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 30 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 68 72
Rank change year-on-year -8 +4 +27
Contract jobs citing Legal 108 57 58
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.88% 2.64% 2.36%
As % of the General category 5.49% 4.44% 4.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 47 45
10th Percentile £135 £249 -
25th Percentile £213 £360 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% - -
75th Percentile £538 £573 £600
90th Percentile £600 £693 £850
England median daily rate £525 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 0 5
10th Percentile - - £27.34
25th Percentile - - £52.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 - £55.00
75th Percentile £51.54 - £57.50
90th Percentile £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £43.96 £27.89 £43.50
% change year-on-year +57.62% -35.89% +77.84%

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 general skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 1,966 1,284 1,312
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 52.50% 59.47% 53.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,115 817 784
10th Percentile £250 £270 £289
25th Percentile £400 £384 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £469 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.48% -6.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £585
90th Percentile £650 £680 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £538
% change year-on-year +2.94% -5.12% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 231 112 125
10th Percentile £16.50 £12.84 £15.92
25th Percentile £25.38 £14.73 £16.06
Median hourly rate £35.82 £28.75 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.59% +6.48% +3.85%
75th Percentile £68.67 £49.06 £43.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £70.14 £56.10
England median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +35.15% -34.02% +27.07%

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 30 July 2026.

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 30 July 2026.

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 30 July 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 -27 41 £500 -4.76% 59
Merseyside +10 35 £148 - 16
Cumbria +5 13 £240 +14.29% 3
Lancashire -6 10 £500 - 13
Cheshire -17 9 £550 +22.22% 14
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 18 (16.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (2.78%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.78%) Acrobat
2 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.93%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.93%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 3 (2.78%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.93%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 33 (30.56%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (20.37%) Azure
3 8 (7.41%) Entra ID
4 5 (4.63%) Microsoft Purview
5 4 (3.70%) Microsoft Copilot
6 2 (1.85%) Mimecast
6 2 (1.85%) Power Automate
6 2 (1.85%) Power Platform
6 2 (1.85%) PowerApps
7 1 (0.93%) Dynamics 365
7 1 (0.93%) IaaS
7 1 (0.93%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (9.26%) VPN
2 6 (5.56%) SSL
2 6 (5.56%) Wi-Fi
3 5 (4.63%) Firewall
4 4 (3.70%) TCP/IP
5 3 (2.78%) BGP
5 3 (2.78%) DNS
5 3 (2.78%) VLAN
5 3 (2.78%) WebEx
5 3 (2.78%) Wireless
6 2 (1.85%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (1.85%) LAN
6 2 (1.85%) MPLS
6 2 (1.85%) Network Security
6 2 (1.85%) OSPF
6 2 (1.85%) WAN
6 2 (1.85%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.93%) Kerberos
7 1 (0.93%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.78%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.85%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 3 (2.78%) MSI
General
1 34 (31.48%) Social Skills
2 33 (30.56%) Finance
3 17 (15.74%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (14.81%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (7.41%) Law
5 8 (7.41%) Public Sector
6 5 (4.63%) Banking
7 4 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.78%) Advertising
8 3 (2.78%) Military
8 3 (2.78%) Retail
9 2 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.85%) Marketing
10 1 (0.93%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.93%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.93%) Legal Technology
10 1 (0.93%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 13 (12.04%) 1st Line Support
2 12 (11.11%) Analyst
3 10 (9.26%) Service Analyst
3 10 (9.26%) Service Desk Analyst
4 9 (8.33%) Administrator
4 9 (8.33%) Project Manager
5 6 (5.56%) Senior
6 4 (3.70%) Senior Manager
7 3 (2.78%) 2nd Line Service Desk Analyst
7 3 (2.78%) Applications Packager
7 3 (2.78%) Consultant
7 3 (2.78%) Desktop Engineer
7 3 (2.78%) Lead
7 3 (2.78%) Network Engineer
7 3 (2.78%) Senior Project Manager
8 2 (1.85%) Cloud Engineer
8 2 (1.85%) Data Migration Lead
8 2 (1.85%) IMAC Engineer
8 2 (1.85%) IT Analyst
8 2 (1.85%) SC Cleared Application Packager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.70%) ISPF
1 4 (3.70%) Middleware
2 3 (2.78%) XMPP
3 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (1.85%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.93%) .NET
4 1 (0.93%) JDBC
4 1 (0.93%) OAuth
4 1 (0.93%) OpenID
4 1 (0.93%) REST
4 1 (0.93%) RESTful
4 1 (0.93%) SAML
4 1 (0.93%) Web Services
4 1 (0.93%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (12.96%) Podcast
1 14 (12.96%) Virtual Team
1 14 (12.96%) Web Conferencing
2 5 (4.63%) Operational Technology
3 4 (3.70%) Clustering
3 4 (3.70%) Mainframe
3 4 (3.70%) Product Ownership
4 3 (2.78%) Blackberry
4 3 (2.78%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (2.78%) Fat Client
4 3 (2.78%) Smartphone
4 3 (2.78%) Thin Client
5 2 (1.85%) Data Centre
5 2 (1.85%) Management Information System
5 2 (1.85%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.85%) PKI
5 2 (1.85%) Security Posture
6 1 (0.93%) Algorithms
6 1 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 34 (31.48%) Windows
2 28 (25.93%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.70%) zOS
4 2 (1.85%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.93%) Linux
5 1 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.93%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (27.78%) Customer Service
2 16 (14.81%) Data Protection
2 16 (14.81%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (12.04%) ITIL
4 11 (10.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 10 (9.26%) Migration
6 9 (8.33%) Agile
6 9 (8.33%) AI
6 9 (8.33%) PRINCE2
6 9 (8.33%) Service Management
6 9 (8.33%) Stakeholder Management
7 8 (7.41%) Change Management
7 8 (7.41%) Risk Management
8 7 (6.48%) Application Packaging
8 7 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
8 7 (6.48%) Data Loss Prevention
9 6 (5.56%) Cybersecurity
9 6 (5.56%) Data Governance
9 6 (5.56%) Project Management
10 5 (4.63%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 7 (6.48%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.78%) SQL
3 2 (1.85%) Python
4 1 (0.93%) Bash
4 1 (0.93%) C#
4 1 (0.93%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.93%) Perl
4 1 (0.93%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 22 (20.37%) Security Cleared
2 21 (19.44%) SC Cleared
3 17 (15.74%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (8.33%) Degree
5 4 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
5 4 (3.70%) PMP
6 3 (2.78%) CCNP
6 3 (2.78%) PMI Certification
7 2 (1.85%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.93%) CCDP
8 1 (0.93%) CCIE
8 1 (0.93%) CCNA
8 1 (0.93%) Chartered Engineer
8 1 (0.93%) CISSP
8 1 (0.93%) CREST Certified
8 1 (0.93%) GCFA
8 1 (0.93%) GCIA
8 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (5.56%) GDPR
2 2 (1.85%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.93%) EU AI Act
3 1 (0.93%) GRC
3 1 (0.93%) NCSC
3 1 (0.93%) NIST
3 1 (0.93%) SOC 2
3 1 (0.93%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 28 (25.93%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.70%) RACF
3 2 (1.85%) Firmware
4 1 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 7 (6.48%) SCCM
2 4 (3.70%) OMEGAMON
3 3 (2.78%) McAfee ePO
3 3 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.93%) CASB
Vendors
1 33 (30.56%) Microsoft
2 22 (20.37%) ServiceNow
3 17 (15.74%) iManage
4 12 (11.11%) Bomgar
5 9 (8.33%) Cisco
6 4 (3.70%) Citrix
6 4 (3.70%) IBM
7 3 (2.78%) Adobe
7 3 (2.78%) Intapp
7 3 (2.78%) Juniper
7 3 (2.78%) Litera
7 3 (2.78%) McAfee
7 3 (2.78%) Remedy
8 2 (1.85%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.85%) F5
8 2 (1.85%) Forcepoint
8 2 (1.85%) Fortinet
8 2 (1.85%) HP
8 2 (1.85%) Sophos
9 1 (0.93%) SolarWinds