Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £478, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 August 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 13 12
Rank change year-on-year -14 -1 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 253 232 257
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.43% 10.51% 10.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.11% 11.41% 11.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 160 193 193
10th Percentile £362 £313 £308
25th Percentile £425 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £425 £440
Median % change year-on-year +12.47% -3.41% -12.00%
75th Percentile £600 £533 £511
90th Percentile £675 £575 £575
England median daily rate £520 £511 £525
% change year-on-year +1.86% -2.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 1
10th Percentile £25.49 - -
25th Percentile £37.25 - -
Median hourly rate £41.06 £47.12 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% +30.89% -28.00%
75th Percentile £46.18 - -
90th Percentile £46.80 - -
England median hourly rate £53.75 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.27% -15.38% +10.94%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 3,556 2,033 2,319
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.37% 92.12% 95.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,029 1,305 1,377
10th Percentile £295 £268 £275
25th Percentile £402 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £563 £585
90th Percentile £687 £659 £675
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 402 164 199
10th Percentile £17.03 £13.00 £11.07
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +81.13% -23.54% +7.33%
75th Percentile £71.91 £50.19 £53.25
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £70.90
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £44.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.84% +0.32%

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 28 August 2026.

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 28 August 2026.

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 28 August 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
Manchester -4 190 £500 +17.65% 103
Cheshire -35 26 £466 +24.13% 18
Merseyside -23 15 £438 -20.36% 14
Lancashire -11 11 - - 50
Cumbria -11 7 £875 - 3
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 28 August 2026, 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 80 (31.62%) Java
2 74 (29.25%) Agile
3 56 (22.13%) CI/CD
4 48 (18.97%) Microservices
5 42 (16.60%) AWS
5 42 (16.60%) DevOps
5 42 (16.60%) SQL
6 37 (14.62%) Azure
7 35 (13.83%) Spring
7 35 (13.83%) Spring Boot
8 32 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
8 32 (12.65%) Security Cleared
8 32 (12.65%) TDD
9 31 (12.25%) Test Automation
10 30 (11.86%) JavaScript
11 29 (11.46%) AI
11 29 (11.46%) Power Platform
12 28 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
12 28 (11.07%) React
13 27 (10.67%) Mentoring
14 26 (10.28%) Microsoft
14 26 (10.28%) SDLC
15 25 (9.88%) Data Modelling
15 25 (9.88%) REST
15 25 (9.88%) Software Engineering
16 24 (9.49%) Git
16 24 (9.49%) Kafka
16 24 (9.49%) SC Cleared
17 23 (9.09%) C#
17 23 (9.09%) Node.js

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 14 (5.53%) Confluence
2 6 (2.37%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.58%) Camunda
4 3 (1.19%) WordPress
5 2 (0.79%) CMS
5 2 (0.79%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.79%) SharePoint 2013
5 2 (0.79%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.40%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.40%) Appian
6 1 (0.40%) Drupal
6 1 (0.40%) JBoss
6 1 (0.40%) Mule
6 1 (0.40%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.40%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.40%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.58%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.40%) Odoo
2 1 (0.40%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 42 (16.60%) AWS
2 37 (14.62%) Azure
3 29 (11.46%) Power Platform
4 11 (4.35%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (3.95%) Microsoft Copilot
6 9 (3.56%) Power Automate
6 9 (3.56%) Serverless
7 8 (3.16%) Copilot Studio
8 7 (2.77%) GitHub
9 6 (2.37%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.37%) Google Gemini
9 6 (2.37%) PowerApps
10 5 (1.98%) OpenShift
11 4 (1.58%) Anthropic Claude
11 4 (1.58%) GitHub Copilot
11 4 (1.58%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (1.58%) SaaS
12 3 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
12 3 (1.19%) Azure AI
12 3 (1.19%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.58%) SD-WAN
1 4 (1.58%) WAN
1 4 (1.58%) Wireless
2 2 (0.79%) Network Security
2 2 (0.79%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.40%) Firewall
3 1 (0.40%) IPsec
3 1 (0.40%) SNMP
3 1 (0.40%) SSL
3 1 (0.40%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.09%) Power BI
2 22 (8.70%) MongoDB
2 22 (8.70%) SQL Server
3 14 (5.53%) Power Query
4 13 (5.14%) Relational Database
5 12 (4.74%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (3.95%) NoSQL
6 10 (3.95%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (1.98%) DataStage
7 5 (1.98%) Db2
7 5 (1.98%) MySQL
8 3 (1.19%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.79%) DocumentDB
9 2 (0.79%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.79%) Star Schema
10 1 (0.40%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
10 1 (0.40%) QlikView
10 1 (0.40%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.40%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (9.49%) Git
2 14 (5.53%) JIRA
3 13 (5.14%) GitLab
3 13 (5.14%) Jenkins
4 12 (4.74%) Mockito
5 9 (3.56%) Claude Code
6 7 (2.77%) JUnit
7 6 (2.37%) Maven
7 6 (2.37%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.58%) Gradle
9 3 (1.19%) Bitbucket Server
9 3 (1.19%) ClearCase
9 3 (1.19%) Cucumber
9 3 (1.19%) REST Assured
9 3 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.40%) Eclipse
10 1 (0.40%) Hudson
10 1 (0.40%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.40%) Rational Robot
10 1 (0.40%) Visual Studio
General
1 53 (20.95%) Social Skills
2 39 (15.42%) Public Sector
3 27 (10.67%) Finance
4 22 (8.70%) Banking
5 17 (6.72%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.35%) Military
7 6 (2.37%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.98%) Aerospace
8 5 (1.98%) Legal
8 5 (1.98%) Legal Technology
9 4 (1.58%) Retail
10 2 (0.79%) Front Office
10 2 (0.79%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.79%) Law
11 1 (0.40%) Automotive
11 1 (0.40%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.40%) Local Government
11 1 (0.40%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (13.83%) Spring
1 35 (13.83%) Spring Boot
2 28 (11.07%) React
3 25 (9.88%) REST
4 24 (9.49%) Kafka
5 23 (9.09%) Node.js
6 17 (6.72%) .NET
7 14 (5.53%) HTML
8 13 (5.14%) RESTful
9 12 (4.74%) AngularJS
10 11 (4.35%) CSS
10 11 (4.35%) JSON
11 10 (3.95%) Terraform
12 7 (2.77%) ActiveMQ
12 7 (2.77%) JAX-RS
12 7 (2.77%) XML
13 6 (2.37%) Lightning Web Components
13 6 (2.37%) Nunjucks
14 5 (1.98%) JPA
14 5 (1.98%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 12 (4.74%) Data Structures
2 10 (3.95%) Cloud Native
3 8 (3.16%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (3.16%) NHS
4 7 (2.77%) AI Agents
4 7 (2.77%) Mobile App
5 6 (2.37%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.37%) Onboarding
5 6 (2.37%) Product Ownership
6 5 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.19%) IoT
9 2 (0.79%) Equities
9 2 (0.79%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.40%) CSOC
10 1 (0.40%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.53%) Linux
2 13 (5.14%) Unix
3 4 (1.58%) Apple iOS
4 3 (1.19%) Android
5 2 (0.79%) Mac OS X
5 2 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.79%) VMS
5 2 (0.79%) Windows
6 1 (0.40%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.40%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (29.25%) Agile
2 56 (22.13%) CI/CD
3 48 (18.97%) Microservices
4 42 (16.60%) DevOps
5 32 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
5 32 (12.65%) TDD
6 31 (12.25%) Test Automation
7 29 (11.46%) AI
8 28 (11.07%) Business Intelligence
9 27 (10.67%) Mentoring
10 26 (10.28%) SDLC
11 25 (9.88%) Data Modelling
11 25 (9.88%) Software Engineering
12 22 (8.70%) Continuous Improvement
12 22 (8.70%) Full-Stack Development
13 19 (7.51%) BDD
14 18 (7.11%) Code Quality
14 18 (7.11%) ETL
15 16 (6.32%) Migration
16 15 (5.93%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 80 (31.62%) Java
2 42 (16.60%) SQL
3 30 (11.86%) JavaScript
4 23 (9.09%) C#
5 18 (7.11%) TypeScript
6 16 (6.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (3.95%) Python
8 8 (3.16%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.77%) PowerShell
10 6 (2.37%) Apex Code
10 6 (2.37%) Go
10 6 (2.37%) PL/SQL
11 5 (1.98%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.58%) Swift
12 4 (1.58%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.19%) PHP
13 3 (1.19%) VB
13 3 (1.19%) VB6
14 1 (0.40%) ABAP
14 1 (0.40%) Perl
Qualifications
1 32 (12.65%) Security Cleared
2 24 (9.49%) SC Cleared
3 14 (5.53%) BPSS Clearance
3 14 (5.53%) Degree
4 7 (2.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.40%) CTC Cleared
5 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.74%) Data Quality
1 12 (4.74%) QA
2 11 (4.35%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.58%) GRC
4 2 (0.79%) WCAG
5 1 (0.40%) NCSC
5 1 (0.40%) NIST
System Software
1 20 (7.91%) Docker
2 3 (1.19%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 17 (6.72%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.56%) Ansible
3 1 (0.40%) Grafana
3 1 (0.40%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 26 (10.28%) Microsoft
2 23 (9.09%) Salesforce
3 14 (5.53%) ServiceNow
4 12 (4.74%) Oracle
5 8 (3.16%) IBM
6 5 (1.98%) Pega
6 5 (1.98%) Teradata
7 4 (1.58%) Atlassian
7 4 (1.58%) OpenAI
8 3 (1.19%) Google
8 3 (1.19%) SAP
8 3 (1.19%) Veracode
9 2 (0.79%) Adobe
9 2 (0.79%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.79%) Cisco
9 2 (0.79%) Sage
10 1 (0.40%) Foundry
10 1 (0.40%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.40%) Splunk
10 1 (0.40%) Virgin Media