Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £430, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 December 2025.

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

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 13 10 8
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 255 232 370
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.38% 10.70% 13.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.39% 11.52% 15.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 148 295
10th Percentile £334 £357 £325
25th Percentile £385 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £430 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.44% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £500 £538 £600
90th Percentile £550 £588 £700
England median daily rate £500 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -6.54% -2.73% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 5 4
10th Percentile - £47.60 £56.38
25th Percentile £58.50 - £65.94
Median hourly rate £65.50 £65.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +0.77% -13.33% +102.70%
75th Percentile £71.07 £86.00 £79.69
90th Percentile £72.98 - £81.38
England median hourly rate £55.00 £65.00 £60.92
% change year-on-year -15.38% +6.70% +2.08%

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 2,238 2,014 2,453
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.09% 92.90% 92.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,459 1,134 1,695
10th Percentile £213 £259 £300
25th Percentile £358 £386 £406
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 £666 £656 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -2.86% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 214 122 163
10th Percentile £17.30 £15.53 £16.04
25th Percentile £20.11 £18.00 £17.75
Median hourly rate £31.75 £27.31 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.25% -21.96% +64.51%
75th Percentile £56.63 £46.18 £46.53
90th Percentile £70.00 £67.25 £64.75
England median hourly rate £26.50 £37.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.38% -17.78% +38.46%

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 14 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
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 14 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 -1 157 £425 -5.56% 188
Cheshire -8 57 £405 -10.00% 75
Merseyside -4 20 £488 +29.57% 30
Lancashire -12 17 £551 +10.10% 105
Cumbria - 1 £470 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 14 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 94 (36.86%) Java
2 77 (30.20%) Agile
3 72 (28.24%) SQL
4 70 (27.45%) CI/CD
5 64 (25.10%) Problem-Solving
6 62 (24.31%) AWS
7 60 (23.53%) Spring Boot
8 59 (23.14%) Azure
8 59 (23.14%) Microservices
8 59 (23.14%) Spring
9 55 (21.57%) DevOps
10 49 (19.22%) Git
11 45 (17.65%) Test Automation
12 43 (16.86%) React
12 43 (16.86%) Security Cleared
12 43 (16.86%) TDD
13 42 (16.47%) Docker
14 41 (16.08%) JavaScript
15 38 (14.90%) Full-Stack Development
16 37 (14.51%) Node.js
17 35 (13.73%) Kubernetes
17 35 (13.73%) REST
18 34 (13.33%) Microsoft
19 33 (12.94%) Accessibility
20 31 (12.16%) Containerisation
21 30 (11.76%) HTML
21 30 (11.76%) Unit Testing
22 29 (11.37%) JSON
22 29 (11.37%) RESTful
22 29 (11.37%) TypeScript

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 5 (1.96%) Confluence
1 5 (1.96%) SAS
2 3 (1.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 3 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
2 3 (1.18%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.78%) Apache
3 2 (0.78%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.39%) CMS
4 1 (0.39%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.39%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (3.53%) Advent Geneva
2 2 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.39%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.39%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.39%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.39%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 62 (24.31%) AWS
2 59 (23.14%) Azure
3 24 (9.41%) GitHub
4 23 (9.02%) Power Platform
5 19 (7.45%) Azure DevOps
6 13 (5.10%) Power Automate
7 12 (4.71%) Serverless
8 10 (3.92%) npm
8 10 (3.92%) PowerApps
9 8 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (3.14%) GCP
10 7 (2.75%) Amazon SQS
10 7 (2.75%) Figma
11 6 (2.35%) SaaS
12 5 (1.96%) Amazon S3
12 5 (1.96%) Azure AKS
13 4 (1.57%) Apigee
13 4 (1.57%) Azure Logic Apps
13 4 (1.57%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (1.57%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 9 (3.53%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.57%) HTTP
3 2 (0.78%) SSL
4 1 (0.39%) Internet
4 1 (0.39%) PABX
4 1 (0.39%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.02%) MySQL
2 20 (7.84%) Relational Database
2 20 (7.84%) SQL Server
3 17 (6.67%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (6.67%) Power BI
4 14 (5.49%) NoSQL
5 11 (4.31%) DB2
6 10 (3.92%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (3.92%) MongoDB
6 10 (3.92%) Redis
6 10 (3.92%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (1.96%) Apache Cassandra
7 5 (1.96%) DocumentDB
8 4 (1.57%) Cognos Framework Manager
8 4 (1.57%) Cognos Report Studio
8 4 (1.57%) DynamoDB
9 3 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (1.18%) Cognos Transformer
9 3 (1.18%) OLAP Cube
9 3 (1.18%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 49 (19.22%) Git
2 28 (10.98%) GitLab
3 23 (9.02%) JIRA
4 17 (6.67%) JUnit
5 16 (6.27%) Jenkins
6 14 (5.49%) Cypress.io
7 13 (5.10%) Gradle
7 13 (5.10%) SonarQube
8 11 (4.31%) Xcode
9 9 (3.53%) Postman
10 8 (3.14%) Cucumber
11 7 (2.75%) Mockito
12 6 (2.35%) Grunt
12 6 (2.35%) gulp
12 6 (2.35%) Storybook
13 3 (1.18%) ESLint
13 3 (1.18%) Jasmine
14 2 (0.78%) Android Studio
14 2 (0.78%) Bitbucket
14 2 (0.78%) git-flow
General
1 57 (22.35%) Public Sector
2 41 (16.08%) Finance
3 28 (10.98%) Social Skills
4 21 (8.24%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (7.84%) Banking
6 8 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (1.18%) Law
7 3 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (1.18%) Publishing
8 2 (0.78%) Manufacturing
8 2 (0.78%) Military
8 2 (0.78%) Private Banking
9 1 (0.39%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.39%) Legal
9 1 (0.39%) Local Government
9 1 (0.39%) Marketing
9 1 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.39%) Retail
9 1 (0.39%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (23.53%) Spring Boot
2 59 (23.14%) Spring
3 43 (16.86%) React
4 37 (14.51%) Node.js
5 35 (13.73%) REST
6 30 (11.76%) HTML
7 29 (11.37%) JSON
7 29 (11.37%) RESTful
8 21 (8.24%) Jest
9 20 (7.84%) .NET
9 20 (7.84%) CSS
10 19 (7.45%) Kafka
10 19 (7.45%) OAuth
11 16 (6.27%) AngularJS
12 15 (5.88%) Hibernate
12 15 (5.88%) XML
13 14 (5.49%) JMS
13 14 (5.49%) React Native
14 13 (5.10%) Redux
15 11 (4.31%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 18 (7.06%) Mobile App
2 12 (4.71%) Onboarding
3 10 (3.92%) Cloud Native
3 10 (3.92%) Data Protection Act
3 10 (3.92%) SWIFT Messaging Network
4 7 (2.75%) Low-Code
4 7 (2.75%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.75%) Virtual Team
5 6 (2.35%) Data Structures
5 6 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
6 4 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (1.18%) Mobile Banking
8 2 (0.78%) Algorithms
8 2 (0.78%) Blog
8 2 (0.78%) FMCG
8 2 (0.78%) IVR
8 2 (0.78%) Legacy Code
8 2 (0.78%) Mainframe
9 1 (0.39%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.27%) Android
1 16 (6.27%) Apple iOS
2 10 (3.92%) Linux
3 5 (1.96%) Unix
4 3 (1.18%) Mac OS X
5 2 (0.78%) MVS
5 2 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.39%) VME
6 1 (0.39%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (30.20%) Agile
2 70 (27.45%) CI/CD
3 64 (25.10%) Problem-Solving
4 59 (23.14%) Microservices
5 55 (21.57%) DevOps
6 45 (17.65%) Test Automation
7 43 (16.86%) TDD
8 38 (14.90%) Full-Stack Development
9 31 (12.16%) Containerisation
10 30 (11.76%) Unit Testing
11 26 (10.20%) Performance Optimisation
12 23 (9.02%) Business Intelligence
13 21 (8.24%) API Development
14 20 (7.84%) Data Modelling
14 20 (7.84%) SDLC
15 19 (7.45%) User Experience
16 18 (7.06%) Scrum
16 18 (7.06%) User Acceptance Testing
17 17 (6.67%) Continuous Improvement
17 17 (6.67%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 94 (36.86%) Java
2 72 (28.24%) SQL
3 41 (16.08%) JavaScript
4 29 (11.37%) TypeScript
5 28 (10.98%) Python
6 16 (6.27%) C#
7 11 (4.31%) Kotlin
8 7 (2.75%) T-SQL
9 6 (2.35%) PHP
9 6 (2.35%) Swift
10 5 (1.96%) C++
10 5 (1.96%) Objective-C
10 5 (1.96%) Ruby
11 4 (1.57%) ABAP
11 4 (1.57%) Bash
11 4 (1.57%) C
12 3 (1.18%) PL/SQL
12 3 (1.18%) Scala
13 2 (0.78%) PL/1
13 2 (0.78%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 43 (16.86%) Security Cleared
2 24 (9.41%) BPSS Clearance
3 20 (7.84%) SC Cleared
4 19 (7.45%) Degree
5 15 (5.88%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (1.96%) CTC Cleared
7 2 (0.78%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (12.94%) Accessibility
2 23 (9.02%) QA
3 10 (3.92%) ISO 20022
3 10 (3.92%) PSD2
3 10 (3.92%) SEPA
4 9 (3.53%) WCAG
5 4 (1.57%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.39%) GDPR
System Software
1 42 (16.47%) Docker
2 3 (1.18%) ISA Server
3 2 (0.78%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 35 (13.73%) Kubernetes
2 7 (2.75%) Terraform
3 5 (1.96%) Grafana
4 3 (1.18%) Ansible
5 2 (0.78%) CA Endevor
5 2 (0.78%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.39%) Argo
6 1 (0.39%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.39%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 34 (13.33%) Microsoft
2 19 (7.45%) Oracle
3 9 (3.53%) Advent
3 9 (3.53%) SAP
3 9 (3.53%) Virgin Media
4 7 (2.75%) IBM
4 7 (2.75%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.75%) Splunk
5 6 (2.35%) Perforce
6 5 (1.96%) Salesforce
7 4 (1.57%) Adobe
7 4 (1.57%) Cognos
7 4 (1.57%) IFS
7 4 (1.57%) webMethods
8 3 (1.18%) Google
8 3 (1.18%) Software AG
8 3 (1.18%) Xamarin
9 2 (0.78%) Axway
9 2 (0.78%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.78%) Syncsort