VME Contracts

ICL VME
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring VME skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited VME over the 6 months leading up to 4 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 551 567 -
Rank change year-on-year +16 - -
Contract jobs citing VME 2 3 0
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.006% 0.008% -
As % of the Operating Systems category 0.045% 0.055% -
Number of daily rates quoted 1 2 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £525 £556 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £563 -
Median % change year-on-year -2.22% - -
75th Percentile £575 £569 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 - -

All Operating Systems
UK

VME 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 4,396 5,473 8,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.35% 13.96% 15.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,822 3,634 5,685
10th Percentile £200 £200 £187
25th Percentile £313 £325 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £625
90th Percentile £675 £688 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £472 £450
% change year-on-year -4.71% +4.94% +1.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 258 337 381
10th Percentile £15.50 £12.47 £15.00
25th Percentile £18.13 £17.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £27.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.73% -35.29% +88.89%
75th Percentile £56.88 £65.00 £64.50
90th Percentile £67.30 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.53 £38.25 £29.30
% change year-on-year -41.10% +30.55% +46.50%

VME
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing VME as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for VME in the UK

VME
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing VME.

Daily rate trend for VME in the UK

VME
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing VME.

Hourly rate trend for VME in the UK

VME
Top 3 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing VME within the UK over the 6 months to 4 August 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
UK excluding London +8 1 £550 -
Work from Home - 1 £550 -
Scotland - 1 £550 -

VME
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

General
1 1 (50.00%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Developer
2 1 (50.00%) COBOL Developer
2 1 (50.00%) Mainframe Developer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Legacy Systems
1 1 (50.00%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 2 (100.00%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (50.00%) Migration
1 1 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
1 1 (50.00%) Reverse Engineering
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) COBOL
Vendors
1 2 (100.00%) ICL
2 1 (50.00%) Fujitsu
2 1 (50.00%) IBM