Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £466, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026.

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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 11 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 -6 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 318 216 359
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 9.68% 11.01% 13.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.58% 11.86% 14.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 171 271
10th Percentile £343 £363 £306
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -6.90% +11.11% -10.00%
75th Percentile £510 £563 £538
90th Percentile £572 £638 £625
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 2 2
10th Percentile £25.49 - £78.05
25th Percentile £36.32 - £78.88
Median hourly rate £41.06 £86.00 £81.50
Median % change year-on-year -52.26% +5.52% +103.75%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £82.88
90th Percentile £63.50 - £82.95
England median hourly rate £51.50 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -6.36% -15.38% +1.56%

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 3,006 1,821 2,521
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.48% 92.86% 94.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,715 1,209 1,641
10th Percentile £300 £250 £276
25th Percentile £393 £375 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year - -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £588 £561 £588
90th Percentile £675 £657 £675
England median daily rate £513 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 302 111 273
10th Percentile £18.57 £13.00 £11.07
25th Percentile £25.49 £16.85 £13.50
Median hourly rate £50.00 £28.75 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +73.91% +4.55% -9.95%
75th Percentile £71.91 £60.00 £46.91
90th Percentile £84.88 £84.50 £70.50
England median hourly rate £45.00 £30.00 £36.92
% change year-on-year +50.00% -18.73% -17.97%

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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 +3 245 £475 - 101
Cheshire -12 32 £397 +0.47% 17
Lancashire -1 21 £463 -12.98% 54
Merseyside -26 13 £450 -18.18% 20
Cumbria -2 5 - - 4
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 20 May 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.

1 131 (41.19%) Java
2 99 (31.13%) Agile
3 77 (24.21%) Microservices
4 76 (23.90%) CI/CD
5 73 (22.96%) AWS
6 67 (21.07%) Spring
7 63 (19.81%) Spring Boot
8 62 (19.50%) Azure
9 58 (18.24%) Full-Stack Development
10 57 (17.92%) Test Automation
11 56 (17.61%) Problem-Solving
12 55 (17.30%) DevOps
13 50 (15.72%) SQL
14 49 (15.41%) TDD
15 47 (14.78%) JavaScript
16 45 (14.15%) React
17 44 (13.84%) Node.js
18 37 (11.64%) Docker
18 37 (11.64%) RESTful
18 37 (11.64%) Security Cleared
18 37 (11.64%) TypeScript
19 36 (11.32%) REST
20 33 (10.38%) GitLab
21 32 (10.06%) Kubernetes
22 30 (9.43%) C#
22 30 (9.43%) Git
23 28 (8.81%) AngularJS
23 28 (8.81%) Front End Development
24 27 (8.49%) Oracle
25 26 (8.18%) API Design

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 (3.14%) Confluence
2 5 (1.57%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.94%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 2 (0.63%) Apache
4 2 (0.63%) JBoss
5 1 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.31%) Appian
5 1 (0.31%) Camunda
5 1 (0.31%) CMS
5 1 (0.31%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.31%) Mule
5 1 (0.31%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.31%) SAS
5 1 (0.31%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.31%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.31%) WebLogic
Applications
1 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (2.20%) Maximo
2 2 (0.63%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.63%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.31%) Odoo
Cloud Services
1 73 (22.96%) AWS
2 62 (19.50%) Azure
3 24 (7.55%) Serverless
4 18 (5.66%) Power Platform
5 15 (4.72%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (4.40%) GitHub
7 12 (3.77%) AWS Lambda
8 11 (3.46%) Amazon S3
8 11 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
9 10 (3.14%) Dynamics 365
10 7 (2.20%) Amazon SQS
11 6 (1.89%) AWS Step Functions
11 6 (1.89%) Azure Logic Apps
11 6 (1.89%) OpenShift
11 6 (1.89%) Power Automate
12 5 (1.57%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (1.57%) Amazon ECR
13 4 (1.26%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (1.26%) Azure AKS
13 4 (1.26%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.31%) HTTP
1 1 (0.31%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (5.35%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (5.03%) NoSQL
3 13 (4.09%) MongoDB
4 12 (3.77%) Power BI
4 12 (3.77%) SQL Server
5 9 (2.83%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.83%) Relational Database
6 8 (2.52%) OLTP
7 7 (2.20%) DocumentDB
8 6 (1.89%) MySQL
9 5 (1.57%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.57%) Hadoop
9 5 (1.57%) Power Query
10 4 (1.26%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (1.26%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.94%) DataStage
12 2 (0.63%) DB2
12 2 (0.63%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.63%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 33 (10.38%) GitLab
2 30 (9.43%) Git
3 22 (6.92%) JIRA
4 14 (4.40%) JUnit
5 11 (3.46%) Mockito
6 10 (3.14%) Cypress.io
7 8 (2.52%) Mocha
8 7 (2.20%) SonarQube
9 6 (1.89%) CircleCI
9 6 (1.89%) Jenkins
10 3 (0.94%) ClearCase
10 3 (0.94%) Gradle
10 3 (0.94%) Jasmine
11 2 (0.63%) fastlane
11 2 (0.63%) IntelliJ
11 2 (0.63%) Postman
11 2 (0.63%) XCTest
12 1 (0.31%) Claude Code
12 1 (0.31%) ESLint
12 1 (0.31%) Vite
General
1 82 (25.79%) Public Sector
2 43 (13.52%) Social Skills
3 41 (12.89%) Finance
4 21 (6.60%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (5.66%) Banking
6 7 (2.20%) Aviation
7 6 (1.89%) Aerospace
7 6 (1.89%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.26%) Military
9 3 (0.94%) Law
9 3 (0.94%) Local Government
10 2 (0.63%) Legal
10 2 (0.63%) Retail
11 1 (0.31%) Advertising
11 1 (0.31%) Automotive
11 1 (0.31%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.31%) Games
11 1 (0.31%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (21.07%) Spring
2 63 (19.81%) Spring Boot
3 45 (14.15%) React
4 44 (13.84%) Node.js
5 37 (11.64%) RESTful
6 36 (11.32%) REST
7 28 (8.81%) AngularJS
8 25 (7.86%) .NET
9 22 (6.92%) HTML
10 17 (5.35%) CSS
10 17 (5.35%) Jest
10 17 (5.35%) Kafka
10 17 (5.35%) Vue
11 13 (4.09%) YAML
12 11 (3.46%) Playwright
13 10 (3.14%) XML
14 9 (2.83%) JSON
14 9 (2.83%) OAuth
15 8 (2.52%) GraphQL
15 8 (2.52%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 24 (7.55%) Cloud Native
2 16 (5.03%) Mobile App
3 15 (4.72%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.72%) Product Ownership
4 9 (2.83%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (2.20%) NHS
6 5 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
6 5 (1.57%) Data Structures
6 5 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.26%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 3 (0.94%) IoT
8 3 (0.94%) Legacy Code
9 2 (0.63%) AI Agents
9 2 (0.63%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.31%) Algorithms
10 1 (0.31%) Blog
10 1 (0.31%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.31%) FMCG
10 1 (0.31%) Reinsurance
10 1 (0.31%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (5.03%) Unix
2 15 (4.72%) Linux
3 7 (2.20%) Mac OS X
4 5 (1.57%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.26%) Android
5 4 (1.26%) Windows
6 3 (0.94%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.63%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.63%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (31.13%) Agile
2 77 (24.21%) Microservices
3 76 (23.90%) CI/CD
4 58 (18.24%) Full-Stack Development
5 57 (17.92%) Test Automation
6 56 (17.61%) Problem-Solving
7 55 (17.30%) DevOps
8 49 (15.41%) TDD
9 28 (8.81%) Front End Development
10 26 (8.18%) API Design
11 25 (7.86%) Continuous Improvement
12 24 (7.55%) Data Modelling
12 24 (7.55%) SDLC
13 23 (7.23%) Code Quality
13 23 (7.23%) Containerisation
13 23 (7.23%) Mentoring
13 23 (7.23%) Unit Testing
13 23 (7.23%) User Experience
14 21 (6.60%) BDD
15 20 (6.29%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 131 (41.19%) Java
2 50 (15.72%) SQL
3 47 (14.78%) JavaScript
4 37 (11.64%) TypeScript
5 30 (9.43%) C#
6 25 (7.86%) Python
7 19 (5.97%) Kotlin
8 7 (2.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 7 (2.20%) PL/SQL
8 7 (2.20%) Shell Script
9 6 (1.89%) Apex Code
10 4 (1.26%) Go
11 3 (0.94%) C++
11 3 (0.94%) ProC
11 3 (0.94%) Swift
11 3 (0.94%) VB
11 3 (0.94%) VB6
12 2 (0.63%) Objective-C
12 2 (0.63%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.63%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 37 (11.64%) Security Cleared
2 23 (7.23%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (6.29%) SC Cleared
4 12 (3.77%) Degree
5 4 (1.26%) DV Cleared
6 2 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.31%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (5.97%) Accessibility
2 16 (5.03%) QA
3 10 (3.14%) WCAG
4 8 (2.52%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.26%) ISO 20022
5 4 (1.26%) PSD2
5 4 (1.26%) SEPA
6 3 (0.94%) GRC
7 1 (0.31%) GDPR
System Software
1 37 (11.64%) Docker
2 3 (0.94%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 32 (10.06%) Kubernetes
2 20 (6.29%) Terraform
3 7 (2.20%) Grafana
4 5 (1.57%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.94%) Ansible
6 1 (0.31%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 27 (8.49%) Oracle
2 25 (7.86%) Microsoft
3 15 (4.72%) Salesforce
4 8 (2.52%) Virgin Media
5 6 (1.89%) Automation Anywhere
5 6 (1.89%) ServiceNow
6 5 (1.57%) Pega
7 4 (1.26%) Adobe
7 4 (1.26%) IFS
7 4 (1.26%) Splunk
8 3 (0.94%) Atlassian
8 3 (0.94%) Dynatrace
8 3 (0.94%) Veracode
9 2 (0.63%) IBM
9 2 (0.63%) NEC
9 2 (0.63%) Teradata
10 1 (0.31%) Ab Initio
10 1 (0.31%) Dell
10 1 (0.31%) Informatica
10 1 (0.31%) Sage