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 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 14 10
Rank change year-on-year -10 -4 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 289 227 243
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.35% 10.43% 10.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.14% 11.34% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 172 187 168
10th Percentile £363 £313 £306
25th Percentile £429 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £438
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -2.86% -10.71%
75th Percentile £588 £503 £525
90th Percentile £650 £575 £575
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 1 3
10th Percentile £25.49 - £41.80
25th Percentile £37.25 - £50.50
Median hourly rate £45.56 £47.12 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.32% -27.51% -13.33%
75th Percentile £66.66 - -
90th Percentile £74.80 - -
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +6.70%

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 3,551 2,002 2,224
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.33% 92.00% 93.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,993 1,330 1,200
10th Percentile £300 £266 £268
25th Percentile £409 £368 £393
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £681 £669
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 428 161 161
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.00 £15.49
25th Percentile £25.50 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £46.96 £25.15 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +86.76% -28.16% +6.06%
75th Percentile £71.91 £47.12 £55.25
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.55 £74.37
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% -0.46%

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 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 1 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 1 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 0 205 £500 +19.05% 227
Cheshire -19 42 £525 +40.00% 36
Merseyside -20 16 £437 -12.70% 33
Lancashire -24 12 - - 54
Cumbria -19 9 £625 +32.98% 3
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 75 (25.95%) Agile
2 72 (24.91%) Java
3 70 (24.22%) CI/CD
4 51 (17.65%) AWS
5 44 (15.22%) DevOps
5 44 (15.22%) SQL
6 43 (14.88%) Azure
6 43 (14.88%) Microservices
7 39 (13.49%) Power Platform
7 39 (13.49%) Security Cleared
8 38 (13.15%) Microsoft
9 36 (12.46%) Software Engineering
10 35 (12.11%) Test Automation
11 33 (11.42%) JavaScript
12 31 (10.73%) AI
13 30 (10.38%) Git
13 30 (10.38%) React
13 30 (10.38%) REST
13 30 (10.38%) SC Cleared
13 30 (10.38%) TDD
14 29 (10.03%) C#
15 27 (9.34%) Spring Boot
16 26 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
16 26 (9.00%) TypeScript
17 25 (8.65%) Business Intelligence
17 25 (8.65%) Mentoring
17 25 (8.65%) Salesforce
17 25 (8.65%) Spring
18 24 (8.30%) Kafka
18 24 (8.30%) Observability

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 16 (5.54%) SharePoint
2 12 (4.15%) Confluence
3 8 (2.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.77%) SharePoint Server
4 4 (1.38%) Camunda
5 3 (1.04%) WordPress
6 2 (0.69%) CMS
6 2 (0.69%) SAS
6 2 (0.69%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.35%) Drupal
7 1 (0.35%) JBoss
7 1 (0.35%) Mule
7 1 (0.35%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.35%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (1.38%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.35%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 51 (17.65%) AWS
2 43 (14.88%) Azure
3 39 (13.49%) Power Platform
4 18 (6.23%) Power Automate
5 16 (5.54%) PowerApps
6 15 (5.19%) GitHub
6 15 (5.19%) Microsoft 365
7 13 (4.50%) Azure DevOps
7 13 (4.50%) Microsoft Copilot
8 12 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (2.77%) Azure AI
9 8 (2.77%) OneDrive
9 8 (2.77%) Serverless
10 6 (2.08%) AWS CodeBuild
10 6 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
10 6 (2.08%) Google Gemini
11 5 (1.73%) Anthropic Claude
11 5 (1.73%) Copilot Studio
11 5 (1.73%) GitHub Copilot
11 5 (1.73%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 8 (2.77%) SD-WAN
1 8 (2.77%) WAN
1 8 (2.77%) Wireless
2 2 (0.69%) Network Security
2 2 (0.69%) SNMP
2 2 (0.69%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.35%) Firewall
3 1 (0.35%) IPsec
3 1 (0.35%) SSL
3 1 (0.35%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (7.61%) Power BI
1 22 (7.61%) SQL Server
2 20 (6.92%) MongoDB
3 13 (4.50%) Relational Database
4 12 (4.15%) Power Query
5 10 (3.46%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (2.42%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.73%) DataStage
7 5 (1.73%) Db2
7 5 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.38%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.04%) MySQL
9 3 (1.04%) RDBMS
9 3 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 2 (0.69%) Amazon QuickSight
10 2 (0.69%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.69%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.69%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 2 (0.69%) Star Schema
11 1 (0.35%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 30 (10.38%) Git
2 15 (5.19%) Jenkins
3 14 (4.84%) GitLab
4 11 (3.81%) Mockito
5 9 (3.11%) Claude Code
5 9 (3.11%) JIRA
6 7 (2.42%) JUnit
6 7 (2.42%) Maven
7 6 (2.08%) SonarQube
8 5 (1.73%) Gradle
9 4 (1.38%) Bitbucket Server
9 4 (1.38%) ClearCase
9 4 (1.38%) Cucumber
9 4 (1.38%) REST Assured
9 4 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.69%) fastlane
10 2 (0.69%) NUnit
10 2 (0.69%) Rational Robot
10 2 (0.69%) Team Foundation Server
10 2 (0.69%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 58 (20.07%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.76%) Public Sector
3 26 (9.00%) Finance
4 20 (6.92%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (6.92%) Banking
5 11 (3.81%) Military
6 4 (1.38%) Legal
6 4 (1.38%) Legal Technology
6 4 (1.38%) Manufacturing
6 4 (1.38%) Retail
7 3 (1.04%) Aerospace
8 2 (0.69%) Front Office
8 2 (0.69%) Investment Banking
8 2 (0.69%) Law
9 1 (0.35%) Automotive
9 1 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Local Government
9 1 (0.35%) Marketing
9 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (10.38%) React
1 30 (10.38%) REST
2 27 (9.34%) Spring Boot
3 25 (8.65%) Spring
4 24 (8.30%) Kafka
5 23 (7.96%) Node.js
6 20 (6.92%) .NET
7 14 (4.84%) JSON
8 12 (4.15%) HTML
9 10 (3.46%) CSS
9 10 (3.46%) RESTful
9 10 (3.46%) Terraform
10 8 (2.77%) AngularJS
10 8 (2.77%) Django
10 8 (2.77%) XML
11 6 (2.08%) Redux
11 6 (2.08%) WPF
12 5 (1.73%) JPA
12 5 (1.73%) Lightning Web Components
12 5 (1.73%) Nunjucks
Miscellaneous
1 14 (4.84%) Cloud Native
2 10 (3.46%) Data Structures
2 10 (3.46%) Enterprise Software
2 10 (3.46%) Onboarding
3 8 (2.77%) NHS
3 8 (2.77%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.42%) AI Agents
4 7 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.08%) Mobile App
6 5 (1.73%) Algorithms
6 5 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.04%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 3 (1.04%) IoT
8 2 (0.69%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (0.69%) Equities
8 2 (0.69%) Fixed Income
8 2 (0.69%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (0.69%) Low-Code
9 1 (0.35%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 18 (6.23%) Linux
2 13 (4.50%) Unix
3 7 (2.42%) Apple iOS
4 5 (1.73%) Android
5 3 (1.04%) Windows
6 2 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.69%) VMS
7 1 (0.35%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (25.95%) Agile
2 70 (24.22%) CI/CD
3 44 (15.22%) DevOps
4 43 (14.88%) Microservices
5 36 (12.46%) Software Engineering
6 35 (12.11%) Test Automation
7 31 (10.73%) AI
8 30 (10.38%) TDD
9 26 (9.00%) Problem-Solving
10 25 (8.65%) Business Intelligence
10 25 (8.65%) Mentoring
11 24 (8.30%) Observability
12 23 (7.96%) Continuous Improvement
12 23 (7.96%) Full-Stack Development
13 22 (7.61%) Data Modelling
14 21 (7.27%) SDLC
15 18 (6.23%) Analytics
15 18 (6.23%) Code Quality
15 18 (6.23%) User Experience
16 17 (5.88%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 72 (24.91%) Java
2 44 (15.22%) SQL
3 33 (11.42%) JavaScript
4 29 (10.03%) C#
5 26 (9.00%) TypeScript
6 19 (6.57%) Python
7 14 (4.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 11 (3.81%) Go
9 7 (2.42%) Shell Script
9 7 (2.42%) Swift
10 6 (2.08%) PL/SQL
10 6 (2.08%) PowerShell
11 5 (1.73%) Apex Code
11 5 (1.73%) Kotlin
12 4 (1.38%) Objective-C
12 4 (1.38%) T-SQL
12 4 (1.38%) VB
12 4 (1.38%) VB6
13 3 (1.04%) PHP
14 2 (0.69%) Perl
Qualifications
1 39 (13.49%) Security Cleared
2 30 (10.38%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.92%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (6.92%) Degree
4 8 (2.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.35%) Azure Certification
5 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.81%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.46%) QA
3 8 (2.77%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.35%) GRC
4 1 (0.35%) NCSC
4 1 (0.35%) NIST
4 1 (0.35%) WCAG
System Software
1 22 (7.61%) Docker
2 3 (1.04%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 18 (6.23%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.11%) Ansible
3 2 (0.69%) Grafana
4 1 (0.35%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 38 (13.15%) Microsoft
2 25 (8.65%) Salesforce
3 12 (4.15%) Oracle
4 10 (3.46%) ServiceNow
5 9 (3.11%) IBM
6 7 (2.42%) Splunk
7 5 (1.73%) Teradata
8 4 (1.38%) Blue Prism
8 4 (1.38%) Google
8 4 (1.38%) OpenAI
8 4 (1.38%) Veracode
9 2 (0.69%) Adobe
9 2 (0.69%) Cisco
9 2 (0.69%) Pega
9 2 (0.69%) SAP
10 1 (0.35%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.35%) MuleSoft
10 1 (0.35%) Sage
10 1 (0.35%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud