Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £425, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 13 12 10
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 -6
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 234 243 348
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 10.80% 10.20% 12.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.71% 10.85% 13.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 193 176 287
10th Percentile £313 £309 £325
25th Percentile £360 £373 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £439 £488
Median % change year-on-year -3.13% -10.00% -4.88%
75th Percentile £518 £515 £600
90th Percentile £570 £575 £675
England median daily rate £505 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 3
10th Percentile - - £54.25
25th Percentile - - £60.63
Median hourly rate £47.12 £36.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.89% -50.34% +3.57%
75th Percentile - - £78.13
90th Percentile - - £80.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £59.68
% change year-on-year -15.38% +8.91% -5.08%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 1,999 2,240 2,622
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.25% 94.00% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,308 1,290 1,789
10th Percentile £267 £275 £275
25th Percentile £363 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.72% -1.40% +3.09%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £588
90th Percentile £656 £675 £673
England median daily rate £506 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -3.71% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 164 158
10th Percentile £13.00 £15.54 £15.75
25th Percentile £17.30 £18.00 £17.81
Median hourly rate £24.88 £37.00 £31.77
Median % change year-on-year -32.75% +16.46% +32.68%
75th Percentile £47.12 £54.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £71.77 £71.32 £65.60
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -47.05% +5.56% +70.66%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings that featured Developer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Developer 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 13 September 2025.

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
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 13 September 2025. 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 -5 111 £419 -11.84% 150
Cheshire +1 70 £375 +0.54% 41
Merseyside +3 31 £505 +19.53% 23
Lancashire -1 13 £513 +36.67% 95
Cumbria +5 2 £470 -6.00%
Developer
England

Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 13 September 2025, Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the North West region featuring Developer in the job title.

1 79 (33.76%) Java
2 71 (30.34%) Agile
3 63 (26.92%) SQL
4 54 (23.08%) JavaScript
5 52 (22.22%) Git
6 51 (21.79%) AWS
6 51 (21.79%) CI/CD
7 48 (20.51%) Problem-Solving
8 47 (20.09%) React
9 46 (19.66%) Microservices
9 46 (19.66%) DevOps
9 46 (19.66%) Spring Boot
10 45 (19.23%) Spring
11 44 (18.80%) Finance
12 43 (18.38%) HTML
12 43 (18.38%) Social Skills
13 41 (17.52%) TDD
14 40 (17.09%) Azure
15 39 (16.67%) Microsoft
16 38 (16.24%) Security Cleared
17 37 (15.81%) CSS
18 36 (15.38%) Banking
18 36 (15.38%) REST
19 35 (14.96%) Public Sector
20 34 (14.53%) Jenkins
21 31 (13.25%) JIRA
21 31 (13.25%) JUnit
21 31 (13.25%) Full-Stack Development
22 30 (12.82%) Migration
22 30 (12.82%) Node.js

Developer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 11 (4.70%) Confluence
2 10 (4.27%) Tomcat
3 7 (2.99%) JBoss
4 5 (2.14%) SharePoint
5 4 (1.71%) Apache
5 4 (1.71%) nginx
5 4 (1.71%) SAS
6 3 (1.28%) CMS
7 2 (0.85%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.85%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.85%) Moodle
7 2 (0.85%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.85%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.43%) Camunda
8 1 (0.43%) CICS
8 1 (0.43%) Documentum
8 1 (0.43%) FileNet
8 1 (0.43%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.43%) Mule
8 1 (0.43%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.71%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (2.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.28%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.43%) Advent Geneva
3 1 (0.43%) IBM Planning Analytics
Cloud Services
1 51 (21.79%) AWS
2 40 (17.09%) Azure
3 24 (10.26%) GitHub
4 20 (8.55%) Power Platform
5 15 (6.41%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (5.13%) Serverless
7 10 (4.27%) Power Automate
8 9 (3.85%) Figma
9 8 (3.42%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (3.42%) OpenShift
9 8 (3.42%) PowerApps
10 6 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
10 6 (2.56%) npm
10 6 (2.56%) SaaS
11 5 (2.14%) Amazon S3
11 5 (2.14%) Azure AKS
11 5 (2.14%) GitHub Actions
12 4 (1.71%) Azure Service Bus
13 3 (1.28%) Amazon EC2
13 3 (1.28%) ShareGate
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.28%) HTTP
2 2 (0.85%) HTTPS
2 2 (0.85%) Intranet
2 2 (0.85%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.43%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.12%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (5.98%) Power BI
3 13 (5.56%) MySQL
3 13 (5.56%) SQL Server
4 12 (5.13%) NoSQL
5 9 (3.85%) MongoDB
6 8 (3.42%) Relational Database
7 5 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (2.14%) Siebel EIM
8 4 (1.71%) DB2
9 3 (1.28%) Apache Cassandra
9 3 (1.28%) Cognos Framework Manager
9 3 (1.28%) Cognos Report Studio
9 3 (1.28%) DynamoDB
9 3 (1.28%) Metadata
9 3 (1.28%) Redis
9 3 (1.28%) WebFOCUS
10 2 (0.85%) Cognos Transformer
10 2 (0.85%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.85%) OLAP Cube
Development Applications
1 52 (22.22%) Git
2 34 (14.53%) Jenkins
3 31 (13.25%) JIRA
3 31 (13.25%) JUnit
4 27 (11.54%) Gradle
5 22 (9.40%) GitLab
6 13 (5.56%) Xcode
7 12 (5.13%) Maven
8 11 (4.70%) Mockito
8 11 (4.70%) SonarQube
8 11 (4.70%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (3.85%) Cucumber
10 8 (3.42%) Cypress.io
11 7 (2.99%) Bitbucket
11 7 (2.99%) gulp
12 6 (2.56%) Grunt
12 6 (2.56%) Storybook
12 6 (2.56%) Subversion
13 5 (2.14%) Liquibase
13 5 (2.14%) Postman
General
1 44 (18.80%) Finance
2 43 (18.38%) Social Skills
3 36 (15.38%) Banking
4 35 (14.96%) Public Sector
5 19 (8.12%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.70%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.99%) Marketing
8 6 (2.56%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.14%) Electronics
9 5 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (1.71%) Retail
11 2 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.85%) Military
11 2 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.43%) Corporate Banking
12 1 (0.43%) Digital Healthcare
12 1 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.43%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.43%) Law
12 1 (0.43%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 47 (20.09%) React
2 46 (19.66%) Spring Boot
3 45 (19.23%) Spring
4 43 (18.38%) HTML
5 37 (15.81%) CSS
6 36 (15.38%) REST
7 30 (12.82%) Node.js
8 26 (11.11%) RESTful
9 25 (10.68%) Kafka
10 19 (8.12%) AngularJS
11 18 (7.69%) SOAP
12 17 (7.26%) JSON
13 15 (6.41%) .NET
14 13 (5.56%) Jest
14 13 (5.56%) JMS
15 12 (5.13%) React Native
16 11 (4.70%) jQuery
16 11 (4.70%) Web Services
17 10 (4.27%) HTML5
17 10 (4.27%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.40%) Mobile App
2 11 (4.70%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (4.27%) Cloud Native
4 8 (3.42%) Mobile Banking
5 7 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.56%) Low-Code
7 5 (2.14%) Manufacturing Execution System
7 5 (2.14%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 5 (2.14%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.28%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.28%) Mainframe
8 3 (1.28%) Management Information System
8 3 (1.28%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.28%) Shadow IT
9 2 (0.85%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.85%) NHS
9 2 (0.85%) SCADA
9 2 (0.85%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.55%) Android
2 19 (8.12%) Linux
3 15 (6.41%) Apple iOS
4 9 (3.85%) Unix
5 3 (1.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.85%) MVS
7 1 (0.43%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.43%) VME
7 1 (0.43%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (30.34%) Agile
2 51 (21.79%) CI/CD
3 48 (20.51%) Problem-Solving
4 46 (19.66%) DevOps
4 46 (19.66%) Microservices
5 41 (17.52%) TDD
6 31 (13.25%) Full-Stack Development
7 30 (12.82%) Migration
8 28 (11.97%) Scrum
9 26 (11.11%) Unit Testing
10 25 (10.68%) Business Intelligence
10 25 (10.68%) Containerisation
11 23 (9.83%) Test Automation
12 21 (8.97%) SDLC
13 20 (8.55%) Front End Development
14 19 (8.12%) User Experience
15 17 (7.26%) Software Engineering
16 16 (6.84%) API Development
16 16 (6.84%) Clean Code
17 15 (6.41%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 79 (33.76%) Java
2 63 (26.92%) SQL
3 54 (23.08%) JavaScript
4 29 (12.39%) TypeScript
5 25 (10.68%) Python
6 17 (7.26%) C#
7 14 (5.98%) Kotlin
8 9 (3.85%) C++
8 9 (3.85%) Ruby
9 7 (2.99%) C
9 7 (2.99%) Objective-C
9 7 (2.99%) Scala
9 7 (2.99%) Shell Script
9 7 (2.99%) Swift
10 6 (2.56%) PL/SQL
11 5 (2.14%) PHP
12 4 (1.71%) ABAP
12 4 (1.71%) Apex Code
12 4 (1.71%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.28%) Bash
Qualifications
1 38 (16.24%) Security Cleared
2 25 (10.68%) SC Cleared
3 16 (6.84%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (3.42%) Degree
5 7 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.85%) Master's Degree
6 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.43%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (0.43%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.43%) MCSA
7 1 (0.43%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (11.11%) Accessibility
2 13 (5.56%) QA
3 5 (2.14%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.14%) ISO 20022
3 5 (2.14%) PSD2
3 5 (2.14%) SEPA
4 4 (1.71%) WCAG
5 1 (0.43%) GDPR
5 1 (0.43%) GRC
5 1 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 30 (12.82%) Docker
2 2 (0.85%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 20 (8.55%) Kubernetes
2 6 (2.56%) Terraform
3 3 (1.28%) Ansible
3 3 (1.28%) Progress Chef
4 2 (0.85%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.43%) Grafana
5 1 (0.43%) Puppet
5 1 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 39 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.97%) Oracle
3 11 (4.70%) Siebel
4 10 (4.27%) Salesforce
4 10 (4.27%) SAP
5 6 (2.56%) Perforce
6 5 (2.14%) AVEVA
7 4 (1.71%) Cognos
7 4 (1.71%) IBM
7 4 (1.71%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.28%) Google
8 3 (1.28%) Nintex
8 3 (1.28%) Veracode
9 2 (0.85%) CyberArk
9 2 (0.85%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.85%) Rockwell
9 2 (0.85%) Siemens
9 2 (0.85%) Syncsort
9 2 (0.85%) webMethods
10 1 (0.43%) Software AG