Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 12 10
Rank change year-on-year -14 -2 0
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 236 223 270
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.17% 10.11% 11.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.80% 10.99% 11.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 187 207
10th Percentile £359 £313 £308
25th Percentile £420 £365 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £425 £450
Median % change year-on-year +11.76% -5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £530 £525
90th Percentile £670 £575 £575
England median daily rate £513 £513 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 1 2
10th Percentile £25.49 - £40.70
25th Percentile £37.25 - £47.75
Median hourly rate £41.06 £47.12 £59.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% -20.81% +19.00%
75th Percentile £46.18 - £71.25
90th Percentile - - £78.30
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +11.98%

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 3,470 2,029 2,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.65% 91.98% 94.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,971 1,305 1,372
10th Percentile £282 £258 £273
25th Percentile £400 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £563 £585
90th Percentile £687 £663 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 403 160 202
10th Percentile £17.05 £13.00 £11.07
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.56 £26.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.71% -25.50% +18.04%
75th Percentile £71.91 £53.13 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.65 £73.30 £71.89
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.23 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.48% -43.94% +8.04%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 August 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 -3 179 £477 +12.24% 84
Cheshire -41 20 £415 +10.67% 6
Merseyside -29 15 £438 -17.36% 10
Lancashire -7 11 - - 41
Cumbria -9 7 £875 - 4
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 August 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 73 (30.93%) Java
2 70 (29.66%) Agile
3 51 (21.61%) CI/CD
4 48 (20.34%) Microservices
5 42 (17.80%) DevOps
6 40 (16.95%) Azure
7 37 (15.68%) SQL
8 36 (15.25%) AWS
9 33 (13.98%) Security Cleared
9 33 (13.98%) TDD
10 31 (13.14%) Problem-Solving
11 30 (12.71%) React
11 30 (12.71%) Test Automation
12 29 (12.29%) AI
13 28 (11.86%) Spring
14 27 (11.44%) Business Intelligence
14 27 (11.44%) JavaScript
14 27 (11.44%) Power Platform
15 26 (11.02%) C#
15 26 (11.02%) Microsoft
16 25 (10.59%) Data Modelling
16 25 (10.59%) Mentoring
16 25 (10.59%) Node.js
16 25 (10.59%) SC Cleared
16 25 (10.59%) Spring Boot
17 24 (10.17%) Git
17 24 (10.17%) REST
18 22 (9.32%) BDD
18 22 (9.32%) Continuous Improvement
18 22 (9.32%) Full-Stack Development

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 11 (4.66%) Confluence
2 6 (2.54%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.27%) WordPress
4 2 (0.85%) CMS
4 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.85%) SharePoint 2013
4 2 (0.85%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.42%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.42%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.42%) Appian
5 1 (0.42%) Camunda
5 1 (0.42%) Drupal
5 1 (0.42%) JBoss
5 1 (0.42%) Mule
5 1 (0.42%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.42%) Umbraco
5 1 (0.42%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.85%) MIS ActiveH
2 1 (0.42%) Odoo
2 1 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 40 (16.95%) Azure
2 36 (15.25%) AWS
3 27 (11.44%) Power Platform
4 11 (4.66%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (4.24%) Microsoft Copilot
5 10 (4.24%) Serverless
6 8 (3.39%) Copilot Studio
6 8 (3.39%) Power Automate
7 6 (2.54%) GitHub
7 6 (2.54%) Google Gemini
8 5 (2.12%) GitHub Actions
8 5 (2.12%) PowerApps
9 4 (1.69%) Anthropic Claude
9 4 (1.69%) Azure Service Bus
9 4 (1.69%) GitHub Copilot
9 4 (1.69%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (1.27%) Azure AI
10 3 (1.27%) GCP
10 3 (1.27%) OpenShift
10 3 (1.27%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.85%) Network Security
1 2 (0.85%) SD-WAN
1 2 (0.85%) TCP/IP
1 2 (0.85%) WAN
1 2 (0.85%) Wireless
2 1 (0.42%) Firewall
2 1 (0.42%) IPsec
2 1 (0.42%) SSL
2 1 (0.42%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (9.32%) Power BI
2 21 (8.90%) SQL Server
3 19 (8.05%) MongoDB
4 14 (5.93%) Power Query
5 12 (5.08%) Relational Database
6 11 (4.66%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (4.24%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (3.39%) NoSQL
9 5 (2.12%) MySQL
10 4 (1.69%) DataStage
10 4 (1.69%) Db2
11 3 (1.27%) Oracle Database
11 3 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.85%) DocumentDB
12 2 (0.85%) RDBMS
12 2 (0.85%) Star Schema
13 1 (0.42%) Hadoop
13 1 (0.42%) QlikView
13 1 (0.42%) SAP BW
13 1 (0.42%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 24 (10.17%) Git
2 11 (4.66%) JIRA
3 10 (4.24%) GitLab
3 10 (4.24%) Mockito
4 9 (3.81%) Claude Code
4 9 (3.81%) Jenkins
5 3 (1.27%) ClearCase
5 3 (1.27%) Cucumber
5 3 (1.27%) JUnit
5 3 (1.27%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.85%) Maven
7 1 (0.42%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.42%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.42%) Hudson
7 1 (0.42%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.42%) Rational Robot
7 1 (0.42%) Team Foundation Server
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.42%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 46 (19.49%) Social Skills
2 43 (18.22%) Public Sector
3 22 (9.32%) Finance
4 16 (6.78%) Banking
5 14 (5.93%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.66%) Military
7 7 (2.97%) Manufacturing
8 6 (2.54%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.69%) Legal
9 4 (1.69%) Legal Technology
9 4 (1.69%) Retail
10 2 (0.85%) Front Office
10 2 (0.85%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.85%) Law
11 1 (0.42%) Automotive
11 1 (0.42%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.42%) Local Government
11 1 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (12.71%) React
2 28 (11.86%) Spring
3 25 (10.59%) Node.js
3 25 (10.59%) Spring Boot
4 24 (10.17%) REST
5 20 (8.47%) .NET
6 19 (8.05%) Kafka
7 16 (6.78%) AngularJS
8 14 (5.93%) RESTful
9 11 (4.66%) HTML
10 10 (4.24%) JSON
11 9 (3.81%) ActiveMQ
11 9 (3.81%) JAX-RS
12 8 (3.39%) CSS
13 7 (2.97%) XML
14 6 (2.54%) Nunjucks
15 5 (2.12%) .NET Core
15 5 (2.12%) Lightning Web Components
16 4 (1.69%) Next.js
16 4 (1.69%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 10 (4.24%) Cloud Native
2 9 (3.81%) Data Structures
3 8 (3.39%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (3.39%) NHS
4 7 (2.97%) AI Agents
5 6 (2.54%) Algorithms
5 6 (2.54%) Mobile App
5 6 (2.54%) Product Ownership
6 5 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (2.12%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (1.27%) IoT
9 2 (0.85%) Equities
9 2 (0.85%) Fixed Income
9 2 (0.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.42%) PKI
10 1 (0.42%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (6.36%) Linux
2 14 (5.93%) Unix
3 4 (1.69%) Mac OS X
4 3 (1.27%) Android
4 3 (1.27%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.85%) VMS
5 2 (0.85%) Windows
6 1 (0.42%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.42%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (29.66%) Agile
2 51 (21.61%) CI/CD
3 48 (20.34%) Microservices
4 42 (17.80%) DevOps
5 33 (13.98%) TDD
6 31 (13.14%) Problem-Solving
7 30 (12.71%) Test Automation
8 29 (12.29%) AI
9 27 (11.44%) Business Intelligence
10 25 (10.59%) Data Modelling
10 25 (10.59%) Mentoring
11 22 (9.32%) BDD
11 22 (9.32%) Continuous Improvement
11 22 (9.32%) Full-Stack Development
12 21 (8.90%) SDLC
13 20 (8.47%) ETL
14 18 (7.63%) Software Engineering
15 16 (6.78%) Code Quality
16 15 (6.36%) Analytics
16 15 (6.36%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 73 (30.93%) Java
2 37 (15.68%) SQL
3 27 (11.44%) JavaScript
4 26 (11.02%) C#
5 18 (7.63%) TypeScript
6 16 (6.78%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 10 (4.24%) Python
8 8 (3.39%) Kotlin
9 7 (2.97%) PowerShell
10 6 (2.54%) Go
11 5 (2.12%) Apex Code
11 5 (2.12%) PL/SQL
12 4 (1.69%) Shell Script
12 4 (1.69%) T-SQL
13 3 (1.27%) PHP
13 3 (1.27%) Swift
13 3 (1.27%) VB
13 3 (1.27%) VB6
14 1 (0.42%) ABAP
14 1 (0.42%) Scala
Qualifications
1 33 (13.98%) Security Cleared
2 25 (10.59%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.66%) BPSS Clearance
4 10 (4.24%) Degree
5 3 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.42%) CTC Cleared
6 1 (0.42%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (5.51%) QA
2 10 (4.24%) Accessibility
2 10 (4.24%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.69%) GRC
4 2 (0.85%) WCAG
5 1 (0.42%) NCSC
5 1 (0.42%) NIST
System Software
1 19 (8.05%) Docker
2 3 (1.27%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 17 (7.20%) Kubernetes
2 13 (5.51%) Terraform
3 9 (3.81%) Ansible
4 1 (0.42%) Grafana
4 1 (0.42%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 26 (11.02%) Microsoft
2 18 (7.63%) Salesforce
3 14 (5.93%) ServiceNow
4 11 (4.66%) Oracle
5 5 (2.12%) Pega
6 4 (1.69%) Atlassian
6 4 (1.69%) IBM
6 4 (1.69%) OpenAI
6 4 (1.69%) Teradata
7 3 (1.27%) Google
7 3 (1.27%) SAP
8 2 (0.85%) Adobe
8 2 (0.85%) Blue Prism
8 2 (0.85%) Cisco
9 1 (0.42%) Foundry
9 1 (0.42%) MuleSoft
9 1 (0.42%) Sage
9 1 (0.42%) Virgin Media