Physics Job Trends

Physics
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Physics skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 324 341 383
Rank change year-on-year +17 +42 +27
Permanent jobs citing Physics 364 448 346
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.62% 0.81% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.75% 0.90% 0.74%
Number of salaries quoted 109 221 252
10th Percentile £34,600 £36,713 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,250 £45,946
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £77,500 £78,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £88,750 £120,000 £112,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,500 £52,500 £51,528
% change year-on-year +3.81% +1.89% +14.51%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Physics 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,537 49,891 46,757
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 82.05% 89.96% 91.45%
Number of salaries quoted 28,419 24,819 35,711
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,532 £45,000 £42,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -4.34%

Physics
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Physics job vacancy trend in the UK

Physics
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Physics.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Physics

Physics
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Physics over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Physics in the UK

Physics
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Physics within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +19 338 £55,000 -12.00% 539
UK excluding London +25 278 £54,500 +3.81% 462
Work from Home +160 181 £42,500 -22.73% 351
North of England +79 103 £54,500 +25.29% 88
South East -48 65 £56,430 -5.95% 148
Yorkshire +53 64 - - 36
London +3 61 £57,581 -35.12% 105
East of England +22 42 £67,500 -6.90% 91
South West +14 38 £40,792 -16.61% 60
North West +29 30 £54,500 +35.91% 44
Midlands +29 29 £45,000 +20.06% 66
West Midlands +27 16 £35,000 +12.90% 32
East Midlands -2 13 £75,000 +100.00% 29
North East +17 9 - - 8
Wales +6 1 £85,700 - 13

Physics
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 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.82%) Jupyter
3 2 (0.55%) ArcGIS
3 2 (0.55%) SAS
4 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.27%) Confluence
Applications
1 110 (30.22%) Chatbot
2 44 (12.09%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (3.57%) Simulink
4 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.27%) Abaqus
6 1 (0.27%) GNU Octave
6 1 (0.27%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 13 (3.57%) GitHub
2 11 (3.02%) SaaS
3 10 (2.75%) Azure
4 9 (2.47%) AWS
5 4 (1.10%) Power Platform
6 3 (0.82%) OpenShift
7 2 (0.55%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.27%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.27%) GCP
8 1 (0.27%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 12 (3.30%) Software-Defined Radio
2 5 (1.37%) 5G
2 5 (1.37%) SD-WAN
2 5 (1.37%) WAN
2 5 (1.37%) Wireless
3 3 (0.82%) LAN
4 1 (0.27%) Internet
4 1 (0.27%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.92%) Redis
1 7 (1.92%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.37%) MongoDB
4 4 (1.10%) GIS
4 4 (1.10%) Power BI
5 3 (0.82%) Apache Hive
5 3 (0.82%) Big Data
5 3 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.82%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.55%) Geospatial Data
6 2 (0.55%) Impala
6 2 (0.55%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.55%) Tableau
7 1 (0.27%) ClickHouse
7 1 (0.27%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.27%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.27%) Tick Data
Development Applications
1 11 (3.02%) Rational DOORS
2 10 (2.75%) Git
3 7 (1.92%) LabVIEW
4 4 (1.10%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.82%) JIRA
5 3 (0.82%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (0.55%) GitLab
6 2 (0.55%) TestRail
7 1 (0.27%) MLflow
7 1 (0.27%) Selenium
7 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.27%) WebDriver
General
1 77 (21.15%) Social Skills
2 67 (18.41%) Electronics
3 44 (12.09%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (11.81%) Marketing
5 33 (9.07%) Finance
6 25 (6.87%) Spanish Language
7 20 (5.49%) Aerospace
8 18 (4.95%) Agriculture
9 15 (4.12%) Manufacturing
10 14 (3.85%) Presentation Skills
11 12 (3.30%) Games
11 12 (3.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 10 (2.75%) German Language
12 10 (2.75%) Legal
13 8 (2.20%) Telecoms
14 7 (1.92%) Military
15 6 (1.65%) Retail
16 5 (1.37%) Banking
17 4 (1.10%) Automotive
18 3 (0.82%) Dutch Language
Job Titles
1 110 (30.22%) Trainer
2 45 (12.36%) Consultant
2 45 (12.36%) Senior
3 36 (9.89%) Systems Engineer
4 34 (9.34%) Solutions Consultant
5 33 (9.07%) Technical Consultant
6 21 (5.77%) Developer
6 21 (5.77%) Software Engineer
7 20 (5.49%) Research Scientist
8 18 (4.95%) Graduate
9 11 (3.02%) Lead
9 11 (3.02%) Physicist
9 11 (3.02%) Principal Engineer
10 9 (2.47%) Data Scientist
10 9 (2.47%) Senior Systems Engineer
10 9 (2.47%) Test Engineer
11 8 (2.20%) Analyst
12 7 (1.92%) C# Developer
12 7 (1.92%) Radio Engineer
12 7 (1.92%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.02%) .NET
1 11 (3.02%) PyTorch
2 9 (2.47%) OpenGL
3 8 (2.20%) TensorFlow
4 7 (1.92%) Google JAX
4 7 (1.92%) JAX
4 7 (1.92%) Node.js
5 6 (1.65%) .NET Core
5 6 (1.65%) DirectX
5 6 (1.65%) React
6 5 (1.37%) pytest
7 4 (1.10%) NestJS
8 3 (0.82%) Vulkan
9 2 (0.55%) Blazor
9 2 (0.55%) OpenLayers
9 2 (0.55%) Pandas
9 2 (0.55%) PySpark
9 2 (0.55%) Qt
9 2 (0.55%) scikit-learn
9 2 (0.55%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 31 (8.52%) Algorithms
2 18 (4.95%) e-Learning
3 11 (3.02%) 3D Graphics
4 10 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
4 10 (2.75%) Embedded Systems
5 9 (2.47%) CUDA
5 9 (2.47%) Onboarding
6 8 (2.20%) FPGA
7 7 (1.92%) Management Information System
8 5 (1.37%) Derivative
8 5 (1.37%) Self-Driving Car
8 5 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.10%) RISC-V
10 3 (0.82%) Arduino
10 3 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.82%) Data Centre
10 3 (0.82%) Driving Licence
10 3 (0.82%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (0.82%) Raspberry Pi
10 3 (0.82%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 24 (6.59%) Linux
2 12 (3.30%) Unix
3 10 (2.75%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 228 (62.64%) Mathematics
2 167 (45.88%) AI
3 110 (30.22%) Conversational UI
4 91 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
5 68 (18.68%) Computer Science
6 47 (12.91%) Software Engineering
7 37 (10.16%) Innovative Thinking
7 37 (10.16%) Machine Learning
7 37 (10.16%) Systems Engineering
7 37 (10.16%) Validation
8 33 (9.07%) Chemistry
9 28 (7.69%) Signal Processing
10 26 (7.14%) Data Science
11 24 (6.59%) Economics
12 23 (6.32%) Agile
13 20 (5.49%) Mentoring
14 19 (5.22%) Digital Signal Processing
15 16 (4.40%) Verification and Validation
16 15 (4.12%) Trend Analysis
17 14 (3.85%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 77 (21.15%) Python
2 41 (11.26%) MATLAB
3 31 (8.52%) C++
4 21 (5.77%) C
5 17 (4.67%) C#
6 16 (4.40%) SQL
7 13 (3.57%) Java
8 10 (2.75%) JavaScript
9 8 (2.20%) Bash
10 7 (1.92%) T-SQL
11 5 (1.37%) R
11 5 (1.37%) Rust
12 4 (1.10%) Fortran
12 4 (1.10%) Scala
13 3 (0.82%) Assembly Language
13 3 (0.82%) F#
13 3 (0.82%) Haskell
13 3 (0.82%) Objective-C
13 3 (0.82%) OCaml
13 3 (0.82%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 309 (84.89%) Degree
2 138 (37.91%) Master's Degree
3 137 (37.64%) PhD
4 64 (17.58%) Security Cleared
5 59 (16.21%) BPSS Clearance
6 49 (13.46%) SC Cleared
7 19 (5.22%) DV Cleared
8 17 (4.67%) Computer Science Degree
9 12 (3.30%) Numerate Degree
10 8 (2.20%) RIBA
11 6 (1.65%) HND
12 4 (1.10%) PMI Certification
12 4 (1.10%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (0.55%) ISO 9000
1 2 (0.55%) JTAG
2 1 (0.27%) Def Stans
2 1 (0.27%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 15 (4.12%) Firmware
2 7 (1.92%) Embedded Firmware
3 2 (0.55%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (1.10%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.82%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 110 (30.22%) PayPal
2 8 (2.20%) Siemens
3 4 (1.10%) Google
3 4 (1.10%) HubSpot
3 4 (1.10%) Microsoft
4 3 (0.82%) ANSYS
4 3 (0.82%) Arista
4 3 (0.82%) Extreme Networks
4 3 (0.82%) Palo Alto
5 2 (0.55%) ESRI
6 1 (0.27%) Keysight
6 1 (0.27%) SAP
6 1 (0.27%) YouTube