Manual Testing Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Manual Testing
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Manual Testing skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 19 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	503	452	477
Rank change year-on-year	-51	+25	-70
Permanent jobs citing Manual Testing	170	81	130
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London	0.19%	0.24%	0.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category	0.27%	0.27%	0.33%
Number of salaries quoted	86	61	72
10^th Percentile	£26,750	£27,500	£30,000
25^th Percentile	£41,250	£35,000	£35,938
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£50,000	£52,500	£45,000
Median % change year-on-year	-4.76%	+16.67%	-
75^th Percentile	£57,500	£59,250	£58,750
90^th Percentile	£69,375	£63,750	£69,525
UK median annual salary	£50,000	£52,500	£55,000
% change year-on-year	-4.76%	-4.55%	+10.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Manual Testing falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

	6 months to 19 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills	62,402	29,565	39,073
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London	70.99%	86.74%	79.66%
Number of salaries quoted	43,555	16,277	19,472
10^th Percentile	£30,000	£26,640	£31,250
25^th Percentile	£40,000	£32,000	£40,000
Median annual salary (50^th Percentile)	£55,000	£46,000	£54,000
Median % change year-on-year	+19.57%	-14.81%	+1.66%
75^th Percentile	£70,000	£63,750	£68,750
90^th Percentile	£87,500	£79,000	£82,500
UK median annual salary	£60,000	£54,500	£60,000
% change year-on-year	+10.09%	-9.17%	-

Manual Testing Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Manual Testing relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Manual Testing Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Manual Testing.

Manual Testing Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Manual Testing in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Manual Testing in the UK excluding London

Manual Testing Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Manual Testing within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 19 October 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 Permanent IT Job Ads	Median Salary Past 6 Months	Median Salary % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
Northern Ireland	-33	53	-	-	2
South West	-65	36	£50,000	+25.00%	6
South East	-57	30	£52,500	+14.13%	27
North of England	-50	24	£50,000	+17.65%	32
North East	-	13	£50,000	-	13
Midlands	-48	12	£45,000	+20.00%	13
East of England	-45	11	£44,000	-16.98%	7
East Midlands	-32	8	£42,500	+13.33%	2
North West	-43	7	£47,500	-5.00%	9
Yorkshire	-28	4	-	-	10
West Midlands	-39	4	£53,750	+25.00%	11
Wales	-70	3	£32,000	-46.67%	1
Scotland	+9	1	-	-	8
Manual Testing UK

Manual Testing Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 19 October 2026, job vacancies citing Manual Testing also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region with a requirement for Manual Testing.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Test Automation	92.9%	158
2	QA	71.8%	122
3	Continuous Improvement	60.6%	103
4	Software Testing	59.4%	101
5	DevOps	55.3%	94
6	Python	48.2%	82
7	JavaScript	45.3%	77
8	Test Strategy	42.4%	72
9	Mentoring	41.2%	70
10	C#	37.6%	64
11	Software Engineering	36.5%	62
12	Stakeholder Engagement	35.9%	61
13	TypeScript	35.3%	60
14	Project Delivery	33.5%	57
14	SaaS	33.5%	57
16	Data Management	32.9%	56
17	Budget Management	32.4%	55
17	Change Advisory Board	32.4%	55
17	Enterprise Architecture	32.4%	55
17	Performance Management	32.4%	55
17	PowerShell	32.4%	55
17	Programme Management	32.4%	55
17	Strategic Planning	32.4%	55
17	Virtual Team Management	32.4%	55
25	Agile	31.2%	53
26	CI/CD	25.9%	44
26	Problem-Solving	25.9%	44
28	SDLC	24.1%	41
29	Regression Testing	21.2%	36
29	SQL	21.2%	36

Manual Testing Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Processes & Methodologies

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Test Automation	92.9%	158
2	Continuous Improvement	60.6%	103
3	Software Testing	59.4%	101
4	DevOps	55.3%	94
5	Test Strategy	42.4%	72
6	Mentoring	41.2%	70
7	Software Engineering	36.5%	62
8	Stakeholder Engagement	35.9%	61
9	Project Delivery	33.5%	57
10	Data Management	32.9%	56
11	Budget Management	32.4%	55
11	Change Advisory Board	32.4%	55
11	Enterprise Architecture	32.4%	55
11	Performance Management	32.4%	55
11	Programme Management	32.4%	55
11	Strategic Planning	32.4%	55
11	Virtual Team Management	32.4%	55
18	Agile	31.2%	53
19	CI/CD	25.9%	44
19	Problem-Solving	25.9%	44