Legal Contract Job Trends in the North West

Legal
England > North West

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Legal in contract job vacancies in the North West. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Legal over the 6 months leading up to 24 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 95 61 84
Rank change year-on-year -34 +23 +22
Contract jobs citing Legal 57 64 55
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.26% 2.98% 2.09%
As % of the General category 3.72% 5.12% 3.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 51 39
10th Percentile £133 £200 £348
25th Percentile £183 £356 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £475 £480
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% -1.04% -1.54%
75th Percentile £500 £559 £638
90th Percentile £550 £735 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 2
10th Percentile £43.39 £16.88 £17.29
25th Percentile - £24.82 £18.85
Median hourly rate £74.26 £50.80 £21.58
Median % change year-on-year +46.17% +135.41% +13.58%
75th Percentile - £73.86 £24.18
90th Percentile - £74.39 £25.67
England median hourly rate £18.50 £38.50 £21.00
% change year-on-year -51.96% +83.33% -5.23%

All General Skills
North West

Legal falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring common skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 1,531 1,249 1,467
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 60.66% 58.09% 55.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 985 674 959
10th Percentile £203 £250 £263
25th Percentile £358 £360 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +3.09%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £600
90th Percentile £644 £675 £709
England median daily rate £500 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -6.98% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 97 115
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.96 £14.20
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.13 £17.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £27.13 £24.05
Median % change year-on-year +9.12% +12.79% +20.25%
75th Percentile £45.46 £44.50 £45.88
90th Percentile £67.78 £66.00 £59.00
England median hourly rate £23.50 £30.00 £34.50
% change year-on-year -21.67% -13.04% +34.19%

Legal
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Legal relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Legal job vacancy trend in the North West

Legal
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Legal.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Legal

Legal
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Legal in the North West over the 6 months to 24 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Legal in the North West

Legal
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Legal.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Legal

Legal
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Legal in the North West over the 6 months to 24 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Legal in the North West

Legal
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 Legal within the North West region over the 6 months to 24 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 -28 16 £438 -12.50% 101
Lancashire -6 15 £550 +8.37% 36
Cheshire -16 13 £375 +5.34% 44
Merseyside -2 10 £135 -32.50% 24
Cumbria +2 3 £220 +10.00% 7
Legal
England

Legal
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 12 (21.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (10.53%) SharePoint
3 4 (7.02%) Confluence
4 1 (1.75%) CMS
4 1 (1.75%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (3.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (1.75%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (3.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.75%) Loan IQ
2 1 (1.75%) NetSuite
2 1 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (1.75%) SAP HCM
2 1 (1.75%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 13 (22.81%) Microsoft 365
2 8 (14.04%) Azure
2 8 (14.04%) Entra ID
3 2 (3.51%) Figma
4 1 (1.75%) AWS
4 1 (1.75%) Azure Data Factory
4 1 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (1.75%) Azure Logic Apps
4 1 (1.75%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (1.75%) Microsoft Purview
4 1 (1.75%) Miro
4 1 (1.75%) OCI
4 1 (1.75%) Power Platform
4 1 (1.75%) SaaS
4 1 (1.75%) Slack
4 1 (1.75%) Smartsheet
4 1 (1.75%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (12.28%) WebEx
2 2 (3.51%) BGP
2 2 (3.51%) DNS
2 2 (3.51%) Firewall
2 2 (3.51%) Internet
2 2 (3.51%) IPsec
2 2 (3.51%) Software-Defined Networking
2 2 (3.51%) VLAN
3 1 (1.75%) SSL
3 1 (1.75%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.75%) EDRMS
1 1 (1.75%) Oracle Database
1 1 (1.75%) RDBMS
1 1 (1.75%) Relational Database
1 1 (1.75%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (12.28%) JIRA
General
1 21 (36.84%) Social Skills
2 10 (17.54%) Finance
3 8 (14.04%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (8.77%) Law
5 4 (7.02%) Public Sector
6 3 (5.26%) Banking
6 3 (5.26%) Local Government
7 2 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (3.51%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.75%) Automotive
8 1 (1.75%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (12.28%) 1st Line Support
1 7 (12.28%) Analyst
2 6 (10.53%) Project Manager
3 5 (8.77%) Platform Engineer
4 3 (5.26%) Administrator
4 3 (5.26%) Deployment Engineer
4 3 (5.26%) Service Analyst
4 3 (5.26%) Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (3.51%) 2nd Line Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (3.51%) Architect
5 2 (3.51%) Banking Project Manager
5 2 (3.51%) Change Manager
5 2 (3.51%) Consultant
5 2 (3.51%) Delivery Manager
5 2 (3.51%) Lead
5 2 (3.51%) Network Engineer
5 2 (3.51%) SC Cleared Deployment Engineer
5 2 (3.51%) Test Analyst
5 2 (3.51%) Transformation Manager
5 2 (3.51%) Transformation Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (12.28%) XMPP
2 1 (1.75%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 10 (17.54%) Product Ownership
2 4 (7.02%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (5.26%) Onboarding
4 2 (3.51%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (3.51%) Data Centre
4 2 (3.51%) Fat Client
4 2 (3.51%) Thin Client
5 1 (1.75%) PKI
5 1 (1.75%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 19 (33.33%) Windows
2 7 (12.28%) Windows 10
3 6 (10.53%) Linux
3 6 (10.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 6 (10.53%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.75%) Solaris
4 1 (1.75%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (28.07%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (21.05%) Service Management
3 11 (19.30%) ITSM
4 10 (17.54%) Migration
4 10 (17.54%) Stakeholder Management
5 9 (15.79%) Acceptance Criteria
5 9 (15.79%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 9 (15.79%) Product Requirements
5 9 (15.79%) User Stories
6 8 (14.04%) Agile
6 8 (14.04%) Identity Access Management
7 7 (12.28%) Change Management
7 7 (12.28%) Customer Service
7 7 (12.28%) Platform Engineering
7 7 (12.28%) Project Management
8 6 (10.53%) Change Control
8 6 (10.53%) Knowledge Management
9 5 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
9 5 (8.77%) Cybersecurity
9 5 (8.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 10 (17.54%) PowerShell
2 8 (14.04%) Bash
2 8 (14.04%) Perl
3 7 (12.28%) Python
4 1 (1.75%) C#
4 1 (1.75%) PL/SQL
4 1 (1.75%) SQL
Qualifications
1 10 (17.54%) SC Cleared
1 10 (17.54%) Security Cleared
2 8 (14.04%) Degree
3 4 (7.02%) CCDP
3 4 (7.02%) CCNA
3 4 (7.02%) CCNP
3 4 (7.02%) Cisco Certification
3 4 (7.02%) DBS Check
4 3 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (3.51%) A+ Certification
5 2 (3.51%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (3.51%) PMI Certification
5 2 (3.51%) PMP
6 1 (1.75%) APMG
6 1 (1.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (1.75%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.02%) GDPR
2 3 (5.26%) QA
2 3 (5.26%) SLA
3 2 (3.51%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.75%) WCAG
System Software
1 17 (29.82%) Active Directory
2 2 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.75%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 4 (7.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 3 (5.26%) SCCM
3 2 (3.51%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.75%) Ansible
4 1 (1.75%) Red Hat Satellite
4 1 (1.75%) SCOM
4 1 (1.75%) SCOrch
4 1 (1.75%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (49.12%) Microsoft
2 9 (15.79%) Cisco
3 7 (12.28%) Citrix
3 7 (12.28%) ServiceNow
4 6 (10.53%) Red Hat
4 6 (10.53%) VMware
5 5 (8.77%) Bomgar
5 5 (8.77%) iManage
6 2 (3.51%) Oracle
6 2 (3.51%) Palo Alto
6 2 (3.51%) Remedy
6 2 (3.51%) SAP
6 2 (3.51%) Zscaler
7 1 (1.75%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.75%) DocuSign
7 1 (1.75%) Epicor
7 1 (1.75%) Veeam