Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £420, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 December 2025.

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

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 12 9 7
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 -2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 262 252 368
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.56% 11.12% 13.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.56% 11.98% 15.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 159 292
10th Percentile £314 £320 £325
25th Percentile £360 £390 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £600
90th Percentile £549 £588 £700
England median daily rate £500 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -6.54% -2.73% -6.78%
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% +0.27%

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 2,266 2,103 2,443
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.30% 92.81% 92.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,513 1,142 1,698
10th Percentile £213 £263 £285
25th Percentile £358 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £672 £656 £675
England median daily rate £504 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -4.00% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 141 163
10th Percentile £16.41 £15.49 £16.20
25th Percentile £19.75 £17.44 £17.74
Median hourly rate £30.00 £25.30 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.58% -27.71% +73.87%
75th Percentile £51.02 £46.18 £46.53
90th Percentile £70.93 £68.18 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.47 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.08% -16.67% +36.36%

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 December 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 4 December 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 4 December 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 -2 150 £425 -5.56% 161
Cheshire -1 72 £370 -5.37% 44
Merseyside -9 19 £500 +32.89% 12
Lancashire -13 17 £551 +10.10% 95
Cumbria - 1 £470 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 4 December 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 95 (36.26%) Java
2 79 (30.15%) Agile
3 70 (26.72%) Problem-Solving
3 70 (26.72%) SQL
4 67 (25.57%) CI/CD
5 65 (24.81%) AWS
6 61 (23.28%) Microservices
6 61 (23.28%) Spring Boot
7 59 (22.52%) Spring
8 57 (21.76%) DevOps
9 55 (20.99%) Azure
9 55 (20.99%) Git
10 46 (17.56%) Test Automation
11 45 (17.18%) JavaScript
11 45 (17.18%) React
11 45 (17.18%) Security Cleared
12 41 (15.65%) Docker
12 41 (15.65%) Microsoft
12 41 (15.65%) TDD
13 38 (14.50%) REST
14 35 (13.36%) Kubernetes
15 34 (12.98%) Full-Stack Development
15 34 (12.98%) HTML
15 34 (12.98%) Node.js
16 32 (12.21%) JIRA
17 31 (11.83%) Accessibility
17 31 (11.83%) RESTful
18 30 (11.45%) Containerisation
19 28 (10.69%) JSON
20 27 (10.31%) Performance Optimisation

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 (3.82%) Confluence
2 8 (3.05%) Tomcat
3 5 (1.91%) Apache
3 5 (1.91%) JBoss
3 5 (1.91%) SAS
4 4 (1.53%) nginx
4 4 (1.53%) SharePoint
5 3 (1.15%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.76%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.76%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.38%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (3.44%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.38%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.38%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.38%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.38%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 65 (24.81%) AWS
2 55 (20.99%) Azure
3 24 (9.16%) Power Platform
4 22 (8.40%) GitHub
5 19 (7.25%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (4.96%) Power Automate
7 12 (4.58%) Serverless
8 11 (4.20%) PowerApps
9 10 (3.82%) npm
10 8 (3.05%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (3.05%) GCP
11 7 (2.67%) Amazon SQS
11 7 (2.67%) Figma
12 6 (2.29%) SaaS
13 5 (1.91%) Azure AKS
13 5 (1.91%) OpenShift
14 4 (1.53%) Amazon S3
14 4 (1.53%) Apigee
14 4 (1.53%) Azure Service Bus
14 4 (1.53%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.44%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.53%) HTTP
3 2 (0.76%) SSL
4 1 (0.38%) Internet
4 1 (0.38%) PABX
4 1 (0.38%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (8.78%) MySQL
2 22 (8.40%) SQL Server
3 19 (7.25%) Relational Database
4 17 (6.49%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (6.49%) Power BI
5 13 (4.96%) NoSQL
6 11 (4.20%) DB2
7 10 (3.82%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (3.82%) Redis
7 10 (3.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 9 (3.44%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.91%) Apache Cassandra
9 5 (1.91%) DocumentDB
10 4 (1.53%) Cognos Framework Manager
10 4 (1.53%) Cognos Report Studio
11 3 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (1.15%) Cognos Transformer
11 3 (1.15%) DynamoDB
11 3 (1.15%) OLAP Cube
11 3 (1.15%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 55 (20.99%) Git
2 32 (12.21%) JIRA
3 26 (9.92%) GitLab
4 24 (9.16%) Jenkins
4 24 (9.16%) JUnit
5 16 (6.11%) Gradle
6 14 (5.34%) SonarQube
7 13 (4.96%) Cypress.io
8 10 (3.82%) Xcode
9 9 (3.44%) Cucumber
9 9 (3.44%) Postman
10 8 (3.05%) Maven
10 8 (3.05%) Mockito
10 8 (3.05%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (2.29%) Grunt
11 6 (2.29%) gulp
11 6 (2.29%) Storybook
12 5 (1.91%) Bitbucket
13 3 (1.15%) Android Studio
13 3 (1.15%) Gerrit
General
1 54 (20.61%) Public Sector
2 45 (17.18%) Finance
3 34 (12.98%) Social Skills
4 29 (11.07%) Banking
5 24 (9.16%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.05%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.91%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.15%) Publishing
9 2 (0.76%) Law
9 2 (0.76%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.76%) Military
9 2 (0.76%) Private Banking
10 1 (0.38%) Digital Healthcare
10 1 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.38%) Local Government
10 1 (0.38%) Marketing
10 1 (0.38%) Retail
10 1 (0.38%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (23.28%) Spring Boot
2 59 (22.52%) Spring
3 45 (17.18%) React
4 38 (14.50%) REST
5 34 (12.98%) HTML
5 34 (12.98%) Node.js
6 31 (11.83%) RESTful
7 28 (10.69%) JSON
8 25 (9.54%) CSS
9 21 (8.02%) .NET
10 20 (7.63%) Jest
11 19 (7.25%) OAuth
12 18 (6.87%) Kafka
13 17 (6.49%) AngularJS
13 17 (6.49%) React Native
14 16 (6.11%) Hibernate
15 14 (5.34%) JMS
15 14 (5.34%) Redux
15 14 (5.34%) SOAP
15 14 (5.34%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (8.40%) Mobile App
2 11 (4.20%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.82%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (3.82%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 9 (3.44%) Virtual Team
5 8 (3.05%) Onboarding
6 7 (2.67%) Low-Code
7 6 (2.29%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.29%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (1.91%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.53%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.15%) Mobile Banking
11 2 (0.76%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.76%) Blog
11 2 (0.76%) FMCG
11 2 (0.76%) IVR
11 2 (0.76%) Mainframe
12 1 (0.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.11%) Android
2 15 (5.73%) Linux
3 13 (4.96%) Apple iOS
4 10 (3.82%) Unix
5 3 (1.15%) Mac OS X
6 2 (0.76%) MVS
6 2 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.38%) VME
7 1 (0.38%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (30.15%) Agile
2 70 (26.72%) Problem-Solving
3 67 (25.57%) CI/CD
4 61 (23.28%) Microservices
5 57 (21.76%) DevOps
6 46 (17.56%) Test Automation
7 41 (15.65%) TDD
8 34 (12.98%) Full-Stack Development
9 30 (11.45%) Containerisation
10 27 (10.31%) Performance Optimisation
11 26 (9.92%) Unit Testing
12 25 (9.54%) Business Intelligence
13 21 (8.02%) Migration
13 21 (8.02%) SDLC
14 20 (7.63%) Data Modelling
14 20 (7.63%) User Acceptance Testing
15 19 (7.25%) Scrum
16 18 (6.87%) Design Patterns
17 17 (6.49%) Computer Science
17 17 (6.49%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 95 (36.26%) Java
2 70 (26.72%) SQL
3 45 (17.18%) JavaScript
4 27 (10.31%) Python
5 26 (9.92%) TypeScript
6 15 (5.73%) C#
7 10 (3.82%) Kotlin
8 9 (3.44%) T-SQL
9 6 (2.29%) PHP
9 6 (2.29%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.91%) Ruby
11 4 (1.53%) ABAP
11 4 (1.53%) Apex Code
11 4 (1.53%) Bash
11 4 (1.53%) C
11 4 (1.53%) C++
12 3 (1.15%) Objective-C
12 3 (1.15%) Scala
12 3 (1.15%) Swift
13 2 (0.76%) JCL
Qualifications
1 45 (17.18%) Security Cleared
2 25 (9.54%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (7.63%) SC Cleared
4 18 (6.87%) Degree
5 16 (6.11%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.91%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (0.76%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (11.83%) Accessibility
2 21 (8.02%) QA
3 10 (3.82%) ISO 20022
3 10 (3.82%) PSD2
3 10 (3.82%) SEPA
4 8 (3.05%) Data Quality
4 8 (3.05%) WCAG
System Software
1 41 (15.65%) Docker
2 2 (0.76%) ISA Server
2 2 (0.76%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 35 (13.36%) Kubernetes
2 8 (3.05%) Terraform
3 3 (1.15%) Ansible
3 3 (1.15%) Grafana
4 2 (0.76%) CA Endevor
5 1 (0.38%) Argo
5 1 (0.38%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.38%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.38%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 41 (15.65%) Microsoft
2 21 (8.02%) Oracle
3 9 (3.44%) Advent
3 9 (3.44%) Salesforce
3 9 (3.44%) SAP
3 9 (3.44%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.67%) IBM
5 6 (2.29%) Perforce
5 6 (2.29%) Splunk
5 6 (2.29%) Virgin Media
6 4 (1.53%) Cognos
6 4 (1.53%) IFS
6 4 (1.53%) webMethods
7 3 (1.15%) Adobe
7 3 (1.15%) Google
7 3 (1.15%) Software AG
7 3 (1.15%) Veracode
7 3 (1.15%) Xamarin
8 2 (0.76%) Axway
8 2 (0.76%) Syncsort