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 26 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 188 132 128
Rank change year-on-year -56 -4 -45
Contract jobs citing Unix 570 646 870
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.51% 2.06% 1.96%
As % of the Operating Systems category 12.08% 14.63% 13.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 383 369 619
10th Percentile £204 £350 £363
25th Percentile £391 £425 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £527 £550
Median % change year-on-year -9.87% -4.18% -2.22%
75th Percentile £606 £675 £670
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £443 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -6.84% -5.00% -7.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 7 19
10th Percentile £26.28 £38.70 £22.00
25th Percentile £26.31 £40.50 £26.78
Median hourly rate £27.75 £41.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.32% +2.50% -37.98%
75th Percentile £29.31 £59.00 £51.25
90th Percentile £29.43 £69.50 £69.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £47.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year - +17.50% -28.89%

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 4,717 4,415 6,326
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.50% 14.11% 14.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,127 2,743 4,287
10th Percentile £173 £200 £181
25th Percentile £263 £318 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £470
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +1.06% -8.74%
75th Percentile £565 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £695 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £408 £425 £425
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 160 360
10th Percentile £14.30 £16.24 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.03 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.00 £34.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.54% +15.00% +17.12%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £63.13
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.10 £72.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £31.79 £26.00
% change year-on-year -26.08% +22.27% +8.65%

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 26 January 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
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 26 January 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 -50 475 £475 -13.64% 132
UK excluding London -53 289 £443 -6.84% 123
London -19 229 £565 -5.83% 34
Work from Home -62 160 £454 -9.20% 95
North of England -18 84 £465 -31.07% 22
South East -28 78 £208 -52.30% 39
Midlands -44 64 £450 -10.00% 17
West Midlands -33 60 £450 -14.89% 13
Scotland -21 52 £425 -5.56% 8
North West +1 47 £460 -26.40% 14
Yorkshire -34 35 £495 -30.53% 4
South West -29 10 £700 +33.33% 12
North East -13 4 £500 -9.09% 4
East Midlands -29 4 £465 +10.06% 4
East of England -26 2 £470 +17.50% 19
Wales -6 1 £265 +64.60% 7
Northern Ireland -11 1 - - 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 34 (5.96%) Apache
2 32 (5.61%) WebLogic
3 23 (4.04%) Confluence
4 18 (3.16%) JBoss
5 17 (2.98%) SharePoint
6 10 (1.75%) Tomcat
7 9 (1.58%) IIS
7 9 (1.58%) Tuxedo
7 9 (1.58%) WebSphere
8 8 (1.40%) iPlanet
8 8 (1.40%) WebSphere Application Server
9 6 (1.05%) Apache Spark
9 6 (1.05%) nginx
10 5 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.88%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 5 (0.88%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.70%) SAS
12 2 (0.35%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 1 (0.18%) NetWeaver
13 1 (0.18%) OpenStack
Applications
1 17 (2.98%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (1.40%) Oracle EBS
1 8 (1.40%) Oracle EBS R12
2 5 (0.88%) Oracle 11i
3 4 (0.70%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.53%) Kondor
4 3 (0.53%) Oracle Assets
4 3 (0.53%) Oracle BRM
4 3 (0.53%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.35%) ION MarketView
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.18%) Finacle
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle BPM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle CRM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.18%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.18%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 148 (25.96%) AWS
2 96 (16.84%) Azure
3 33 (5.79%) GCP
4 26 (4.56%) GitHub
5 22 (3.86%) AWS CloudFormation
5 22 (3.86%) SaaS
6 19 (3.33%) OpenShift
7 16 (2.81%) Sauce Labs
8 15 (2.63%) Amazon EC2
8 15 (2.63%) Amazon S3
9 12 (2.11%) Serverless
10 11 (1.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 11 (1.93%) AWS Lambda
10 11 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
10 11 (1.93%) Cloud Computing
11 10 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (1.58%) OCI
12 9 (1.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 8 (1.40%) Microsoft 365
13 8 (1.40%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 28 (4.91%) Firewall
2 24 (4.21%) HTTP
3 21 (3.68%) TCP/IP
4 20 (3.51%) DNS
5 16 (2.81%) Wireless
6 15 (2.63%) SSH
7 11 (1.93%) Network Security
8 10 (1.75%) Kerberos
9 9 (1.58%) SSL
10 5 (0.88%) DHCP
10 5 (0.88%) FTP
10 5 (0.88%) SAN
11 4 (0.70%) FIX Connectivity
11 4 (0.70%) NAS
11 4 (0.70%) Wireshark
12 3 (0.53%) Broadband
12 3 (0.53%) GPRS
12 3 (0.53%) InfiniBand
12 3 (0.53%) Unified Communications
12 3 (0.53%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (9.47%) Relational Database
2 52 (9.12%) MongoDB
2 52 (9.12%) MySQL
3 40 (7.02%) Oracle Database
4 29 (5.09%) NoSQL
5 25 (4.39%) Elasticsearch
5 25 (4.39%) PostgreSQL
6 18 (3.16%) SQL Server
7 15 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
8 13 (2.28%) KDB
8 13 (2.28%) Kdb+
9 11 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
9 11 (1.93%) Big Data
10 10 (1.75%) Amazon Redshift
10 10 (1.75%) Data Lake
11 8 (1.40%) RDBMS
12 6 (1.05%) Couchbase
12 6 (1.05%) Hadoop
12 6 (1.05%) Metadata
13 5 (0.88%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 59 (10.35%) Jenkins
2 50 (8.77%) Git
3 35 (6.14%) JIRA
4 31 (5.44%) GitLab
5 25 (4.39%) Eclipse
6 22 (3.86%) JUnit
7 20 (3.51%) Mockito
8 18 (3.16%) Xcode
9 17 (2.98%) Browser DevTools
10 16 (2.81%) Android Studio
11 15 (2.63%) Sonatype Nexus
12 13 (2.28%) Selenium
13 11 (1.93%) Bitbucket
14 9 (1.58%) IntelliJ
14 9 (1.58%) Maven
15 8 (1.40%) Bitbucket Server
15 8 (1.40%) CA Release Automation
15 8 (1.40%) MSI
16 6 (1.05%) SoapUI
17 5 (0.88%) QUnit
General
1 166 (29.12%) Social Skills
2 149 (26.14%) Finance
3 73 (12.81%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (9.65%) Banking
5 35 (6.14%) Public Sector
6 27 (4.74%) Front Office
7 15 (2.63%) Investment Banking
8 13 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (2.11%) Financial Institution
10 10 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
11 7 (1.23%) Legal
11 7 (1.23%) Military
12 5 (0.88%) Law
13 4 (0.70%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.53%) Billing
14 3 (0.53%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.35%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.35%) Marketing
15 2 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 113 (19.82%) Developer
2 100 (17.54%) Senior
3 45 (7.89%) Java Developer
4 43 (7.54%) Technical Support
5 42 (7.37%) Analyst
6 35 (6.14%) Site Reliability Engineer
7 34 (5.96%) DevOps Engineer
8 31 (5.44%) Support Engineer
8 31 (5.44%) Unix Engineer
9 29 (5.09%) Linux Engineer
9 29 (5.09%) Site Engineer
10 26 (4.56%) Senior Developer
11 24 (4.21%) Software Engineer
11 24 (4.21%) Technical Engineer
12 23 (4.04%) Consultant
13 22 (3.86%) C++ Software Engineer
13 22 (3.86%) Senior C++ Software Engineer
13 22 (3.86%) Senior Software Engineer
13 22 (3.86%) Technical Support Engineer
14 21 (3.68%) Kafka Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (13.86%) Kafka
2 39 (6.84%) React
3 38 (6.67%) REST
4 33 (5.79%) SOAP
5 25 (4.39%) AngularJS
5 25 (4.39%) CSS
6 24 (4.21%) XML
7 22 (3.86%) HTML
7 22 (3.86%) Middleware
8 19 (3.33%) ActiveMQ
9 18 (3.16%) JAX-RS
9 18 (3.16%) JSON
10 17 (2.98%) Ajax
10 17 (2.98%) GraphQL
10 17 (2.98%) Spring
11 16 (2.81%) Elastic Stack
12 15 (2.63%) HTML5
13 14 (2.46%) Hibernate
14 12 (2.11%) J2EE
15 10 (1.75%) FIX Protocol
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.61%) Management Information System
2 19 (3.33%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
2 19 (3.33%) Mobile App
2 19 (3.33%) Onboarding
3 17 (2.98%) Cloud Native
3 17 (2.98%) Linux Command Line
4 13 (2.28%) Algorithms
4 13 (2.28%) Equities
5 12 (2.11%) Fixed Income
6 11 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (1.93%) Derivative
6 11 (1.93%) Tandem
7 10 (1.75%) Greenfield Project
7 10 (1.75%) Replication
7 10 (1.75%) Security Posture
8 9 (1.58%) Data Centre
9 8 (1.40%) Enterprise Cloud
9 8 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (1.40%) Public Cloud
10 7 (1.23%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 387 (67.89%) Linux
2 179 (31.40%) Windows
3 28 (4.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 23 (4.04%) Mac OS X
5 20 (3.51%) Solaris
6 18 (3.16%) Android
6 18 (3.16%) Windows Server
7 13 (2.28%) Mac OS
8 12 (2.11%) CentOS
9 5 (0.88%) AIX
10 4 (0.70%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.35%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.18%) VMS
12 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.18%) Windows 7
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2003
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (28.25%) Agile
2 113 (19.82%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (19.30%) DevOps
4 107 (18.77%) CI/CD
5 64 (11.23%) Computer Science
5 64 (11.23%) Incident Response
6 62 (10.88%) Microservices
6 62 (10.88%) OO
7 60 (10.53%) Observability
8 55 (9.65%) Infrastructure as Code
9 54 (9.47%) Software Engineering
10 52 (9.12%) Containerisation
10 52 (9.12%) Test Automation
11 49 (8.60%) Migration
12 47 (8.25%) TDD
13 46 (8.07%) Continuous Improvement
14 45 (7.89%) Data Modelling
14 45 (7.89%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 42 (7.37%) Change Management
15 42 (7.37%) Performance Tuning
Programming Languages
1 235 (41.23%) Python
2 215 (37.72%) SQL
3 151 (26.49%) Java
4 100 (17.54%) Shell Script
5 88 (15.44%) Perl
6 80 (14.04%) Bash
7 55 (9.65%) JavaScript
8 48 (8.42%) C++
9 41 (7.19%) PowerShell
10 30 (5.26%) C#
11 26 (4.56%) PL/SQL
12 14 (2.46%) Go
13 12 (2.11%) Scala
14 11 (1.93%) Korn
15 10 (1.75%) Groovy
16 9 (1.58%) PHP
17 8 (1.40%) Search Processing Language
18 7 (1.23%) TypeScript
19 4 (0.70%) Kusto Query Language
19 4 (0.70%) PromQL
Qualifications
1 110 (19.30%) Security Cleared
2 93 (16.32%) Degree
3 77 (13.51%) SC Cleared
4 54 (9.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (3.86%) BPSS Clearance
6 11 (1.93%) DV Cleared
7 10 (1.75%) AWS Certification
7 10 (1.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 6 (1.05%) OSCP
9 5 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (0.88%) GPEN
9 5 (0.88%) GWAPT
9 5 (0.88%) ISTQB
9 5 (0.88%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 5 (0.88%) RHCE
10 4 (0.70%) CISSP
11 3 (0.53%) CCIE
11 3 (0.53%) CCNA
11 3 (0.53%) CCNP
11 3 (0.53%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.33%) SLA
2 16 (2.81%) QA
3 9 (1.58%) Data Quality
4 4 (0.70%) GMP
4 4 (0.70%) HIPAA
4 4 (0.70%) NCSC
4 4 (0.70%) SOC 2
5 3 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
5 3 (0.53%) NIST
5 3 (0.53%) SEPA
6 2 (0.35%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.18%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.18%) GDPR
7 1 (0.18%) ISO 15022
7 1 (0.18%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 92 (16.14%) Docker
2 13 (2.28%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.40%) Tivoli Directory Server
3 8 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.05%) KVM
5 5 (0.88%) VMware NSX
6 3 (0.53%) GPFS
6 3 (0.53%) NFS
6 3 (0.53%) QEMU
7 2 (0.35%) GridGain
7 2 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.18%) Ceph
8 1 (0.18%) iptables
8 1 (0.18%) Postfix
8 1 (0.18%) Samba
8 1 (0.18%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.18%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.18%) Varnish
8 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 85 (14.91%) Kubernetes
2 74 (12.98%) Ansible
3 72 (12.63%) Terraform
4 38 (6.67%) Grafana
5 31 (5.44%) Puppet
6 24 (4.21%) Prometheus
7 15 (2.63%) Kibana
8 14 (2.46%) Progress Chef
9 10 (1.75%) Red Hat Satellite
10 9 (1.58%) Tivoli
11 8 (1.40%) CA Single Sign-On
11 8 (1.40%) CA Wily
12 7 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
13 6 (1.05%) SCCM
14 5 (0.88%) Dell DRAC
14 5 (0.88%) ITRS Geneos
14 5 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
14 5 (0.88%) NetBackup
15 4 (0.70%) HAProxy
15 4 (0.70%) Nagios
Vendors
1 172 (30.18%) Oracle
2 94 (16.49%) Splunk
3 72 (12.63%) Microsoft
4 38 (6.67%) IBM
5 32 (5.61%) ServiceNow
6 26 (4.56%) Red Hat
7 21 (3.68%) AppDynamics
8 16 (2.81%) Cisco
9 15 (2.63%) Dynatrace
9 15 (2.63%) VMware
10 9 (1.58%) CyberArk
10 9 (1.58%) F5
10 9 (1.58%) webMethods
11 8 (1.40%) Broadcom
11 8 (1.40%) Confluent
11 8 (1.40%) CrowdStrike
12 7 (1.23%) BeyondTrust
12 7 (1.23%) Dell
12 7 (1.23%) MuleSoft
13 6 (1.05%) Veritas