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 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 12 10
Rank change year-on-year -14 -2 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 245 212 277
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.52% 9.73% 11.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.15% 10.56% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 147 178 212
10th Percentile £350 £313 £306
25th Percentile £414 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £430 £448
Median % change year-on-year +10.47% -3.91% -14.76%
75th Percentile £570 £538 £518
90th Percentile £650 £591 £575
England median daily rate £515 £515 £525
% change year-on-year - -1.90% -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 £52.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year +4.76% -19.23% +8.33%

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 3,428 2,007 2,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.15% 94.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,926 1,282 1,397
10th Percentile £295 £252 £259
25th Percentile £400 £363 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £499 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £595 £553 £586
90th Percentile £675 £665 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 397 159 217
10th Percentile £17.25 £13.00 £11.63
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £16.58
Median hourly rate £50.00 £27.00 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +85.19% -21.08% +16.76%
75th Percentile £73.25 £50.00 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.75 £71.87
England median hourly rate £45.00 £26.28 £43.90
% change year-on-year +71.23% -40.14% +2.09%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -2 186 £475 +6.74% 115
Cheshire -35 21 £408 +10.14% 14
Merseyside -25 16 £437 -20.64% 12
Lancashire -6 11 £500 - 39
Cumbria 0 7 £875 - 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 82 (33.47%) Agile
1 82 (33.47%) Java
2 56 (22.86%) CI/CD
3 55 (22.45%) Microservices
4 47 (19.18%) DevOps
5 46 (18.78%) Azure
6 42 (17.14%) AWS
7 41 (16.73%) Security Cleared
8 40 (16.33%) SQL
8 40 (16.33%) TDD
9 36 (14.69%) Problem-Solving
10 35 (14.29%) React
11 34 (13.88%) Test Automation
12 32 (13.06%) C#
12 32 (13.06%) Spring
13 31 (12.65%) JavaScript
14 30 (12.24%) Microsoft
14 30 (12.24%) SC Cleared
15 29 (11.84%) AI
15 29 (11.84%) Mentoring
15 29 (11.84%) Spring Boot
16 28 (11.43%) Node.js
17 27 (11.02%) Power Platform
18 26 (10.61%) Business Intelligence
19 25 (10.20%) .NET
19 25 (10.20%) BDD
19 25 (10.20%) Data Modelling
19 25 (10.20%) Kafka
20 24 (9.80%) Full-Stack Development
21 23 (9.39%) MongoDB

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 12 (4.90%) Confluence
2 5 (2.04%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.63%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.22%) WordPress
5 2 (0.82%) CMS
5 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.82%) SharePoint 2013
5 2 (0.82%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.41%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.41%) Apache
6 1 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.41%) Appian
6 1 (0.41%) Camunda
6 1 (0.41%) Drupal
6 1 (0.41%) JBoss
6 1 (0.41%) Mule
6 1 (0.41%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.41%) SAS
6 1 (0.41%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.41%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Odoo
1 1 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 46 (18.78%) Azure
2 42 (17.14%) AWS
3 27 (11.02%) Power Platform
4 12 (4.90%) Azure DevOps
5 11 (4.49%) Serverless
6 9 (3.67%) Microsoft Copilot
7 8 (3.27%) Power Automate
8 7 (2.86%) Copilot Studio
8 7 (2.86%) GitHub
9 6 (2.45%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.45%) Google Gemini
9 6 (2.45%) OpenShift
9 6 (2.45%) PowerApps
10 4 (1.63%) Anthropic Claude
10 4 (1.63%) Azure Service Bus
10 4 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
10 4 (1.63%) GitHub Copilot
11 3 (1.22%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (1.22%) Azure AI
11 3 (1.22%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.82%) Network Security
1 2 (0.82%) SD-WAN
1 2 (0.82%) TCP/IP
1 2 (0.82%) WAN
1 2 (0.82%) Wireless
2 1 (0.41%) Firewall
2 1 (0.41%) IPsec
2 1 (0.41%) SSL
2 1 (0.41%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.39%) MongoDB
2 21 (8.57%) Power BI
3 18 (7.35%) SQL Server
4 14 (5.71%) Power Query
5 11 (4.49%) Relational Database
6 10 (4.08%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (4.08%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (3.67%) NoSQL
8 6 (2.45%) MySQL
9 4 (1.63%) DataStage
9 4 (1.63%) Db2
9 4 (1.63%) Elasticsearch
9 4 (1.63%) Hadoop
10 3 (1.22%) Oracle Database
10 3 (1.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.82%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.82%) RDBMS
12 1 (0.41%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
12 1 (0.41%) Metadata
12 1 (0.41%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 22 (8.98%) Git
2 13 (5.31%) JIRA
3 12 (4.90%) Mockito
4 10 (4.08%) GitLab
5 9 (3.67%) Claude Code
6 8 (3.27%) Jenkins
7 3 (1.22%) ClearCase
7 3 (1.22%) Cucumber
7 3 (1.22%) JUnit
8 2 (0.82%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.41%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.41%) Hudson
9 1 (0.41%) IntelliJ
9 1 (0.41%) Postman
9 1 (0.41%) Rational Robot
9 1 (0.41%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.41%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio Code
9 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 54 (22.04%) Public Sector
2 46 (18.78%) Social Skills
3 27 (11.02%) Finance
4 17 (6.94%) Banking
5 15 (6.12%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.49%) Military
7 7 (2.86%) Manufacturing
8 6 (2.45%) Aerospace
9 5 (2.04%) Retail
10 2 (0.82%) Front Office
10 2 (0.82%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Advertising
11 1 (0.41%) Automotive
11 1 (0.41%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Law
11 1 (0.41%) Legal
11 1 (0.41%) Legal Technology
11 1 (0.41%) Local Government
11 1 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (14.29%) React
2 32 (13.06%) Spring
3 29 (11.84%) Spring Boot
4 28 (11.43%) Node.js
5 25 (10.20%) .NET
5 25 (10.20%) Kafka
6 19 (7.76%) REST
7 17 (6.94%) AngularJS
7 17 (6.94%) RESTful
8 13 (5.31%) HTML
9 11 (4.49%) ActiveMQ
9 11 (4.49%) JAX-RS
9 11 (4.49%) JSON
10 10 (4.08%) CSS
11 8 (3.27%) XML
12 6 (2.45%) .NET Core
12 6 (2.45%) Nunjucks
13 5 (2.04%) Vue
14 4 (1.63%) Apache NiFi
14 4 (1.63%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 12 (4.90%) Cloud Native
2 9 (3.67%) Data Structures
2 9 (3.67%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (3.27%) NHS
4 7 (2.86%) AI Agents
4 7 (2.86%) Product Ownership
5 6 (2.45%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.04%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.63%) Mobile App
8 3 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
9 2 (0.82%) Equities
9 2 (0.82%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.41%) FMCG
10 1 (0.41%) PKI
10 1 (0.41%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 19 (7.76%) Linux
2 18 (7.35%) Unix
3 7 (2.86%) Mac OS X
4 3 (1.22%) Windows
5 2 (0.82%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.82%) VMS
5 2 (0.82%) Windows Server
6 1 (0.41%) Android
6 1 (0.41%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (33.47%) Agile
2 56 (22.86%) CI/CD
3 55 (22.45%) Microservices
4 47 (19.18%) DevOps
5 40 (16.33%) TDD
6 36 (14.69%) Problem-Solving
7 34 (13.88%) Test Automation
8 29 (11.84%) AI
8 29 (11.84%) Mentoring
9 26 (10.61%) Business Intelligence
10 25 (10.20%) BDD
10 25 (10.20%) Data Modelling
11 24 (9.80%) Full-Stack Development
12 22 (8.98%) SDLC
13 21 (8.57%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (8.57%) ETL
13 21 (8.57%) Software Engineering
14 19 (7.76%) Code Quality
15 17 (6.94%) Analytics
16 16 (6.53%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 82 (33.47%) Java
2 40 (16.33%) SQL
3 32 (13.06%) C#
4 31 (12.65%) JavaScript
5 21 (8.57%) TypeScript
6 16 (6.53%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 16 (6.53%) Python
7 7 (2.86%) PowerShell
8 6 (2.45%) Go
9 5 (2.04%) Kotlin
9 5 (2.04%) PL/SQL
10 4 (1.63%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.22%) Apex Code
11 3 (1.22%) PHP
11 3 (1.22%) VB
11 3 (1.22%) VB6
12 2 (0.82%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.41%) ABAP
13 1 (0.41%) C++
13 1 (0.41%) Scala
Qualifications
1 41 (16.73%) Security Cleared
2 30 (12.24%) SC Cleared
3 15 (6.12%) BPSS Clearance
4 10 (4.08%) Degree
5 4 (1.63%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.41%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.41%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.90%) Accessibility
1 12 (4.90%) QA
2 9 (3.67%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.63%) GRC
4 3 (1.22%) WCAG
5 1 (0.41%) NCSC
5 1 (0.41%) NIST
System Software
1 21 (8.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 21 (8.57%) Kubernetes
2 17 (6.94%) Terraform
3 10 (4.08%) Ansible
4 2 (0.82%) Grafana
5 1 (0.41%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 30 (12.24%) Microsoft
2 13 (5.31%) Salesforce
2 13 (5.31%) ServiceNow
3 11 (4.49%) Oracle
4 5 (2.04%) Pega
5 4 (1.63%) Atlassian
5 4 (1.63%) Google
5 4 (1.63%) IBM
5 4 (1.63%) OpenAI
5 4 (1.63%) Teradata
6 3 (1.22%) SAP
7 2 (0.82%) Adobe
7 2 (0.82%) Cisco
8 1 (0.41%) Databricks
8 1 (0.41%) Dell
8 1 (0.41%) Foundry
8 1 (0.41%) MuleSoft
8 1 (0.41%) Sage
8 1 (0.41%) Sitecore
8 1 (0.41%) Virgin Media