Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 August 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 13 10
Rank change year-on-year -17 -3 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 237 220 269
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.12% 10.00% 11.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.77% 10.87% 11.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 145 184 206
10th Percentile £360 £313 £308
25th Percentile £420 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £425 £448
Median % change year-on-year +11.76% -5.03% -9.60%
75th Percentile £588 £525 £525
90th Percentile £665 £575 £575
England median daily rate £516 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +0.78% -2.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 2
10th Percentile £25.49 - £40.70
25th Percentile £37.25 - £47.75
Median hourly rate £41.06 £47.12 £59.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% -20.81% +19.00%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £71.25
90th Percentile - - £78.30
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +11.98%

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 3,502 2,023 2,285
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.49% 91.95% 94.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,000 1,297 1,370
10th Percentile £287 £255 £276
25th Percentile £400 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £563 £588
90th Percentile £681 £663 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 405 160 199
10th Percentile £17.10 £13.00 £11.07
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.56 £26.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.71% -25.50% +15.63%
75th Percentile £71.91 £50.63 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.55 £73.25 £71.88
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +7.40%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 0 179 £478 +12.47% 129
Cheshire -38 21 £420 +12.00% 15
Merseyside -27 15 £438 -17.36% 9
Lancashire -8 11 - - 44
Cumbria -8 7 £875 - 6
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 19 August 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 70 (29.54%) Java
2 68 (28.69%) Agile
3 51 (21.52%) CI/CD
4 47 (19.83%) Microservices
5 41 (17.30%) DevOps
6 39 (16.46%) Azure
7 38 (16.03%) SQL
8 34 (14.35%) AWS
9 31 (13.08%) Problem-Solving
9 31 (13.08%) TDD
10 30 (12.66%) Security Cleared
11 29 (12.24%) AI
11 29 (12.24%) Test Automation
12 28 (11.81%) Business Intelligence
12 28 (11.81%) Power Platform
12 28 (11.81%) React
13 27 (11.39%) JavaScript
13 27 (11.39%) Spring
14 26 (10.97%) C#
14 26 (10.97%) Data Modelling
14 26 (10.97%) Microsoft
15 25 (10.55%) Mentoring
15 25 (10.55%) REST
16 24 (10.13%) Git
16 24 (10.13%) Spring Boot
17 23 (9.70%) Node.js
17 23 (9.70%) Power BI
18 22 (9.28%) SC Cleared
19 21 (8.86%) Continuous Improvement
19 21 (8.86%) Full-Stack Development

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 11 (4.64%) Confluence
2 6 (2.53%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.27%) WordPress
4 2 (0.84%) CMS
4 2 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.84%) SharePoint 2013
4 2 (0.84%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.42%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.42%) Appian
5 1 (0.42%) Camunda
5 1 (0.42%) Drupal
5 1 (0.42%) JBoss
5 1 (0.42%) Mule
5 1 (0.42%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.42%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.42%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.27%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.42%) Odoo
2 1 (0.42%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 39 (16.46%) Azure
2 34 (14.35%) AWS
3 28 (11.81%) Power Platform
4 11 (4.64%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (4.22%) Microsoft Copilot
5 10 (4.22%) Serverless
6 8 (3.38%) Copilot Studio
6 8 (3.38%) Power Automate
7 6 (2.53%) GitHub
7 6 (2.53%) Google Gemini
8 5 (2.11%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (2.11%) PowerApps
9 4 (1.69%) Anthropic Claude
9 4 (1.69%) Azure Service Bus
9 4 (1.69%) GitHub Copilot
9 4 (1.69%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (1.27%) Azure AI
10 3 (1.27%) GCP
10 3 (1.27%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.84%) Network Security
1 2 (0.84%) SD-WAN
1 2 (0.84%) TCP/IP
1 2 (0.84%) WAN
1 2 (0.84%) Wireless
2 1 (0.42%) Firewall
2 1 (0.42%) IPsec
2 1 (0.42%) SSL
2 1 (0.42%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.70%) Power BI
2 21 (8.86%) SQL Server
3 18 (7.59%) MongoDB
4 14 (5.91%) Power Query
5 12 (5.06%) Relational Database
6 11 (4.64%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (4.22%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (3.38%) NoSQL
9 5 (2.11%) MySQL
10 4 (1.69%) DataStage
10 4 (1.69%) Db2
11 3 (1.27%) Oracle Database
11 3 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.84%) DocumentDB
12 2 (0.84%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.84%) Star Schema
13 1 (0.42%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
13 1 (0.42%) QlikView
13 1 (0.42%) SAP BW
13 1 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (10.13%) Git
2 11 (4.64%) JIRA
3 10 (4.22%) GitLab
4 9 (3.80%) Claude Code
4 9 (3.80%) Jenkins
4 9 (3.80%) Mockito
5 3 (1.27%) ClearCase
5 3 (1.27%) Cucumber
5 3 (1.27%) JUnit
5 3 (1.27%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.84%) Maven
7 1 (0.42%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.42%) Hudson
7 1 (0.42%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.42%) Rational Robot
7 1 (0.42%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 46 (19.41%) Social Skills
2 41 (17.30%) Public Sector
3 22 (9.28%) Finance
4 16 (6.75%) Banking
5 14 (5.91%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.64%) Military
7 7 (2.95%) Manufacturing
8 6 (2.53%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.69%) Legal
9 4 (1.69%) Legal Technology
9 4 (1.69%) Retail
10 2 (0.84%) Front Office
10 2 (0.84%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.84%) Law
11 1 (0.42%) Automotive
11 1 (0.42%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.42%) Local Government
11 1 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (11.81%) React
2 27 (11.39%) Spring
3 25 (10.55%) REST
4 24 (10.13%) Spring Boot
5 23 (9.70%) Node.js
6 20 (8.44%) .NET
7 17 (7.17%) Kafka
8 15 (6.33%) AngularJS
9 14 (5.91%) RESTful
10 11 (4.64%) HTML
11 10 (4.22%) JSON
12 8 (3.38%) ActiveMQ
12 8 (3.38%) CSS
12 8 (3.38%) JAX-RS
13 7 (2.95%) XML
14 6 (2.53%) Lightning Web Components
14 6 (2.53%) Nunjucks
15 5 (2.11%) .NET Core
16 4 (1.69%) OAuth
16 4 (1.69%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (4.22%) Cloud Native
2 9 (3.80%) Data Structures
3 8 (3.38%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (3.38%) NHS
4 7 (2.95%) AI Agents
5 6 (2.53%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.53%) Mobile App
5 6 (2.53%) Product Ownership
6 5 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.11%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (1.27%) IoT
9 2 (0.84%) Equities
9 2 (0.84%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.84%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.42%) PKI
10 1 (0.42%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.91%) Linux
2 13 (5.49%) Unix
3 3 (1.27%) Android
3 3 (1.27%) Apple iOS
3 3 (1.27%) Mac OS X
4 2 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.84%) VMS
4 2 (0.84%) Windows
5 1 (0.42%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.42%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (28.69%) Agile
2 51 (21.52%) CI/CD
3 47 (19.83%) Microservices
4 41 (17.30%) DevOps
5 31 (13.08%) Problem-Solving
5 31 (13.08%) TDD
6 29 (12.24%) AI
6 29 (12.24%) Test Automation
7 28 (11.81%) Business Intelligence
8 26 (10.97%) Data Modelling
9 25 (10.55%) Mentoring
10 21 (8.86%) Continuous Improvement
10 21 (8.86%) Full-Stack Development
10 21 (8.86%) SDLC
11 20 (8.44%) BDD
11 20 (8.44%) ETL
12 18 (7.59%) Software Engineering
13 17 (7.17%) Code Quality
14 15 (6.33%) Analytics
14 15 (6.33%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 70 (29.54%) Java
2 38 (16.03%) SQL
3 27 (11.39%) JavaScript
4 26 (10.97%) C#
5 18 (7.59%) TypeScript
6 16 (6.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 8 (3.38%) Kotlin
7 8 (3.38%) Python
8 7 (2.95%) PowerShell
9 6 (2.53%) Apex Code
9 6 (2.53%) Go
10 5 (2.11%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.69%) Shell Script
11 4 (1.69%) T-SQL
12 3 (1.27%) PHP
12 3 (1.27%) Swift
12 3 (1.27%) VB
12 3 (1.27%) VB6
13 1 (0.42%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 30 (12.66%) Security Cleared
2 22 (9.28%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.64%) BPSS Clearance
3 11 (4.64%) Degree
4 4 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.42%) CTC Cleared
5 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.06%) QA
2 10 (4.22%) Data Quality
3 9 (3.80%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.69%) GRC
5 2 (0.84%) WCAG
6 1 (0.42%) NCSC
6 1 (0.42%) NIST
System Software
1 19 (8.02%) Docker
2 3 (1.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 16 (6.75%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.49%) Terraform
3 9 (3.80%) Ansible
4 1 (0.42%) Grafana
4 1 (0.42%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 26 (10.97%) Microsoft
2 20 (8.44%) Salesforce
3 14 (5.91%) ServiceNow
4 11 (4.64%) Oracle
5 5 (2.11%) Pega
6 4 (1.69%) Atlassian
6 4 (1.69%) IBM
6 4 (1.69%) OpenAI
6 4 (1.69%) Teradata
7 3 (1.27%) Google
7 3 (1.27%) SAP
8 2 (0.84%) Adobe
8 2 (0.84%) Blue Prism
8 2 (0.84%) Cisco
8 2 (0.84%) Sage
9 1 (0.42%) Foundry
9 1 (0.42%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.42%) Virgin Media