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

6 months to
15 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 178 121 116
Rank change year-on-year -57 -5 -32
Contract jobs citing Unix 586 711 967
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.61% 2.07% 2.18%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.28% 14.85% 14.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 387 440 682
10th Percentile £204 £350 £363
25th Percentile £374 £413 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.37% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £634 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £766 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.89% -5.00% -7.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 6 10
10th Percentile £26.30 £38.25 £21.88
25th Percentile £26.38 £40.50 £24.31
Median hourly rate £28.00 £41.00 £57.75
Median % change year-on-year -31.71% -29.00% -12.50%
75th Percentile £42.13 £50.13 £75.00
90th Percentile £49.70 £59.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.50 £47.00 £63.00
% change year-on-year +15.96% -25.40% +5.00%

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 4,773 4,787 6,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.10% 13.96% 15.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,093 2,990 4,567
10th Percentile £175 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £319 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -7.32%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £600
90th Percentile £660 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £402 £426 £430
% change year-on-year -5.63% -0.93% -4.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 183 332
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.26 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.05% +53.23% +26.53%
75th Percentile £62.00 £67.14 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.11 £50.00 £27.00
% change year-on-year -49.78% +85.19% +22.73%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -53 484 £495 -7.91% 123
UK excluding London -52 296 £447 -5.89% 93
London -41 238 £565 -0.53% 58
Work from Home -79 150 £454 -9.20% 111
South East -4 83 £208 -50.60% 36
North of England -26 76 £483 -19.58% 19
Scotland -7 60 £450 -1.59% 7
Midlands -50 58 £485 -3.00% 10
West Midlands -39 52 £495 -1.73% 7
North West -8 43 £471 -17.55% 15
Yorkshire -40 31 £613 -2.78% 4
South West -27 11 £700 +33.33% 16
East Midlands -19 6 £434 +21.77% 3
East of England -30 6 £500 +25.00% 9
North East -9 4 £500 -9.09% 1
Wales -4 3 £265 +64.43% 2
Northern Ireland -10 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 41 (7.00%) Apache
2 36 (6.14%) WebLogic
3 32 (5.46%) Confluence
4 20 (3.41%) SharePoint
5 17 (2.90%) JBoss
6 13 (2.22%) WebSphere
7 9 (1.54%) IIS
8 8 (1.37%) iPlanet
8 8 (1.37%) Tomcat
8 8 (1.37%) Tuxedo
8 8 (1.37%) WebSphere Application Server
9 7 (1.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 7 (1.19%) Oracle Workflow
10 6 (1.02%) nginx
11 5 (0.85%) Apache Spark
11 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
12 4 (0.68%) NetWeaver
13 2 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
13 2 (0.34%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.34%) SAS
Applications
1 19 (3.24%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.34%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (1.71%) Oracle EBS
1 10 (1.71%) Oracle EBS R12
2 5 (0.85%) Oracle 11i
2 5 (0.85%) Oracle Assets
2 5 (0.85%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (0.68%) ION MarketView
3 4 (0.68%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 4 (0.68%) SAP IBP
4 3 (0.51%) Kondor
4 3 (0.51%) Oracle BPM
4 3 (0.51%) Oracle BRM
4 3 (0.51%) Oracle General Ledger
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.17%) Finacle
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle CRM
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.17%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.17%) StreamServe
Cloud Services
1 153 (26.11%) AWS
2 109 (18.60%) Azure
3 36 (6.14%) GCP
4 28 (4.78%) SaaS
5 27 (4.61%) GitHub
6 20 (3.41%) AWS CloudFormation
6 20 (3.41%) Sauce Labs
7 19 (3.24%) Azure Monitor
8 18 (3.07%) Amazon EC2
9 16 (2.73%) Amazon S3
10 15 (2.56%) OpenShift
11 13 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (2.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 11 (1.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 11 (1.88%) Cloud Computing
13 11 (1.88%) Serverless
14 10 (1.71%) AWS Lambda
15 9 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
15 9 (1.54%) Microsoft 365
15 9 (1.54%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 34 (5.80%) Firewall
2 30 (5.12%) HTTP
3 28 (4.78%) DNS
3 28 (4.78%) TCP/IP
4 20 (3.41%) SSL
4 20 (3.41%) Wireless
5 17 (2.90%) SSH
6 15 (2.56%) Network Security
7 10 (1.71%) DHCP
7 10 (1.71%) Kerberos
7 10 (1.71%) SAN
8 5 (0.85%) FTP
9 4 (0.68%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.51%) Broadband
10 3 (0.51%) GPRS
10 3 (0.51%) GSM
10 3 (0.51%) Internet
10 3 (0.51%) Unified Communications
10 3 (0.51%) VoIP
10 3 (0.51%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (9.39%) Relational Database
2 54 (9.22%) MySQL
3 52 (8.87%) MongoDB
4 48 (8.19%) Oracle Database
5 28 (4.78%) NoSQL
6 24 (4.10%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (3.41%) Elasticsearch
8 19 (3.24%) SQL Server
9 14 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
9 14 (2.39%) KDB
10 13 (2.22%) Amazon RDS
10 13 (2.22%) Kdb+
11 10 (1.71%) Amazon Redshift
11 10 (1.71%) Data Lake
12 9 (1.54%) RDBMS
13 8 (1.37%) Big Data
13 8 (1.37%) DB2
13 8 (1.37%) Hadoop
14 6 (1.02%) Couchbase
14 6 (1.02%) Redis
Development Applications
1 62 (10.58%) Jenkins
2 55 (9.39%) Git
3 46 (7.85%) JIRA
4 30 (5.12%) Eclipse
5 27 (4.61%) GitLab
6 25 (4.27%) JUnit
6 25 (4.27%) Xcode
7 23 (3.92%) Mockito
8 21 (3.58%) Browser DevTools
9 20 (3.41%) Android Studio
10 15 (2.56%) Bitbucket
10 15 (2.56%) Selenium
10 15 (2.56%) Sonatype Nexus
11 13 (2.22%) Maven
12 11 (1.88%) IntelliJ
13 10 (1.71%) SoapUI
14 8 (1.37%) Bitbucket Server
14 8 (1.37%) CA Release Automation
14 8 (1.37%) Subversion
15 7 (1.19%) MSI
General
1 189 (32.25%) Social Skills
2 162 (27.65%) Finance
3 73 (12.46%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (9.22%) Banking
5 36 (6.14%) Public Sector
6 25 (4.27%) Front Office
7 18 (3.07%) Financial Institution
8 13 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (1.88%) Investment Banking
10 10 (1.71%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (1.37%) Legal
12 7 (1.19%) Military
13 4 (0.68%) Back Office
13 4 (0.68%) General Ledger
13 4 (0.68%) Manufacturing
13 4 (0.68%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.51%) Billing
14 3 (0.51%) Law
14 3 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.51%) Wholesale Banking
Job Titles
1 120 (20.48%) Developer
2 96 (16.38%) Senior
3 50 (8.53%) Java Developer
4 45 (7.68%) Technical Support
5 40 (6.83%) Analyst
6 37 (6.31%) DevOps Engineer
7 34 (5.80%) Support Engineer
8 28 (4.78%) Technical Engineer
9 26 (4.44%) Technical Support Engineer
10 25 (4.27%) Linux Engineer
10 25 (4.27%) Senior Developer
11 24 (4.10%) Site Reliability Engineer
12 21 (3.58%) Platform Engineer
12 21 (3.58%) UX Engineer
13 20 (3.41%) Kafka Engineer
13 20 (3.41%) Unix Engineer
14 19 (3.24%) Lead
14 19 (3.24%) Site Engineer
14 19 (3.24%) Software Engineer
15 18 (3.07%) Front-End Engineer (Client-Side Engineer)
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (13.99%) Kafka
2 40 (6.83%) React
2 40 (6.83%) SOAP
3 37 (6.31%) REST
4 35 (5.97%) AngularJS
5 32 (5.46%) CSS
6 29 (4.95%) Middleware
7 23 (3.92%) Spring
7 23 (3.92%) XML
8 22 (3.75%) HTML
9 21 (3.58%) ActiveMQ
9 21 (3.58%) Ajax
9 21 (3.58%) GraphQL
10 19 (3.24%) JSON
11 18 (3.07%) JAX-RS
12 17 (2.90%) Hibernate
12 17 (2.90%) J2EE
13 15 (2.56%) HTML5
13 15 (2.56%) LDAP
14 14 (2.39%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 35 (5.97%) Management Information System
2 23 (3.92%) Mobile App
3 22 (3.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
4 18 (3.07%) Cloud Native
4 18 (3.07%) Onboarding
5 17 (2.90%) Data Centre
6 16 (2.73%) Algorithms
6 16 (2.73%) Security Posture
7 15 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
8 14 (2.39%) Linux Command Line
9 13 (2.22%) Tandem
10 12 (2.05%) Fixed Income
11 11 (1.88%) Equities
11 11 (1.88%) Legacy Applications
11 11 (1.88%) Replication
12 10 (1.71%) Data Protection Act
12 10 (1.71%) Private Cloud
13 9 (1.54%) PKI
14 8 (1.37%) Derivative
14 8 (1.37%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 416 (70.99%) Linux
2 193 (32.94%) Windows
3 32 (5.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (3.92%) Mac OS X
5 22 (3.75%) Android
6 19 (3.24%) Windows Server
7 15 (2.56%) CentOS
8 11 (1.88%) Mac OS
8 11 (1.88%) Solaris
9 6 (1.02%) AIX
10 5 (0.85%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.51%) VMS
12 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.34%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.34%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.34%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (30.03%) Agile
2 123 (20.99%) Problem-Solving
3 113 (19.28%) DevOps
4 106 (18.09%) CI/CD
5 72 (12.29%) OO
6 69 (11.77%) Incident Response
7 66 (11.26%) Microservices
8 60 (10.24%) Computer Science
9 59 (10.07%) Continuous Improvement
10 57 (9.73%) Infrastructure as Code
10 57 (9.73%) Test Automation
11 54 (9.22%) Software Engineering
12 51 (8.70%) Containerisation
13 49 (8.36%) Observability
14 48 (8.19%) Analytics
15 47 (8.02%) TDD
16 43 (7.34%) Performance Tuning
17 40 (6.83%) Incident Management
17 40 (6.83%) ITIL
18 39 (6.66%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 239 (40.78%) Python
2 225 (38.40%) SQL
3 162 (27.65%) Java
4 104 (17.75%) Shell Script
5 97 (16.55%) Perl
6 75 (12.80%) Bash
7 64 (10.92%) JavaScript
8 48 (8.19%) C++
9 35 (5.97%) PowerShell
10 32 (5.46%) C#
11 29 (4.95%) PL/SQL
12 16 (2.73%) Go
13 14 (2.39%) Korn
14 13 (2.22%) Groovy
15 12 (2.05%) Scala
16 9 (1.54%) PHP
16 9 (1.54%) Search Processing Language
16 9 (1.54%) TypeScript
17 6 (1.02%) C
18 4 (0.68%) JCL
Qualifications
1 101 (17.24%) Security Cleared
2 86 (14.68%) Degree
3 69 (11.77%) SC Cleared
4 47 (8.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 25 (4.27%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (2.22%) AWS Certification
7 12 (2.05%) CISSP
8 11 (1.88%) DV Cleared
9 10 (1.71%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 7 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (1.02%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 6 (1.02%) OSCP
12 5 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (0.85%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (0.85%) GPEN
12 5 (0.85%) GWAPT
12 5 (0.85%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.85%) MCSA
12 5 (0.85%) MCSE
13 4 (0.68%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.07%) QA
2 11 (1.88%) SLA
3 9 (1.54%) Data Quality
4 7 (1.19%) NCSC
5 4 (0.68%) HIPAA
5 4 (0.68%) SOC 2
6 3 (0.51%) Disclosure Scotland
6 3 (0.51%) NIST
6 3 (0.51%) 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%) ISO 15022
8 1 (0.17%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 85 (14.51%) Docker
2 23 (3.92%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.37%) Tivoli Directory Server
4 7 (1.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.02%) KVM
6 4 (0.68%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.51%) NFS
7 3 (0.51%) 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%) iptables
9 1 (0.17%) RACF
9 1 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.17%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.17%) Tivoli Workload Scheduler
9 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 74 (12.63%) Kubernetes
2 71 (12.12%) Terraform
3 63 (10.75%) Ansible
4 31 (5.29%) Puppet
5 28 (4.78%) Grafana
6 22 (3.75%) Prometheus
7 16 (2.73%) Progress Chef
8 10 (1.71%) Kibana
8 10 (1.71%) Red Hat Satellite
8 10 (1.71%) Tivoli
9 8 (1.37%) CA Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.37%) CA Wily
10 7 (1.19%) ITRS Geneos
10 7 (1.19%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (1.19%) Nessus
10 7 (1.19%) Packer
10 7 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.85%) CASB
11 5 (0.85%) Dell DRAC
11 5 (0.85%) SCCM
Vendors
1 174 (29.69%) Oracle
2 106 (18.09%) Splunk
3 79 (13.48%) Microsoft
4 43 (7.34%) IBM
5 33 (5.63%) ServiceNow
6 28 (4.78%) Red Hat
7 26 (4.44%) AppDynamics
8 25 (4.27%) Dynatrace
9 20 (3.41%) VMware
10 18 (3.07%) Cisco
11 16 (2.73%) F5
12 15 (2.56%) CyberArk
13 10 (1.71%) Google
13 10 (1.71%) MuleSoft
13 10 (1.71%) webMethods
14 9 (1.54%) Tenable
15 8 (1.37%) Confluent
15 8 (1.37%) CrowdStrike
15 8 (1.37%) Okta
15 8 (1.37%) TIBCO