Task Automation Contract Job Trends

Task Automation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs citing Task Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 398 261 259
Rank change year-on-year -137 -2 +123
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 329 345 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 1.03% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.70% 1.14% 1.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 210 197 233
10th Percentile £325 £306 £363
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £564 £575 £625
90th Percentile £672 £631 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £475 £466
% change year-on-year +8.42% +1.93% -6.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 7 2
10th Percentile £16.33 £17.89 -
25th Percentile £18.54 £40.28 -
Median hourly rate £25.00 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -60.63% +166.81% -
75th Percentile £62.45 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £65.00 £66.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £66.50 -
% change year-on-year -65.41% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Task Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing process or methodology skills.

6 months to
23 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing process or methodology skills 47,025 30,309 32,016
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 85.24% 90.44% 86.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,250 18,893 19,250
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,553 1,929 1,190
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.72 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £35.82 £25.08 £38.75
Median % change year-on-year +42.85% -35.29% -10.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £42.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £65.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.11 £22.27 £39.68
% change year-on-year +57.67% -43.89% -6.64%

Task Automation Job Vacancy Trend

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

Task Automation job vacancy trend in the UK

Task Automation Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation

Task Automation Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Task Automation over the 6 months to 23 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation

Task Automation Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution for jobs citing Task Automation over the 6 months to 23 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation 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 Task Automation within the UK over the 6 months to 23 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 -108 280 £500 +2.56% 433
UK excluding London -93 168 £515 +8.42% 189
London -109 112 £463 -2.63% 247
Work from Home -80 99 £500 +5.26% 183
North of England -41 73 £500 +11.11% 53
South East -44 45 £538 +12.57% 49
Yorkshire -16 43 £508 +9.14% 14
North West -48 26 £492 +9.85% 36
Midlands -62 16 £600 +15.50% 19
South West -32 14 £513 -4.21% 30
Scotland -36 12 £431 -6.25% 11
West Midlands -67 12 £600 +14.83% 10
East of England -39 9 £480 +6.67% 22
East Midlands -13 4 - - 9
North East -35 4 £275 +37.50% 3
Northern Ireland +2 1 - - 6

Task Automation 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.

Processes & Methodologies

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1CI/CD31.9%105
2DevOps28.6%94
3Infrastructure as Code24.6%81
4ITIL20.7%68
4Problem-Solving20.7%68
6Agile20.4%67
7Continuous Improvement17.0%56
8AI16.4%54
8Observability16.4%54
10Migration15.5%51
11Workflow15.2%50
12Root Cause Analysis14.0%46
13Containerisation13.7%45
14Performance Tuning13.1%43
15ITSM11.6%38
15Runbook11.6%38
17Infrastructure Engineering11.2%37
18Disaster Recovery10.9%36
19Analytics10.0%33
19Platform Engineering10.0%33