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

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 167 128
Rank change year-on-year -61 -39 -43
Contract jobs citing Unix 594 507 769
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.17% 1.67% 1.77%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.26% 12.08% 13.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 336 310 512
10th Percentile £304 £358 £334
25th Percentile £402 £408 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £478 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.63% -8.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £571 £600 £623
90th Percentile £663 £650 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £472 £450
% change year-on-year -2.81% +4.94% -16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 6 21
10th Percentile £21.50 £43.87 £22.30
25th Percentile £31.86 £52.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.75 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.11% +36.88% -37.50%
75th Percentile £53.75 £55.00 -
90th Percentile £55.00 £62.50 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £54.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year -13.17% +36.88% -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 4,847 4,197 5,886
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 13.84% 13.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,093 2,732 3,870
10th Percentile £190 £200 £190
25th Percentile £313 £313 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -2.63% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £581 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £463
% change year-on-year - -2.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 330 212 434
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.41 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.83 £22.25 £24.34
Median % change year-on-year +20.58% -8.59% -44.59%
75th Percentile £63.75 £41.48 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.26 £65.98 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.47 £18.87 £30.50
% change year-on-year +40.28% -38.13% -18.67%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -46 504 £475 - 67
UK excluding London -61 346 £459 -2.81% 57
London -71 190 £550 +10.00% 24
Work from Home -32 176 £471 +4.67% 36
North of England -30 109 £481 +7.30% 20
South East -14 108 £401 -27.09% 18
North West -11 82 £481 +13.64% 18
Midlands -9 81 £459 +2.00% 4
West Midlands -9 75 £459 -0.22% 4
Scotland -47 37 £425 -10.53% 2
Yorkshire -44 22 £500 -4.76% 2
East of England -30 10 £700 +55.56% 5
North East -31 6 £480 +28.00%
Wales -11 5 £265 -6.19% 5
East Midlands -15 5 £463 +18.29%
South West -44 5 £600 - 4

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 (5.89%) Confluence
2 26 (4.38%) SAS
3 18 (3.03%) Apache
4 16 (2.69%) Apache Spark
5 14 (2.36%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (1.68%) CICS
6 10 (1.68%) WebLogic
7 7 (1.18%) NetWeaver
7 7 (1.18%) Tuxedo
8 6 (1.01%) OpenStack
8 6 (1.01%) SharePoint
9 4 (0.67%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.67%) 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%) IIS
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 (0.67%) 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%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.17%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 114 (19.19%) AWS
2 73 (12.29%) Azure
3 29 (4.88%) GitHub
4 25 (4.21%) GCP
5 24 (4.04%) Entra ID
6 23 (3.87%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (3.70%) Serverless
8 21 (3.54%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (3.37%) Amazon S3
10 17 (2.86%) OpenShift
11 16 (2.69%) IaaS
11 16 (2.69%) PaaS
12 15 (2.53%) SaaS
13 14 (2.36%) Power Platform
14 11 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (1.68%) Snowflake
16 9 (1.52%) Amazon EC2
17 8 (1.35%) Azure Data Factory
18 7 (1.18%) Azure Key Vault
18 7 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 30 (5.05%) Firewall
2 24 (4.04%) DNS
3 20 (3.37%) SAN
4 17 (2.86%) TCP/IP
5 13 (2.19%) NAS
6 11 (1.85%) HTTP
6 11 (1.85%) SSH
7 8 (1.35%) Network Security
7 8 (1.35%) SSL
7 8 (1.35%) Wireless
7 8 (1.35%) Wireshark
8 7 (1.18%) 5G
8 7 (1.18%) FTP
8 7 (1.18%) PuTTY
8 7 (1.18%) VPN
8 7 (1.18%) WinSCP
9 6 (1.01%) Ethernet
9 6 (1.01%) InfiniBand
9 6 (1.01%) Internet
9 6 (1.01%) VoWiFi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (12.29%) SQL Server
2 43 (7.24%) Relational Database
3 41 (6.90%) Oracle Database
4 36 (6.06%) MySQL
5 30 (5.05%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (4.71%) MongoDB
7 20 (3.37%) Data Warehouse
8 19 (3.20%) Metadata
9 18 (3.03%) Db2
10 17 (2.86%) KDB
11 16 (2.69%) Big Data
11 16 (2.69%) BusinessObjects
11 16 (2.69%) DataStage
12 14 (2.36%) Amazon Aurora
12 14 (2.36%) Kdb+
12 14 (2.36%) NoSQL
12 14 (2.36%) Power BI
13 13 (2.19%) Sybase ASE
14 11 (1.85%) Oracle Database 12c
15 10 (1.68%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 55 (9.26%) Jenkins
2 50 (8.42%) GitLab
2 50 (8.42%) JIRA
3 42 (7.07%) Git
4 23 (3.87%) Artifactory
5 12 (2.02%) Mockito
6 10 (1.68%) Bitbucket
7 9 (1.52%) Maven
8 7 (1.18%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.84%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (0.67%) CA Gen
10 4 (0.67%) JUnit
10 4 (0.67%) Selenium
10 4 (0.67%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.51%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.51%) Browser DevTools
11 3 (0.51%) Introscope
11 3 (0.51%) MSI
11 3 (0.51%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.51%) Xcode
General
1 152 (25.59%) Finance
2 124 (20.88%) Social Skills
3 95 (15.99%) Banking
4 79 (13.30%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (10.10%) Public Sector
6 29 (4.88%) Investment Banking
7 24 (4.04%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (3.54%) Front Office
9 12 (2.02%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.85%) Retail
11 10 (1.68%) Influencing Skills
12 9 (1.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (1.35%) Financial Institution
14 6 (1.01%) Advertising
14 6 (1.01%) Military
15 2 (0.34%) Billing
15 2 (0.34%) Law
15 2 (0.34%) Local Government
15 2 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
16 1 (0.17%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 110 (18.52%) Developer
2 75 (12.63%) Senior
3 65 (10.94%) Data Engineer
4 45 (7.58%) Unix Engineer
5 43 (7.24%) Support Engineer
6 42 (7.07%) Java Developer
7 39 (6.57%) Analyst
8 35 (5.89%) DBA
9 29 (4.88%) Senior Developer
10 25 (4.21%) Architect
11 24 (4.04%) Oracle DBA
11 24 (4.04%) Python Developer
12 22 (3.70%) Administrator
13 21 (3.54%) Consultant
14 20 (3.37%) Site Reliability Engineer
15 19 (3.20%) Technical Support
16 18 (3.03%) Site Engineer
17 15 (2.53%) Senior Java Developer
18 14 (2.36%) Linux Engineer
18 14 (2.36%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (8.75%) Kafka
2 36 (6.06%) REST
3 32 (5.39%) Middleware
4 26 (4.38%) RESTful
5 21 (3.54%) Spring
6 20 (3.37%) Spring Boot
6 20 (3.37%) XML
7 17 (2.86%) CSS
8 15 (2.53%) Web Services
9 14 (2.36%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 13 (2.19%) HTML
11 12 (2.02%) ActiveMQ
11 12 (2.02%) JAX-RS
11 12 (2.02%) LDAP
12 11 (1.85%) Pandas
12 11 (1.85%) RabbitMQ
13 10 (1.68%) JSON
14 9 (1.52%) FastAPI
14 9 (1.52%) Flask
14 9 (1.52%) React
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.24%) Onboarding
2 36 (6.06%) Linux Command Line
3 30 (5.05%) Legacy Systems
4 29 (4.88%) Data Centre
5 25 (4.21%) Management Information System
6 19 (3.20%) Cloud Native
6 19 (3.20%) Mainframe
7 18 (3.03%) Derivative
7 18 (3.03%) Replication
8 17 (2.86%) Fixed Income
9 13 (2.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 12 (2.02%) Equities
11 11 (1.85%) Clustering
12 10 (1.68%) BYOD
12 10 (1.68%) Distributed Systems
12 10 (1.68%) Public Cloud
12 10 (1.68%) Virtual Team
12 10 (1.68%) VSAM
13 9 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
13 9 (1.52%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 395 (66.50%) Linux
2 155 (26.09%) Windows
3 53 (8.92%) Solaris
4 44 (7.41%) Windows Server
5 30 (5.05%) AIX
6 23 (3.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (2.02%) Mac OS X
8 9 (1.52%) Oracle Linux
9 7 (1.18%) HPUX
10 6 (1.01%) SUSE
11 5 (0.84%) VMS
12 3 (0.51%) Android
12 3 (0.51%) Check Point GAiA
12 3 (0.51%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.51%) OpenVMS
13 2 (0.34%) CentOS
13 2 (0.34%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.34%) zOS
14 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 128 (21.55%) Agile
2 119 (20.03%) CI/CD
3 106 (17.85%) Problem-Solving
4 91 (15.32%) Migration
5 79 (13.30%) DevOps
5 79 (13.30%) High Availability
6 75 (12.63%) ITIL
7 65 (10.94%) Test Automation
8 60 (10.10%) Root Cause Analysis
9 55 (9.26%) Performance Tuning
10 52 (8.75%) Disaster Recovery
11 51 (8.59%) Runbook
12 49 (8.25%) Observability
13 47 (7.91%) Change Management
13 47 (7.91%) Data Modelling
13 47 (7.91%) Microservices
14 46 (7.74%) Analytics
14 46 (7.74%) Incident Management
15 43 (7.24%) Computer Science
16 42 (7.07%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 225 (37.88%) SQL
2 222 (37.37%) Python
3 109 (18.35%) Shell Script
4 108 (18.18%) Java
5 72 (12.12%) PL/SQL
6 53 (8.92%) PowerShell
7 52 (8.75%) Bash
8 36 (6.06%) JavaScript
8 36 (6.06%) Perl
9 25 (4.21%) C#
10 22 (3.70%) C++
11 16 (2.69%) Korn
12 12 (2.02%) COBOL
13 8 (1.35%) Scala
14 7 (1.18%) C
15 5 (0.84%) Go
15 5 (0.84%) ProC
16 4 (0.67%) Kotlin
16 4 (0.67%) Ruby
16 4 (0.67%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 195 (32.83%) Security Cleared
2 164 (27.61%) SC Cleared
3 73 (12.29%) Degree
4 32 (5.39%) BPSS Clearance
5 21 (3.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (3.20%) CISSP
7 11 (1.85%) CompTIA Security+
8 10 (1.68%) 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 (0.67%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (6.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 37 (6.23%) NIST
3 23 (3.87%) QA
4 16 (2.69%) SLA
5 11 (1.85%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (1.01%) ISO 31000
8 5 (0.84%) GRC
9 4 (0.67%) ISO 20022
9 4 (0.67%) NIST 800
9 4 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.51%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.51%) FATCA
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%) ISO 8583
12 1 (0.17%) SEPA
System Software
1 55 (9.26%) Docker
2 44 (7.41%) Active Directory
3 21 (3.54%) Oracle RAC
4 18 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
5 16 (2.69%) NFS
6 11 (1.85%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (1.18%) 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 (0.67%) HDFS
10 4 (0.67%) 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 69 (11.62%) Kubernetes
2 58 (9.76%) Ansible
3 36 (6.06%) Grafana
3 36 (6.06%) Terraform
4 31 (5.22%) Oracle RMAN
5 25 (4.21%) Prometheus
6 15 (2.53%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 14 (2.36%) Data Guard
8 10 (1.68%) Kibana
9 9 (1.52%) Progress Chef
9 9 (1.52%) Puppet
9 9 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (1.35%) NetBackup
11 7 (1.18%) Control-M
12 6 (1.01%) HAProxy
12 6 (1.01%) IBM BigFix
12 6 (1.01%) Nessus
12 6 (1.01%) Tivoli
12 6 (1.01%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.84%) vRealize
Vendors
1 234 (39.39%) Oracle
2 46 (7.74%) IBM
2 46 (7.74%) Splunk
3 38 (6.40%) BeyondTrust
3 38 (6.40%) CyberArk
3 38 (6.40%) Microsoft
4 34 (5.72%) Talend
5 27 (4.55%) ServiceNow
5 27 (4.55%) VMware
6 26 (4.38%) Informatica
7 25 (4.21%) Sybase
8 21 (3.54%) Denodo
9 19 (3.20%) Cisco
10 16 (2.69%) Red Hat
11 15 (2.53%) Dynatrace
12 13 (2.19%) SAP
13 11 (1.85%) BT
13 11 (1.85%) CheckPoint
14 10 (1.68%) Veritas
15 9 (1.52%) Murex