Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £492, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 October 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 16 10
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 0
Contract Developer jobs 298 221 246
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.48% 9.51% 10.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.27% 10.45% 11.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 185 183 161
10th Percentile £360 £313 £308
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £425 £438
Median % change year-on-year +15.82% -2.86% -7.89%
75th Percentile £550 £500 £511
90th Percentile £650 £570 £575
England median daily rate £521 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +3.17% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 2 3
10th Percentile £34.90 £49.83 £41.80
25th Percentile £44.93 £53.91 £50.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.69 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.10% -6.63% -13.33%
75th Percentile £71.50 £67.48 -
90th Percentile £77.00 £71.55 -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.33%

All Contract IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts in the North West matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
26 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the North West matching a recognised job title 3,602 2,114 2,188
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 90.41% 90.92% 93.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,036 1,404 1,156
10th Percentile £300 £243 £274
25th Percentile £403 £363 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £674 £678 £650
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 449 190 153
10th Percentile £14.35 £13.82 £15.52
25th Percentile £24.19 £18.41 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.56 £26.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.71% -25.50% -
75th Percentile £73.00 £51.02 £55.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £71.56 £71.38
England median hourly rate £41.09 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +63.39% -40.82% -5.56%

Developer Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Developer job postings 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 Developer jobs in the North West over the 6 months to 26 October 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 for Developer jobs in the North West over the 6 months to 26 October 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 Developer jobs within the North West region over the 6 months to 26 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		 Job Ads
Past 6 Months		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
Manchester 0 215 £500 +19.05% 176
Cheshire -11 42 £500 +33.33% 18
Merseyside -20 16 £437 -12.70% 15
Lancashire -28 13 £400 -21.95% 54
Cumbria -16 7 £395 -15.96% 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 26 October 2026, Developer contract job ads cited 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 Developer job ads across the North West region.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Agile26.8%80
1CI/CD26.8%80
3Java25.2%75
4AWS18.1%54
5Power Platform16.8%50
6Azure16.4%49
6DevOps16.4%49
8Microsoft14.8%44
9Microservices14.4%43
10SQL13.8%41
11REST13.1%39
11Test Automation13.1%39
13Security Cleared12.8%38
14Git12.4%37
14JavaScript12.4%37
14Software Engineering12.4%37
17TDD12.1%36
18C#11.7%35
19AI11.1%33
19TypeScript11.1%33
21Spring Boot9.7%29
22React9.4%28
22SC Cleared9.4%28
24Kafka9.1%27
25Business Intelligence8.7%26
25Data Modelling8.7%26
25Mentoring8.7%26
25Power Automate8.7%26
29Problem-Solving8.4%25
29Spring8.4%25

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

Job Titles

RankJob TitleShareJob Ads
1Senior Developer21.5%64
2Java Developer17.8%53
3Software Developer7.4%22
4Business Intelligence Developer6.7%20
5Power BI Developer6.4%19
5Senior Java Developer6.4%19
7Salesforce Developer5.7%17
8Lead Developer5.4%16
9React Developer5.0%15
9SharePoint Developer5.0%15
11Full-Stack Developer4.7%14
12Automation Developer4.4%13
12Senior Salesforce Developer4.4%13
12Web Developer4.4%13
15Senior Web Developer4.0%12
16Power Platform Developer3.4%10
17AWS Developer3.0%9
17Backend Developer3.0%9
17Node.js Developer3.0%9
17SQL Developer3.0%9
243 Developer jobs in the North West