Reference Data Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Reference Data
England > Midlands

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Reference Data in contract job vacancies in the Midlands. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Reference Data over the 6 months leading up to 16 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 160 121 124
Rank change year-on-year -39 +3 +71
Contract jobs citing Reference Data 2 4 4
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.064% 0.17% 0.15%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.18% 0.61% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 3 3
10th Percentile - £415 -
25th Percentile - £503 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £650 £500
Median % change year-on-year -26.92% +30.00% -20.00%
75th Percentile - - £544
90th Percentile - - £570
England median daily rate £625 £645 £598
% change year-on-year -3.10% +7.95% -4.40%

All Generic Skills
Midlands

Reference Data falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 1,093 656 842
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 34.79% 28.48% 32.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 680 392 546
10th Percentile £231 £214 £266
25th Percentile £363 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £522 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% +4.30% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £613 £610
90th Percentile £638 £710 £719
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 23 50
10th Percentile £17.00 £15.12 £16.65
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.40 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.00 £30.45 £22.75
Median % change year-on-year -27.75% +33.85% +28.75%
75th Percentile £28.61 £49.38 £64.63
90th Percentile £50.00 £55.20 £68.88
England median hourly rate £28.00 £37.50 £43.84
% change year-on-year -25.33% -14.46% +25.26%

Reference Data
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

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

Reference Data job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Reference Data
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Reference Data.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Reference Data

Reference Data
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Reference Data.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Reference Data

Reference Data
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Reference Data within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 16 December 2025. 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
East Midlands -15 1 - - 1
West Midlands -32 1 £475 -26.92% 4
Reference Data
England

Reference Data
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (50.00%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 1 (50.00%) Azure
1 1 (50.00%) Azure DevOps
Development Applications
1 1 (50.00%) JIRA
General
1 1 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (50.00%) Presentation Skills
1 1 (50.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Analyst
1 1 (50.00%) Business Analyst
1 1 (50.00%) Consultant
1 1 (50.00%) Data Consultant
1 1 (50.00%) ETRM Business Analyst
1 1 (50.00%) Management Consultant
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) Backlog Management
2 1 (50.00%) Backlog Prioritisation
2 1 (50.00%) Data Governance
2 1 (50.00%) Data Validation
2 1 (50.00%) Data-Driven Decision Making
2 1 (50.00%) Decision-Making
2 1 (50.00%) DevOps
2 1 (50.00%) ETRM
2 1 (50.00%) GAP Analysis
2 1 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (50.00%) Process Improvement
2 1 (50.00%) Reference Data Management
2 1 (50.00%) Requirements Analysis
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (50.00%) Test Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) Use Case
2 1 (50.00%) User Acceptance Testing
2 1 (50.00%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) SQL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (50.00%) EMIR
1 1 (50.00%) MiFID
Vendors
1 1 (50.00%) Trayport