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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 174 114 105
Rank change year-on-year -60 -9 -19
Contract jobs citing Unix 582 762 1,018
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 2.12% 2.23%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.31% 15.08% 14.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 384 462 715
10th Percentile £204 £350 £363
25th Percentile £373 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £506 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.77% -8.00% -
75th Percentile £626 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £761 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £505
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.94% -6.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 7 11
10th Percentile £26.30 £31.12 £22.00
25th Percentile £26.38 £38.25 £26.63
Median hourly rate £28.00 £41.00 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.71% -34.92% -10.00%
75th Percentile £42.13 £47.25 £77.75
90th Percentile £49.70 £57.80 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £47.00 £69.00
% change year-on-year +15.96% -31.88% +5.34%

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 4,728 5,052 6,895
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.23% 14.04% 15.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,049 3,083 4,692
10th Percentile £180 £200 £182
25th Percentile £263 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.05%
75th Percentile £563 £583 £607
90th Percentile £660 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £440 £440
% change year-on-year -9.09% - -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 206 345
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.13 £14.66
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £50.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -50.00% +66.67% +20.00%
75th Percentile £55.58 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £51.25 £27.25
% change year-on-year -51.22% +88.07% +21.11%

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 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 -54 482 £500 -4.76% 97
UK excluding London -58 298 £450 -5.26% 86
London -26 236 £565 -0.88% 42
Work from Home -90 147 £475 -5.00% 83
North of England -30 83 £475 -17.75% 11
South East -19 80 £208 -50.15% 35
Scotland -9 59 £450 - 3
Midlands -56 52 £480 -4.71% 15
North West -9 48 £453 -15.80% 6
West Midlands -47 45 £515 -1.90% 9
Yorkshire -36 33 £613 -2.78% 3
South West -18 15 £700 +47.37% 13
East Midlands -11 7 £430 +15.67% 6
East of England -26 6 £500 +25.00% 5
North East -7 4 £500 -9.09% 2
Wales -5 3 £265 +64.51% 4
Northern Ireland -7 3 - - 1

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 41 (7.04%) Apache
2 32 (5.50%) Confluence
3 26 (4.47%) WebLogic
4 23 (3.95%) JBoss
5 20 (3.44%) SharePoint
6 14 (2.41%) Tomcat
7 13 (2.23%) WebSphere
8 9 (1.55%) IIS
9 8 (1.37%) iPlanet
9 8 (1.37%) WebSphere Application Server
10 6 (1.03%) nginx
11 5 (0.86%) Apache Spark
11 5 (0.86%) Microsoft Exchange
11 5 (0.86%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.69%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.69%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
13 2 (0.34%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.34%) SAS
14 1 (0.17%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 18 (3.09%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (1.20%) Oracle EBS
1 7 (1.20%) Oracle EBS R12
2 5 (0.86%) ION MarketView
2 5 (0.86%) Oracle 11i
2 5 (0.86%) Oracle Assets
2 5 (0.86%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (0.69%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 4 (0.69%) SAP IBP
4 3 (0.52%) Kondor
4 3 (0.52%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.52%) Oracle BRM
4 3 (0.52%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Finacle
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle CRM
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle E-Business Tax
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.17%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.17%) StreamServe
Cloud Services
1 158 (27.15%) AWS
2 109 (18.73%) Azure
3 35 (6.01%) GCP
4 33 (5.67%) GitHub
5 26 (4.47%) SaaS
6 21 (3.61%) OpenShift
7 19 (3.26%) Azure Monitor
8 18 (3.09%) AWS CloudFormation
8 18 (3.09%) Sauce Labs
9 17 (2.92%) Amazon EC2
10 15 (2.58%) Amazon S3
11 13 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (2.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 11 (1.89%) Cloud Computing
13 11 (1.89%) Serverless
14 10 (1.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 10 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
15 9 (1.55%) Amazon ECS
16 8 (1.37%) Microsoft 365
17 7 (1.20%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 37 (6.36%) Firewall
2 31 (5.33%) HTTP
2 31 (5.33%) TCP/IP
3 29 (4.98%) DNS
4 20 (3.44%) SSL
4 20 (3.44%) Wireless
5 17 (2.92%) SSH
6 13 (2.23%) Network Security
7 11 (1.89%) DHCP
7 11 (1.89%) SAN
8 10 (1.72%) Kerberos
9 6 (1.03%) VPN
10 5 (0.86%) FTP
11 4 (0.69%) Internet
11 4 (0.69%) Wireshark
12 3 (0.52%) Broadband
12 3 (0.52%) GPRS
12 3 (0.52%) GSM
12 3 (0.52%) Unified Communications
12 3 (0.52%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (8.93%) MongoDB
2 51 (8.76%) MySQL
2 51 (8.76%) Relational Database
3 48 (8.25%) Oracle Database
4 30 (5.15%) NoSQL
5 22 (3.78%) PostgreSQL
6 18 (3.09%) Elasticsearch
6 18 (3.09%) SQL Server
7 15 (2.58%) KDB
8 14 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
9 13 (2.23%) Amazon RDS
9 13 (2.23%) Kdb+
10 11 (1.89%) Data Lake
11 10 (1.72%) Big Data
12 9 (1.55%) Amazon Redshift
12 9 (1.55%) RDBMS
13 8 (1.37%) DB2
13 8 (1.37%) Hadoop
14 6 (1.03%) Couchbase
14 6 (1.03%) Redis
Development Applications
1 71 (12.20%) Jenkins
2 69 (11.86%) Git
3 53 (9.11%) JIRA
4 35 (6.01%) GitLab
5 32 (5.50%) JUnit
6 29 (4.98%) Eclipse
7 23 (3.95%) Mockito
7 23 (3.95%) Xcode
8 22 (3.78%) Maven
9 21 (3.61%) Sonatype Nexus
10 19 (3.26%) Browser DevTools
11 18 (3.09%) Android Studio
12 15 (2.58%) Bitbucket
12 15 (2.58%) Selenium
13 14 (2.41%) Gradle
14 12 (2.06%) IntelliJ
15 10 (1.72%) SoapUI
16 8 (1.37%) Bitbucket Server
16 8 (1.37%) CA Release Automation
16 8 (1.37%) Subversion
General
1 190 (32.65%) Social Skills
2 163 (28.01%) Finance
3 78 (13.40%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (9.28%) Banking
5 35 (6.01%) Public Sector
6 23 (3.95%) Financial Institution
6 23 (3.95%) Front Office
7 13 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
8 10 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (1.72%) Investment Banking
9 8 (1.37%) Legal
10 6 (1.03%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.03%) Military
10 6 (1.03%) Telecoms
11 5 (0.86%) Back Office
12 4 (0.69%) General Ledger
12 4 (0.69%) Marketing
13 3 (0.52%) Billing
13 3 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.52%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 129 (22.16%) Developer
2 94 (16.15%) Senior
3 54 (9.28%) Java Developer
4 42 (7.22%) Analyst
5 41 (7.04%) Technical Support
6 33 (5.67%) DevOps Engineer
7 32 (5.50%) Support Engineer
8 27 (4.64%) Senior Developer
9 26 (4.47%) Technical Engineer
10 24 (4.12%) Technical Support Engineer
11 23 (3.95%) Linux Engineer
12 21 (3.61%) Software Engineer
13 19 (3.26%) Lead
13 19 (3.26%) Platform Engineer
13 19 (3.26%) Site Reliability Engineer
13 19 (3.26%) UX Engineer
14 18 (3.09%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
15 17 (2.92%) Administrator
15 17 (2.92%) Architect
15 17 (2.92%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (13.40%) Kafka
2 48 (8.25%) SOAP
3 44 (7.56%) REST
4 37 (6.36%) React
5 33 (5.67%) AngularJS
5 33 (5.67%) Spring
6 31 (5.33%) CSS
6 31 (5.33%) Middleware
7 28 (4.81%) XML
8 24 (4.12%) HTML
9 23 (3.95%) JSON
10 21 (3.61%) ActiveMQ
11 19 (3.26%) Ajax
11 19 (3.26%) GraphQL
12 18 (3.09%) Hibernate
12 18 (3.09%) JAX-RS
13 17 (2.92%) J2EE
14 16 (2.75%) Spring Boot
15 15 (2.58%) LDAP
16 14 (2.41%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 35 (6.01%) Management Information System
2 23 (3.95%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 21 (3.61%) Mobile App
4 19 (3.26%) Onboarding
5 18 (3.09%) Cloud Native
6 17 (2.92%) Data Centre
6 17 (2.92%) Security Posture
7 16 (2.75%) Distributed Systems
8 15 (2.58%) Algorithms
9 14 (2.41%) Linux Command Line
10 13 (2.23%) Fixed Income
10 13 (2.23%) Tandem
11 11 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
11 11 (1.89%) Replication
12 10 (1.72%) Equities
12 10 (1.72%) Legacy Applications
12 10 (1.72%) Private Cloud
13 9 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
13 9 (1.55%) PKI
14 8 (1.37%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 423 (72.68%) Linux
2 184 (31.62%) Windows
3 28 (4.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (3.95%) Mac OS X
4 23 (3.95%) Windows Server
5 20 (3.44%) Android
6 17 (2.92%) CentOS
7 11 (1.89%) Mac OS
7 11 (1.89%) Solaris
8 6 (1.03%) AIX
8 6 (1.03%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.52%) VMS
9 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.34%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.34%) Windows 10
10 2 (0.34%) Windows 7
11 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (30.76%) Agile
2 126 (21.65%) Problem-Solving
3 112 (19.24%) DevOps
4 110 (18.90%) CI/CD
5 71 (12.20%) Microservices
6 70 (12.03%) OO
7 66 (11.34%) Incident Response
8 58 (9.97%) Continuous Improvement
8 58 (9.97%) Test Automation
9 56 (9.62%) Infrastructure as Code
10 55 (9.45%) Computer Science
10 55 (9.45%) Software Engineering
11 48 (8.25%) Containerisation
11 48 (8.25%) TDD
12 46 (7.90%) Analytics
13 44 (7.56%) Observability
14 41 (7.04%) Migration
15 39 (6.70%) Data Modelling
15 39 (6.70%) Incident Management
15 39 (6.70%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 236 (40.55%) Python
2 218 (37.46%) SQL
3 166 (28.52%) Java
4 107 (18.38%) Shell Script
5 94 (16.15%) Perl
6 67 (11.51%) Bash
7 62 (10.65%) JavaScript
8 49 (8.42%) C++
9 32 (5.50%) PowerShell
10 31 (5.33%) C#
11 29 (4.98%) PL/SQL
12 13 (2.23%) Go
12 13 (2.23%) Groovy
13 12 (2.06%) Scala
14 10 (1.72%) Korn
15 9 (1.55%) C
15 9 (1.55%) PHP
15 9 (1.55%) Search Processing Language
15 9 (1.55%) TypeScript
16 4 (0.69%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 91 (15.64%) Security Cleared
2 80 (13.75%) Degree
3 64 (11.00%) SC Cleared
4 42 (7.22%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.23%) AWS Certification
6 13 (2.23%) DV Cleared
7 12 (2.06%) CISSP
8 10 (1.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 7 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.03%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 5 (0.86%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (0.86%) ISTQB
11 5 (0.86%) MCSA
11 5 (0.86%) MCSE
11 5 (0.86%) OSCP
12 4 (0.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.69%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.69%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.26%) QA
2 10 (1.72%) SLA
3 9 (1.55%) Data Quality
4 7 (1.20%) NCSC
5 4 (0.69%) HIPAA
5 4 (0.69%) SOC 2
6 3 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.52%) NIST
6 3 (0.52%) SEPA
7 2 (0.34%) GMP
7 2 (0.34%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
8 1 (0.17%) GDPR
8 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 80 (13.75%) Docker
2 24 (4.12%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.37%) Tivoli Directory Server
5 6 (1.03%) KVM
6 4 (0.69%) NFS
6 4 (0.69%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.52%) QEMU
8 2 (0.34%) GridGain
8 2 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.34%) Samba
9 1 (0.17%) Ceph
9 1 (0.17%) GPFS
9 1 (0.17%) Lustre
9 1 (0.17%) RACF
9 1 (0.17%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.17%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
9 1 (0.17%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 71 (12.20%) Terraform
2 70 (12.03%) Kubernetes
3 61 (10.48%) Ansible
4 34 (5.84%) Puppet
5 28 (4.81%) Grafana
6 22 (3.78%) Prometheus
7 14 (2.41%) Progress Chef
8 10 (1.72%) Tivoli
9 9 (1.55%) Red Hat Satellite
10 8 (1.37%) CA Single Sign-On
10 8 (1.37%) CA Wily
10 8 (1.37%) ITRS Geneos
10 8 (1.37%) Kibana
11 7 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
11 7 (1.20%) Nessus
11 7 (1.20%) Packer
11 7 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.86%) CASB
12 5 (0.86%) SCCM
13 4 (0.69%) BladeLogic
Vendors
1 173 (29.73%) Oracle
2 98 (16.84%) Splunk
3 82 (14.09%) Microsoft
4 42 (7.22%) IBM
5 33 (5.67%) ServiceNow
6 26 (4.47%) AppDynamics
6 26 (4.47%) Dynatrace
6 26 (4.47%) Red Hat
7 22 (3.78%) VMware
8 20 (3.44%) Cisco
9 16 (2.75%) F5
10 15 (2.58%) CyberArk
11 11 (1.89%) MuleSoft
11 11 (1.89%) SAP
12 10 (1.72%) Google
12 10 (1.72%) webMethods
13 9 (1.55%) Tenable
13 9 (1.55%) TIBCO
14 8 (1.37%) Confluent
14 8 (1.37%) Okta