Tester Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Tester
North West > Manchester

The median Tester daily rate in Manchester is £340, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 89 64 90
Rank change year-on-year -25 +26 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Tester 8 18 13
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 0.66% 1.71% 0.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.72% 1.82% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 7 11 12
10th Percentile - £380 £292
25th Percentile £313 £395 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £340 £400 £431
Median % change year-on-year -15.00% -7.25% +9.52%
75th Percentile £408 £484 £461
90th Percentile £485 £500 £520
North West median daily rate £325 £400 £525
% change year-on-year -18.75% -23.81% +27.27%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Manchester

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Manchester. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in Manchester with a recognized job title 1,117 991 1,441
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.86% 93.93% 93.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 736 593 1,048
10th Percentile £311 £313 £306
25th Percentile £381 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £470 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.26% -6.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 37 62
10th Percentile £17.30 £15.96 £15.72
25th Percentile £19.60 £21.25 £17.47
Median hourly rate £23.00 £32.50 £21.25
Median % change year-on-year -29.23% +52.94% -39.29%
75th Percentile £50.38 £33.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £63.50 £65.00 £73.75
North West median hourly rate £30.99 £25.94 £35.00
% change year-on-year +19.46% -25.88% +62.79%

Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Tester' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Tester job vacancy trend in Manchester

Tester
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in Manchester.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in Manchester

Tester
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Tester in Manchester over the 6 months to 23 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Tester in Manchester

Tester
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in Manchester.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Tester job vacancies in Manchester

Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester

For the 6 months to 23 December 2025, Tester contract job roles required 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 Manchester region featuring Tester in the job title.

1 4 (50.00%) Agile
2 3 (37.50%) CRM
3 2 (25.00%) Azure
3 2 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 2 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (25.00%) Defect Management
3 2 (25.00%) DevOps
3 2 (25.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
3 2 (25.00%) Dynamics 365
3 2 (25.00%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (25.00%) Functional Testing
3 2 (25.00%) Java
3 2 (25.00%) Manual Testing
3 2 (25.00%) Power Platform
3 2 (25.00%) QA
3 2 (25.00%) Salesforce
3 2 (25.00%) Test Automation
3 2 (25.00%) User Acceptance Testing
3 2 (25.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
4 1 (12.50%) API Testing
4 1 (12.50%) AWS
4 1 (12.50%) Blue Team
4 1 (12.50%) C#
4 1 (12.50%) ChatGPT
4 1 (12.50%) CHECK Team Leader
4 1 (12.50%) Contingency Planning
4 1 (12.50%) Continuous Delivery
4 1 (12.50%) Continuous Integration

Tester Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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:

Business Applications
1 2 (25.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (12.50%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 2 (25.00%) Azure
1 2 (25.00%) Azure DevOps
1 2 (25.00%) Dynamics 365
1 2 (25.00%) Power Platform
2 1 (12.50%) AWS
2 1 (12.50%) ChatGPT
2 1 (12.50%) PowerApps
Development Applications
1 1 (12.50%) Cucumber
1 1 (12.50%) Gatling
1 1 (12.50%) Jenkins
1 1 (12.50%) Selenium
General
1 4 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (25.00%) Public Sector
3 1 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (12.50%) Banking
3 1 (12.50%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (12.50%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (12.50%) Node.js
1 1 (12.50%) Playwright
1 1 (12.50%) Puppeteer
1 1 (12.50%) RESTful
1 1 (12.50%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 1 (12.50%) AS400
1 1 (12.50%) iSeries
1 1 (12.50%) Legacy Applications
1 1 (12.50%) Legacy Systems
1 1 (12.50%) Mainframe
1 1 (12.50%) Self-Motivation
1 1 (12.50%) Smart Energy
1 1 (12.50%) Smart Meter
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (50.00%) Agile
2 3 (37.50%) CRM
3 2 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 2 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (25.00%) Defect Management
3 2 (25.00%) DevOps
3 2 (25.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
3 2 (25.00%) Functional Testing
3 2 (25.00%) Manual Testing
3 2 (25.00%) Test Automation
3 2 (25.00%) User Acceptance Testing
3 2 (25.00%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
4 1 (12.50%) Blue Team
4 1 (12.50%) Contingency Planning
4 1 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
4 1 (12.50%) Red Team
4 1 (12.50%) Regulatory Change
4 1 (12.50%) Scenario Testing
4 1 (12.50%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 2 (25.00%) Java
2 1 (12.50%) C#
2 1 (12.50%) Python
2 1 (12.50%) Scala
2 1 (12.50%) SQL
Qualifications
1 1 (12.50%) CHECK Team Leader
1 1 (12.50%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (25.00%) QA
System Software
1 1 (12.50%) Firmware
Vendors
1 2 (25.00%) Salesforce
2 1 (12.50%) MuleSoft