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 23 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 217 171 128
Rank change year-on-year -46 -43 -43
Contract jobs citing Unix 592 509 769
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.17% 1.70% 1.76%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.23% 12.19% 13.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 341 309 513
10th Percentile £304 £358 £334
25th Percentile £400 £408 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £565 £600 £625
90th Percentile £658 £650 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £467 £450
% change year-on-year -1.71% +3.78% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 5 21
10th Percentile £21.50 £42.39 £22.30
25th Percentile £31.86 £51.25 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £55.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +37.50% -37.50%
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile £55.00 £64.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £55.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -13.56% +37.50% -32.85%

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 4,840 4,177 5,870
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.53% 13.94% 13.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,094 2,721 3,863
10th Percentile £190 £200 £188
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £465 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.54% -2.11% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £585 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £455
% change year-on-year - -1.10% -1.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 331 209 434
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.47 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.44 £16.06
Median hourly rate £28.00 £22.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% -9.02% -47.43%
75th Percentile £64.38 £41.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.23 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.08 £18.87 £27.50
% change year-on-year +43.51% -31.38% -30.56%

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 23 June 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 23 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Unix in the UK

Unix
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 Unix within the UK over the 6 months to 23 June 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 -36 503 £475 - 63
UK excluding London -53 347 £459 -1.71% 48
London -78 187 £550 +10.00% 28
Work from Home -20 173 £470 +4.44% 32
North of England -32 110 £481 +7.66% 19
South East -12 107 £392 -28.73% 15
Midlands +1 83 £459 +2.00% 3
North West 0 83 £481 +15.13% 16
West Midlands -3 78 £459 -0.22% 1
Scotland -55 36 £425 -10.53% 1
Yorkshire -56 22 £500 -3.61% 3
East of England -29 10 £700 +55.56% 4
Wales -11 5 £265 -6.19% 4
North East -31 5 £480 +28.00%
South West -40 5 £600 - 3
East Midlands -20 4 £494 +26.28% 2

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 34 (5.74%) Confluence
2 26 (4.39%) SAS
3 18 (3.04%) Apache
4 16 (2.70%) Apache Spark
5 14 (2.36%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (1.69%) CICS
6 10 (1.69%) WebLogic
7 7 (1.18%) NetWeaver
7 7 (1.18%) Tuxedo
8 6 (1.01%) OpenStack
8 6 (1.01%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.68%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.68%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 3 (0.51%) IBM HTTP Server
10 3 (0.51%) WebSphere
10 3 (0.51%) WebSphere Application Server
11 2 (0.34%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.34%) nginx
11 2 (0.34%) Oracle Spatial
11 2 (0.34%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 7 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
1 7 (1.18%) Notepad++
2 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 8 (1.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.01%) Summit
3 2 (0.34%) FLEXCUBE
3 2 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
3 2 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.34%) Oracle Retail
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.17%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.17%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 114 (19.26%) AWS
2 74 (12.50%) Azure
3 29 (4.90%) GitHub
4 25 (4.22%) GCP
5 24 (4.05%) Entra ID
6 23 (3.89%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (3.72%) Serverless
8 21 (3.55%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (3.38%) Amazon S3
10 17 (2.87%) OpenShift
11 16 (2.70%) IaaS
11 16 (2.70%) PaaS
12 15 (2.53%) SaaS
13 14 (2.36%) Power Platform
14 12 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (1.69%) Snowflake
16 9 (1.52%) Amazon EC2
17 8 (1.35%) Azure Data Factory
18 7 (1.18%) Amazon ECS
18 7 (1.18%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 30 (5.07%) Firewall
2 24 (4.05%) DNS
3 20 (3.38%) SAN
4 15 (2.53%) TCP/IP
5 13 (2.20%) NAS
6 11 (1.86%) SSH
7 10 (1.69%) HTTP
8 8 (1.35%) Network Security
8 8 (1.35%) SSL
8 8 (1.35%) Wireless
8 8 (1.35%) Wireshark
9 7 (1.18%) 5G
9 7 (1.18%) FTP
9 7 (1.18%) PuTTY
9 7 (1.18%) WinSCP
10 6 (1.01%) Diameter Protocol
10 6 (1.01%) Ethernet
10 6 (1.01%) VoLTE
10 6 (1.01%) VoWiFi
10 6 (1.01%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (11.99%) SQL Server
2 42 (7.09%) Relational Database
3 40 (6.76%) Oracle Database
4 35 (5.91%) MySQL
5 30 (5.07%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (4.73%) MongoDB
7 20 (3.38%) Data Warehouse
8 19 (3.21%) Metadata
9 17 (2.87%) Db2
10 16 (2.70%) Big Data
10 16 (2.70%) BusinessObjects
10 16 (2.70%) DataStage
10 16 (2.70%) KDB
11 14 (2.36%) Amazon Aurora
11 14 (2.36%) Kdb+
11 14 (2.36%) NoSQL
11 14 (2.36%) Power BI
12 13 (2.20%) Sybase ASE
13 11 (1.86%) Data Lake
13 11 (1.86%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 55 (9.29%) Jenkins
2 52 (8.78%) GitLab
3 49 (8.28%) JIRA
4 43 (7.26%) Git
5 22 (3.72%) Artifactory
6 11 (1.86%) Mockito
7 9 (1.52%) Bitbucket
7 9 (1.52%) Maven
8 7 (1.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.84%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (0.68%) CA Gen
10 4 (0.68%) JUnit
10 4 (0.68%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.51%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.51%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.51%) Eclipse
11 3 (0.51%) Introscope
11 3 (0.51%) MSI
11 3 (0.51%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.51%) Selenium
General
1 148 (25.00%) Finance
2 120 (20.27%) Social Skills
3 89 (15.03%) Banking
4 75 (12.67%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (9.97%) Public Sector
6 27 (4.56%) Investment Banking
7 24 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
8 20 (3.38%) Front Office
9 11 (1.86%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
10 10 (1.69%) Retail
11 9 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (1.35%) Financial Institution
13 6 (1.01%) Advertising
13 6 (1.01%) Military
14 2 (0.34%) Billing
14 2 (0.34%) Law
14 2 (0.34%) Local Government
14 2 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.17%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 104 (17.57%) Developer
2 76 (12.84%) Senior
3 65 (10.98%) Data Engineer
4 48 (8.11%) Unix Engineer
5 44 (7.43%) Analyst
6 41 (6.93%) Support Engineer
7 40 (6.76%) Java Developer
8 35 (5.91%) DBA
9 28 (4.73%) Senior Developer
10 25 (4.22%) Architect
11 24 (4.05%) Oracle DBA
12 23 (3.89%) Python Developer
13 22 (3.72%) Administrator
14 21 (3.55%) Site Reliability Engineer
15 19 (3.21%) Consultant
15 19 (3.21%) Site Engineer
15 19 (3.21%) Technical Support
16 15 (2.53%) DevOps Engineer
16 15 (2.53%) Linux Engineer
17 14 (2.36%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (8.78%) Kafka
2 35 (5.91%) REST
3 29 (4.90%) Middleware
4 26 (4.39%) RESTful
5 21 (3.55%) Spring
5 21 (3.55%) Spring Boot
6 19 (3.21%) XML
7 17 (2.87%) CSS
8 14 (2.36%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 14 (2.36%) Web Services
9 13 (2.20%) HTML
10 12 (2.03%) LDAP
11 11 (1.86%) ActiveMQ
11 11 (1.86%) JAX-RS
11 11 (1.86%) Pandas
11 11 (1.86%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (1.69%) JSON
13 9 (1.52%) FastAPI
13 9 (1.52%) Flask
13 9 (1.52%) React
Miscellaneous
1 44 (7.43%) Onboarding
2 37 (6.25%) Linux Command Line
3 29 (4.90%) Legacy Systems
4 27 (4.56%) Data Centre
5 26 (4.39%) Management Information System
6 19 (3.21%) Cloud Native
6 19 (3.21%) Mainframe
7 18 (3.04%) Replication
8 17 (2.87%) Derivative
9 14 (2.36%) Fixed Income
10 11 (1.86%) Clustering
10 11 (1.86%) Equities
10 11 (1.86%) Public Cloud
11 10 (1.69%) BYOD
11 10 (1.69%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 10 (1.69%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.69%) VSAM
12 9 (1.52%) Distributed Systems
12 9 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
12 9 (1.52%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 390 (65.88%) Linux
2 154 (26.01%) Windows
3 54 (9.12%) Solaris
4 43 (7.26%) Windows Server
5 30 (5.07%) AIX
6 23 (3.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (2.03%) Mac OS X
8 9 (1.52%) Oracle Linux
9 7 (1.18%) HPUX
10 6 (1.01%) SUSE
11 4 (0.68%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.68%) VMS
12 3 (0.51%) Android
12 3 (0.51%) Check Point GAiA
13 2 (0.34%) CentOS
13 2 (0.34%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.34%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.34%) zOS
14 1 (0.17%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (21.28%) Agile
2 118 (19.93%) CI/CD
3 104 (17.57%) Problem-Solving
4 93 (15.71%) Migration
5 80 (13.51%) DevOps
6 74 (12.50%) ITIL
7 73 (12.33%) High Availability
8 62 (10.47%) Test Automation
9 58 (9.80%) Root Cause Analysis
10 54 (9.12%) Performance Tuning
11 52 (8.78%) Disaster Recovery
12 50 (8.45%) Observability
12 50 (8.45%) Runbook
13 48 (8.11%) Data Modelling
14 47 (7.94%) Incident Management
15 46 (7.77%) Analytics
15 46 (7.77%) Change Management
15 46 (7.77%) Microservices
16 42 (7.09%) Computer Science
16 42 (7.09%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 225 (38.01%) SQL
2 216 (36.49%) Python
3 108 (18.24%) Java
4 107 (18.07%) Shell Script
5 70 (11.82%) PL/SQL
6 53 (8.95%) Bash
7 52 (8.78%) PowerShell
8 36 (6.08%) JavaScript
8 36 (6.08%) Perl
9 24 (4.05%) C#
10 22 (3.72%) C++
11 16 (2.70%) Korn
12 12 (2.03%) COBOL
13 8 (1.35%) Scala
14 6 (1.01%) C
15 4 (0.68%) Go
15 4 (0.68%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.68%) ProC
15 4 (0.68%) Ruby
15 4 (0.68%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 197 (33.28%) Security Cleared
2 165 (27.87%) SC Cleared
3 70 (11.82%) Degree
4 31 (5.24%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (3.72%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (3.21%) CISSP
7 11 (1.86%) CompTIA Security+
8 10 (1.69%) DV Cleared
9 9 (1.52%) CISM
10 7 (1.18%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (1.18%) CRISC
11 6 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (1.01%) CESG Certified Professional
11 6 (1.01%) GIAC
11 6 (1.01%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (1.01%) RHCE
12 5 (0.84%) MCSA
12 5 (0.84%) MCSE
12 5 (0.84%) SANS
13 4 (0.68%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (6.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 36 (6.08%) NIST
3 19 (3.21%) QA
4 17 (2.87%) SLA
5 11 (1.86%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (1.01%) ISO 31000
8 5 (0.84%) GRC
9 4 (0.68%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.68%) NIST 800
9 4 (0.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.51%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.51%) FATCA
10 3 (0.51%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.34%) GDPR
11 2 (0.34%) GMP
11 2 (0.34%) ISO 15022
11 2 (0.34%) NCSC
12 1 (0.17%) SEPA
12 1 (0.17%) SOC 2
System Software
1 57 (9.63%) Docker
2 43 (7.26%) Active Directory
3 21 (3.55%) Oracle RAC
4 18 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 17 (2.87%) NFS
6 11 (1.86%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (1.35%) GPFS
8 6 (1.01%) Hyper-V
8 6 (1.01%) KVM
8 6 (1.01%) Postfix
8 6 (1.01%) Varnish
8 6 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.84%) vSphere
10 4 (0.68%) HDFS
10 4 (0.68%) Sendmail
11 3 (0.51%) Firmware
11 3 (0.51%) GridGain
11 3 (0.51%) PowerHA
11 3 (0.51%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 2 (0.34%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 70 (11.82%) Kubernetes
2 59 (9.97%) Ansible
3 37 (6.25%) Terraform
4 36 (6.08%) Grafana
5 31 (5.24%) Oracle RMAN
6 24 (4.05%) Prometheus
7 15 (2.53%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 14 (2.36%) Data Guard
9 11 (1.86%) Kibana
10 10 (1.69%) Puppet
11 9 (1.52%) Progress Chef
11 9 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (1.35%) NetBackup
13 7 (1.18%) Control-M
14 6 (1.01%) HAProxy
14 6 (1.01%) IBM BigFix
14 6 (1.01%) Nessus
14 6 (1.01%) Tivoli
14 6 (1.01%) vCenter Server
15 5 (0.84%) VxRail
Vendors
1 234 (39.53%) Oracle
2 46 (7.77%) IBM
2 46 (7.77%) Splunk
3 38 (6.42%) Microsoft
4 37 (6.25%) CyberArk
5 36 (6.08%) BeyondTrust
6 34 (5.74%) Talend
7 28 (4.73%) ServiceNow
8 27 (4.56%) VMware
9 26 (4.39%) Informatica
10 24 (4.05%) Sybase
11 21 (3.55%) Denodo
12 20 (3.38%) Cisco
13 16 (2.70%) Red Hat
14 14 (2.36%) Dynatrace
15 13 (2.20%) SAP
16 11 (1.86%) CheckPoint
17 10 (1.69%) BT
17 10 (1.69%) Veritas
18 9 (1.52%) Murex