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
Growth in IT contractor demand sinks to 21-month low
Budget 2018 bound to behind the blunter IT contractor demand but overall, opportunities are growing.
Growth in IT contractor demand edged up in September, just
Slump in candidate availability suggests now should be a less competitive time to jump ship.
Summer slowdown in IT contractor demand averted
Comfortable growth for tech contractors is outshone by permie demand and scarcity.
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 | SQL | £450 |
| 2 | Java | £520 |
| 3 | Analyst | £400 |
| 4 | Cyber Security | £500 |
| 5 | .NET | £450 |
| 6 | Linux | £500 |
| 7 | C# | £450 |
| 8 | Scrum | £480 |
| 9 | Project Manager | £450 |
| 10 | Oracle | £480 |
Top Ten IT Contracting skills by daily rate
| Rank | Skill | Average Daily Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Head of Technology | £900 |
| 2 | Programme Director | £870 |
| 3 | Digital Transformation Architect | £860 |
| 4 | KDB Developer | £850 |
| 5 | Head of Cyber Security | £850 |
| 6 | Senior Quantitative Analyst | £820 |
| 7 | Chief Information Officer | £820 |
| 8 | Head of Architecture | £810 |
| 9 | Head of Analytics | £800 |
| 10 | C++ Quantitative Developer | £800 |
Emerging IT Contracting skills in 2019
| Skill | Average Daily Rate |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | £520 |
| Cyber Security | £500 |
| Robotics | £540 |
| .NET Core | £470 |
| Cloud Native | £600 |
| Data Engineering | £520 |
| BigQuery | £540 |
| Oracle RAC | £450 |
| Python | £520 |
| Azure | £480 |
*Source: Technojobs data (Updated April 2019)
For more information on IT contractor skills please see the below:
Agile Software Development
C#
C++
Cisco
IT support
ITIL
Scrum
Sharepoint
System Testing