Rate guides · 2026 · directional

What talent costs, role by role.

Eight guides, one per vertical — bill-rate bands by role, the scarcest roles flagged, the four factors that move the number, and our read on where demand is heading. Based on 2025–2026 market data; treat rates as directional and ask us for a precise quote.

IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · SurgingGuidewire contract ratesCloud (GWCP) migration is the whole story. Every carrier still on-prem is a lead, and the scarce sub-skill is anyone who has actually shipped on Cloud — point effort there, not at generic config.$105–200/hrOpen

IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · SurgingAI & ML Engineering contract ratesDemand outruns supply roughly 3-to-1, and closer to 8-to-1 for LLM and agentic work. The premium is in shipping to production, not research — lead with RAG, fine-tuning, and serving evidence.$150–290/hrOpen

IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · HotData & MLOps contract ratesThe real AI bottleneck. About three-quarters of enterprises still can't get models to production — a data and MLOps gap, not a model gap. Stack-match precisely and ramp is days, not months.$100–200/hrOpen

IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · HotCybersecurity contract ratesThe tightest market in tech (~2.1% unemployment). Cloud security is more than half of open reqs and contract-to-hire is now the default. Cleared talent, where lawful, is a moat generalist firms can't cross.$120–215/hrOpen

IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · SurgingERP contract ratesA countdown, not a trend. SAP's Dec-2027 end-of-support is forcing migrations most customers haven't started — every un-started ECC account is a lead now, and the window closes. S/4HANA plus real cutover experience is the scarce combination.$110–240/hrOpen

Non-IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · SteadyHealthcare & Life Sciences contract ratesCounter-cyclical demand hospitals can't cut, running to 2036. Locum is 100% contract and the highest-margin segment; credentialing speed wins the placement, so the operational work is the moat.$55–700/hrOpen

Non-IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · SurgingConstruction & Energy contract ratesThe AI and energy buildout turned labour availability into a site-selection constraint — projects now get built where the people are. Point at data-center electrical, power, and commissioning, where the experience is non-transferable.$85–160/hrOpen

Non-IT · 2026 rate guideDemand · HotFinance & Accounting contract ratesA supply shock, not a cycle: the profession shrank while 68% of finance leaders leaned harder on contract talent. The highest-margin, most defensible category in staffing — lead with interim controllers, SEC reporting, and technical accounting.$75–280/hrOpen

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