Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £490, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 September 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 11 12
Rank change year-on-year -14 +1 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 274 239 243
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.90% 11.00% 10.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.61% 11.92% 10.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 171 198 176
10th Percentile £363 £313 £309
25th Percentile £425 £360 £373
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £425 £443
Median % change year-on-year +15.29% -3.95% -9.23%
75th Percentile £600 £525 £509
90th Percentile £675 £575 £575
England median daily rate £520 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +2.97% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 1
10th Percentile £25.49 - -
25th Percentile £37.25 - -
Median hourly rate £41.06 £47.12 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% +30.89% -50.34%
75th Percentile £46.18 - -
90th Percentile £66.66 - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.91%

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 3,602 2,005 2,251
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.68% 92.27% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,075 1,309 1,297
10th Percentile £300 £268 £275
25th Percentile £403 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £550 £588
90th Percentile £680 £656 £675
England median daily rate £525 £506 £525
% change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 405 159 166
10th Percentile £15.96 £13.00 £15.56
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £46.80 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.12% -32.04% +21.15%
75th Percentile £73.25 £48.56 £54.00
90th Percentile £84.50 £72.65 £71.70
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -47.05% +6.15%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -3 199 £500 +17.65% 104
Cheshire -27 38 £475 +26.67% 31
Merseyside -29 13 £435 -17.92% 12
Lancashire -20 11 - - 52
Cumbria -15 8 £875 +86.17% 3
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 12 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 (27.74%) Java
2 75 (27.37%) Agile
3 65 (23.72%) CI/CD
4 46 (16.79%) Microservices
5 45 (16.42%) SQL
6 43 (15.69%) AWS
7 41 (14.96%) DevOps
8 40 (14.60%) Azure
9 36 (13.14%) Power Platform
10 34 (12.41%) JavaScript
11 33 (12.04%) Microsoft
11 33 (12.04%) Security Cleared
12 32 (11.68%) AI
13 31 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
13 31 (11.31%) React
13 31 (11.31%) Spring
13 31 (11.31%) TDD
14 30 (10.95%) Git
14 30 (10.95%) Spring Boot
14 30 (10.95%) Test Automation
15 29 (10.58%) REST
16 28 (10.22%) Business Intelligence
16 28 (10.22%) Software Engineering
17 26 (9.49%) C#
17 26 (9.49%) SC Cleared
18 25 (9.12%) Data Modelling
18 25 (9.12%) Mentoring
18 25 (9.12%) Salesforce
19 24 (8.76%) Kafka
19 24 (8.76%) SDLC

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 (5.11%) Confluence
2 11 (4.01%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.55%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.46%) Camunda
5 3 (1.09%) WordPress
6 2 (0.73%) CMS
6 2 (0.73%) SAS
6 2 (0.73%) 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 (1.46%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.36%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 43 (15.69%) AWS
2 40 (14.60%) Azure
3 36 (13.14%) Power Platform
4 16 (5.84%) Power Automate
5 15 (5.47%) Microsoft Copilot
6 13 (4.74%) PowerApps
7 10 (3.65%) Azure DevOps
7 10 (3.65%) GitHub
7 10 (3.65%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (3.28%) Serverless
9 8 (2.92%) Copilot Studio
9 8 (2.92%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (2.55%) Azure AI
10 7 (2.55%) OneDrive
11 6 (2.19%) Google Gemini
12 5 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (1.82%) GitHub Copilot
12 5 (1.82%) OpenShift
12 5 (1.82%) SaaS
13 4 (1.46%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.55%) SD-WAN
1 7 (2.55%) WAN
1 7 (2.55%) Wireless
2 2 (0.73%) Network Security
2 2 (0.73%) SNMP
2 2 (0.73%) 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 (8.39%) Power BI
1 23 (8.39%) SQL Server
2 21 (7.66%) MongoDB
3 14 (5.11%) Power Query
4 13 (4.74%) Relational Database
5 12 (4.38%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (3.65%) NoSQL
7 9 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.82%) DataStage
8 5 (1.82%) Db2
8 5 (1.82%) MySQL
9 3 (1.09%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.09%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.73%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.73%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.73%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.73%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 2 (0.73%) Star Schema
11 1 (0.36%) SAP BW
11 1 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 30 (10.95%) Git
2 14 (5.11%) JIRA
3 13 (4.74%) GitLab
3 13 (4.74%) Jenkins
4 11 (4.01%) Mockito
5 9 (3.28%) Claude Code
6 7 (2.55%) JUnit
7 6 (2.19%) Maven
7 6 (2.19%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.46%) Gradle
9 3 (1.09%) Bitbucket Server
9 3 (1.09%) ClearCase
9 3 (1.09%) Cucumber
9 3 (1.09%) REST Assured
9 3 (1.09%) 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 (21.17%) Social Skills
2 36 (13.14%) Public Sector
3 27 (9.85%) Finance
4 22 (8.03%) Banking
5 19 (6.93%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.01%) Military
7 5 (1.82%) Legal
7 5 (1.82%) Legal Technology
7 5 (1.82%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.46%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.46%) Retail
9 2 (0.73%) Front Office
9 2 (0.73%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.73%) 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 (11.31%) React
1 31 (11.31%) Spring
2 30 (10.95%) Spring Boot
3 29 (10.58%) REST
4 24 (8.76%) Kafka
5 23 (8.39%) Node.js
6 18 (6.57%) .NET
7 15 (5.47%) HTML
8 14 (5.11%) RESTful
9 13 (4.74%) JSON
10 12 (4.38%) AngularJS
10 12 (4.38%) CSS
11 10 (3.65%) Terraform
12 7 (2.55%) Django
12 7 (2.55%) XML
13 6 (2.19%) ActiveMQ
13 6 (2.19%) JAX-RS
13 6 (2.19%) Lightning Web Components
13 6 (2.19%) Nunjucks
14 5 (1.82%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 12 (4.38%) Cloud Native
1 12 (4.38%) Data Structures
2 9 (3.28%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (2.92%) AI Agents
3 8 (2.92%) NHS
3 8 (2.92%) Product Ownership
4 6 (2.19%) Algorithms
4 6 (2.19%) Onboarding
5 5 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
5 5 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
5 5 (1.82%) Mobile App
5 5 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.09%) IoT
7 2 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.73%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (0.73%) Equities
7 2 (0.73%) Fixed Income
7 2 (0.73%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 2 (0.73%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.36%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.20%) Linux
2 14 (5.11%) Unix
3 4 (1.46%) Apple iOS
4 3 (1.09%) Android
5 2 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.73%) VMS
5 2 (0.73%) Windows
6 1 (0.36%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.36%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.36%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (27.37%) Agile
2 65 (23.72%) CI/CD
3 46 (16.79%) Microservices
4 41 (14.96%) DevOps
5 32 (11.68%) AI
6 31 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
6 31 (11.31%) TDD
7 30 (10.95%) Test Automation
8 28 (10.22%) Business Intelligence
8 28 (10.22%) Software Engineering
9 25 (9.12%) Data Modelling
9 25 (9.12%) Mentoring
10 24 (8.76%) SDLC
11 23 (8.39%) Full-Stack Development
12 22 (8.03%) Continuous Improvement
13 20 (7.30%) Code Quality
14 19 (6.93%) Observability
15 18 (6.57%) Analytics
16 17 (6.20%) ETL
17 16 (5.84%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 76 (27.74%) Java
2 45 (16.42%) SQL
3 34 (12.41%) JavaScript
4 26 (9.49%) C#
5 22 (8.03%) TypeScript
6 17 (6.20%) Python
7 16 (5.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 9 (3.28%) Go
9 7 (2.55%) Shell Script
10 6 (2.19%) Apex Code
10 6 (2.19%) Kotlin
10 6 (2.19%) PL/SQL
10 6 (2.19%) PowerShell
11 4 (1.46%) Swift
11 4 (1.46%) T-SQL
12 3 (1.09%) PHP
12 3 (1.09%) VB
12 3 (1.09%) VB6
13 2 (0.73%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.36%) C
Qualifications
1 33 (12.04%) Security Cleared
2 26 (9.49%) SC Cleared
3 19 (6.93%) Degree
4 16 (5.84%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.55%) 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 13 (4.74%) Data Quality
2 12 (4.38%) QA
3 9 (3.28%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.46%) GRC
5 2 (0.73%) WCAG
6 1 (0.36%) NCSC
6 1 (0.36%) NIST
System Software
1 23 (8.39%) Docker
2 3 (1.09%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 18 (6.57%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.28%) Ansible
3 1 (0.36%) Grafana
3 1 (0.36%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 33 (12.04%) Microsoft
2 25 (9.12%) Salesforce
3 14 (5.11%) ServiceNow
4 12 (4.38%) Oracle
5 8 (2.92%) IBM
6 5 (1.82%) Splunk
6 5 (1.82%) Teradata
7 4 (1.46%) Atlassian
7 4 (1.46%) OpenAI
7 4 (1.46%) Pega
8 3 (1.09%) Google
8 3 (1.09%) SAP
8 3 (1.09%) Veracode
9 2 (0.73%) Adobe
9 2 (0.73%) Blue Prism
9 2 (0.73%) Cisco
10 1 (0.36%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.36%) Sage
10 1 (0.36%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud