Public Sector Contract Job Trends in the North West

Public Sector
England > North West

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Sector in contract job vacancies in the North West. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Sector over the 6 months leading up to 19 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 11 11 10
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 -3
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 269 239 328
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 11.02% 10.31% 12.02%
As % of the General category 17.77% 17.81% 21.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 116 233
10th Percentile £243 £316 £276
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £479 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.96% -8.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £550 £613 £625
90th Percentile £629 £694 £720
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +0.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 11 12
10th Percentile £17.08 £15.90 £14.07
25th Percentile £18.12 £16.03 £15.82
Median hourly rate £21.27 £18.07 £17.93
Median % change year-on-year +17.74% +0.78% -9.83%
75th Percentile £44.94 £29.75 £20.19
90th Percentile £67.25 £36.00 £21.50
England median hourly rate £21.50 £24.18 £21.91
% change year-on-year -11.08% +10.39% +15.29%

All General Skills
North West

Public Sector 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 1,514 1,342 1,503
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 62.05% 57.87% 55.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 981 719 982
10th Percentile £215 £264 £255
25th Percentile £363 £375 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £593
90th Percentile £656 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 146 96 111
10th Percentile £15.18 £16.00 £15.75
25th Percentile £18.26 £18.13 £17.14
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £22.53
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% +44.25% +12.65%
75th Percentile £45.46 £43.26 £45.88
90th Percentile £70.08 £62.50 £61.99
England median hourly rate £25.00 £32.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -21.88% -1.54% +26.41%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Public Sector job vacancy trend in the North West

Public Sector
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Public Sector
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Sector in the North West over the 6 months to 19 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Public Sector in the North West

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Public Sector in the North West over the 6 months to 19 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Public Sector in the North West

Public Sector
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 Public Sector within the North West region over the 6 months to 19 November 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 -2 164 £450 -5.46% 79
Cheshire -9 37 £436 -14.46% 8
Merseyside +6 29 £535 +22.29% 5
Cumbria +8 19 £537 +7.40% 1
Lancashire -16 9 £475 +46.15% 34
Public Sector
England

Public Sector
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 5 (1.86%) Confluence
2 3 (1.12%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.74%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.74%) CMS
3 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.74%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.74%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.37%) nginx
Applications
1 21 (7.81%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.37%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.37%) SPSS
4 1 (0.37%) Stata
4 1 (0.37%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (6.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (1.12%) iTrent
4 1 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.37%) SAP EHS
4 1 (0.37%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.37%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.37%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.37%) SAP PSCD
4 1 (0.37%) SAP QM
4 1 (0.37%) SAP VC
4 1 (0.37%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 62 (23.05%) Azure
2 49 (18.22%) AWS
3 24 (8.92%) Power Platform
4 18 (6.69%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (6.32%) GCP
6 16 (5.95%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (5.20%) SaaS
8 10 (3.72%) PowerApps
8 10 (3.72%) Serverless
9 9 (3.35%) Amazon SQS
9 9 (3.35%) GitHub
9 9 (3.35%) Google Workspace
9 9 (3.35%) Power Automate
9 9 (3.35%) SuccessFactors
10 8 (2.97%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (2.97%) Google Tag Manager
11 7 (2.60%) Entra ID
11 7 (2.60%) Google Analytics
12 6 (2.23%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (1.86%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (5.58%) Firewall
2 10 (3.72%) DNS
3 7 (2.60%) WAN
4 6 (2.23%) DHCP
4 6 (2.23%) Wireless
5 5 (1.86%) LAN
5 5 (1.86%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.86%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (1.49%) DMZ
6 4 (1.49%) VLAN
7 3 (1.12%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.12%) NetScaler
7 3 (1.12%) SAN
7 3 (1.12%) VPN
8 2 (0.74%) BGP
8 2 (0.74%) MPLS
8 2 (0.74%) Network Security
8 2 (0.74%) Skype
9 1 (0.37%) Cisco ASA
9 1 (0.37%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (5.58%) Power BI
2 11 (4.09%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (3.72%) MongoDB
4 9 (3.35%) MySQL
5 8 (2.97%) BigQuery
5 8 (2.97%) Looker
5 8 (2.97%) Redis
6 6 (2.23%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (1.86%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.86%) SQL Server
8 4 (1.49%) Metadata
9 3 (1.12%) Apache Cassandra
9 3 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
9 3 (1.12%) Big Data
9 3 (1.12%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.74%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.74%) RDBMS
10 2 (0.74%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.74%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 16 (5.95%) GitLab
2 13 (4.83%) Git
3 9 (3.35%) JIRA
4 8 (2.97%) Jenkins
4 8 (2.97%) Postman
5 5 (1.86%) Selenium
5 5 (1.86%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.49%) Cucumber
6 4 (1.49%) JUnit
7 3 (1.12%) Cypress.io
7 3 (1.12%) Mockito
8 2 (0.74%) Gradle
8 2 (0.74%) Maven
8 2 (0.74%) SonarLint
9 1 (0.37%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.37%) Gatling
9 1 (0.37%) Hudson
9 1 (0.37%) MLflow
9 1 (0.37%) Rational DOORS
General
1 60 (22.30%) Social Skills
2 35 (13.01%) Finance
3 23 (8.55%) Military
4 14 (5.20%) Local Government
5 13 (4.83%) Analytical Skills
6 12 (4.46%) Telecoms
7 11 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (4.09%) Manufacturing
8 10 (3.72%) Marketing
9 9 (3.35%) Electronics
10 8 (2.97%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.49%) Banking
11 4 (1.49%) Legal
12 3 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.74%) Law
13 2 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.37%) Digital Health
14 1 (0.37%) Digital Healthcare
Job Titles
1 45 (16.73%) Analyst
2 41 (15.24%) Developer
3 28 (10.41%) Architect
3 28 (10.41%) Senior
4 22 (8.18%) Lead
5 16 (5.95%) Consultant
6 14 (5.20%) Business Analyst
6 14 (5.20%) Java Developer
7 12 (4.46%) AWS Engineer
7 12 (4.46%) Technical Architect
8 11 (4.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (3.72%) DevOps Engineer
10 8 (2.97%) Senior Developer
10 8 (2.97%) Software Engineer
11 7 (2.60%) Data Architect
11 7 (2.60%) Project Manager
11 7 (2.60%) Senior Java Developer
11 7 (2.60%) Systems Analyst
11 7 (2.60%) Systems Manager
11 7 (2.60%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (7.06%) Spring Boot
2 16 (5.95%) Spring
3 13 (4.83%) JSON
3 13 (4.83%) RESTful
4 9 (3.35%) Kafka
4 9 (3.35%) Node.js
5 8 (2.97%) HTML
6 7 (2.60%) React
7 6 (2.23%) HTML5 Canvas
8 5 (1.86%) REST
8 5 (1.86%) Spring Security
8 5 (1.86%) Web Services
9 4 (1.49%) AngularJS
9 4 (1.49%) JAX-RS
9 4 (1.49%) jQuery
9 4 (1.49%) Playwright
9 4 (1.49%) POJO
9 4 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
9 4 (1.49%) Thymeleaf
10 3 (1.12%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 16 (5.95%) Onboarding
2 15 (5.58%) Data Centre
3 9 (3.35%) Cloud Native
3 9 (3.35%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (2.60%) NHS
4 7 (2.60%) Product Ownership
4 7 (2.60%) Public Cloud
5 6 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
6 5 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (1.86%) Low-Code
7 4 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.12%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.12%) N-Tier
8 3 (1.12%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.74%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.74%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.74%) Taxonomies
10 1 (0.37%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.37%) Digital Signage
10 1 (0.37%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.32%) Windows
2 13 (4.83%) Linux
3 8 (2.97%) Android
3 8 (2.97%) Mac OS
4 5 (1.86%) Apple iOS
4 5 (1.86%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.74%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.37%) Unix
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Server
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (18.59%) Agile
2 36 (13.38%) DevOps
3 35 (13.01%) CI/CD
4 30 (11.15%) Problem-Solving
5 25 (9.29%) Microservices
6 24 (8.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 23 (8.55%) Business Intelligence
7 23 (8.55%) Continuous Improvement
7 23 (8.55%) Stakeholder Management
8 22 (8.18%) User Experience
9 20 (7.43%) Containerisation
10 18 (6.69%) Analytics
11 17 (6.32%) Test Automation
12 16 (5.95%) Change Management
13 15 (5.58%) Infrastructure as Code
13 15 (5.58%) Mentoring
14 14 (5.20%) Technical Leadership
15 13 (4.83%) Coaching
15 13 (4.83%) End-to-End Testing
15 13 (4.83%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 40 (14.87%) Java
2 26 (9.67%) Python
3 17 (6.32%) SQL
4 8 (2.97%) JavaScript
4 8 (2.97%) PowerShell
5 7 (2.60%) Bash
6 6 (2.23%) TypeScript
7 5 (1.86%) Perl
8 4 (1.49%) C#
8 4 (1.49%) Go
9 3 (1.12%) ABAP
9 3 (1.12%) C++
9 3 (1.12%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (1.12%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.12%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.74%) C
10 2 (0.74%) VB
10 2 (0.74%) VBScript
11 1 (0.37%) Rust
Qualifications
1 147 (54.65%) Security Cleared
2 101 (37.55%) SC Cleared
3 16 (5.95%) BPSS Clearance
4 12 (4.46%) Degree
5 8 (2.97%) ISTQB
6 5 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (1.49%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.49%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (1.12%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.74%) CCNP
9 2 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.37%) APMG
10 1 (0.37%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.37%) CCDP
10 1 (0.37%) CCIE
10 1 (0.37%) CISM
10 1 (0.37%) CISSP
10 1 (0.37%) CTC Cleared
10 1 (0.37%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (0.37%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (8.18%) Accessibility
2 11 (4.09%) Data Quality
3 10 (3.72%) QA
4 7 (2.60%) NIST
5 4 (1.49%) WCAG
6 3 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.12%) PMO
6 3 (1.12%) SLA
7 2 (0.74%) IEC 61508
7 2 (0.74%) ISO 26262
7 2 (0.74%) NCSC
8 1 (0.37%) COBIT
8 1 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.37%) GDPR
8 1 (0.37%) IEC 62304
8 1 (0.37%) ISO 20022
8 1 (0.37%) PSD2
8 1 (0.37%) SEPA
System Software
1 31 (11.52%) Docker
2 8 (2.97%) Active Directory
2 8 (2.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.49%) UAG
4 2 (0.74%) BitLocker
4 2 (0.74%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.37%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.37%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (9.29%) Kubernetes
1 25 (9.29%) Terraform
2 7 (2.60%) SCCM
3 6 (2.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (1.49%) Ansible
5 3 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (1.12%) Packer
6 2 (0.74%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.74%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.74%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.37%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.37%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.37%) Grafana
7 1 (0.37%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.37%) Nessus
7 1 (0.37%) SELinux
7 1 (0.37%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 45 (16.73%) Microsoft
2 32 (11.90%) SAP
3 21 (7.81%) Google
4 15 (5.58%) Oracle
5 13 (4.83%) Cisco
6 9 (3.35%) ServiceNow
6 9 (3.35%) Virgin Media
6 9 (3.35%) VMware
7 7 (2.60%) Apple
7 7 (2.60%) Dell
7 7 (2.60%) HP
8 6 (2.23%) Palo Alto
9 5 (1.86%) Meraki
10 4 (1.49%) Red Hat
11 3 (1.12%) Adobe
11 3 (1.12%) Dynatrace
11 3 (1.12%) LogRhythm
11 3 (1.12%) Pega
11 3 (1.12%) Splunk
11 3 (1.12%) Workday