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 6 November 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 15 9 9
Rank change year-on-year -6 0 -4
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 234 256 329
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.76% 10.82% 11.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.69% 11.58% 12.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 192 169 278
10th Percentile £313 £308 £325
25th Percentile £360 £379 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £438 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -7.89% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £500 £582
90th Percentile £573 £575 £682
England median daily rate £501 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.62% -4.55% -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 4
10th Percentile £49.83 £41.80 £56.38
25th Percentile £53.91 £50.50 £65.94
Median hourly rate £60.69 £65.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.63% -13.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £67.48 - £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% -4.00%

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 2,189 2,211 2,538
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.32% 93.41% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,444 1,176 1,769
10th Percentile £215 £263 £275
25th Percentile £363 £390 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £590
90th Percentile £679 £650 £673
England median daily rate £510 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 215 157 177
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.44 £15.75
25th Percentile £19.07 £18.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% -4.64% +56.47%
75th Percentile £45.46 £51.91 £46.18
90th Percentile £70.16 £70.90 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.33 £45.88
% change year-on-year -37.63% -12.11% +52.93%

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 6 November 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 6 November 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 6 November 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 -7 117 £425 -5.56% 263
Cheshire -5 73 £370 -1.33% 66
Merseyside -5 22 £500 +26.98% 16
Lancashire -1 19 £528 +29.45% 127
Cumbria +7 1 £470 -6.00% 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 6 November 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 79 (33.76%) Java
2 73 (31.20%) Agile
3 60 (25.64%) SQL
4 57 (24.36%) CI/CD
5 54 (23.08%) JavaScript
6 52 (22.22%) Git
7 51 (21.79%) DevOps
8 50 (21.37%) Azure
9 49 (20.94%) AWS
9 49 (20.94%) Problem-Solving
10 45 (19.23%) Spring Boot
11 43 (18.38%) Microservices
11 43 (18.38%) Microsoft
11 43 (18.38%) Spring
12 42 (17.95%) HTML
13 38 (16.24%) React
13 38 (16.24%) REST
14 35 (14.96%) Security Cleared
15 34 (14.53%) TDD
16 33 (14.10%) Accessibility
16 33 (14.10%) CSS
17 31 (13.25%) JIRA
17 31 (13.25%) Test Automation
18 30 (12.82%) Docker
19 28 (11.97%) Full-Stack Development
19 28 (11.97%) Jenkins
20 26 (11.11%) Business Intelligence
20 26 (11.11%) Power Platform
20 26 (11.11%) Python
20 26 (11.11%) 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 10 (4.27%) Confluence
1 10 (4.27%) Tomcat
2 7 (2.99%) JBoss
3 6 (2.56%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.71%) Apache
4 4 (1.71%) nginx
5 3 (1.28%) SAS
6 2 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.85%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.43%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.43%) CMS
7 1 (0.43%) Mule
Applications
1 4 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (1.71%) Advent Geneva
2 3 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.43%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.43%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 50 (21.37%) Azure
2 49 (20.94%) AWS
3 26 (11.11%) Power Platform
4 21 (8.97%) GitHub
5 18 (7.69%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (5.98%) Power Automate
7 13 (5.56%) PowerApps
8 10 (4.27%) npm
9 8 (3.42%) Serverless
10 7 (2.99%) Figma
10 7 (2.99%) OpenShift
11 6 (2.56%) AWS Lambda
11 6 (2.56%) GCP
11 6 (2.56%) SaaS
12 5 (2.14%) Azure AKS
12 5 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (1.71%) Azure Service Bus
14 3 (1.28%) GitHub Actions
14 3 (1.28%) ShareGate
14 3 (1.28%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.99%) HTTPS
2 2 (0.85%) HTTP
2 2 (0.85%) Intranet
2 2 (0.85%) SSL
3 1 (0.43%) Internet
3 1 (0.43%) PABX
3 1 (0.43%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.12%) Power BI
2 16 (6.84%) SQL Server
3 14 (5.98%) MySQL
4 11 (4.70%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (3.85%) NoSQL
6 8 (3.42%) Relational Database
7 7 (2.99%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (2.99%) MongoDB
8 6 (2.56%) DB2
9 5 (2.14%) Redis
9 5 (2.14%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (1.71%) Apache Cassandra
11 3 (1.28%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (1.28%) Cognos Framework Manager
11 3 (1.28%) Cognos Report Studio
11 3 (1.28%) Metadata
11 3 (1.28%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (1.28%) WebFOCUS
12 2 (0.85%) Data Vault
12 2 (0.85%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 52 (22.22%) Git
2 31 (13.25%) JIRA
3 28 (11.97%) Jenkins
4 25 (10.68%) JUnit
5 22 (9.40%) Gradle
6 21 (8.97%) GitLab
7 14 (5.98%) Xcode
8 13 (5.56%) Cypress.io
9 11 (4.70%) SonarQube
10 10 (4.27%) Maven
10 10 (4.27%) Sonatype Nexus
11 9 (3.85%) Cucumber
12 7 (2.99%) Mockito
12 7 (2.99%) Postman
13 6 (2.56%) Bitbucket
13 6 (2.56%) Grunt
13 6 (2.56%) gulp
13 6 (2.56%) Storybook
14 3 (1.28%) Android Studio
14 3 (1.28%) Gerrit
General
1 37 (15.81%) Social Skills
2 35 (14.96%) Banking
2 35 (14.96%) Finance
2 35 (14.96%) Public Sector
3 20 (8.55%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (2.14%) Documentation Skills
4 5 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (1.28%) Publishing
5 3 (1.28%) Retail
6 2 (0.85%) Military
6 2 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (0.85%) Private Banking
7 1 (0.43%) Digital Healthcare
7 1 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.43%) Law
7 1 (0.43%) Local Government
7 1 (0.43%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.43%) Marketing
7 1 (0.43%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (19.23%) Spring Boot
2 43 (18.38%) Spring
3 42 (17.95%) HTML
4 38 (16.24%) React
4 38 (16.24%) REST
5 33 (14.10%) CSS
6 25 (10.68%) JSON
7 24 (10.26%) Node.js
7 24 (10.26%) RESTful
8 18 (7.69%) Jest
8 18 (7.69%) SOAP
9 17 (7.26%) .NET
9 17 (7.26%) React Native
10 16 (6.84%) Kafka
11 13 (5.56%) AngularJS
11 13 (5.56%) JMS
11 13 (5.56%) OAuth
12 12 (5.13%) Redux
13 11 (4.70%) jQuery
13 11 (4.70%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.83%) Mobile App
2 10 (4.27%) Cloud Native
2 10 (4.27%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (3.85%) Low-Code
4 8 (3.42%) Mobile Banking
5 7 (2.99%) Distributed Systems
5 7 (2.99%) SWIFT Messaging Network
5 7 (2.99%) Virtual Team
6 6 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.71%) Data Structures
7 4 (1.71%) Greenfield Project
7 4 (1.71%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.28%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.28%) Shadow IT
9 2 (0.85%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.85%) Blog
9 2 (0.85%) IVR
9 2 (0.85%) Mainframe
10 1 (0.43%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.55%) Android
2 18 (7.69%) Apple iOS
2 18 (7.69%) Linux
3 10 (4.27%) Unix
4 2 (0.85%) Mac OS X
4 2 (0.85%) MVS
4 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.43%) VME
5 1 (0.43%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (31.20%) Agile
2 57 (24.36%) CI/CD
3 51 (21.79%) DevOps
4 49 (20.94%) Problem-Solving
5 43 (18.38%) Microservices
6 34 (14.53%) TDD
7 31 (13.25%) Test Automation
8 28 (11.97%) Full-Stack Development
9 26 (11.11%) Business Intelligence
9 26 (11.11%) Unit Testing
10 23 (9.83%) Migration
10 23 (9.83%) Scrum
11 21 (8.97%) Containerisation
11 21 (8.97%) Performance Optimisation
12 20 (8.55%) User Experience
13 17 (7.26%) Data Modelling
13 17 (7.26%) Front End Development
14 16 (6.84%) API Development
14 16 (6.84%) User Acceptance Testing
15 15 (6.41%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 79 (33.76%) Java
2 60 (25.64%) SQL
3 54 (23.08%) JavaScript
4 26 (11.11%) Python
5 24 (10.26%) TypeScript
6 18 (7.69%) C#
7 10 (4.27%) Kotlin
8 8 (3.42%) C
8 8 (3.42%) C++
8 8 (3.42%) Ruby
8 8 (3.42%) T-SQL
9 7 (2.99%) Objective-C
9 7 (2.99%) Scala
9 7 (2.99%) Shell Script
9 7 (2.99%) Swift
10 6 (2.56%) PHP
11 4 (1.71%) Apex Code
11 4 (1.71%) Bash
12 3 (1.28%) ABAP
12 3 (1.28%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 35 (14.96%) Security Cleared
2 22 (9.40%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (8.55%) SC Cleared
4 11 (4.70%) Degree
5 8 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
6 3 (1.28%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.43%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.43%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.43%) MCSA
8 1 (0.43%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (14.10%) Accessibility
2 16 (6.84%) QA
3 8 (3.42%) WCAG
4 7 (2.99%) Data Quality
4 7 (2.99%) ISO 20022
4 7 (2.99%) PSD2
4 7 (2.99%) SEPA
System Software
1 30 (12.82%) Docker
2 2 (0.85%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 25 (10.68%) Kubernetes
2 6 (2.56%) Terraform
3 3 (1.28%) Ansible
4 2 (0.85%) CA Endevor
4 2 (0.85%) Grafana
4 2 (0.85%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.43%) Argo
5 1 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 43 (18.38%) Microsoft
2 18 (7.69%) Oracle
3 9 (3.85%) Salesforce
4 7 (2.99%) ServiceNow
5 6 (2.56%) IBM
5 6 (2.56%) Perforce
5 6 (2.56%) SAP
6 4 (1.71%) Advent
6 4 (1.71%) Cognos
6 4 (1.71%) Siebel
6 4 (1.71%) webMethods
7 3 (1.28%) Google
7 3 (1.28%) Nintex
7 3 (1.28%) Software AG
7 3 (1.28%) Veracode
7 3 (1.28%) Virgin Media
7 3 (1.28%) Xamarin
8 2 (0.85%) Axway
8 2 (0.85%) Red Hat
8 2 (0.85%) Splunk