Unix Contract Job Trends

Unix
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Unix skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 163 118
Rank change year-on-year -61 -45 -20
Contract jobs citing Unix 639 564 765
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.19% 1.75% 2.01%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.18% 12.93% 14.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 403 371 491
10th Percentile £344 £304 £350
25th Percentile £418 £403 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £592 £611 £613
90th Percentile £723 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
% change year-on-year - - -11.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 4 6
10th Percentile £43.81 £41.81 -
25th Percentile £45.67 £49.81 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £25.65
Median % change year-on-year -4.11% +113.45% -62.21%
75th Percentile £55.00 £58.75 £28.75
90th Percentile £74.11 £65.50 £50.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £27.50
% change year-on-year -4.11% +99.09% -57.28%

All Operating Systems
UK

Unix falls under the Operating Systems category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring operating system skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for operating system skills 5,246 4,363 5,368
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.78% 13.50% 14.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,323 2,781 3,503
10th Percentile £190 £190 £200
25th Percentile £313 £306 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £582
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £450
Number of hourly rates quoted 367 264 293
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.77 £13.85
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.74 £18.27
Median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.47% -37.13% -9.03%
75th Percentile £65.22 £58.70 £67.50
90th Percentile £74.46 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £25.15 £49.00
% change year-on-year +6.00% -48.67% +22.00%

Unix
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Unix job vacancy trend in the UK

Unix
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Unix
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Unix over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Unix
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Unix over the 6 months to 4 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Unix within the UK over the 6 months to 4 September 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 -48 523 £500 - 413
UK excluding London -69 338 £475 - 171
London -84 216 £550 +4.76% 297
Work from Home -17 186 £500 +5.26% 125
North of England -39 117 £475 -8.83% 30
South East -55 95 £459 +3.79% 51
North West -1 83 £475 +6.26% 16
Midlands -16 71 £471 -8.50% 11
West Midlands -15 64 £474 -8.89% 10
Scotland -56 43 £430 -9.47% 18
Yorkshire -52 26 £500 -23.08% 7
South West -43 14 £663 -1.85% 36
North East -28 11 £475 - 7
East of England -19 8 £700 +40.00% 13
East Midlands -21 6 £456 +16.24% 1
Wales -13 3 £383 +35.40% 3
Northern Ireland -3 1 - - 12

Unix
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 33 (5.16%) Confluence
2 28 (4.38%) SAS
3 17 (2.66%) Apache Airflow
4 14 (2.19%) SharePoint
5 13 (2.03%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 12 (1.88%) Apache Spark
7 11 (1.72%) Apache
8 8 (1.25%) WebLogic
9 7 (1.10%) OpenStack
10 5 (0.78%) WebSphere
11 4 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
12 3 (0.47%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.31%) CICS
13 2 (0.31%) CMS
13 2 (0.31%) IBM HTTP Server
13 2 (0.31%) IIS
13 2 (0.31%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.31%) Oracle Service Bus
13 2 (0.31%) WebLogic Portal
13 2 (0.31%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 14 (2.19%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.10%) Notepad++
4 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.25%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.94%) SAP PSCD
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Assets
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle E-Business Tax
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle FAH
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle General Ledger
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Internet Expenses
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle iProcurement
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (0.63%) Oracle Receivables
3 4 (0.63%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.63%) Summit
4 3 (0.47%) FLEXCUBE
4 3 (0.47%) Oracle Applications
4 3 (0.47%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (0.47%) Oracle Financials
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.31%) Oracle Retail
6 1 (0.16%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 144 (22.54%) AWS
2 87 (13.62%) Azure
3 47 (7.36%) GitHub
4 42 (6.57%) GCP
5 30 (4.69%) GitHub Actions
6 26 (4.07%) AWS Lambda
6 26 (4.07%) Serverless
7 24 (3.76%) Amazon S3
7 24 (3.76%) IaaS
8 21 (3.29%) Entra ID
9 18 (2.82%) SaaS
10 16 (2.50%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (2.50%) PaaS
11 14 (2.19%) OpenShift
11 14 (2.19%) Power Platform
12 12 (1.88%) Snowflake
13 10 (1.56%) Amazon EC2
13 10 (1.56%) AWS CloudFormation
13 10 (1.56%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (1.41%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.38%) DNS
1 28 (4.38%) Firewall
2 27 (4.23%) TCP/IP
3 21 (3.29%) SAN
4 15 (2.35%) HTTP
5 12 (1.88%) DHCP
6 11 (1.72%) SSH
6 11 (1.72%) SSL
7 10 (1.56%) NAS
8 7 (1.10%) LAN
8 7 (1.10%) LTE
8 7 (1.10%) PuTTY
8 7 (1.10%) WAN
8 7 (1.10%) WinSCP
9 6 (0.94%) 5G
9 6 (0.94%) Diameter Protocol
9 6 (0.94%) Internet
9 6 (0.94%) Network Security
9 6 (0.94%) VoLTE
9 6 (0.94%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (8.76%) SQL Server
2 55 (8.61%) Oracle Database
3 47 (7.36%) Relational Database
4 41 (6.42%) PostgreSQL
5 40 (6.26%) Data Warehouse
6 24 (3.76%) MongoDB
7 21 (3.29%) MySQL
8 20 (3.13%) Db2
9 19 (2.97%) Metadata
10 18 (2.82%) NoSQL
10 18 (2.82%) Oracle Database 11g
11 16 (2.50%) DataStage
11 16 (2.50%) RDBMS
12 14 (2.19%) Amazon Aurora
12 14 (2.19%) Data Lake
12 14 (2.19%) Power BI
13 13 (2.03%) BusinessObjects
13 13 (2.03%) Oracle Reports
13 13 (2.03%) Sybase ASE
14 12 (1.88%) KDB
Development Applications
1 77 (12.05%) Git
2 70 (10.95%) Jenkins
3 57 (8.92%) JIRA
4 51 (7.98%) GitLab
5 22 (3.44%) Artifactory
6 14 (2.19%) Sonatype Nexus
7 11 (1.72%) Bitbucket
7 11 (1.72%) JUnit
7 11 (1.72%) SonarQube
8 10 (1.56%) Mockito
9 9 (1.41%) Maven
9 9 (1.41%) Oracle Forms
10 8 (1.25%) eggPlant
10 8 (1.25%) Selenium
11 5 (0.78%) Gradle
11 5 (0.78%) HP UFT
11 5 (0.78%) JMeter
11 5 (0.78%) LoadRunner
11 5 (0.78%) Postman
11 5 (0.78%) SoapUI
General
1 164 (25.67%) Finance
2 147 (23.00%) Social Skills
3 106 (16.59%) Banking
4 103 (16.12%) Analytical Skills
5 52 (8.14%) Public Sector
6 30 (4.69%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.44%) Front Office
8 21 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.72%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.25%) Retail
11 6 (0.94%) Financial Institution
12 5 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.78%) Military
13 4 (0.63%) Corporate Banking
13 4 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.47%) General Ledger
14 3 (0.47%) Legal
15 2 (0.31%) Back Office
15 2 (0.31%) Law
Job Titles
1 140 (21.91%) Developer
2 104 (16.28%) Senior
3 65 (10.17%) Data Engineer
4 64 (10.02%) Unix Engineer
5 53 (8.29%) Senior Developer
6 48 (7.51%) Java Developer
7 36 (5.63%) DBA
8 33 (5.16%) Python Developer
9 32 (5.01%) Support Engineer
10 30 (4.69%) Analyst
10 30 (4.69%) Linux Engineer
11 25 (3.91%) Consultant
12 24 (3.76%) Architect
13 23 (3.60%) Oracle DBA
14 21 (3.29%) Administrator
15 20 (3.13%) Senior Java Developer
16 17 (2.66%) Applications Support
16 17 (2.66%) DevOps Engineer
17 15 (2.35%) Lead
18 13 (2.03%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (10.64%) Kafka
2 48 (7.51%) Terraform
3 43 (6.73%) REST
4 40 (6.26%) Middleware
4 40 (6.26%) RESTful
5 32 (5.01%) Spring
6 31 (4.85%) Spring Boot
7 26 (4.07%) XML
8 22 (3.44%) Web Services
9 21 (3.29%) .NET
10 19 (2.97%) HTML
10 19 (2.97%) SOAP
11 17 (2.66%) CSS
12 16 (2.50%) RabbitMQ
13 15 (2.35%) Django
13 15 (2.35%) Flask
13 15 (2.35%) Pandas
14 14 (2.19%) PySpark
15 13 (2.03%) FastAPI
15 13 (2.03%) JDBC
Miscellaneous
1 47 (7.36%) Onboarding
2 37 (5.79%) Linux Command Line
3 36 (5.63%) Legacy Systems
4 32 (5.01%) Data Centre
4 32 (5.01%) Distributed Systems
5 29 (4.54%) Cloud Native
6 21 (3.29%) Fixed Income
7 20 (3.13%) Management Information System
7 20 (3.13%) Replication
8 18 (2.82%) Derivative
9 16 (2.50%) Clustering
10 15 (2.35%) Mainframe
11 13 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (2.03%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (1.88%) PKI
12 12 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
13 11 (1.72%) Data Structures
13 11 (1.72%) Market Risk
13 11 (1.72%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 431 (67.45%) Linux
2 147 (23.00%) Windows
3 69 (10.80%) Solaris
4 41 (6.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 40 (6.26%) Windows Server
6 30 (4.69%) AIX
7 10 (1.56%) Oracle Linux
8 8 (1.25%) HPUX
9 7 (1.10%) SUSE
9 7 (1.10%) VMS
10 5 (0.78%) CentOS
11 4 (0.63%) Mac OS X
11 4 (0.63%) zOS
12 3 (0.47%) Android
12 3 (0.47%) Check Point GAiA
13 2 (0.31%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.31%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.31%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (24.26%) CI/CD
2 129 (20.19%) Agile
3 108 (16.90%) DevOps
3 108 (16.90%) Migration
4 107 (16.74%) Problem-Solving
5 98 (15.34%) Test Automation
6 81 (12.68%) High Availability
7 77 (12.05%) Root Cause Analysis
8 70 (10.95%) Data Modelling
9 66 (10.33%) ITIL
9 66 (10.33%) Performance Tuning
10 62 (9.70%) Continuous Improvement
11 60 (9.39%) Infrastructure as Code
12 59 (9.23%) Data Pipeline
12 59 (9.23%) ETL
13 57 (8.92%) Runbook
14 56 (8.76%) Containerisation
15 53 (8.29%) Microservices
16 52 (8.14%) Analytics
16 52 (8.14%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 251 (39.28%) Python
2 250 (39.12%) SQL
3 130 (20.34%) Java
4 129 (20.19%) Shell Script
5 87 (13.62%) PL/SQL
6 63 (9.86%) Bash
7 51 (7.98%) PowerShell
8 45 (7.04%) Perl
9 33 (5.16%) JavaScript
10 28 (4.38%) C#
11 21 (3.29%) C++
12 15 (2.35%) C
13 8 (1.25%) Go
13 8 (1.25%) Korn
14 7 (1.10%) MUMPS
15 6 (0.94%) ABAP
15 6 (0.94%) Kotlin
15 6 (0.94%) Scala
15 6 (0.94%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.78%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 225 (35.21%) Security Cleared
2 185 (28.95%) SC Cleared
3 60 (9.39%) Degree
4 33 (5.16%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (3.13%) DV Cleared
6 14 (2.19%) CISSP
7 13 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (1.41%) CISM
9 8 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.10%) CRISC
11 6 (0.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (0.94%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (0.94%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (0.94%) GIAC
11 6 (0.94%) ISEB
11 6 (0.94%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.78%) Oracle Certification
12 5 (0.78%) RHCE
12 5 (0.78%) SANS
13 4 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (5.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.48%) NIST
3 32 (5.01%) QA
4 31 (4.85%) Data Quality
5 12 (1.88%) GDPR
6 11 (1.72%) SLA
7 9 (1.41%) ISO 20022
8 7 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
9 6 (0.94%) ISO 31000
10 5 (0.78%) GRC
10 5 (0.78%) ISO 15022
10 5 (0.78%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.63%) Disclosure Scotland
12 3 (0.47%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.31%) NCSC
13 2 (0.31%) SEPA
14 1 (0.16%) Basel III
14 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
14 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 68 (10.64%) Docker
2 39 (6.10%) Active Directory
3 25 (3.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (2.97%) Oracle RAC
5 16 (2.50%) NFS
6 9 (1.41%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.78%) Firmware
7 5 (0.78%) PowerHA
7 5 (0.78%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.63%) GPFS
8 4 (0.63%) Postfix
8 4 (0.63%) Varnish
8 4 (0.63%) Veritas Volume Manager
8 4 (0.63%) vSphere
9 3 (0.47%) GridGain
9 3 (0.47%) Sendmail
9 3 (0.47%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.16%) RACF
10 1 (0.16%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 79 (12.36%) Kubernetes
2 64 (10.02%) Ansible
3 36 (5.63%) Grafana
4 28 (4.38%) Oracle RMAN
5 24 (3.76%) Prometheus
6 20 (3.13%) Data Guard
7 17 (2.66%) Progress Chef
8 16 (2.50%) Control-M
9 15 (2.35%) Puppet
10 11 (1.72%) Kibana
11 9 (1.41%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (1.25%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 7 (1.10%) Tivoli Storage Manager
14 6 (0.94%) Tivoli
15 5 (0.78%) HP Fortify
15 5 (0.78%) ITRS Geneos
15 5 (0.78%) NetBackup
15 5 (0.78%) Oracle ZFS
16 4 (0.63%) HAProxy
16 4 (0.63%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 244 (38.18%) Oracle
2 55 (8.61%) IBM
3 47 (7.36%) Splunk
4 44 (6.89%) Microsoft
5 40 (6.26%) BeyondTrust
6 31 (4.85%) Red Hat
7 30 (4.69%) CyberArk
7 30 (4.69%) Informatica
8 28 (4.38%) Sybase
8 28 (4.38%) VMware
9 23 (3.60%) Talend
10 22 (3.44%) SAP
11 20 (3.13%) ServiceNow
12 18 (2.82%) Denodo
13 15 (2.35%) Dynatrace
14 13 (2.03%) Google
15 11 (1.72%) AppDynamics
15 11 (1.72%) BT
15 11 (1.72%) SaltStack
15 11 (1.72%) Solace