Developer Contract Job Trends in the North West

Developer
England > North West

The median Developer daily rate in the North West is £455, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 April 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 9 5
Rank change year-on-year -2 -4 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 344 229 391
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.85% 11.74% 14.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.77% 12.68% 14.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 178 286
10th Percentile £343 £375 £311
25th Percentile £400 £405 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £500 £453
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% +10.50% -4.74%
75th Percentile £510 £551 £538
90th Percentile £573 £625 £625
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 2 2
10th Percentile £31.99 - £78.05
25th Percentile £37.25 - £78.88
Median hourly rate £41.06 £86.00 £81.50
Median % change year-on-year -52.26% +5.52% +91.76%
75th Percentile £46.80 - £82.88
90th Percentile £66.10 - £82.95
England median hourly rate £57.50 £61.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year -5.74% -2.40% +4.17%

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 2,923 1,806 2,622
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.18% 92.62% 94.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,716 1,196 1,730
10th Percentile £253 £263 £281
25th Percentile £375 £380 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £575 £570 £585
90th Percentile £673 £656 £675
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 299 109 267
10th Percentile £19.00 £13.00 £11.04
25th Percentile £25.49 £18.00 £13.50
Median hourly rate £45.46 £29.80 £26.39
Median % change year-on-year +52.55% +12.92% -13.87%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.58 £46.18
90th Percentile £84.00 £83.78 £63.50
England median hourly rate £45.46 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year +43.14% -9.26% -22.22%

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 24 April 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 24 April 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 24 April 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 +2 261 £475 +1.06% 98
Cheshire -3 44 £358 -12.68% 19
Lancashire -4 19 £548 +2.29% 52
Merseyside -19 15 £475 -13.64% 21
Cumbria +5 2 - - 4
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 24 April 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.

1 139 (40.41%) Java
2 108 (31.40%) Agile
3 87 (25.29%) CI/CD
4 86 (25.00%) Microservices
5 84 (24.42%) AWS
6 75 (21.80%) Spring
7 72 (20.93%) Spring Boot
8 65 (18.90%) Problem-Solving
8 65 (18.90%) Test Automation
9 64 (18.60%) Azure
10 58 (16.86%) Full-Stack Development
11 56 (16.28%) DevOps
11 56 (16.28%) SQL
12 55 (15.99%) Security Cleared
13 52 (15.12%) TDD
14 50 (14.53%) React
15 49 (14.24%) JavaScript
16 47 (13.66%) Docker
17 45 (13.08%) Node.js
18 43 (12.50%) RESTful
19 41 (11.92%) Kubernetes
20 40 (11.63%) Git
21 38 (11.05%) REST
21 38 (11.05%) TypeScript
22 36 (10.47%) GitLab
23 34 (9.88%) Python
24 32 (9.30%) API Design
25 30 (8.72%) Containerisation
26 29 (8.43%) .NET
26 29 (8.43%) Code Quality

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 (2.91%) Confluence
2 5 (1.45%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.87%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 3 (0.87%) Apache
3 3 (0.87%) SAS
4 2 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.58%) JBoss
5 1 (0.29%) Appian
5 1 (0.29%) Camunda
5 1 (0.29%) CMS
5 1 (0.29%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.29%) Mule
5 1 (0.29%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.29%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.29%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.29%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.29%) WebLogic
Applications
1 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.03%) Maximo
2 6 (1.74%) Advent Geneva
3 2 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.58%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.29%) Odoo
4 1 (0.29%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.29%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 84 (24.42%) AWS
2 64 (18.60%) Azure
3 24 (6.98%) Serverless
4 16 (4.65%) GitHub
5 15 (4.36%) Power Platform
6 14 (4.07%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (3.49%) AWS Lambda
8 10 (2.91%) Dynamics 365
8 10 (2.91%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (2.62%) Amazon S3
10 7 (2.03%) Amazon SQS
10 7 (2.03%) GCP
11 6 (1.74%) AWS Step Functions
11 6 (1.74%) Azure Logic Apps
11 6 (1.74%) OpenShift
11 6 (1.74%) Power Automate
12 5 (1.45%) GitHub Copilot
13 4 (1.16%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (1.16%) Azure AKS
13 4 (1.16%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.45%) HTTPS
2 4 (1.16%) HTTP
3 1 (0.29%) Internet
3 1 (0.29%) PABX
3 1 (0.29%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (6.40%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (5.23%) Relational Database
2 18 (5.23%) SQL Server
3 16 (4.65%) NoSQL
4 15 (4.36%) MongoDB
4 15 (4.36%) MySQL
5 10 (2.91%) Data Warehouse
6 9 (2.62%) Power BI
7 8 (2.33%) OLTP
8 7 (2.03%) DB2
8 7 (2.03%) DocumentDB
8 7 (2.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 5 (1.45%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.45%) Hadoop
9 5 (1.45%) Redis
10 4 (1.16%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (1.16%) Power Query
11 3 (0.87%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.58%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 40 (11.63%) Git
2 36 (10.47%) GitLab
3 24 (6.98%) JIRA
4 14 (4.07%) JUnit
5 13 (3.78%) Cypress.io
6 12 (3.49%) Mockito
7 9 (2.62%) Jenkins
7 9 (2.62%) SonarQube
8 8 (2.33%) Mocha
9 6 (1.74%) CircleCI
10 5 (1.45%) Postman
11 4 (1.16%) ESLint
12 3 (0.87%) Gradle
12 3 (0.87%) Jasmine
13 2 (0.58%) Android Studio
13 2 (0.58%) ClearCase
13 2 (0.58%) fastlane
13 2 (0.58%) IntelliJ
13 2 (0.58%) Xcode
13 2 (0.58%) XCTest
General
1 87 (25.29%) Public Sector
2 48 (13.95%) Social Skills
3 44 (12.79%) Finance
4 22 (6.40%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (5.52%) Banking
6 7 (2.03%) Aviation
6 7 (2.03%) Manufacturing
7 6 (1.74%) Aerospace
8 5 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.16%) Publishing
10 3 (0.87%) Law
10 3 (0.87%) Local Government
11 2 (0.58%) Legal
11 2 (0.58%) Retail
12 1 (0.29%) Advertising
12 1 (0.29%) Games
12 1 (0.29%) Military
12 1 (0.29%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (21.80%) Spring
2 72 (20.93%) Spring Boot
3 50 (14.53%) React
4 45 (13.08%) Node.js
5 43 (12.50%) RESTful
6 38 (11.05%) REST
7 29 (8.43%) .NET
8 28 (8.14%) AngularJS
9 23 (6.69%) HTML
10 21 (6.10%) Jest
11 18 (5.23%) CSS
11 18 (5.23%) Kafka
12 17 (4.94%) Vue
13 13 (3.78%) JSON
13 13 (3.78%) React Native
13 13 (3.78%) XML
13 13 (3.78%) YAML
14 12 (3.49%) JAX-RS
14 12 (3.49%) OAuth
15 11 (3.20%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 24 (6.98%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.52%) Mobile App
3 16 (4.65%) Onboarding
4 14 (4.07%) Product Ownership
5 9 (2.62%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (2.03%) Data Structures
7 6 (1.74%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 5 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.16%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.87%) Blog
10 3 (0.87%) IoT
10 3 (0.87%) Legacy Code
10 3 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.87%) NHS
11 2 (0.58%) AI Agents
11 2 (0.58%) FMCG
11 2 (0.58%) IVR
11 2 (0.58%) Self-Motivation
12 1 (0.29%) Algorithms
12 1 (0.29%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 16 (4.65%) Linux
1 16 (4.65%) Unix
2 8 (2.33%) Android
2 8 (2.33%) Apple iOS
2 8 (2.33%) Mac OS X
3 4 (1.16%) Windows
4 3 (0.87%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.58%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.58%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (31.40%) Agile
2 87 (25.29%) CI/CD
3 86 (25.00%) Microservices
4 65 (18.90%) Problem-Solving
4 65 (18.90%) Test Automation
5 58 (16.86%) Full-Stack Development
6 56 (16.28%) DevOps
7 52 (15.12%) TDD
8 32 (9.30%) API Design
9 30 (8.72%) Containerisation
10 29 (8.43%) Code Quality
11 28 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
11 28 (8.14%) Front End Development
12 26 (7.56%) SDLC
12 26 (7.56%) Unit Testing
13 25 (7.27%) Data Modelling
14 24 (6.98%) Design Patterns
15 23 (6.69%) User Experience
16 22 (6.40%) API Development
16 22 (6.40%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 139 (40.41%) Java
2 56 (16.28%) SQL
3 49 (14.24%) JavaScript
4 38 (11.05%) TypeScript
5 34 (9.88%) Python
6 26 (7.56%) C#
7 19 (5.52%) Kotlin
8 6 (1.74%) Apex Code
8 6 (1.74%) PL/SQL
8 6 (1.74%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.16%) C++
9 4 (1.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.87%) ProC
10 3 (0.87%) Ruby
10 3 (0.87%) Swift
11 2 (0.58%) Objective-C
11 2 (0.58%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.58%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.58%) VB
11 2 (0.58%) VB6
Qualifications
1 55 (15.99%) Security Cleared
2 29 (8.43%) SC Cleared
3 24 (6.98%) BPSS Clearance
4 19 (5.52%) Degree
5 10 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (1.16%) CTC Cleared
6 4 (1.16%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.29%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.40%) Accessibility
2 18 (5.23%) QA
3 13 (3.78%) WCAG
4 6 (1.74%) ISO 20022
4 6 (1.74%) PSD2
4 6 (1.74%) SEPA
5 4 (1.16%) Data Quality
6 3 (0.87%) GRC
7 1 (0.29%) GDPR
System Software
1 47 (13.66%) Docker
2 3 (0.87%) ISA Server
Systems Management
1 41 (11.92%) Kubernetes
2 19 (5.52%) Terraform
3 7 (2.03%) Grafana
4 5 (1.45%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.87%) Ansible
6 1 (0.29%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 29 (8.43%) Microsoft
1 29 (8.43%) Oracle
2 14 (4.07%) Salesforce
3 9 (2.62%) ServiceNow
3 9 (2.62%) Virgin Media
4 7 (2.03%) Splunk
5 6 (1.74%) Advent
5 6 (1.74%) Automation Anywhere
5 6 (1.74%) SAP
6 5 (1.45%) Adobe
6 5 (1.45%) Pega
7 4 (1.16%) IFS
7 4 (1.16%) Xamarin
8 3 (0.87%) Atlassian
8 3 (0.87%) Dynatrace
8 3 (0.87%) IBM
8 3 (0.87%) Veracode
9 2 (0.58%) NEC
9 2 (0.58%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.58%) Sage