Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £423, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 December 2025.

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

6 months to
1 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 255 255 372
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.46% 11.18% 13.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.47% 12.03% 15.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 212 162 295
10th Percentile £313 £323 £325
25th Percentile £360 £393 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £423 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.11% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £600
90th Percentile £550 £588 £700
England median daily rate £500 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -6.54% -2.73% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 4
10th Percentile £49.83 £44.70 £56.38
25th Percentile £53.91 £57.75 £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 £70.25 £79.69
90th Percentile £71.55 £79.70 £81.38
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% +8.33% +2.95%

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 2,223 2,120 2,480
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.14% 92.98% 92.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,482 1,138 1,721
10th Percentile £214 £263 £275
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 £653 £675
England median daily rate £503 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.12% -1.78% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 148 168
10th Percentile £15.75 £15.45 £15.93
25th Percentile £19.52 £17.86 £17.72
Median hourly rate £29.80 £28.25 £33.54
Median % change year-on-year +5.49% -15.77% +67.16%
75th Percentile £51.02 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.81 £70.90 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.93% -16.67% +38.46%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -2 143 £425 -6.59% 141
Cheshire -4 72 £370 -5.37% 49
Merseyside -9 19 £500 +29.03% 12
Lancashire -14 17 £551 +10.10% 82
Cumbria - 1 £470 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 91 (35.69%) Java
2 77 (30.20%) Agile
3 68 (26.67%) SQL
4 66 (25.88%) CI/CD
4 66 (25.88%) Problem-Solving
5 62 (24.31%) AWS
6 57 (22.35%) Spring Boot
7 56 (21.96%) Microservices
8 55 (21.57%) DevOps
8 55 (21.57%) Git
8 55 (21.57%) Spring
9 53 (20.78%) Azure
10 45 (17.65%) JavaScript
11 44 (17.25%) React
11 44 (17.25%) Security Cleared
12 43 (16.86%) Test Automation
13 41 (16.08%) Microsoft
14 40 (15.69%) Docker
15 38 (14.90%) REST
15 38 (14.90%) TDD
16 35 (13.73%) Kubernetes
17 33 (12.94%) HTML
18 32 (12.55%) Full-Stack Development
18 32 (12.55%) JIRA
18 32 (12.55%) Node.js
19 31 (12.16%) Accessibility
20 30 (11.76%) RESTful
21 29 (11.37%) Containerisation
22 27 (10.59%) JSON
22 27 (10.59%) Performance Optimisation

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 10 (3.92%) Confluence
2 8 (3.14%) Tomcat
3 5 (1.96%) Apache
3 5 (1.96%) JBoss
3 5 (1.96%) SAS
4 4 (1.57%) nginx
4 4 (1.57%) SharePoint
5 3 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.78%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.39%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (3.53%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.39%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.39%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.39%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 62 (24.31%) AWS
2 53 (20.78%) Azure
3 23 (9.02%) Power Platform
4 22 (8.63%) GitHub
5 19 (7.45%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (4.71%) Power Automate
7 11 (4.31%) PowerApps
7 11 (4.31%) Serverless
8 10 (3.92%) npm
9 8 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (3.14%) GCP
10 7 (2.75%) Amazon SQS
10 7 (2.75%) Figma
11 6 (2.35%) SaaS
12 5 (1.96%) Azure AKS
12 5 (1.96%) OpenShift
13 4 (1.57%) Apigee
13 4 (1.57%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (1.57%) GitHub Copilot
14 3 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.53%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.57%) HTTP
3 2 (0.78%) SSL
4 1 (0.39%) Internet
4 1 (0.39%) PABX
4 1 (0.39%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.02%) MySQL
2 22 (8.63%) SQL Server
3 18 (7.06%) Relational Database
4 16 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (6.27%) Power BI
5 12 (4.71%) NoSQL
6 11 (4.31%) DB2
7 10 (3.92%) Redis
7 10 (3.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (3.53%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (3.14%) MongoDB
10 5 (1.96%) Apache Cassandra
10 5 (1.96%) DocumentDB
11 4 (1.57%) Cognos Framework Manager
11 4 (1.57%) Cognos Report Studio
12 3 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (1.18%) Cognos Transformer
12 3 (1.18%) OLAP
12 3 (1.18%) OLAP Cube
12 3 (1.18%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 55 (21.57%) Git
2 32 (12.55%) JIRA
3 26 (10.20%) GitLab
4 24 (9.41%) Jenkins
4 24 (9.41%) JUnit
5 16 (6.27%) Gradle
6 14 (5.49%) SonarQube
7 13 (5.10%) Cypress.io
8 10 (3.92%) Xcode
9 9 (3.53%) Cucumber
9 9 (3.53%) Postman
10 8 (3.14%) Maven
10 8 (3.14%) Mockito
10 8 (3.14%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (2.35%) Grunt
11 6 (2.35%) gulp
11 6 (2.35%) Storybook
12 5 (1.96%) Bitbucket
13 3 (1.18%) Android Studio
13 3 (1.18%) Gerrit
General
1 52 (20.39%) Public Sector
2 42 (16.47%) Finance
3 33 (12.94%) Social Skills
4 29 (11.37%) Banking
5 24 (9.41%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.18%) Publishing
9 2 (0.78%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.78%) Military
9 2 (0.78%) Private Banking
10 1 (0.39%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.39%) Law
10 1 (0.39%) Local Government
10 1 (0.39%) Marketing
10 1 (0.39%) Retail
10 1 (0.39%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (22.35%) Spring Boot
2 55 (21.57%) Spring
3 44 (17.25%) React
4 38 (14.90%) REST
5 33 (12.94%) HTML
6 32 (12.55%) Node.js
7 30 (11.76%) RESTful
8 27 (10.59%) JSON
9 24 (9.41%) CSS
10 21 (8.24%) .NET
11 18 (7.06%) Jest
11 18 (7.06%) Kafka
12 17 (6.67%) OAuth
12 17 (6.67%) React Native
13 16 (6.27%) AngularJS
13 16 (6.27%) Hibernate
14 14 (5.49%) JMS
14 14 (5.49%) SOAP
15 13 (5.10%) Redux
15 13 (5.10%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 20 (7.84%) Mobile App
2 11 (4.31%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.92%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (3.92%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 9 (3.53%) Virtual Team
5 7 (2.75%) Low-Code
6 6 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.35%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.96%) Data Structures
8 4 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (1.57%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.18%) Mobile Banking
10 2 (0.78%) Algorithms
10 2 (0.78%) Blog
10 2 (0.78%) FMCG
10 2 (0.78%) IVR
10 2 (0.78%) Mainframe
11 1 (0.39%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.27%) Android
2 15 (5.88%) Linux
3 13 (5.10%) Apple iOS
4 10 (3.92%) Unix
5 3 (1.18%) Mac OS X
6 2 (0.78%) MVS
6 2 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.39%) VME
7 1 (0.39%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (30.20%) Agile
2 66 (25.88%) CI/CD
2 66 (25.88%) Problem-Solving
3 56 (21.96%) Microservices
4 55 (21.57%) DevOps
5 43 (16.86%) Test Automation
6 38 (14.90%) TDD
7 32 (12.55%) Full-Stack Development
8 29 (11.37%) Containerisation
9 27 (10.59%) Performance Optimisation
10 25 (9.80%) Unit Testing
11 24 (9.41%) Business Intelligence
12 21 (8.24%) Migration
13 19 (7.45%) Data Modelling
13 19 (7.45%) Scrum
13 19 (7.45%) SDLC
13 19 (7.45%) User Acceptance Testing
14 17 (6.67%) API Development
14 17 (6.67%) Computer Science
14 17 (6.67%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 91 (35.69%) Java
2 68 (26.67%) SQL
3 45 (17.65%) JavaScript
4 27 (10.59%) Python
5 24 (9.41%) TypeScript
6 15 (5.88%) C#
7 8 (3.14%) Kotlin
7 8 (3.14%) T-SQL
8 6 (2.35%) PHP
8 6 (2.35%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.96%) Ruby
10 4 (1.57%) ABAP
10 4 (1.57%) Apex Code
10 4 (1.57%) Bash
10 4 (1.57%) C
10 4 (1.57%) C++
11 3 (1.18%) Objective-C
11 3 (1.18%) Scala
11 3 (1.18%) Swift
12 2 (0.78%) JCL
Qualifications
1 44 (17.25%) Security Cleared
2 25 (9.80%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (7.84%) SC Cleared
4 18 (7.06%) Degree
5 16 (6.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.96%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (0.78%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (12.16%) Accessibility
2 21 (8.24%) QA
3 10 (3.92%) ISO 20022
3 10 (3.92%) PSD2
3 10 (3.92%) SEPA
4 8 (3.14%) WCAG
5 7 (2.75%) Data Quality
System Software
1 40 (15.69%) Docker
2 2 (0.78%) Time Sharing Option
3 1 (0.39%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 35 (13.73%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.14%) Terraform
3 3 (1.18%) Ansible
3 3 (1.18%) Grafana
4 2 (0.78%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.39%) Argo
5 1 (0.39%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.39%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.39%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 41 (16.08%) Microsoft
2 20 (7.84%) Oracle
3 9 (3.53%) Advent
3 9 (3.53%) Salesforce
3 9 (3.53%) SAP
3 9 (3.53%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.75%) IBM
5 6 (2.35%) Perforce
6 5 (1.96%) Splunk
6 5 (1.96%) Virgin Media
7 4 (1.57%) Cognos
7 4 (1.57%) IFS
7 4 (1.57%) webMethods
8 3 (1.18%) Google
8 3 (1.18%) Software AG
8 3 (1.18%) Veracode
8 3 (1.18%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.78%) Adobe
9 2 (0.78%) Axway
9 2 (0.78%) Syncsort