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 21 November 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 14 8 9
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 -4
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 252 260 352
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.29% 11.14% 12.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.30% 11.96% 13.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 166 284
10th Percentile £314 £309 £325
25th Percentile £363 £380 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £526 £582
90th Percentile £550 £575 £666
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 4
10th Percentile £49.83 £44.70 £56.38
25th Percentile £53.91 £57.75 £65.94
Median hourly rate £60.69 £65.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.63% -13.33% +102.70%
75th Percentile £67.48 £70.25 £79.69
90th Percentile £71.55 £79.70 £81.38
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% +8.33% +1.73%

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 2,231 2,174 2,529
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.14% 93.14% 92.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,475 1,153 1,755
10th Percentile £214 £263 £275
25th Percentile £360 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £595
90th Percentile £678 £650 £674
England median daily rate £508 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -3.33% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 157 171
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.57 £16.00
25th Percentile £19.23 £18.00 £17.88
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -4.64% +70.40%
75th Percentile £50.82 £51.00 £46.53
90th Percentile £70.16 £71.97 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year -37.13% -12.82% +43.38%

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 21 November 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Developer in the North West over the 6 months to 21 November 2025.

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 21 November 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 -3 133 £425 -5.56% 203
Cheshire -6 74 £373 -1.59% 52
Merseyside -9 22 £500 +29.03% 12
Lancashire -9 19 £528 +5.50% 94
Cumbria - 1 £470 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 21 November 2025, 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 85 (33.73%) Java
2 79 (31.35%) Agile
3 70 (27.78%) SQL
4 63 (25.00%) CI/CD
5 57 (22.62%) Problem-Solving
6 56 (22.22%) Git
7 54 (21.43%) AWS
8 53 (21.03%) DevOps
9 52 (20.63%) Azure
10 49 (19.44%) Spring Boot
11 48 (19.05%) JavaScript
12 47 (18.65%) Microservices
12 47 (18.65%) Spring
13 45 (17.86%) Microsoft
14 43 (17.06%) Security Cleared
15 41 (16.27%) React
16 39 (15.48%) REST
17 38 (15.08%) HTML
17 38 (15.08%) TDD
18 37 (14.68%) Docker
18 37 (14.68%) Test Automation
19 32 (12.70%) Accessibility
19 32 (12.70%) JIRA
19 32 (12.70%) Kubernetes
20 31 (12.30%) Python
21 29 (11.51%) Business Intelligence
21 29 (11.51%) CSS
21 29 (11.51%) Full-Stack Development
22 28 (11.11%) Jenkins
22 28 (11.11%) Node.js

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 10 (3.97%) Confluence
2 9 (3.57%) Tomcat
3 6 (2.38%) JBoss
4 5 (1.98%) Apache
4 5 (1.98%) SAS
5 4 (1.59%) nginx
5 4 (1.59%) SharePoint
6 3 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.40%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.40%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.57%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.40%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.40%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.40%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.40%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 54 (21.43%) AWS
2 52 (20.63%) Azure
3 28 (11.11%) Power Platform
4 24 (9.52%) GitHub
5 18 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (5.56%) Power Automate
7 13 (5.16%) PowerApps
8 10 (3.97%) npm
9 9 (3.57%) Serverless
10 7 (2.78%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (2.78%) Figma
10 7 (2.78%) GCP
11 6 (2.38%) OpenShift
11 6 (2.38%) SaaS
12 5 (1.98%) Amazon SQS
12 5 (1.98%) Azure AKS
13 4 (1.59%) Azure Service Bus
13 4 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
14 3 (1.19%) Apigee
14 3 (1.19%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.17%) HTTPS
2 3 (1.19%) HTTP
3 2 (0.79%) SSL
4 1 (0.40%) Internet
4 1 (0.40%) PABX
4 1 (0.40%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (8.73%) MySQL
2 21 (8.33%) Power BI
2 21 (8.33%) SQL Server
3 17 (6.75%) Relational Database
4 15 (5.95%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (4.37%) DB2
5 11 (4.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 9 (3.57%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (3.57%) NoSQL
7 8 (3.17%) MongoDB
7 8 (3.17%) Redis
8 5 (1.98%) Apache Cassandra
9 4 (1.59%) Cognos Framework Manager
9 4 (1.59%) Cognos Report Studio
10 3 (1.19%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (1.19%) Cognos Transformer
10 3 (1.19%) OLAP
10 3 (1.19%) OLAP Cube
10 3 (1.19%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (1.19%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 56 (22.22%) Git
2 32 (12.70%) JIRA
3 28 (11.11%) Jenkins
4 25 (9.92%) GitLab
5 24 (9.52%) JUnit
6 21 (8.33%) Gradle
7 14 (5.56%) Xcode
8 13 (5.16%) Cypress.io
9 12 (4.76%) SonarQube
10 9 (3.57%) Cucumber
10 9 (3.57%) Maven
10 9 (3.57%) Sonatype Nexus
11 8 (3.17%) Mockito
11 8 (3.17%) Postman
12 6 (2.38%) Grunt
12 6 (2.38%) gulp
12 6 (2.38%) Storybook
13 5 (1.98%) Bitbucket
14 3 (1.19%) Android Studio
14 3 (1.19%) Gerrit
General
1 44 (17.46%) Public Sector
2 43 (17.06%) Finance
3 39 (15.48%) Social Skills
4 36 (14.29%) Banking
5 24 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.19%) Publishing
9 2 (0.79%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.79%) Military
9 2 (0.79%) Private Banking
9 2 (0.79%) Retail
10 1 (0.40%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.40%) Law
10 1 (0.40%) Local Government
10 1 (0.40%) Marketing
10 1 (0.40%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (19.44%) Spring Boot
2 47 (18.65%) Spring
3 41 (16.27%) React
4 39 (15.48%) REST
5 38 (15.08%) HTML
6 29 (11.51%) CSS
7 28 (11.11%) Node.js
8 26 (10.32%) JSON
8 26 (10.32%) RESTful
9 20 (7.94%) .NET
10 18 (7.14%) Jest
11 17 (6.75%) React Native
11 17 (6.75%) SOAP
12 16 (6.35%) Kafka
13 15 (5.95%) JMS
14 14 (5.56%) OAuth
15 13 (5.16%) AngularJS
15 13 (5.16%) Redux
16 12 (4.76%) Hibernate
16 12 (4.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.13%) Mobile App
2 11 (4.37%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.97%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (3.57%) Low-Code
4 9 (3.57%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 9 (3.57%) Virtual Team
5 8 (3.17%) Mobile Banking
6 6 (2.38%) Data Structures
6 6 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.38%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.59%) Greenfield Project
7 4 (1.59%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.59%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.19%) Shadow IT
9 2 (0.79%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.79%) Blog
9 2 (0.79%) FMCG
9 2 (0.79%) IVR
9 2 (0.79%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 20 (7.94%) Android
2 18 (7.14%) Apple iOS
2 18 (7.14%) Linux
3 10 (3.97%) Unix
4 3 (1.19%) Mac OS X
5 2 (0.79%) MVS
5 2 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.40%) VME
6 1 (0.40%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (31.35%) Agile
2 63 (25.00%) CI/CD
3 57 (22.62%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (21.03%) DevOps
5 47 (18.65%) Microservices
6 38 (15.08%) TDD
7 37 (14.68%) Test Automation
8 29 (11.51%) Business Intelligence
8 29 (11.51%) Full-Stack Development
9 27 (10.71%) Unit Testing
10 26 (10.32%) Containerisation
11 25 (9.92%) Performance Optimisation
12 23 (9.13%) Migration
12 23 (9.13%) Scrum
13 21 (8.33%) Data Modelling
13 21 (8.33%) User Experience
14 18 (7.14%) User Acceptance Testing
15 17 (6.75%) API Development
15 17 (6.75%) Front End Development
15 17 (6.75%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 85 (33.73%) Java
2 70 (27.78%) SQL
3 48 (19.05%) JavaScript
4 31 (12.30%) Python
5 25 (9.92%) TypeScript
6 14 (5.56%) C#
7 10 (3.97%) Kotlin
8 9 (3.57%) Ruby
8 9 (3.57%) T-SQL
9 8 (3.17%) C
9 8 (3.17%) C++
10 7 (2.78%) Objective-C
10 7 (2.78%) Scala
10 7 (2.78%) Swift
11 6 (2.38%) PHP
11 6 (2.38%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.59%) ABAP
12 4 (1.59%) Apex Code
12 4 (1.59%) Bash
13 3 (1.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 43 (17.06%) Security Cleared
2 26 (10.32%) BPSS Clearance
3 23 (9.13%) SC Cleared
4 17 (6.75%) Degree
5 14 (5.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.98%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (0.79%) Master's Degree
7 2 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.40%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.40%) MCSA
8 1 (0.40%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (12.70%) Accessibility
2 19 (7.54%) QA
3 9 (3.57%) ISO 20022
3 9 (3.57%) PSD2
3 9 (3.57%) SEPA
4 8 (3.17%) WCAG
5 7 (2.78%) Data Quality
System Software
1 37 (14.68%) Docker
2 2 (0.79%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 32 (12.70%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.17%) Terraform
3 3 (1.19%) Ansible
3 3 (1.19%) Grafana
4 2 (0.79%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.40%) Argo
5 1 (0.40%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.40%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 45 (17.86%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.33%) Oracle
3 9 (3.57%) Advent
3 9 (3.57%) Salesforce
3 9 (3.57%) SAP
3 9 (3.57%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.78%) IBM
5 6 (2.38%) Perforce
6 5 (1.98%) Cognos
7 4 (1.59%) Virgin Media
7 4 (1.59%) webMethods
8 3 (1.19%) Google
8 3 (1.19%) Software AG
8 3 (1.19%) Splunk
8 3 (1.19%) Veracode
8 3 (1.19%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.79%) Axway
9 2 (0.79%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.79%) Siebel
9 2 (0.79%) Syncsort