Contractor Market Rates Reports
The latest average rates for the top IT contracting skills and contractor demand updates.
Contractor rates not only depend on your skills and experience as a contractor, but they also depend on the economic climate, company budgets and often location of the contract.
For more on current contractor rates and demand please visit our contractor forum where these topics are often discussed. You can also search the latest IT contract jobs here.
Contractor Market Demand
IT contractor demand grew slightly in January
More than a dozen types of IT contractor are proving hard for agencies to source.
National IT contractor index confirms December was colder
But January is jolting clients into action, thanks to ‘new year, new job’ resolutions.
IT contractor skills shortages surge in London
UK capital goes from almost no shortages to half a dozen in just a month.
Contractor Guide to Rates
Hourly or daily rate? IT contractor guide to pay
Explained - the staple payment terms of freelancing, attached to your next IT contract, by Outsource UK.
Getting the right rate for the contract - negotiation for IT contractors
The basics of negotiation and establishing what rate becomes a 'deal breaker' for you.
Contract rate negotiation: How to negotiate a rate rise
An IT contractor's guide to asking for premiums.
Top Ten IT Contracting Skills by demand
| Rank | Skill | Average Daily Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Analyst | £400 |
| 2 | Java | £500 |
| 3 | SQL | £420 |
| 4 | Linux | £480 |
| 5 | Cyber Security | £450 |
| 6 | C# | £440 |
| 7 | Project Manager | £450 |
| 8 | Scrum | £480 |
| 9 | .NET | £430 |
| 10 | Oracle | £450 |
Top Ten IT Contracting skills by daily rate
| Rank | Skill | Average Daily Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Head of Security | £1,000 |
| 2 | Head of Data Architecture | £900 |
| 3 | Quantitative Risk Analyst | £870 |
| 4 | Chief Technology Officer | £870 |
| 5 | Murex Project Manager | £850 |
| 6 | Qualitative Analyst | £820 |
| 7 | Low Latency C++ Developer | £810 |
| 8 | Algorithmic Trading Developer | £760 |
| 9 | Machine Learning Developer | £750 |
| 10 | KDB Developer | £730 |
Emerging IT Contracting skills in 2018
| Skill | Average Daily Rate |
|---|---|
| Blockchain | £550 |
| GDPR Business Analyst | £430 |
| GDPR Project Manager | £480 |
| .NET Core | £440 |
| Angular 2 | £430 |
| Redux | £500 |
| Kubernetes | £540 |
| Terraform | £550 |
| Slack | £500 |
| TypeScript | £480 |
*Source: Technojobs data (Updated February 2018)