The first table below looks at the demand for LoadRunner skills in IT contracts advertised for the North West region. Included is a guide to the average contractor rates offered in IT contracts that have cited LoadRunner over the 3 months to 17 May 2013 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years. The second table is for comparison and provides aggregates for all of the Development Applications category for the North West region.

Note that daily contractor rates and hourly contractor rates are treated separately. When calculating average contractor rates, daily rates are not derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Location
3 months to
17 May 2013
Same period 2012 Same period 2011
HP LoadRunner
Rank 112 124 121
Rank change year-on-year
+12 -3
Contract jobs citing LoadRunner 5 8 11
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the North West 0.218% 0.253% 0.357%
As % of the Development Applications category 1.984% 3.042% 4.955%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 3 6
Average daily rate £334 £315 £338
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
+5.95% -6.66%
90% offered a daily rate of more than £274 £303 £302
10% offered a daily rate of more than £381 £483 £378
UK excluding London average daily rate £344 £350 £355
% change year-on-year
-1.78% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 0
Average hourly rate - - -
UK excluding London average hourly rate - - £24.00
All Development Applications
North West
Contract IT job ads with a match in the
Development Applications category
252 263 222
As % of all contract IT jobs located in the North West 10.97% 8.304% 7.210%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 138 118
Average daily rate £314 £325 £325
Average daily rate % change year-on-year
-3.46% -
90% offered a daily rate of more than £250 £270 £223
10% offered a daily rate of more than £425 £400 £450
UK excluding London average daily rate £325 £330 £325
% change year-on-year
-1.51% +1.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 14 2
Average hourly rate £37.50 £21.86 £30.00
Average hourly rate % change year-on-year
+71.54% -27.13%
90% offered a hourly rate of more than £29.96 £15.60 £29.00
10% offered a hourly rate of more than £112.50 £34.79 £31.00
UK excluding London average hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year
+7.14% -
LoadRunner
England

LoadRunner
Jobs Demand Trend

This chart provides a 3-month moving total of IT contractor jobs citing LoadRunner across the North West region as a proportion of the total demand within the Development Applications category.

North West LoadRunner Jobs Demand Trend

LoadRunner
Daily Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for daily rates quoted in IT contract jobs citing LoadRunner across the North West region.

North West LoadRunner Daily Rate Trend

LoadRunner
Daily Rate Histogram

This chart provides a histogram of daily rates quoted in contract IT jobs citing LoadRunner across the North West region over the 3 months to 17 May 2013.

North West LoadRunner Daily Rate Histogram

LoadRunner
Hourly Rate Trend

This chart provides the 3-month moving average for hourly rates quoted in IT contractor jobs citing LoadRunner across the North West region.

North West LoadRunner Hourly Rate Trend

LoadRunner
Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the average contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing LoadRunner within the North West region over the 3 months to 17 May 2013. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 3 month period last year.

Location
(Click each for more statistics)
Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Average
Daily Rate
Last 3 Months
Average Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Lancashire +12 2 £330 +7.31%
Manchester +11 1 £338 -
Merseyside - 1 £400 -
LoadRunner
England

LoadRunner
Top 30 Related IT Skills

For the 6 months to 17 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the North West region citing LoadRunner also mentioned the following IT skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited LoadRunner.

1 7 (70.00%) UNIX
1 7 (70.00%) HP
1 7 (70.00%) Performance Testing
2 6 (60.00%) HP Quality Center
3 5 (50.00%) TOAD
3 5 (50.00%) Windows
3 5 (50.00%) Oracle
3 5 (50.00%) SQL Server
4 4 (40.00%) SOAP
4 4 (40.00%) Web Services
4 4 (40.00%) FTP
4 4 (40.00%) HTTP
4 4 (40.00%) TCP/IP
4 4 (40.00%) VMware
5 3 (30.00%) Finance
5 3 (30.00%) Validation
6 2 (20.00%) Security Cleared
6 2 (20.00%) Test Management
6 2 (20.00%) Test Scripting
6 2 (20.00%) Banking
6 2 (20.00%) Mainframe
6 2 (20.00%) SAP
6 2 (20.00%) SQL
7 1 (10.00%) .NET
7 1 (10.00%) C#
7 1 (10.00%) HTML
7 1 (10.00%) PL/SQL
7 1 (10.00%) WebSphere Application Server
7 1 (10.00%) Visual Studio
7 1 (10.00%) ASP.NET

LoadRunner
Top Related IT Skills by Category

For the 6 months to 17 May 2013, IT contractor jobs across the North West region citing LoadRunner also mentioned the following IT skills grouped by category. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of contract IT job ads sampled that cited LoadRunner. Up to 20 skills are shown per category.

Application Development
1 4 (40.00%) SOAP
1 4 (40.00%) Web Services
2 1 (10.00%) XML
2 1 (10.00%) XML Schema
2 1 (10.00%) WebSphere
2 1 (10.00%) HTML
2 1 (10.00%) .NET
2 1 (10.00%) ASP.NET
Application Platforms
1 1 (10.00%) WebSphere Application Server
1 1 (10.00%) CICS
Business Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Oracle 11i
1 1 (10.00%) SAP SD
1 1 (10.00%) SAP MM
Communications & Networking
1 4 (40.00%) FTP
1 4 (40.00%) HTTP
1 4 (40.00%) TCP/IP
2 1 (10.00%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (50.00%) SQL Server
1 5 (50.00%) TOAD
2 1 (10.00%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 1 (10.00%) Visual Studio
General
1 3 (30.00%) Finance
2 2 (20.00%) Banking
3 1 (10.00%) Retail
3 1 (10.00%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 4 (40.00%) Test Analyst
1 4 (40.00%) Consultant
1 4 (40.00%) Analyst
2 2 (20.00%) Test Manager
2 2 (20.00%) Test Consultant
2 2 (20.00%) Performance Analyst
2 2 (20.00%) Performance Manager
2 2 (20.00%) Performance Test Analyst
2 2 (20.00%) Performance Test Manager
3 1 (10.00%) Test Leader
3 1 (10.00%) Senior Performance Analyst
3 1 (10.00%) Tester
3 1 (10.00%) Senior Performance Test Analyst
3 1 (10.00%) Performance Test Consultant
3 1 (10.00%) LoadRunner Consultant
3 1 (10.00%) Lead Test Analyst
3 1 (10.00%) Senior Analyst
3 1 (10.00%) Performance Tester
3 1 (10.00%) Senior Test Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 2 (20.00%) Mainframe
2 1 (10.00%) VSAM
2 1 (10.00%) Online Banking
Operating Systems
1 7 (70.00%) UNIX
2 5 (50.00%) Windows
3 1 (10.00%) Windows XP
3 1 (10.00%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (70.00%) Performance Testing
2 3 (30.00%) Validation
3 2 (20.00%) Test Management
3 2 (20.00%) Test Scripting
4 1 (10.00%) Database Tuning
4 1 (10.00%) Software Testing
4 1 (10.00%) Stress Testing
Programming Languages
1 2 (20.00%) SQL
2 1 (10.00%) JCL
2 1 (10.00%) C#
2 1 (10.00%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (20.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (10.00%) ISEB
2 1 (10.00%) ISTQB
2 1 (10.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (10.00%) BC Cleared
Systems Management
1 6 (60.00%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 7 (70.00%) HP
2 5 (50.00%) Oracle
3 4 (40.00%) VMware
4 2 (20.00%) SAP
5 1 (10.00%) Siebel
5 1 (10.00%) Microsoft
5 1 (10.00%) Citrix