VME Contract Job Trends

ICL VME
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring VME skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 560 553 -
Rank change year-on-year -7 - -
Contract jobs citing VME 5 3 0
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.014% 0.008% -
As % of the Operating Systems category 0.10% 0.058% -
Number of daily rates quoted 2 2 0
10th Percentile £379 - -
25th Percentile £403 £556 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £563 -
Median % change year-on-year -17.78% - -
75th Percentile £528 £569 -
90th Percentile £556 - -
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 4,813 5,177 7,092
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 13.54% 14.11% 15.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,099 3,180 4,809
10th Percentile £185 £200 £182
25th Percentile £270 £325 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -1.04% -4.95%
75th Percentile £572 £584 £613
90th Percentile £653 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £410 £450 £442
% change year-on-year -8.89% +1.81% -1.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 364 219 356
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.25 £14.76
25th Percentile £18.87 £23.11 £18.45
Median hourly rate £24.00 £52.50 £35.92
Median % change year-on-year -54.29% +46.16% +43.68%
75th Percentile £43.75 £68.46 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £70.00 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.57 £52.50 £28.75
% change year-on-year -57.01% +82.61% +27.78%

VME
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing VME relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

VME job vacancy trend in the UK

VME
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VME.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VME

VME
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VME over the 6 months to 14 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for VME in the UK

VME
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VME.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing VME

VME
Top 9 Contract Job 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 14 November 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 -26 3 £375 -33.33% 1
UK excluding London -27 3 £550 - 1
London +17 1 £375 -33.33%
Midlands - 1 - - 1
North West - 1 - -
West Midlands - 1 - - 1
Scotland - 1 £550 -
Work from Home - 1 £550 - 1
North of England - 1 - -

VME
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:

General
1 2 (40.00%) Public Sector
2 1 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (80.00%) Developer
2 3 (60.00%) COBOL Developer
3 1 (20.00%) Mainframe Developer
Miscellaneous
1 2 (40.00%) Legacy Systems
1 2 (40.00%) Mainframe
2 1 (20.00%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 2 (40.00%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (40.00%) Migration
1 2 (40.00%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (20.00%) Batch Processing
2 1 (20.00%) Data Protection
2 1 (20.00%) Reverse Engineering
2 1 (20.00%) Structured Programming
Programming Languages
1 5 (100.00%) COBOL
2 1 (20.00%) PL/SQL
2 1 (20.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (20.00%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (20.00%) SC Cleared
Vendors
1 3 (60.00%) ICL
2 2 (40.00%) Fujitsu
3 1 (20.00%) IBM