 606
Rank change year-on-year -64 +82 +154
Contract jobs citing TARGET2 3 3 1
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.008% 0.010% 0.002%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.045% 0.066% 0.015%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £675 £713 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £700 £725 -
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% - -
75th Percentile £725 £738 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate - - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

TARGET2 falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 6,735 4,527 6,505
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.26% 14.56% 14.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,329 2,666 4,295
10th Percentile £325 £260 £300
25th Percentile £412 £375 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £634
90th Percentile £700 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.81% +2.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 347 169 337
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £12.25
25th Percentile £18.04 £21.00 £14.50
Median hourly rate £25.77 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.14% +16.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £51.58
90th Percentile £69.79 £75.67 £72.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £29.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year -17.24% +16.00% -7.85%

TARGET2
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing TARGET2 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

TARGET2 job vacancy trend in the UK

TARGET2
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TARGET2.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TARGET2

TARGET2
Top 2 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing TARGET2 within the UK over the 6 months to 7 February 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
London -25 3 £700 -3.45% 3
England -72 3 £700 -3.45% 3

TARGET2
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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (66.67%) AWS
1 2 (66.67%) Azure
1 2 (66.67%) GCP
General
1 3 (100.00%) Banking
1 3 (100.00%) Finance
2 2 (66.67%) Social Skills
3 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (66.67%) Architect
1 2 (66.67%) Solutions Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Applications Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Banking Project Manager
2 1 (33.33%) Payments Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Payments Project Manager
2 1 (33.33%) Payments Solutions Architect
2 1 (33.33%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) .NET
1 1 (33.33%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 3 (100.00%) SWIFT Messaging Network
2 1 (33.33%) Data Protection Act
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Business Strategy
1 2 (66.67%) CI/CD
1 2 (66.67%) Containerisation
1 2 (66.67%) DevOps
1 2 (66.67%) Enterprise Architecture
1 2 (66.67%) Microservices
1 2 (66.67%) Migration
1 2 (66.67%) Regulatory Change
2 1 (33.33%) Agile
2 1 (33.33%) Analytical Thinking
2 1 (33.33%) Anti-Money Laundering
2 1 (33.33%) API Design
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (33.33%) Data Protection
2 1 (33.33%) IT Strategy
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (33.33%) Technology Strategy
2 1 (33.33%) Translating Business Requirements
2 1 (33.33%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) Java
1 1 (33.33%) Python
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (66.67%) ISO 20022
1 2 (66.67%) PSD2
1 2 (66.67%) SEPA
System Software
1 1 (33.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (33.33%) Kubernetes