Manufacturing Contract Job Trends in Bedfordshire

Manufacturing
East of England > Bedfordshire

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Manufacturing in contract job vacancies in Bedfordshire. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Manufacturing over the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 26 35
Rank change year-on-year +5 +9 0
Contract jobs citing Manufacturing 15 5 1
As % of all contract jobs in Bedfordshire 6.55% 3.11% 0.41%
As % of the General category 10.14% 4.00% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 4 0
10th Percentile £213 - -
25th Percentile £406 £463 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £603 £475 -
Median % change year-on-year +26.84% - -
75th Percentile £650 £539 -
90th Percentile £673 £632 -
East of England median daily rate £454 £475 £453
% change year-on-year -4.42% +4.97% -3.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £29.00 -
East of England median hourly rate £23.75 £47.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -50.00% +6.74% +2.46%

All General Skills
Bedfordshire

Manufacturing falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills in Bedfordshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 148 125 188
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Bedfordshire 64.63% 77.64% 76.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 57 138
10th Percentile £209 £320 £350
25th Percentile £416 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £694 £550
90th Percentile £675 £705 £600
East of England median daily rate £492 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -1.60% +2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 16 4
10th Percentile £57.85 £23.63 £36.87
25th Percentile £75.25 £29.75 £46.11
Median hourly rate £80.00 £36.31 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +120.32% -32.45% -8.12%
75th Percentile £89.38 £56.43 £55.63
90th Percentile £91.50 £70.00 £56.75
East of England median hourly rate £19.91 £20.50 £18.50
% change year-on-year -2.88% +10.81% -11.90%

Manufacturing
Job Vacancy Trend in Bedfordshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Manufacturing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Bedfordshire.

Manufacturing job vacancy trend in Bedfordshire

Manufacturing
Daily Rate Trend in Bedfordshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bedfordshire citing Manufacturing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Bedfordshire citing Manufacturing

Manufacturing
Daily Rate Histogram in Bedfordshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Manufacturing in Bedfordshire over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Manufacturing in Bedfordshire

Manufacturing
Hourly Rate Trend in Bedfordshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bedfordshire citing Manufacturing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Bedfordshire citing Manufacturing

Manufacturing
Contract Job Locations in Bedfordshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Manufacturing within the Bedfordshire region over the 6 months to 1 January 2026. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Luton +2 12 £650 +36.84%
Manufacturing
East of England

Manufacturing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Bedfordshire 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:

Applications
1 1 (6.67%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (60.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (6.67%) SAP EWM
2 1 (6.67%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 7 (46.67%) Power Platform
2 2 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (6.67%) Azure
3 1 (6.67%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 1 (6.67%) Ethernet
1 1 (6.67%) Firewall
1 1 (6.67%) Modbus
1 1 (6.67%) Network Security
1 1 (6.67%) Wireless
1 1 (6.67%) Wireless Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (46.67%) Power BI
2 5 (33.33%) SAP HANA
3 1 (6.67%) Data Lake
3 1 (6.67%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 1 (6.67%) JIRA
1 1 (6.67%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 9 (60.00%) Pharmaceutical
2 5 (33.33%) Social Skills
3 4 (26.67%) Finance
4 2 (13.33%) Electronics
4 2 (13.33%) Marketing
4 2 (13.33%) Public Sector
4 2 (13.33%) Telecoms
5 1 (6.67%) Aerospace
5 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 6 (40.00%) Lead
2 3 (20.00%) Consultant
3 2 (13.33%) Analyst
3 2 (13.33%) IT Analyst
3 2 (13.33%) IT Support
3 2 (13.33%) IT Support Analyst
3 2 (13.33%) SAP Consultant
3 2 (13.33%) Support Analyst
4 1 (6.67%) Author
4 1 (6.67%) Data Analytics Specialist
4 1 (6.67%) QA Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Quality Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) SAP EWM Consultant
4 1 (6.67%) SAP Financial Specialist
4 1 (6.67%) Security Advisor
4 1 (6.67%) Security Consultant
4 1 (6.67%) Senior
4 1 (6.67%) Software QA Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Software Quality Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Technical Author
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.67%) EDI
1 1 (6.67%) IDoc
1 1 (6.67%) JSON
1 1 (6.67%) REST
1 1 (6.67%) SOAP
1 1 (6.67%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 7 (46.67%) Life Science
2 2 (13.33%) Operational Technology
3 1 (6.67%) LIMS
3 1 (6.67%) Management Information System
3 1 (6.67%) Onboarding
3 1 (6.67%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 2 (13.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (46.67%) Analytics
1 7 (46.67%) Business Intelligence
1 7 (46.67%) ERP
2 6 (40.00%) Business Analysis
3 5 (33.33%) Biotechnology
3 5 (33.33%) Data Science
3 5 (33.33%) Project Management
3 5 (33.33%) Use Case
3 5 (33.33%) User Experience
4 4 (26.67%) Cost Reduction
4 4 (26.67%) Data Management
5 3 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
6 2 (13.33%) AI
6 2 (13.33%) Decision-Making
6 2 (13.33%) Digital Marketing
6 2 (13.33%) Logistics
6 2 (13.33%) Programme Management
6 2 (13.33%) Visualisation
7 1 (6.67%) Network Architecture
7 1 (6.67%) User Acceptance Testing
Qualifications
1 3 (20.00%) Degree
2 2 (13.33%) SC Cleared
2 2 (13.33%) Security Cleared
3 1 (6.67%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (6.67%) Master's Degree
3 1 (6.67%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (40.00%) GxP
2 5 (33.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 1 (6.67%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 1 (6.67%) HL7
3 1 (6.67%) NIST
3 1 (6.67%) NIST 800
3 1 (6.67%) QA
3 1 (6.67%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 2 (13.33%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 12 (80.00%) SAP
2 3 (20.00%) Microsoft
3 2 (13.33%) Ariba
4 1 (6.67%) Anaplan
4 1 (6.67%) Hyperion
4 1 (6.67%) Zscaler