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 23 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 61 80
Rank change year-on-year -32 +19 +18
Contract jobs citing Legal 58 64 58
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.24% 3.04% 2.11%
As % of the General category 3.69% 5.16% 3.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 52 35
10th Percentile £133 £356 £343
25th Percentile £141 £434 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £285 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -43.00% -4.76% +16.67%
75th Percentile £494 £575 £638
90th Percentile £550 £732 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 9
10th Percentile £43.39 £16.88 £15.11
25th Percentile - £24.82 £23.45
Median hourly rate £74.26 £50.80 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.17% +95.39% +36.84%
75th Percentile - £73.86 £26.66
90th Percentile - £74.39 £39.33
England median hourly rate £18.00 £34.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -47.83% +32.69% +17.33%

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 1,570 1,240 1,503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 60.69% 58.82% 54.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,018 674 963
10th Percentile £195 £263 £256
25th Percentile £350 £360 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £638 £679 £700
England median daily rate £500 £533 £550
% change year-on-year -6.19% -3.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 92 149
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.91 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.69 £19.19 £14.50
Median hourly rate £29.60 £27.44 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.86% +24.74% -
75th Percentile £45.46 £39.63 £43.75
90th Percentile £69.70 £67.86 £50.40
England median hourly rate £23.00 £30.00 £27.00
% change year-on-year -23.33% +11.13% +5.00%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -29 18 £438 -12.50% 51
Merseyside -4 15 £135 -32.50% 12
Lancashire -11 12 £550 +3.29% 23
Cheshire -21 10 £280 -21.35% 17
Cumbria -2 3 £220 -60.00% 2
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 15 (25.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (8.62%) SharePoint
3 2 (3.45%) Confluence
4 1 (1.72%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 3 (5.17%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (5.17%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.45%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (3.45%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.72%) Elite 3E
2 1 (1.72%) Loan IQ
2 1 (1.72%) NetSuite
2 1 (1.72%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (1.72%) SAP BPC
2 1 (1.72%) SAP HCM
2 1 (1.72%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 15 (25.86%) Microsoft 365
2 12 (20.69%) Azure
3 7 (12.07%) Entra ID
4 2 (3.45%) Figma
4 2 (3.45%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.72%) AWS
5 1 (1.72%) Azure Data Factory
5 1 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (1.72%) Azure Logic Apps
5 1 (1.72%) Miro
5 1 (1.72%) OCI
5 1 (1.72%) SaaS
5 1 (1.72%) Slack
5 1 (1.72%) Smartsheet
5 1 (1.72%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 7 (12.07%) WebEx
2 2 (3.45%) BGP
2 2 (3.45%) DNS
2 2 (3.45%) Firewall
2 2 (3.45%) Internet
2 2 (3.45%) IPsec
2 2 (3.45%) Software-Defined Networking
2 2 (3.45%) VLAN
3 1 (1.72%) SSL
3 1 (1.72%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.45%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.72%) EDRMS
2 1 (1.72%) Oracle Database
2 1 (1.72%) Power BI
2 1 (1.72%) RDBMS
2 1 (1.72%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 3 (5.17%) JIRA
General
1 19 (32.76%) Social Skills
2 9 (15.52%) Finance
3 7 (12.07%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (10.34%) Law
5 4 (6.90%) Public Sector
6 3 (5.17%) Local Government
7 2 (3.45%) Banking
7 2 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (3.45%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.72%) Automotive
8 1 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 12 (20.69%) 1st Line Support
2 6 (10.34%) Project Manager
3 5 (8.62%) Analyst
3 5 (8.62%) Platform Engineer
4 3 (5.17%) Administrator
4 3 (5.17%) Deployment Engineer
4 3 (5.17%) Service Analyst
4 3 (5.17%) Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (3.45%) 2nd Line Service Desk Analyst
5 2 (3.45%) Architect
5 2 (3.45%) Banking Project Manager
5 2 (3.45%) Change Manager
5 2 (3.45%) Consultant
5 2 (3.45%) Network Engineer
5 2 (3.45%) SC Cleared Deployment Engineer
5 2 (3.45%) Transformation Manager
5 2 (3.45%) Transformation Project Manager
6 1 (1.72%) Data Engineer
6 1 (1.72%) Digital Transformation
6 1 (1.72%) Digital Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (12.07%) XMPP
2 1 (1.72%) REST
2 1 (1.72%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 11 (18.97%) Product Ownership
2 4 (6.90%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (5.17%) Onboarding
4 2 (3.45%) Data Centre
4 2 (3.45%) Fat Client
4 2 (3.45%) Thin Client
5 1 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.72%) PKI
5 1 (1.72%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 22 (37.93%) Windows
2 10 (17.24%) Windows 10
3 6 (10.34%) Linux
3 6 (10.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 6 (10.34%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.72%) Solaris
4 1 (1.72%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (29.31%) Problem-Solving
2 12 (20.69%) Service Management
2 12 (20.69%) Stakeholder Management
3 11 (18.97%) ITSM
4 10 (17.24%) Customer Service
5 9 (15.52%) Acceptance Criteria
5 9 (15.52%) Digital Transformation Programme
5 9 (15.52%) Product Requirements
5 9 (15.52%) User Stories
6 8 (13.79%) Migration
7 7 (12.07%) Agile
7 7 (12.07%) Identity Access Management
7 7 (12.07%) Platform Engineering
8 6 (10.34%) Change Control
8 6 (10.34%) Knowledge Management
9 5 (8.62%) Change Management
9 5 (8.62%) Continuous Improvement
10 4 (6.90%) Cybersecurity
10 4 (6.90%) Mobile Device Management
10 4 (6.90%) Performance Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 10 (17.24%) PowerShell
2 8 (13.79%) Bash
2 8 (13.79%) Perl
3 7 (12.07%) Python
4 2 (3.45%) SQL
5 1 (1.72%) C#
5 1 (1.72%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 10 (17.24%) SC Cleared
1 10 (17.24%) Security Cleared
2 8 (13.79%) Degree
3 4 (6.90%) CCDP
3 4 (6.90%) CCNA
3 4 (6.90%) CCNP
3 4 (6.90%) Cisco Certification
3 4 (6.90%) DBS Check
4 3 (5.17%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (3.45%) A+ Certification
5 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (3.45%) PMI Certification
5 2 (3.45%) PMP
6 1 (1.72%) APMG
6 1 (1.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (1.72%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.90%) GDPR
2 3 (5.17%) QA
2 3 (5.17%) SLA
3 2 (3.45%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.72%) WCAG
System Software
1 20 (34.48%) Active Directory
2 2 (3.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.72%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 4 (6.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 3 (5.17%) SCCM
3 2 (3.45%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.72%) Ansible
4 1 (1.72%) Red Hat Satellite
4 1 (1.72%) SCOM
4 1 (1.72%) SCOrch
4 1 (1.72%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 30 (51.72%) Microsoft
2 10 (17.24%) ServiceNow
3 9 (15.52%) Cisco
4 8 (13.79%) Bomgar
4 8 (13.79%) iManage
5 7 (12.07%) Citrix
6 6 (10.34%) Red Hat
6 6 (10.34%) VMware
7 3 (5.17%) Oracle
7 3 (5.17%) SAP
8 2 (3.45%) Palo Alto
8 2 (3.45%) Remedy
8 2 (3.45%) Zscaler
9 1 (1.72%) Anaplan
9 1 (1.72%) DocuSign
9 1 (1.72%) Epicor
9 1 (1.72%) HubSpot
9 1 (1.72%) Reuters
9 1 (1.72%) Veeam