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 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 238 165 117
Rank change year-on-year -73 -48 -14
Contract jobs citing Unix 635 593 770
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 1.79% 2.03%
As % of the Operating Systems category 11.98% 13.16% 14.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 422 391 478
10th Percentile £343 £280 £350
25th Percentile £418 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £509
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -5.65% -7.50%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £625
90th Percentile £725 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £453 £450
% change year-on-year +5.96% +0.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 6
10th Percentile - £29.32 -
25th Percentile £43.81 £33.92 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £46.91 £25.65
Median % change year-on-year +11.92% +82.88% -65.20%
75th Percentile £55.50 £58.56 £28.75
90th Percentile £76.53 £65.43 £33.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year -3.67% +98.18% -63.33%

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 5,302 4,507 5,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.72% 13.63% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,348 2,877 3,290
10th Percentile £193 £185 £200
25th Percentile £313 £281 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £660 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £449
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.35% -0.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 403 304 251
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.87 £22.38
Median hourly rate £25.77 £25.15 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.47% -52.55% +21.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £50.81 £68.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £67.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £25.15 £57.25
% change year-on-year +3.38% -56.07% +41.97%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 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
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -62 526 £500 +2.04% 452
UK excluding London -73 326 £480 +5.96% 183
London -84 226 £550 +1.29% 304
Work from Home -34 188 £525 +10.53% 136
North of England -22 128 £481 +1.16% 36
North West -1 92 £483 +7.33% 19
South East -61 83 £459 +22.40% 44
Midlands -31 63 £481 -3.80% 22
West Midlands -25 58 £487 -6.23% 15
Scotland -52 37 £450 -5.26% 20
Yorkshire -43 27 £500 -23.08% 10
South West -35 17 £650 -3.70% 23
North East -31 12 £470 -6.00% 7
East of England -34 7 £700 +40.00% 15
East Midlands -14 4 £456 +16.24% 7
Wales -6 3 £383 +35.40% 9
Northern Ireland +4 1 - - 17

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 35 (5.51%) Confluence
2 23 (3.62%) SAS
3 19 (2.99%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 15 (2.36%) SharePoint
4 15 (2.36%) WebLogic
5 13 (2.05%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (1.26%) Apache Spark
7 7 (1.10%) OpenStack
8 6 (0.94%) WebLogic Portal
9 5 (0.79%) Apache
10 4 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.47%) IIS
11 3 (0.47%) WebSphere
12 2 (0.31%) CMS
12 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
12 2 (0.31%) nginx
12 2 (0.31%) Oracle Service Bus
13 1 (0.16%) NetWeaver
13 1 (0.16%) Tomcat
13 1 (0.16%) Traefik
Applications
1 14 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.31%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.31%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 14 (2.20%) Oracle EBS
2 7 (1.10%) Oracle EBS R12
3 6 (0.94%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle E-Business Tax
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle FAH
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle General Ledger
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle Internet Expenses
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle iProcurement
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.63%) Oracle Receivables
5 3 (0.47%) FLEXCUBE
5 3 (0.47%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.47%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.31%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 2 (0.31%) Oracle Retail
6 2 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 146 (22.99%) AWS
2 87 (13.70%) Azure
3 57 (8.98%) GCP
4 36 (5.67%) GitHub
5 24 (3.78%) AWS Lambda
5 24 (3.78%) Serverless
6 22 (3.46%) Amazon S3
6 22 (3.46%) Entra ID
7 21 (3.31%) IaaS
8 19 (2.99%) GitHub Actions
9 17 (2.68%) SaaS
10 16 (2.52%) OpenShift
11 14 (2.20%) AWS CloudFormation
11 14 (2.20%) Power Platform
12 13 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (2.05%) PaaS
13 11 (1.73%) Amazon EC2
14 10 (1.57%) Amazon ECS
15 9 (1.42%) Amazon EMR
15 9 (1.42%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 32 (5.04%) TCP/IP
2 30 (4.72%) Firewall
3 29 (4.57%) DNS
4 18 (2.83%) SAN
5 15 (2.36%) SSH
6 14 (2.20%) DHCP
7 13 (2.05%) HTTP
8 12 (1.89%) Network Security
9 9 (1.42%) NAS
9 9 (1.42%) SSL
9 9 (1.42%) WAN
10 8 (1.26%) LAN
11 7 (1.10%) LTE
12 6 (0.94%) 5G
12 6 (0.94%) Diameter Protocol
12 6 (0.94%) Radio Access Network
12 6 (0.94%) VLAN
12 6 (0.94%) VoLTE
12 6 (0.94%) VoWiFi
12 6 (0.94%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (9.29%) Oracle Database
2 54 (8.50%) SQL Server
3 53 (8.35%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (7.72%) Relational Database
5 37 (5.83%) Data Warehouse
6 27 (4.25%) MongoDB
7 24 (3.78%) MySQL
8 22 (3.46%) Db2
9 19 (2.99%) Oracle Database 11g
10 18 (2.83%) NoSQL
11 16 (2.52%) RDBMS
12 15 (2.36%) DataStage
12 15 (2.36%) Oracle Database 12c
13 14 (2.20%) Power BI
14 13 (2.05%) Data Lake
14 13 (2.05%) Oracle Database 10g
14 13 (2.05%) PowerCenter
15 12 (1.89%) KDB
15 12 (1.89%) Oracle Reports
16 11 (1.73%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 82 (12.91%) Git
2 65 (10.24%) Jenkins
3 51 (8.03%) JIRA
4 50 (7.87%) GitLab
5 20 (3.15%) Artifactory
6 14 (2.20%) JUnit
6 14 (2.20%) Maven
7 13 (2.05%) Gradle
7 13 (2.05%) SonarQube
8 11 (1.73%) Bitbucket
9 10 (1.57%) Mockito
10 9 (1.42%) Oracle Forms
10 9 (1.42%) Selenium
10 9 (1.42%) Sonatype Nexus
11 8 (1.26%) eggPlant
12 7 (1.10%) Cucumber
12 7 (1.10%) HP UFT
13 5 (0.79%) JMeter
13 5 (0.79%) LoadRunner
13 5 (0.79%) Oracle APEX
General
1 171 (26.93%) Finance
2 141 (22.20%) Social Skills
3 113 (17.80%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (17.17%) Banking
5 50 (7.87%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.57%) Investment Banking
7 22 (3.46%) Front Office
8 21 (3.31%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.73%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.42%) Retail
11 7 (1.10%) Military
12 6 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.79%) Legal
14 4 (0.63%) Corporate Banking
14 4 (0.63%) Law
14 4 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.47%) General Ledger
15 3 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
16 2 (0.31%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 133 (20.94%) Developer
2 101 (15.91%) Senior
3 69 (10.87%) Unix Engineer
4 47 (7.40%) Senior Developer
5 45 (7.09%) Data Engineer
6 43 (6.77%) Java Developer
7 40 (6.30%) DBA
8 37 (5.83%) Linux Engineer
9 30 (4.72%) Consultant
10 28 (4.41%) Python Developer
10 28 (4.41%) Support Engineer
11 26 (4.09%) Oracle DBA
12 24 (3.78%) Analyst
13 21 (3.31%) Architect
14 20 (3.15%) Administrator
15 18 (2.83%) Applications Support
15 18 (2.83%) DevOps Engineer
16 16 (2.52%) Lead
17 15 (2.36%) Automation Engineer
17 15 (2.36%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (11.18%) Kafka
2 56 (8.82%) REST
2 56 (8.82%) Terraform
3 44 (6.93%) Middleware
4 40 (6.30%) RESTful
5 38 (5.98%) Spring
6 35 (5.51%) Spring Boot
7 26 (4.09%) XML
8 25 (3.94%) Web Services
9 24 (3.78%) HTML
10 23 (3.62%) .NET
11 22 (3.46%) CSS
11 22 (3.46%) SOAP
12 15 (2.36%) Flask
13 13 (2.05%) Django
13 13 (2.05%) JDBC
13 13 (2.05%) RabbitMQ
14 12 (1.89%) AngularJS
14 12 (1.89%) Pandas
14 12 (1.89%) React
Miscellaneous
1 47 (7.40%) Onboarding
2 36 (5.67%) Distributed Systems
2 36 (5.67%) Legacy Systems
3 31 (4.88%) Data Centre
4 30 (4.72%) Cloud Native
5 29 (4.57%) Linux Command Line
6 22 (3.46%) Replication
7 21 (3.31%) Clustering
8 19 (2.99%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.68%) Fixed Income
10 16 (2.52%) Derivative
11 14 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (2.05%) Mainframe
12 13 (2.05%) Market Risk
12 13 (2.05%) PKI
12 13 (2.05%) Private Cloud
12 13 (2.05%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.89%) Data Structures
13 12 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.89%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 431 (67.87%) Linux
2 146 (22.99%) Windows
3 76 (11.97%) Solaris
4 44 (6.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 44 (6.93%) Windows Server
5 33 (5.20%) AIX
6 10 (1.57%) SUSE
7 8 (1.26%) HPUX
8 7 (1.10%) Oracle Linux
8 7 (1.10%) VMS
9 6 (0.94%) CentOS
10 5 (0.79%) Mac OS X
10 5 (0.79%) zOS
11 3 (0.47%) Android
11 3 (0.47%) Check Point GAiA
12 2 (0.31%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.16%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (25.35%) CI/CD
2 126 (19.84%) Agile
3 117 (18.43%) Migration
4 116 (18.27%) Problem-Solving
5 114 (17.95%) DevOps
6 98 (15.43%) Test Automation
7 83 (13.07%) Root Cause Analysis
8 80 (12.60%) High Availability
9 72 (11.34%) Continuous Improvement
10 70 (11.02%) Data Modelling
11 69 (10.87%) Performance Tuning
12 65 (10.24%) Infrastructure as Code
13 61 (9.61%) ITIL
14 60 (9.45%) Runbook
14 60 (9.45%) Stakeholder Management
14 60 (9.45%) Validation
15 58 (9.13%) Containerisation
16 57 (8.98%) Data Pipeline
17 53 (8.35%) Analytics
17 53 (8.35%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 246 (38.74%) Python
2 238 (37.48%) SQL
3 130 (20.47%) Java
4 117 (18.43%) Shell Script
5 80 (12.60%) PL/SQL
6 71 (11.18%) Bash
7 55 (8.66%) PowerShell
8 40 (6.30%) JavaScript
8 40 (6.30%) Perl
9 28 (4.41%) C#
10 22 (3.46%) C++
11 15 (2.36%) C
12 8 (1.26%) Go
13 7 (1.10%) Groovy
13 7 (1.10%) MUMPS
13 7 (1.10%) T-SQL
14 6 (0.94%) ABAP
14 6 (0.94%) Korn
14 6 (0.94%) Kotlin
14 6 (0.94%) Scala
Qualifications
1 228 (35.91%) Security Cleared
2 181 (28.50%) SC Cleared
3 72 (11.34%) Degree
4 30 (4.72%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (3.62%) DV Cleared
6 22 (3.46%) Computer Science Degree
7 14 (2.20%) CISSP
8 9 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
9 8 (1.26%) CISM
9 8 (1.26%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.10%) CRISC
10 7 (1.10%) Oracle Certification
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 (0.79%) RHCE
12 5 (0.79%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (5.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (5.51%) QA
3 33 (5.20%) Data Quality
4 32 (5.04%) NIST
5 12 (1.89%) GDPR
5 12 (1.89%) SLA
6 9 (1.42%) ISO 20022
7 7 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (1.10%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.94%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.79%) Basel III
9 5 (0.79%) GRC
9 5 (0.79%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.63%) NCSC
11 3 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
12 2 (0.31%) SEPA
13 1 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 1 (0.16%) ISO 8583
13 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
13 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 63 (9.92%) Docker
2 39 (6.14%) Active Directory
3 26 (4.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.52%) Oracle RAC
5 12 (1.89%) NFS
6 11 (1.73%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.63%) Firmware
7 4 (0.63%) PowerHA
7 4 (0.63%) Veritas Volume Manager
7 4 (0.63%) VirtualBox
7 4 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.47%) GPFS
8 3 (0.47%) vSphere
9 2 (0.31%) Postfix
9 2 (0.31%) Varnish
10 1 (0.16%) HDFS
10 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.16%) Veritas Cluster Server
10 1 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.16%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 85 (13.39%) Kubernetes
2 65 (10.24%) Ansible
3 41 (6.46%) Grafana
4 28 (4.41%) Oracle RMAN
4 28 (4.41%) Prometheus
5 19 (2.99%) Control-M
5 19 (2.99%) Data Guard
6 18 (2.83%) Progress Chef
7 14 (2.20%) Puppet
8 12 (1.89%) Kibana
9 7 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 7 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (1.10%) Tivoli Storage Manager
10 6 (0.94%) Tivoli
11 5 (0.79%) Failover Clustering
11 5 (0.79%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.79%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (0.79%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.79%) Netcool
11 5 (0.79%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 234 (36.85%) Oracle
2 57 (8.98%) IBM
2 57 (8.98%) Splunk
3 48 (7.56%) Microsoft
4 35 (5.51%) BeyondTrust
5 32 (5.04%) Red Hat
6 29 (4.57%) CyberArk
6 29 (4.57%) VMware
7 26 (4.09%) Informatica
8 24 (3.78%) ServiceNow
9 23 (3.62%) Sybase
10 22 (3.46%) Talend
11 21 (3.31%) SAP
12 20 (3.15%) Google
13 19 (2.99%) Dynatrace
14 16 (2.52%) Denodo
15 12 (1.89%) HP
15 12 (1.89%) SaltStack
16 11 (1.73%) AppDynamics
16 11 (1.73%) BT