Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 February 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 9 3
Rank change year-on-year -1 -6 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 332 234 408
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.97% 11.36% 14.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 13.00% 12.30% 15.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 157 305
10th Percentile £341 £377 £325
25th Percentile £381 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% - -4.52%
75th Percentile £500 £548 £550
90th Percentile £554 £638 £645
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 4
10th Percentile £36.32 - £72.75
25th Percentile £47.41 £65.00 £75.00
Median hourly rate £61.00 £75.50 £78.75
Median % change year-on-year -19.21% -4.13% +112.84%
75th Percentile £72.13 £86.00 £82.50
90th Percentile £76.96 - -
England median hourly rate £61.00 £65.00 £69.10
% change year-on-year -6.15% -5.93% +10.56%

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 2,554 1,902 2,636
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.07% 92.37% 93.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,598 1,161 1,774
10th Percentile £220 £250 £275
25th Percentile £366 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £454 £473 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.97% -5.50% +2.04%
75th Percentile £575 £565 £588
90th Percentile £650 £656 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 231 101 253
10th Percentile £18.26 £15.36 £12.50
25th Percentile £22.63 £20.19 £15.50
Median hourly rate £42.69 £30.40 £26.39
Median % change year-on-year +40.41% +15.20% -9.47%
75th Percentile £62.49 £50.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £76.00 £80.59 £62.25
England median hourly rate £33.17 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -5.23% - -12.50%

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 21 February 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 21 February 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 21 February 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 +3 239 £450 - 137
Cheshire -9 52 £360 -28.00% 34
Lancashire -12 20 £548 +2.29% 53
Merseyside -9 17 £475 +38.18% 19
Cumbria +4 1 £470 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 21 February 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.

1 123 (37.05%) Java
2 103 (31.02%) Agile
3 95 (28.61%) CI/CD
4 82 (24.70%) AWS
5 75 (22.59%) Microservices
6 72 (21.69%) Azure
7 69 (20.78%) Spring
7 69 (20.78%) Spring Boot
8 67 (20.18%) SQL
9 65 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
10 64 (19.28%) DevOps
11 60 (18.07%) Test Automation
12 59 (17.77%) Full-Stack Development
13 55 (16.57%) Security Cleared
14 49 (14.76%) JavaScript
15 47 (14.16%) React
15 47 (14.16%) TypeScript
16 46 (13.86%) Docker
16 46 (13.86%) Node.js
17 45 (13.55%) TDD
18 43 (12.95%) Git
18 43 (12.95%) Kubernetes
19 42 (12.65%) REST
20 41 (12.35%) GitLab
20 41 (12.35%) Microsoft
21 40 (12.05%) Python
22 36 (10.84%) RESTful
23 32 (9.64%) Accessibility
23 32 (9.64%) BPSS Clearance
23 32 (9.64%) Containerisation

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 8 (2.41%) Confluence
2 6 (1.81%) SAS
3 5 (1.51%) Apache Spark
4 4 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.90%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 3 (0.90%) Apache
6 2 (0.60%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.30%) CMS
7 1 (0.30%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.30%) JBoss
7 1 (0.30%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.30%) Tomcat
Applications
1 2 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (2.71%) Advent Geneva
2 7 (2.11%) Maximo
3 2 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.60%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.60%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
4 1 (0.30%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
4 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 82 (24.70%) AWS
2 72 (21.69%) Azure
3 24 (7.23%) Power Platform
4 22 (6.63%) Serverless
5 21 (6.33%) GitHub
6 18 (5.42%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (4.22%) Power Automate
8 12 (3.61%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (3.31%) Dynamics 365
9 11 (3.31%) PowerApps
10 10 (3.01%) GitHub Actions
11 9 (2.71%) Amazon S3
11 9 (2.71%) Amazon SQS
12 7 (2.11%) npm
13 6 (1.81%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.81%) GCP
14 5 (1.51%) AWS Step Functions
14 5 (1.51%) Azure AKS
14 5 (1.51%) Figma
14 5 (1.51%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.11%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.20%) HTTP
3 1 (0.30%) Internet
3 1 (0.30%) PABX
3 1 (0.30%) SSL
3 1 (0.30%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (6.33%) Relational Database
2 18 (5.42%) SQL Server
3 17 (5.12%) MySQL
3 17 (5.12%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (4.82%) NoSQL
5 15 (4.52%) MongoDB
6 14 (4.22%) Power BI
7 11 (3.31%) Data Warehouse
8 10 (3.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 9 (2.71%) DB2
10 8 (2.41%) DocumentDB
10 8 (2.41%) OLTP
10 8 (2.41%) Redis
11 5 (1.51%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.51%) Hadoop
12 4 (1.20%) Apache Cassandra
12 4 (1.20%) Cognos Framework Manager
12 4 (1.20%) Cognos Report Studio
12 4 (1.20%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.90%) Cognos Transformer
Development Applications
1 43 (12.95%) Git
2 41 (12.35%) GitLab
3 19 (5.72%) JIRA
4 17 (5.12%) Cypress.io
5 13 (3.92%) JUnit
6 12 (3.61%) Mockito
7 10 (3.01%) SonarQube
8 8 (2.41%) Gradle
8 8 (2.41%) Jenkins
8 8 (2.41%) Mocha
9 6 (1.81%) CircleCI
9 6 (1.81%) Postman
9 6 (1.81%) Xcode
10 4 (1.20%) ESLint
10 4 (1.20%) Storybook
11 3 (0.90%) Jasmine
12 2 (0.60%) Android Studio
12 2 (0.60%) git-flow
12 2 (0.60%) Grunt
12 2 (0.60%) gulp
General
1 83 (25.00%) Public Sector
2 45 (13.55%) Finance
3 43 (12.95%) Social Skills
4 23 (6.93%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (4.82%) Banking
6 8 (2.41%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (2.11%) Aviation
8 4 (1.20%) Publishing
9 3 (0.90%) Law
9 3 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.60%) Local Government
10 2 (0.60%) Private Banking
10 2 (0.60%) Retail
11 1 (0.30%) Advertising
11 1 (0.30%) Games
11 1 (0.30%) Legal
11 1 (0.30%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.30%) Marketing
11 1 (0.30%) Military
11 1 (0.30%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (20.78%) Spring
1 69 (20.78%) Spring Boot
2 47 (14.16%) React
3 46 (13.86%) Node.js
4 42 (12.65%) REST
5 36 (10.84%) RESTful
6 28 (8.43%) .NET
7 26 (7.83%) HTML
8 24 (7.23%) Jest
9 23 (6.93%) JSON
10 22 (6.63%) AngularJS
11 19 (5.72%) Kafka
12 18 (5.42%) CSS
12 18 (5.42%) Vue
13 17 (5.12%) React Native
14 14 (4.22%) OAuth
14 14 (4.22%) XML
15 13 (3.92%) Hibernate
15 13 (3.92%) YAML
16 12 (3.61%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.93%) Cloud Native
2 20 (6.02%) Mobile App
3 15 (4.52%) Onboarding
4 12 (3.61%) Product Ownership
5 9 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (2.41%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 7 (2.11%) Data Structures
7 7 (2.11%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.51%) Low-Code
9 4 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.20%) Legacy Code
10 3 (0.90%) Blog
10 3 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.90%) IoT
10 3 (0.90%) Legacy Systems
11 2 (0.60%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.60%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (0.60%) FMCG
11 2 (0.60%) IVR
11 2 (0.60%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 18 (5.42%) Linux
2 15 (4.52%) Unix
3 12 (3.61%) Android
3 12 (3.61%) Apple iOS
4 8 (2.41%) Mac OS X
5 3 (0.90%) Windows
5 3 (0.90%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.30%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.30%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (31.02%) Agile
2 95 (28.61%) CI/CD
3 75 (22.59%) Microservices
4 65 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
5 64 (19.28%) DevOps
6 60 (18.07%) Test Automation
7 59 (17.77%) Full-Stack Development
8 45 (13.55%) TDD
9 32 (9.64%) Containerisation
10 28 (8.43%) API Design
11 27 (8.13%) Data Modelling
11 27 (8.13%) Unit Testing
12 26 (7.83%) Continuous Improvement
12 26 (7.83%) Front End Development
12 26 (7.83%) Performance Optimisation
12 26 (7.83%) User Experience
13 24 (7.23%) Code Quality
14 23 (6.93%) Analytics
15 22 (6.63%) API Development
16 21 (6.33%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 123 (37.05%) Java
2 67 (20.18%) SQL
3 49 (14.76%) JavaScript
4 47 (14.16%) TypeScript
5 40 (12.05%) Python
6 28 (8.43%) C#
7 14 (4.22%) Kotlin
8 6 (1.81%) T-SQL
9 5 (1.51%) Shell Script
10 4 (1.20%) ABAP
10 4 (1.20%) Apex Code
10 4 (1.20%) Bash
10 4 (1.20%) C++
10 4 (1.20%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.90%) Groovy
11 3 (0.90%) PHP
11 3 (0.90%) ProC
11 3 (0.90%) Ruby
11 3 (0.90%) Swift
12 2 (0.60%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 55 (16.57%) Security Cleared
2 32 (9.64%) BPSS Clearance
3 28 (8.43%) SC Cleared
4 18 (5.42%) Degree
5 11 (3.31%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.20%) CTC Cleared
6 4 (1.20%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.60%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (9.64%) Accessibility
2 15 (4.52%) WCAG
3 14 (4.22%) QA
4 8 (2.41%) ISO 20022
4 8 (2.41%) PSD2
4 8 (2.41%) SEPA
5 4 (1.20%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.30%) GDPR
System Software
1 46 (13.86%) Docker
2 3 (0.90%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 43 (12.95%) Kubernetes
2 19 (5.72%) Terraform
3 8 (2.41%) Grafana
4 5 (1.51%) Ansible
5 4 (1.20%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.30%) Argo
6 1 (0.30%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 41 (12.35%) Microsoft
2 26 (7.83%) Oracle
3 10 (3.01%) Virgin Media
4 9 (2.71%) Advent
4 9 (2.71%) Salesforce
5 8 (2.41%) SAP
6 7 (2.11%) Splunk
7 6 (1.81%) Automation Anywhere
7 6 (1.81%) ServiceNow
8 5 (1.51%) Adobe
9 4 (1.20%) Cognos
9 4 (1.20%) IBM
9 4 (1.20%) IFS
9 4 (1.20%) Xamarin
10 3 (0.90%) Dynatrace
10 3 (0.90%) Veracode
11 2 (0.60%) NEC
11 2 (0.60%) Red Hat
11 2 (0.60%) Software AG
11 2 (0.60%) webMethods