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 19 September 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 14 12
Rank change year-on-year -9 -2 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 280 231 243
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.14% 10.58% 10.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.89% 11.43% 10.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 190 172
10th Percentile £363 £313 £308
25th Percentile £425 £361 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £423 £438
Median % change year-on-year +18.34% -3.43% -12.50%
75th Percentile £600 £505 £509
90th Percentile £675 £575 £575
England median daily rate £520 £506 £525
% change year-on-year +2.87% -3.71% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 2
10th Percentile £25.49 - £38.90
25th Percentile £37.25 - £43.25
Median hourly rate £41.06 £47.12 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% -6.69% -30.34%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £57.75
90th Percentile £66.66 - £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 3,550 2,021 2,252
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.54% 92.54% 93.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,011 1,332 1,272
10th Percentile £294 £268 £273
25th Percentile £404 £369 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £586
90th Percentile £675 £680 £675
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.35% -3.24% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 420 163 164
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.00 £15.49
25th Percentile £25.49 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.13% -32.03% +5.71%
75th Percentile £72.81 £47.12 £54.31
90th Percentile £83.75 £71.19 £73.51
England median hourly rate £44.46 £25.15 £46.71
% change year-on-year +76.76% -46.16% +3.81%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 0 202 £500 +21.21% 187
Cheshire -19 40 £488 +30.00% 41
Merseyside -27 14 £435 -13.86% 24
Lancashire -21 11 - - 44
Cumbria -18 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 19 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 (27.14%) Agile
2 73 (26.07%) Java
3 68 (24.29%) CI/CD
4 44 (15.71%) SQL
5 43 (15.36%) AWS
5 43 (15.36%) Microservices
6 40 (14.29%) DevOps
7 39 (13.93%) Azure
8 38 (13.57%) Power Platform
9 35 (12.50%) Microsoft
10 34 (12.14%) JavaScript
10 34 (12.14%) Security Cleared
11 32 (11.43%) AI
12 31 (11.07%) React
13 30 (10.71%) Git
13 30 (10.71%) Problem-Solving
13 30 (10.71%) REST
13 30 (10.71%) Software Engineering
13 30 (10.71%) Test Automation
14 29 (10.36%) TDD
15 27 (9.64%) Business Intelligence
15 27 (9.64%) Spring
15 27 (9.64%) Spring Boot
16 26 (9.29%) C#
16 26 (9.29%) Salesforce
17 25 (8.93%) Data Modelling
17 25 (8.93%) SC Cleared
18 24 (8.57%) Mentoring
19 23 (8.21%) Kafka
19 23 (8.21%) Power BI

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 14 (5.00%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.64%) Confluence
3 8 (2.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.86%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.43%) Camunda
5 3 (1.07%) WordPress
6 2 (0.71%) CMS
6 2 (0.71%) SAS
6 2 (0.71%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.36%) Drupal
7 1 (0.36%) JBoss
7 1 (0.36%) Mule
7 1 (0.36%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.36%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.36%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.43%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.36%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 43 (15.36%) AWS
2 39 (13.93%) Azure
3 38 (13.57%) Power Platform
4 17 (6.07%) Power Automate
5 15 (5.36%) Microsoft Copilot
5 15 (5.36%) PowerApps
6 13 (4.64%) Microsoft 365
7 12 (4.29%) GitHub
8 10 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
8 10 (3.57%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (2.86%) Azure AI
9 8 (2.86%) OneDrive
10 7 (2.50%) Copilot Studio
10 7 (2.50%) Serverless
11 6 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (2.14%) Google Gemini
12 5 (1.79%) Anthropic Claude
12 5 (1.79%) GitHub Copilot
12 5 (1.79%) OpenShift
12 5 (1.79%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.86%) SD-WAN
1 8 (2.86%) WAN
1 8 (2.86%) Wireless
2 2 (0.71%) Network Security
2 2 (0.71%) SNMP
2 2 (0.71%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.36%) Firewall
3 1 (0.36%) IPsec
3 1 (0.36%) SSL
3 1 (0.36%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (8.21%) Power BI
2 22 (7.86%) SQL Server
3 20 (7.14%) MongoDB
4 13 (4.64%) Power Query
4 13 (4.64%) Relational Database
5 12 (4.29%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (3.21%) NoSQL
7 7 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.79%) DataStage
8 5 (1.79%) Db2
9 4 (1.43%) MySQL
10 3 (1.07%) Oracle Database
10 3 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.71%) Amazon QuickSight
11 2 (0.71%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.71%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.71%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.71%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 2 (0.71%) Star Schema
12 1 (0.36%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 30 (10.71%) Git
2 13 (4.64%) GitLab
2 13 (4.64%) Jenkins
2 13 (4.64%) JIRA
3 11 (3.93%) Mockito
4 9 (3.21%) Claude Code
5 7 (2.50%) JUnit
6 6 (2.14%) Maven
7 5 (1.79%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.43%) Gradle
9 3 (1.07%) Bitbucket Server
9 3 (1.07%) ClearCase
9 3 (1.07%) Cucumber
9 3 (1.07%) REST Assured
9 3 (1.07%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.36%) Eclipse
10 1 (0.36%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.36%) NUnit
10 1 (0.36%) Rational Robot
10 1 (0.36%) Visual Studio
General
1 58 (20.71%) Social Skills
2 33 (11.79%) Public Sector
3 26 (9.29%) Finance
4 22 (7.86%) Banking
5 20 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (3.93%) Military
7 5 (1.79%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.43%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.43%) Legal
8 4 (1.43%) Legal Technology
8 4 (1.43%) Retail
9 2 (0.71%) Front Office
9 2 (0.71%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.71%) Law
10 1 (0.36%) Automotive
10 1 (0.36%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.36%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.36%) Local Government
10 1 (0.36%) Marketing
10 1 (0.36%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (11.07%) React
2 30 (10.71%) REST
3 27 (9.64%) Spring
3 27 (9.64%) Spring Boot
4 23 (8.21%) Kafka
5 22 (7.86%) Node.js
6 18 (6.43%) .NET
7 16 (5.71%) HTML
8 14 (5.00%) JSON
9 13 (4.64%) CSS
9 13 (4.64%) RESTful
10 11 (3.93%) AngularJS
11 9 (3.21%) Terraform
12 8 (2.86%) Django
13 7 (2.50%) XML
14 6 (2.14%) ActiveMQ
14 6 (2.14%) JAX-RS
14 6 (2.14%) Lightning Web Components
15 5 (1.79%) Nunjucks
15 5 (1.79%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 11 (3.93%) Cloud Native
1 11 (3.93%) Data Structures
2 10 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
3 9 (3.21%) Product Ownership
4 8 (2.86%) NHS
4 8 (2.86%) Onboarding
5 7 (2.50%) AI Agents
6 6 (2.14%) Algorithms
6 6 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
8 4 (1.43%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.07%) IoT
10 2 (0.71%) Cyber Threat
10 2 (0.71%) Equities
10 2 (0.71%) Fixed Income
10 2 (0.71%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 2 (0.71%) Greenfield Project
10 2 (0.71%) Low-Code
11 1 (0.36%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.43%) Linux
2 14 (5.00%) Unix
3 5 (1.79%) Apple iOS
4 4 (1.43%) Android
5 2 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.71%) VMS
5 2 (0.71%) Windows
6 1 (0.36%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.36%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (27.14%) Agile
2 68 (24.29%) CI/CD
3 43 (15.36%) Microservices
4 40 (14.29%) DevOps
5 32 (11.43%) AI
6 30 (10.71%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (10.71%) Software Engineering
6 30 (10.71%) Test Automation
7 29 (10.36%) TDD
8 27 (9.64%) Business Intelligence
9 25 (8.93%) Data Modelling
10 24 (8.57%) Mentoring
11 23 (8.21%) SDLC
12 22 (7.86%) Continuous Improvement
12 22 (7.86%) Full-Stack Development
13 21 (7.50%) Observability
14 19 (6.79%) Code Quality
15 18 (6.43%) Analytics
16 16 (5.71%) Scrum
17 15 (5.36%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 73 (26.07%) Java
2 44 (15.71%) SQL
3 34 (12.14%) JavaScript
4 26 (9.29%) C#
5 23 (8.21%) TypeScript
6 19 (6.79%) Python
7 15 (5.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 10 (3.57%) Go
9 7 (2.50%) Shell Script
10 6 (2.14%) Apex Code
10 6 (2.14%) PL/SQL
10 6 (2.14%) PowerShell
11 5 (1.79%) Kotlin
11 5 (1.79%) Swift
12 4 (1.43%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.07%) PHP
13 3 (1.07%) VB
13 3 (1.07%) VB6
14 2 (0.71%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.71%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 34 (12.14%) Security Cleared
2 25 (8.93%) SC Cleared
3 20 (7.14%) Degree
4 18 (6.43%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.50%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.36%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.36%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.29%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.93%) QA
3 8 (2.86%) Accessibility
4 3 (1.07%) GRC
5 1 (0.36%) NCSC
5 1 (0.36%) NIST
5 1 (0.36%) WCAG
System Software
1 21 (7.50%) Docker
2 3 (1.07%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 16 (5.71%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.21%) Ansible
3 1 (0.36%) Grafana
3 1 (0.36%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 35 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 26 (9.29%) Salesforce
3 13 (4.64%) ServiceNow
4 11 (3.93%) Oracle
5 8 (2.86%) IBM
6 6 (2.14%) Splunk
7 5 (1.79%) Teradata
8 4 (1.43%) Blue Prism
8 4 (1.43%) OpenAI
8 4 (1.43%) Pega
9 3 (1.07%) Atlassian
9 3 (1.07%) Google
9 3 (1.07%) SAP
9 3 (1.07%) Veracode
10 2 (0.71%) Adobe
10 2 (0.71%) Cisco
11 1 (0.36%) MuleSoft
11 1 (0.36%) Sage
11 1 (0.36%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud