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 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 14 10
Rank change year-on-year -9 -4 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 289 225 252
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.32% 10.25% 10.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.10% 11.21% 11.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 185 171
10th Percentile £363 £313 £308
25th Percentile £425 £363 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £425 £438
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -2.86% -10.26%
75th Percentile £588 £500 £525
90th Percentile £650 £565 £575
England median daily rate £525 £512 £525
% change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -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% +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 3,567 2,008 2,261
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.30% 91.48% 93.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,994 1,328 1,212
10th Percentile £300 £263 £264
25th Percentile £408 £368 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £486
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -7.46% -2.75%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £575
90th Percentile £675 £685 £656
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 435 164 162
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.00 £15.49
25th Percentile £25.50 £17.30 £18.00
Median hourly rate £48.00 £24.88 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +92.91% -28.91% +14.60%
75th Percentile £72.28 £47.12 £55.25
90th Percentile £81.95 £69.57 £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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -1 205 £500 +19.05% 267
Cheshire -13 42 £525 +40.00% 68
Merseyside -18 16 £437 -12.70% 34
Lancashire -28 11 - - 124
Cumbria -19 10 £395 -15.96% 17
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 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 73 (25.26%) Java
3 71 (24.57%) CI/CD
4 52 (17.99%) AWS
5 46 (15.92%) DevOps
6 44 (15.22%) Azure
7 43 (14.88%) SQL
8 42 (14.53%) Microservices
9 39 (13.49%) Power Platform
10 38 (13.15%) Security Cleared
11 37 (12.80%) Microsoft
11 37 (12.80%) Test Automation
12 35 (12.11%) Software Engineering
13 32 (11.07%) JavaScript
14 31 (10.73%) AI
15 30 (10.38%) TDD
16 29 (10.03%) C#
16 29 (10.03%) Git
16 29 (10.03%) React
16 29 (10.03%) SC Cleared
17 28 (9.69%) REST
18 26 (9.00%) Spring Boot
18 26 (9.00%) TypeScript
19 25 (8.65%) Business Intelligence
19 25 (8.65%) Mentoring
19 25 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
20 24 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
20 24 (8.30%) Kafka
21 23 (7.96%) Observability
21 23 (7.96%) Salesforce

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 52 (17.99%) AWS
2 44 (15.22%) 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 14 (4.84%) Azure DevOps
8 13 (4.50%) Microsoft Copilot
9 12 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
10 9 (3.11%) Serverless
11 8 (2.77%) Azure AI
11 8 (2.77%) OneDrive
12 6 (2.08%) AWS CodeBuild
12 6 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
12 6 (2.08%) Google Gemini
13 5 (1.73%) Anthropic Claude
13 5 (1.73%) GCP
13 5 (1.73%) OpenShift
13 5 (1.73%) SaaS
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
2 21 (7.27%) SQL Server
3 20 (6.92%) MongoDB
4 14 (4.84%) Relational Database
5 12 (4.15%) Power Query
6 11 (3.81%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (2.08%) NoSQL
8 5 (1.73%) DataStage
8 5 (1.73%) Db2
9 4 (1.38%) Oracle Database
9 4 (1.38%) RDBMS
10 3 (1.04%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
10 3 (1.04%) MySQL
10 3 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (1.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 2 (0.69%) Amazon QuickSight
11 2 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.69%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.69%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 2 (0.69%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 29 (10.03%) Git
2 15 (5.19%) Jenkins
3 14 (4.84%) GitLab
4 11 (3.81%) Mockito
5 9 (3.11%) Claude Code
6 8 (2.77%) JIRA
7 7 (2.42%) JUnit
7 7 (2.42%) Maven
8 6 (2.08%) SonarQube
9 5 (1.73%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.73%) Gradle
10 4 (1.38%) Bitbucket Server
10 4 (1.38%) ClearCase
10 4 (1.38%) REST Assured
10 4 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.69%) CocoaPods
11 2 (0.69%) fastlane
11 2 (0.69%) NUnit
11 2 (0.69%) Visual Studio
11 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
7 3 (1.04%) Law
8 2 (0.69%) Front Office
8 2 (0.69%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.35%) Automotive
9 1 (0.35%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.35%) Marketing
9 1 (0.35%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (10.03%) React
2 28 (9.69%) REST
3 26 (9.00%) Spring Boot
4 24 (8.30%) Kafka
5 23 (7.96%) Spring
6 22 (7.61%) Node.js
7 20 (6.92%) .NET
8 14 (4.84%) JSON
9 11 (3.81%) HTML
9 11 (3.81%) Terraform
10 10 (3.46%) RESTful
11 9 (3.11%) CSS
12 8 (2.77%) Django
12 8 (2.77%) XML
13 7 (2.42%) AngularJS
14 6 (2.08%) Redux
14 6 (2.08%) WPF
15 5 (1.73%) ActiveMQ
15 5 (1.73%) JAX-RS
15 5 (1.73%) JPA
Miscellaneous
1 15 (5.19%) Cloud Native
2 10 (3.46%) Data Structures
2 10 (3.46%) Enterprise Software
3 9 (3.11%) Onboarding
4 8 (2.77%) Distributed Systems
4 8 (2.77%) NHS
5 7 (2.42%) AI Agents
5 7 (2.42%) Mobile App
5 7 (2.42%) Product Ownership
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 6 (2.08%) 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 71 (24.57%) CI/CD
3 46 (15.92%) DevOps
4 42 (14.53%) Microservices
5 37 (12.80%) Test Automation
6 35 (12.11%) Software Engineering
7 31 (10.73%) AI
8 30 (10.38%) TDD
9 25 (8.65%) Business Intelligence
9 25 (8.65%) Mentoring
9 25 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
10 24 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
11 23 (7.96%) Observability
12 22 (7.61%) Data Modelling
13 21 (7.27%) Full-Stack Development
14 20 (6.92%) SDLC
15 19 (6.57%) User Experience
16 18 (6.23%) Analytics
16 18 (6.23%) Infrastructure as Code
17 17 (5.88%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 73 (25.26%) Java
2 43 (14.88%) SQL
3 32 (11.07%) 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%) Kotlin
10 6 (2.08%) PL/SQL
11 5 (1.73%) PowerShell
12 4 (1.38%) Apex Code
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%) Perl
13 3 (1.04%) PHP
Qualifications
1 38 (13.15%) Security Cleared
2 29 (10.03%) SC Cleared
3 20 (6.92%) BPSS Clearance
4 19 (6.57%) Degree
5 8 (2.77%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.35%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.35%) Azure Certification
6 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 1 (0.35%) Grafana
Vendors
1 37 (12.80%) Microsoft
2 23 (7.96%) 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