Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £425, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 7 December 2025.

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

6 months to
7 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 13 9 8
Rank change year-on-year -4 -1 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 253 253 372
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.32% 11.26% 13.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.32% 12.14% 14.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 162 296
10th Percentile £317 £323 £325
25th Percentile £370 £393 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £600
90th Percentile £550 £588 £700
England median daily rate £500 £531 £550
% change year-on-year -5.84% -3.45% -7.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 4
10th Percentile £49.83 £47.60 £56.38
25th Percentile £53.91 - £65.94
Median hourly rate £60.69 £65.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.63% -13.33% +102.70%
75th Percentile £67.48 £86.00 £79.69
90th Percentile £71.55 - £81.38
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% +8.33% -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 the North West with a recognized job title 2,235 2,084 2,486
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.15% 92.75% 92.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,478 1,142 1,731
10th Percentile £213 £263 £285
25th Percentile £358 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
England median daily rate £507 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -3.38% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 137 164
10th Percentile £16.43 £15.44 £16.20
25th Percentile £19.75 £17.44 £17.72
Median hourly rate £29.60 £25.30 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.00% -27.71% +74.43%
75th Percentile £51.02 £46.18 £46.35
90th Percentile £69.80 £68.81 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Developer job vacancy trend in the North West

Developer
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the North West

Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Developer in the North West over the 6 months to 7 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in the North West

Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the North West

Developer
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Developer in the North West over the 6 months to 7 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Developer in the North West

Developer
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Developer within the North West region over the 6 months to 7 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
Manchester -3 148 £425 -5.56% 206
Cheshire -4 64 £380 -2.81% 106
Merseyside -10 19 £500 +32.89% 32
Lancashire -14 17 £551 +10.10% 115
Cumbria - 1 £470 - 1
Developer
England

Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 7 December 2025, Developer 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 North West region featuring Developer in the job title.

1 93 (36.76%) Java
2 79 (31.23%) Agile
3 71 (28.06%) SQL
4 67 (26.48%) CI/CD
5 64 (25.30%) Problem-Solving
6 59 (23.32%) AWS
7 58 (22.92%) Spring Boot
8 57 (22.53%) Azure
8 57 (22.53%) Microservices
9 55 (21.74%) DevOps
9 55 (21.74%) Spring
10 48 (18.97%) Git
11 44 (17.39%) Security Cleared
12 43 (17.00%) Test Automation
13 42 (16.60%) JavaScript
13 42 (16.60%) React
14 41 (16.21%) Docker
15 39 (15.42%) Microsoft
15 39 (15.42%) TDD
16 34 (13.44%) Kubernetes
16 34 (13.44%) Node.js
16 34 (13.44%) REST
17 33 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
18 32 (12.65%) HTML
19 30 (11.86%) Accessibility
19 30 (11.86%) RESTful
20 29 (11.46%) Containerisation
21 28 (11.07%) JSON
22 27 (10.67%) Python
22 27 (10.67%) Unit Testing

Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 6 (2.37%) Confluence
2 5 (1.98%) SAS
3 4 (1.58%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.79%) Apache
5 2 (0.79%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.40%) CMS
6 1 (0.40%) JBoss
6 1 (0.40%) nginx
6 1 (0.40%) Tomcat
Applications
1 4 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.79%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (3.56%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.40%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.40%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.40%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 59 (23.32%) AWS
2 57 (22.53%) Azure
3 23 (9.09%) Power Platform
4 22 (8.70%) GitHub
5 19 (7.51%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (5.14%) Power Automate
7 12 (4.74%) Serverless
8 11 (4.35%) PowerApps
9 10 (3.95%) npm
10 8 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (3.16%) GCP
11 7 (2.77%) Amazon SQS
11 7 (2.77%) Figma
12 6 (2.37%) SaaS
13 5 (1.98%) Azure AKS
14 4 (1.58%) Amazon S3
14 4 (1.58%) Apigee
14 4 (1.58%) Azure Service Bus
14 4 (1.58%) Dynamics 365
14 4 (1.58%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.56%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.58%) HTTP
3 2 (0.79%) SSL
4 1 (0.40%) Internet
4 1 (0.40%) PABX
4 1 (0.40%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.09%) MySQL
2 22 (8.70%) SQL Server
3 19 (7.51%) Relational Database
4 17 (6.72%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (6.72%) Power BI
5 13 (5.14%) NoSQL
6 11 (4.35%) DB2
7 10 (3.95%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (3.95%) Redis
7 10 (3.95%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (3.56%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.98%) Apache Cassandra
9 5 (1.98%) DocumentDB
10 4 (1.58%) Cognos Framework Manager
10 4 (1.58%) Cognos Report Studio
11 3 (1.19%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (1.19%) Cognos Transformer
11 3 (1.19%) DynamoDB
11 3 (1.19%) OLAP Cube
11 3 (1.19%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 48 (18.97%) Git
2 26 (10.28%) GitLab
3 25 (9.88%) JIRA
4 20 (7.91%) JUnit
5 17 (6.72%) Jenkins
6 14 (5.53%) SonarQube
7 13 (5.14%) Cypress.io
8 12 (4.74%) Gradle
9 10 (3.95%) Xcode
10 9 (3.56%) Cucumber
10 9 (3.56%) Postman
11 8 (3.16%) Mockito
12 6 (2.37%) Grunt
12 6 (2.37%) gulp
12 6 (2.37%) Storybook
13 5 (1.98%) Bitbucket
14 4 (1.58%) Maven
14 4 (1.58%) Sonatype Nexus
15 3 (1.19%) Android Studio
15 3 (1.19%) Selenium
General
1 54 (21.34%) Public Sector
2 45 (17.79%) Finance
3 30 (11.86%) Social Skills
4 27 (10.67%) Banking
5 20 (7.91%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.19%) Publishing
9 2 (0.79%) Law
9 2 (0.79%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.79%) Military
9 2 (0.79%) Private Banking
10 1 (0.40%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.40%) Local Government
10 1 (0.40%) Marketing
10 1 (0.40%) Retail
10 1 (0.40%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (22.92%) Spring Boot
2 55 (21.74%) Spring
3 42 (16.60%) React
4 34 (13.44%) Node.js
4 34 (13.44%) REST
5 32 (12.65%) HTML
6 30 (11.86%) RESTful
7 28 (11.07%) JSON
8 22 (8.70%) CSS
9 21 (8.30%) .NET
10 20 (7.91%) Jest
11 19 (7.51%) OAuth
12 18 (7.11%) Kafka
13 16 (6.32%) AngularJS
13 16 (6.32%) Hibernate
14 15 (5.93%) XML
15 14 (5.53%) JMS
15 14 (5.53%) React Native
15 14 (5.53%) Redux
16 11 (4.35%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 19 (7.51%) Mobile App
2 10 (3.95%) Cloud Native
2 10 (3.95%) Data Protection Act
2 10 (3.95%) SWIFT Messaging Network
3 9 (3.56%) Onboarding
3 9 (3.56%) Virtual Team
4 7 (2.77%) Low-Code
5 6 (2.37%) Data Structures
5 6 (2.37%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.37%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (1.98%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.58%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (1.19%) Mobile Banking
9 2 (0.79%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.79%) Blog
9 2 (0.79%) FMCG
9 2 (0.79%) IVR
9 2 (0.79%) Mainframe
10 1 (0.40%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.32%) Android
2 13 (5.14%) Apple iOS
3 11 (4.35%) Linux
4 6 (2.37%) Unix
5 3 (1.19%) Mac OS X
6 2 (0.79%) MVS
6 2 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.40%) VME
7 1 (0.40%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (31.23%) Agile
2 67 (26.48%) CI/CD
3 64 (25.30%) Problem-Solving
4 57 (22.53%) Microservices
5 55 (21.74%) DevOps
6 43 (17.00%) Test Automation
7 39 (15.42%) TDD
8 33 (13.04%) Full-Stack Development
9 29 (11.46%) Containerisation
10 27 (10.67%) Unit Testing
11 26 (10.28%) Performance Optimisation
12 25 (9.88%) Business Intelligence
13 22 (8.70%) SDLC
14 21 (8.30%) Migration
15 20 (7.91%) Data Modelling
15 20 (7.91%) Scrum
15 20 (7.91%) User Acceptance Testing
16 17 (6.72%) API Development
16 17 (6.72%) Computer Science
16 17 (6.72%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 93 (36.76%) Java
2 71 (28.06%) SQL
3 42 (16.60%) JavaScript
4 27 (10.67%) Python
5 25 (9.88%) TypeScript
6 15 (5.93%) C#
7 10 (3.95%) Kotlin
8 9 (3.56%) T-SQL
9 6 (2.37%) PHP
10 5 (1.98%) C++
10 5 (1.98%) Ruby
11 4 (1.58%) ABAP
11 4 (1.58%) Apex Code
11 4 (1.58%) Bash
11 4 (1.58%) C
12 3 (1.19%) Objective-C
12 3 (1.19%) Scala
12 3 (1.19%) Swift
13 2 (0.79%) PL/1
13 2 (0.79%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 44 (17.39%) Security Cleared
2 25 (9.88%) BPSS Clearance
3 19 (7.51%) Degree
3 19 (7.51%) SC Cleared
4 16 (6.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (1.98%) CTC Cleared
6 2 (0.79%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (11.86%) Accessibility
2 21 (8.30%) QA
3 10 (3.95%) ISO 20022
3 10 (3.95%) PSD2
3 10 (3.95%) SEPA
4 8 (3.16%) Data Quality
4 8 (3.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (16.21%) Docker
2 2 (0.79%) ISA Server
2 2 (0.79%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 34 (13.44%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.77%) Terraform
3 3 (1.19%) Ansible
3 3 (1.19%) Grafana
4 2 (0.79%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.40%) Argo
5 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.40%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.40%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 39 (15.42%) Microsoft
2 18 (7.11%) Oracle
3 9 (3.56%) Advent
3 9 (3.56%) Salesforce
3 9 (3.56%) SAP
3 9 (3.56%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.77%) IBM
4 7 (2.77%) Virgin Media
5 6 (2.37%) Perforce
5 6 (2.37%) Splunk
6 4 (1.58%) Cognos
6 4 (1.58%) IFS
6 4 (1.58%) webMethods
7 3 (1.19%) Adobe
7 3 (1.19%) Google
7 3 (1.19%) Software AG
7 3 (1.19%) Veracode
7 3 (1.19%) Xamarin
8 2 (0.79%) Axway
8 2 (0.79%) Syncsort