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 7 October 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 14 10
Rank change year-on-year -5 -4 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 295 223 251
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.38% 10.16% 10.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.18% 11.12% 11.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 176 184 171
10th Percentile £363 £313 £308
25th Percentile £425 £363 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £423 £438
Median % change year-on-year +18.34% -3.43% -10.26%
75th Percentile £588 £500 £525
90th Percentile £650 £568 £575
England median daily rate £525 £509 £525
% change year-on-year +3.19% -3.10% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 1 3
10th Percentile £25.49 - £41.80
25th Percentile £38.07 - £50.50
Median hourly rate £45.56 £47.12 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.32% -27.51% -13.33%
75th Percentile £70.29 - -
90th Percentile £76.00 - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +5.11%

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 3,606 2,006 2,253
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.26% 91.39% 93.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,026 1,325 1,195
10th Percentile £300 £260 £266
25th Percentile £407 £368 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £450 £488
Median % change year-on-year +11.36% -7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £685 £656
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 438 164 162
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.00 £15.49
25th Percentile £25.69 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £49.50 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +96.84% -28.15% +15.63%
75th Percentile £73.19 £47.84 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.11 £74.37
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% -4.32%

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 7 October 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 7 October 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 7 October 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 0 209 £500 +19.05% 206
Cheshire -12 44 £525 +40.00% 32
Merseyside -23 16 £437 -12.70% 23
Lancashire -25 11 - - 59
Cumbria -17 10 £395 -15.96% 3
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 7 October 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 77 (26.10%) Agile
1 77 (26.10%) Java
2 74 (25.08%) CI/CD
3 53 (17.97%) AWS
4 48 (16.27%) DevOps
5 45 (15.25%) Azure
6 44 (14.92%) SQL
7 43 (14.58%) Microservices
8 39 (13.22%) Microsoft
8 39 (13.22%) Power Platform
9 38 (12.88%) Security Cleared
9 38 (12.88%) Test Automation
10 35 (11.86%) Software Engineering
11 33 (11.19%) JavaScript
12 32 (10.85%) AI
12 32 (10.85%) REST
13 30 (10.17%) Git
13 30 (10.17%) React
13 30 (10.17%) TDD
14 29 (9.83%) C#
14 29 (9.83%) SC Cleared
14 29 (9.83%) Spring Boot
15 28 (9.49%) TypeScript
16 26 (8.81%) Mentoring
16 26 (8.81%) Observability
16 26 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
16 26 (8.81%) Spring
17 25 (8.47%) Kafka
18 24 (8.14%) Business Intelligence
18 24 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement

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 18 (6.10%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.41%) Confluence
3 8 (2.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.71%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.36%) Camunda
5 3 (1.02%) WordPress
6 2 (0.68%) CMS
6 2 (0.68%) SAS
6 2 (0.68%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.34%) Drupal
7 1 (0.34%) JBoss
7 1 (0.34%) Mule
7 1 (0.34%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.34%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.34%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.36%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.34%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 53 (17.97%) AWS
2 45 (15.25%) Azure
3 39 (13.22%) Power Platform
4 19 (6.44%) Power Automate
5 17 (5.76%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (5.76%) PowerApps
6 16 (5.42%) GitHub
7 15 (5.08%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (4.41%) GitHub Actions
8 13 (4.41%) Microsoft Copilot
9 9 (3.05%) Serverless
10 8 (2.71%) Azure AI
10 8 (2.71%) OneDrive
11 7 (2.37%) Dynamics 365
12 6 (2.03%) AWS CodeBuild
12 6 (2.03%) GCP
12 6 (2.03%) Google Gemini
12 6 (2.03%) SaaS
13 5 (1.69%) Anthropic Claude
13 5 (1.69%) Copilot Studio
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.71%) SD-WAN
1 8 (2.71%) WAN
1 8 (2.71%) Wireless
2 2 (0.68%) Network Security
2 2 (0.68%) SNMP
2 2 (0.68%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.34%) Firewall
3 1 (0.34%) IPsec
3 1 (0.34%) SSL
3 1 (0.34%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (7.12%) Power BI
1 21 (7.12%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.78%) MongoDB
3 14 (4.75%) Relational Database
4 12 (4.07%) Power Query
5 11 (3.73%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (2.37%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.69%) DataStage
7 5 (1.69%) Db2
8 4 (1.36%) Oracle Database
8 4 (1.36%) RDBMS
9 3 (1.02%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.02%) MySQL
9 3 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
9 3 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.68%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.68%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.68%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 2 (0.68%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 30 (10.17%) Git
2 16 (5.42%) Jenkins
3 14 (4.75%) GitLab
4 11 (3.73%) Mockito
5 10 (3.39%) Claude Code
6 9 (3.05%) JIRA
7 7 (2.37%) JUnit
7 7 (2.37%) Maven
8 6 (2.03%) SonarQube
9 5 (1.69%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.69%) Gradle
10 4 (1.36%) Bitbucket Server
10 4 (1.36%) ClearCase
10 4 (1.36%) REST Assured
10 4 (1.36%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.68%) fastlane
11 2 (0.68%) NUnit
11 2 (0.68%) Rational Robot
11 2 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
11 2 (0.68%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 61 (20.68%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.53%) Public Sector
3 26 (8.81%) Finance
4 20 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (6.44%) Banking
6 11 (3.73%) Military
7 4 (1.36%) Legal
7 4 (1.36%) Legal Technology
7 4 (1.36%) Manufacturing
7 4 (1.36%) Retail
8 3 (1.02%) Aerospace
8 3 (1.02%) Law
9 2 (0.68%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (0.68%) Front Office
9 2 (0.68%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.34%) Automotive
10 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Marketing
10 1 (0.34%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (10.85%) REST
2 30 (10.17%) React
3 29 (9.83%) Spring Boot
4 26 (8.81%) Spring
5 25 (8.47%) Kafka
6 22 (7.46%) Node.js
7 20 (6.78%) .NET
8 14 (4.75%) JSON
9 11 (3.73%) HTML
9 11 (3.73%) Terraform
10 10 (3.39%) RESTful
11 9 (3.05%) CSS
12 8 (2.71%) Django
12 8 (2.71%) XML
13 7 (2.37%) AngularJS
14 6 (2.03%) GraphQL
14 6 (2.03%) Redux
14 6 (2.03%) WPF
15 5 (1.69%) ActiveMQ
15 5 (1.69%) JPA
Miscellaneous
1 17 (5.76%) Cloud Native
2 11 (3.73%) Enterprise Software
3 10 (3.39%) Data Structures
4 9 (3.05%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (3.05%) Onboarding
5 8 (2.71%) NHS
6 7 (2.37%) AI Agents
6 7 (2.37%) Mobile App
6 7 (2.37%) Product Ownership
7 5 (1.69%) Algorithms
7 5 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.02%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 3 (1.02%) IoT
8 3 (1.02%) Low-Code
9 2 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.68%) Equities
9 2 (0.68%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.34%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.10%) Linux
2 13 (4.41%) Unix
3 7 (2.37%) Android
3 7 (2.37%) Apple iOS
4 3 (1.02%) Windows
5 2 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.68%) VMS
6 1 (0.34%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.34%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (26.10%) Agile
2 74 (25.08%) CI/CD
3 48 (16.27%) DevOps
4 43 (14.58%) Microservices
5 38 (12.88%) Test Automation
6 35 (11.86%) Software Engineering
7 32 (10.85%) AI
8 30 (10.17%) TDD
9 26 (8.81%) Mentoring
9 26 (8.81%) Observability
9 26 (8.81%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (8.14%) Business Intelligence
10 24 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
11 22 (7.46%) Data Modelling
12 21 (7.12%) Full-Stack Development
13 20 (6.78%) SDLC
13 20 (6.78%) User Experience
14 18 (6.10%) Clean Code
14 18 (6.10%) Code Quality
14 18 (6.10%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 77 (26.10%) Java
2 44 (14.92%) SQL
3 33 (11.19%) JavaScript
4 29 (9.83%) C#
5 28 (9.49%) TypeScript
6 19 (6.44%) Python
7 14 (4.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 11 (3.73%) Go
9 7 (2.37%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.37%) Shell Script
9 7 (2.37%) Swift
10 6 (2.03%) PL/SQL
11 5 (1.69%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.36%) Apex Code
12 4 (1.36%) Objective-C
12 4 (1.36%) T-SQL
12 4 (1.36%) VB
12 4 (1.36%) VB6
13 3 (1.02%) Perl
13 3 (1.02%) PHP
Qualifications
1 38 (12.88%) Security Cleared
2 29 (9.83%) SC Cleared
3 21 (7.12%) BPSS Clearance
4 19 (6.44%) Degree
5 8 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.34%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.34%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.73%) Data Quality
1 11 (3.73%) QA
2 10 (3.39%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.34%) GRC
3 1 (0.34%) NCSC
3 1 (0.34%) NIST
3 1 (0.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 23 (7.80%) Docker
2 3 (1.02%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 20 (6.78%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.05%) Ansible
3 3 (1.02%) Grafana
Vendors
1 39 (13.22%) Microsoft
2 23 (7.80%) Salesforce
3 12 (4.07%) Oracle
4 10 (3.39%) ServiceNow
5 9 (3.05%) IBM
6 8 (2.71%) Splunk
7 5 (1.69%) Google
7 5 (1.69%) Teradata
8 4 (1.36%) Blue Prism
8 4 (1.36%) OpenAI
8 4 (1.36%) Veracode
9 2 (0.68%) Adobe
9 2 (0.68%) Cisco
9 2 (0.68%) SAP
10 1 (0.34%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.34%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.34%) Pega
10 1 (0.34%) Sage
10 1 (0.34%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud