QA Contract Job Trends in the East Midlands

Quality Assurance (QA)
England > East Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the East Midlands requiring QA skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 20 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	48	39	52
Rank change year-on-year	-9	+13	-12
Contract jobs citing QA	41	38	11
As % of all contract jobs in the East Midlands	2.94%	4.49%	1.45%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category	24.70%	25.17%	11.34%
Number of daily rates quoted	12	33	8
10^th Percentile	£265	£189	£311
25^th Percentile	£398	£358	£317
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£415	£410	£394
Median % change year-on-year	+1.22%	+4.13%	-12.50%
75^th Percentile	£478	£500	£473
90^th Percentile	£562	£560	£599
England median daily rate	£475	£490	£488
% change year-on-year	-3.06%	+0.51%	-7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted	22	2	0
10^th Percentile	£12.76	-	-
25^th Percentile	£13.50	-	-
Median hourly rate	£15.07	£15.12	-
Median % change year-on-year	-0.36%	-	-
75^th Percentile	£16.46	-	-
90^th Percentile	-	-	-
England median hourly rate	£28.98	£15.96	£15.00
% change year-on-year	+81.58%	+6.40%	-70.00%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
East Midlands

QA falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the East Midlands.

	6 months to 20 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills	166	151	97
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands	11.89%	17.83%	12.75%
Number of daily rates quoted	86	119	57
10^th Percentile	£233	£323	£258
25^th Percentile	£381	£361	£319
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£450	£420	£425
Median % change year-on-year	+7.14%	-1.18%	-7.36%
75^th Percentile	£575	£481	£575
90^th Percentile	£657	£588	£623
England median daily rate	£515	£500	£513
% change year-on-year	+3.00%	-2.44%	-5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted	29	7	3
10^th Percentile	£12.76	£15.12	£18.97
25^th Percentile	£13.50	£17.69	£27.14
Median hourly rate	£16.13	£20.83	£41.50
Median % change year-on-year	-22.56%	-49.81%	+102.34%
75^th Percentile	£16.46	£25.11	£48.63
90^th Percentile	£21.22	£29.88	£52.45
England median hourly rate	£32.40	£31.50	£33.93
% change year-on-year	+2.84%	-7.16%	-5.26%

QA Job Vacancy Trend in the East Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing QA relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the East Midlands.

QA Daily Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA.

QA Daily Rate Histogram in the East Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA in the East Midlands over the 6 months to 20 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for QA in the East Midlands

QA Hourly Rate Trend in the East Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East Midlands citing QA.

QA Contract Job Locations in the East Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA within the East Midlands region over the 6 months to 20 October 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
Leicestershire	-6	13	£415	-20.95%	10
Derbyshire	-3	12	£450	+163.16%	5
Northamptonshire	+14	10	£405	+8.00%	10
Lincolnshire	-	5	£328	-	11
Nottinghamshire	-21	1	-	-	17
QA England

QA Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East Midlands

For the 6 months to 20 October 2026, contractor job vacancies citing QA also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the East Midlands region with a requirement for QA.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Microsoft Office	29.3%	12
2	Problem-Solving	26.8%	11
3	Logistics	24.4%	10
4	DBS Check	19.5%	8
4	Degree	19.5%	8
6	Continuous Improvement	14.6%	6
6	Functional Testing	14.6%	6
6	Microsoft	14.6%	6
9	Apple	12.2%	5
9	Firmware	12.2%	5
9	Stakeholder Engagement	12.2%	5
9	Validation	12.2%	5
13	Agile	9.8%	4
13	Anti-Money Laundering	9.8%	4
13	KYC	9.8%	4
13	Risk Assessment	9.8%	4
13	Spreadsheet	9.8%	4
13	Stakeholder Management	9.8%	4
13	Telematics	9.8%	4
13	User Acceptance Testing	9.8%	4
21	CheckPoint	7.3%	3
21	Microsoft Excel	7.3%	3
21	Performance Metrics	7.3%	3
21	Process Improvement	7.3%	3
21	Project Governance	7.3%	3
21	Root Cause Analysis	7.3%	3
27	AI	4.9%	2
27	Business Transformation	4.9%	2
27	CI/CD	4.9%	2
27	DevOps	4.9%	2

QA Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East Midlands by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Accessibility	2.4%	1
1	ISO 8583	2.4%	1
1	PCI DSS	2.4%	1
1	PMO	2.4%	1