Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 September 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 12 12
Rank change year-on-year -11 0 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 282 230 231
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.25% 10.74% 9.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.01% 11.63% 10.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 188 163
10th Percentile £363 £313 £304
25th Percentile £425 £360 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £433
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -1.73% -12.63%
75th Percentile £600 £507 £508
90th Percentile £670 £575 £575
England median daily rate £520 £507 £525
% change year-on-year +2.56% -3.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 1 2
10th Percentile £25.49 - £38.90
25th Percentile £37.25 - £43.25
Median hourly rate £43.31 £47.12 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.10% -6.69% -30.34%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £57.75
90th Percentile £71.02 - £62.10
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.62%

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 3,522 1,978 2,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.52% 92.39% 93.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,995 1,310 1,235
10th Percentile £295 £268 £271
25th Percentile £406 £375 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £585
90th Percentile £675 £680 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -3.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 415 159 162
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.00 £15.49
25th Percentile £25.88 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.17% -32.04% +8.57%
75th Percentile £71.91 £44.78 £54.94
90th Percentile £83.55 £70.03 £74.37
England median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £46.18
% change year-on-year +73.38% -45.54% +2.62%

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 22 September 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 22 September 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 22 September 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 -1 203 £500 +20.12% 173
Cheshire -20 41 £488 +30.00% 41
Merseyside -27 14 £435 -13.86% 24
Lancashire -21 11 - - 44
Cumbria -17 8 £875 +86.17% 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 22 September 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 76 (26.95%) Agile
2 71 (25.18%) Java
3 68 (24.11%) CI/CD
4 43 (15.25%) AWS
4 43 (15.25%) SQL
5 42 (14.89%) Microservices
6 41 (14.54%) DevOps
7 40 (14.18%) Azure
8 39 (13.83%) Power Platform
9 37 (13.12%) Microsoft
10 34 (12.06%) JavaScript
10 34 (12.06%) Security Cleared
11 32 (11.35%) AI
12 31 (10.99%) REST
12 31 (10.99%) Software Engineering
12 31 (10.99%) Test Automation
13 30 (10.64%) React
14 29 (10.28%) Git
14 29 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
14 29 (10.28%) TDD
15 27 (9.57%) C#
16 26 (9.22%) Business Intelligence
16 26 (9.22%) Salesforce
16 26 (9.22%) Spring
16 26 (9.22%) Spring Boot
17 25 (8.87%) SC Cleared
18 24 (8.51%) Data Modelling
18 24 (8.51%) Mentoring
18 24 (8.51%) TypeScript
19 23 (8.16%) Kafka

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 15 (5.32%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.61%) Confluence
3 8 (2.84%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.84%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.42%) Camunda
5 3 (1.06%) WordPress
6 2 (0.71%) CMS
6 2 (0.71%) SAS
6 2 (0.71%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.35%) Drupal
7 1 (0.35%) JBoss
7 1 (0.35%) Mule
7 1 (0.35%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.35%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.42%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.35%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 43 (15.25%) AWS
2 40 (14.18%) Azure
3 39 (13.83%) Power Platform
4 18 (6.38%) Power Automate
5 16 (5.67%) PowerApps
6 15 (5.32%) Microsoft Copilot
7 14 (4.96%) Microsoft 365
8 12 (4.26%) GitHub
9 11 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (3.55%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (2.84%) Azure AI
11 8 (2.84%) OneDrive
12 7 (2.48%) Copilot Studio
12 7 (2.48%) Dynamics 365
12 7 (2.48%) Serverless
13 6 (2.13%) Google Gemini
14 5 (1.77%) Anthropic Claude
14 5 (1.77%) GitHub Copilot
14 5 (1.77%) OpenShift
14 5 (1.77%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.84%) SD-WAN
1 8 (2.84%) WAN
1 8 (2.84%) Wireless
2 2 (0.71%) Network Security
2 2 (0.71%) SNMP
2 2 (0.71%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.35%) Firewall
3 1 (0.35%) IPsec
3 1 (0.35%) SSL
3 1 (0.35%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (8.16%) Power BI
2 22 (7.80%) SQL Server
3 20 (7.09%) MongoDB
4 13 (4.61%) Power Query
4 13 (4.61%) Relational Database
5 12 (4.26%) Data Warehouse
6 8 (2.84%) NoSQL
7 6 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.77%) DataStage
8 5 (1.77%) Db2
9 3 (1.06%) MySQL
9 3 (1.06%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.71%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.71%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.71%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.71%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.71%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 2 (0.71%) Star Schema
11 1 (0.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (10.28%) Git
2 13 (4.61%) GitLab
2 13 (4.61%) Jenkins
3 12 (4.26%) JIRA
4 11 (3.90%) Mockito
5 9 (3.19%) Claude Code
6 7 (2.48%) JUnit
7 6 (2.13%) Maven
8 5 (1.77%) SonarQube
9 4 (1.42%) Gradle
10 3 (1.06%) Bitbucket Server
10 3 (1.06%) ClearCase
10 3 (1.06%) Cucumber
10 3 (1.06%) REST Assured
10 3 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.71%) MSTest
11 2 (0.71%) NUnit
12 1 (0.35%) Eclipse
12 1 (0.35%) IntelliJ
12 1 (0.35%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 58 (20.57%) Social Skills
2 33 (11.70%) Public Sector
3 26 (9.22%) Finance
4 21 (7.45%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (7.45%) Banking
5 11 (3.90%) Military
6 5 (1.77%) Manufacturing
7 4 (1.42%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.42%) Legal
7 4 (1.42%) Legal Technology
7 4 (1.42%) Retail
8 2 (0.71%) Front Office
8 2 (0.71%) Investment Banking
8 2 (0.71%) Law
9 1 (0.35%) Automotive
9 1 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Local Government
9 1 (0.35%) Marketing
9 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (10.99%) REST
2 30 (10.64%) React
3 26 (9.22%) Spring
3 26 (9.22%) Spring Boot
4 23 (8.16%) Kafka
5 22 (7.80%) Node.js
6 18 (6.38%) .NET
7 15 (5.32%) HTML
8 14 (4.96%) JSON
9 12 (4.26%) CSS
9 12 (4.26%) RESTful
10 10 (3.55%) AngularJS
11 9 (3.19%) Terraform
12 8 (2.84%) Django
13 7 (2.48%) XML
14 6 (2.13%) ActiveMQ
14 6 (2.13%) JAX-RS
14 6 (2.13%) Lightning Web Components
15 5 (1.77%) Nunjucks
15 5 (1.77%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 11 (3.90%) Cloud Native
1 11 (3.90%) Data Structures
2 10 (3.55%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (2.84%) NHS
3 8 (2.84%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.84%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.48%) AI Agents
5 6 (2.13%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.13%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.77%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.42%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.06%) IoT
9 2 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.71%) Equities
9 2 (0.71%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.71%) Low-Code
10 1 (0.35%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.38%) Linux
2 14 (4.96%) Unix
3 5 (1.77%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.42%) Android
5 2 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.71%) VMS
5 2 (0.71%) Windows
6 1 (0.35%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.35%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (26.95%) Agile
2 68 (24.11%) CI/CD
3 42 (14.89%) Microservices
4 41 (14.54%) DevOps
5 32 (11.35%) AI
6 31 (10.99%) Software Engineering
6 31 (10.99%) Test Automation
7 29 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
7 29 (10.28%) TDD
8 26 (9.22%) Business Intelligence
9 24 (8.51%) Data Modelling
9 24 (8.51%) Mentoring
10 22 (7.80%) Continuous Improvement
10 22 (7.80%) SDLC
11 21 (7.45%) Full-Stack Development
11 21 (7.45%) Observability
12 18 (6.38%) Code Quality
13 17 (6.03%) Analytics
14 15 (5.32%) Infrastructure as Code
14 15 (5.32%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 71 (25.18%) Java
2 43 (15.25%) SQL
3 34 (12.06%) JavaScript
4 27 (9.57%) C#
5 24 (8.51%) TypeScript
6 19 (6.74%) Python
7 15 (5.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (3.55%) Go
9 7 (2.48%) Shell Script
10 6 (2.13%) Apex Code
10 6 (2.13%) PL/SQL
10 6 (2.13%) PowerShell
11 5 (1.77%) Swift
12 4 (1.42%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.42%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.06%) PHP
13 3 (1.06%) VB
13 3 (1.06%) VB6
14 2 (0.71%) C++
14 2 (0.71%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 34 (12.06%) Security Cleared
2 25 (8.87%) SC Cleared
3 20 (7.09%) Degree
4 18 (6.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.35%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.35%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.26%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.55%) QA
3 8 (2.84%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.06%) GRC
5 1 (0.35%) NCSC
5 1 (0.35%) NIST
5 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 21 (7.45%) Docker
2 3 (1.06%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 16 (5.67%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.19%) Ansible
3 1 (0.35%) Grafana
3 1 (0.35%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 37 (13.12%) Microsoft
2 26 (9.22%) Salesforce
3 13 (4.61%) ServiceNow
4 11 (3.90%) Oracle
5 8 (2.84%) IBM
6 6 (2.13%) Splunk
7 5 (1.77%) Teradata
8 4 (1.42%) Blue Prism
8 4 (1.42%) OpenAI
9 3 (1.06%) Atlassian
9 3 (1.06%) Google
9 3 (1.06%) Pega
9 3 (1.06%) Veracode
10 2 (0.71%) Adobe
10 2 (0.71%) Cisco
10 2 (0.71%) SAP
11 1 (0.35%) MuleSoft
11 1 (0.35%) Sage
11 1 (0.35%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud