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 6 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 17 12
Rank change year-on-year +1 -5 -5
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 304 177 286
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 8.91% 8.99% 10.44%
As % of the General category 16.49% 15.21% 19.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 121 176
10th Percentile £353 £313 £325
25th Percentile £400 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.30% -4.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £621
90th Percentile £640 £650 £700
England median daily rate £510 £519 £525
% change year-on-year -1.64% -1.24% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 33
10th Percentile £24.97 - £12.00
25th Percentile - £21.02 £14.50
Median hourly rate £25.38 £21.27 £16.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.32% +32.94% -20.00%
75th Percentile £25.49 £21.52 £21.00
90th Percentile £31.44 - £34.21
England median hourly rate £23.83 £25.08 £22.75
% change year-on-year -4.99% +10.22% +10.44%

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 general skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 1,843 1,164 1,457
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 54.03% 59.15% 53.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,049 737 869
10th Percentile £256 £303 £287
25th Percentile £373 £380 £392
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £585
90th Percentile £644 £675 £669
England median daily rate £515 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -1.90% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 100 200
10th Percentile £16.33 £13.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £25.38 £14.73 £15.00
Median hourly rate £36.00 £29.01 £21.22
Median % change year-on-year +24.10% +36.74% -15.14%
75th Percentile £69.08 £59.48 £37.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £76.38 £51.88
England median hourly rate £32.00 £28.00 £31.00
% change year-on-year +14.29% -9.68% -2.88%

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 6 June 2026.

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 6 June 2026.

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 6 June 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 +7 205 £500 +8.70% 112
Cheshire +5 39 £450 +13.14% 10
Merseyside -6 22 £510 -27.14% 10
Lancashire -2 14 £575 -4.17% 26
Cumbria -15 12 £424 -22.95%
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 20 (6.58%) SharePoint
2 16 (5.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (3.95%) Confluence
4 2 (0.66%) Apache
4 2 (0.66%) CICS
4 2 (0.66%) CMS
4 2 (0.66%) Jupyter
4 2 (0.66%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.33%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.33%) SAS
5 1 (0.33%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.66%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.66%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.33%) Adobe Premiere
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 5 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.66%) Oracle Cash Management
2 2 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.66%) Oracle Payables
2 2 (0.66%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 2 (0.66%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 72 (23.68%) Azure
2 62 (20.39%) AWS
3 39 (12.83%) Microsoft 365
4 20 (6.58%) GitHub
5 18 (5.92%) Microsoft Copilot
6 17 (5.59%) SaaS
7 16 (5.26%) Serverless
8 15 (4.93%) OCI
9 14 (4.61%) Power Platform
10 13 (4.28%) Dynamics 365
10 13 (4.28%) GCP
11 12 (3.95%) Entra ID
11 12 (3.95%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (3.29%) Amazon S3
13 9 (2.96%) Amazon EC2
13 9 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (2.96%) Google Workspace
14 8 (2.63%) AWS Lambda
14 8 (2.63%) OneDrive
14 8 (2.63%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 18 (5.92%) Firewall
2 9 (2.96%) WAN
2 9 (2.96%) Wi-Fi
3 8 (2.63%) BGP
3 8 (2.63%) BIG-IP
3 8 (2.63%) Ethernet VPN
3 8 (2.63%) OSPF
3 8 (2.63%) VXLAN
4 7 (2.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 7 (2.30%) SD-WAN
5 6 (1.97%) DNS
5 6 (1.97%) WLAN
6 4 (1.32%) VPN
7 3 (0.99%) DKIM
7 3 (0.99%) DMARC
8 2 (0.66%) LAN
8 2 (0.66%) MPLS
8 2 (0.66%) SNMP
8 2 (0.66%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.66%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (4.93%) MongoDB
2 7 (2.30%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.97%) DocumentDB
4 5 (1.64%) Oracle Database
4 5 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.32%) Metadata
5 4 (1.32%) Power BI
5 4 (1.32%) RDBMS
5 4 (1.32%) Tableau
6 3 (0.99%) MySQL
6 3 (0.99%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.99%) SQL Server
7 2 (0.66%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.66%) Data Mining
7 2 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.66%) DataStage
7 2 (0.66%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 2 (0.66%) Oracle Exadata
7 2 (0.66%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.33%) Looker
Development Applications
1 37 (12.17%) GitLab
2 19 (6.25%) JIRA
3 13 (4.28%) Git
4 10 (3.29%) Cypress.io
5 9 (2.96%) Selenium
6 8 (2.63%) Cucumber
6 8 (2.63%) Jenkins
6 8 (2.63%) JUnit
6 8 (2.63%) Mocha
7 7 (2.30%) CircleCI
7 7 (2.30%) Mockito
8 5 (1.64%) Postman
9 4 (1.32%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.99%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.66%) Gatling
11 2 (0.66%) JDeveloper
11 2 (0.66%) JMeter
11 2 (0.66%) WebDriver
12 1 (0.33%) Axure RP
12 1 (0.33%) Serenity BDD
General
1 66 (21.71%) Social Skills
2 29 (9.54%) Finance
3 28 (9.21%) Military
4 23 (7.57%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (4.61%) Local Government
6 8 (2.63%) Banking
6 8 (2.63%) Legal
7 6 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.66%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.66%) Digital Economy
10 2 (0.66%) General Ledger
10 2 (0.66%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.66%) Marketing
11 1 (0.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.33%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 69 (22.70%) Developer
2 43 (14.14%) Lead
3 42 (13.82%) Senior
4 30 (9.87%) Architect
4 30 (9.87%) Java Developer
5 21 (6.91%) Analyst
6 16 (5.26%) Designer
6 16 (5.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 15 (4.93%) Lead Developer
7 15 (4.93%) Software Developer
7 15 (4.93%) Tester
8 14 (4.61%) Senior Developer
9 13 (4.28%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (3.95%) Business Analyst
10 12 (3.95%) Test Engineer
11 11 (3.62%) Full-Stack Developer
11 11 (3.62%) Technical Architect
12 10 (3.29%) Administrator
12 10 (3.29%) Lead Architect
12 10 (3.29%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.87%) Spring
2 28 (9.21%) Node.js
2 28 (9.21%) Spring Boot
3 18 (5.92%) REST
4 14 (4.61%) Kafka
4 14 (4.61%) React
5 11 (3.62%) Playwright
6 10 (3.29%) Jest
7 9 (2.96%) OAuth
8 7 (2.30%) RESTful
9 6 (1.97%) ActiveMQ
9 6 (1.97%) CSS
9 6 (1.97%) HTML
9 6 (1.97%) JAX-RS
10 5 (1.64%) AngularJS
10 5 (1.64%) OpenID
11 4 (1.32%) Nunjucks
12 3 (0.99%) ARM Templates
12 3 (0.99%) Swagger
12 3 (0.99%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.57%) Cloud Native
2 18 (5.92%) Product Ownership
3 12 (3.95%) Onboarding
4 11 (3.62%) Data Centre
5 9 (2.96%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.96%) Operational Technology
6 7 (2.30%) Management Information System
7 6 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
7 6 (1.97%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.64%) NHS
8 5 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
9 4 (1.32%) Mobile App
10 3 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (0.99%) Freedom of Information
10 3 (0.99%) Housing Association
10 3 (0.99%) Replication
11 2 (0.66%) BYOD
11 2 (0.66%) Private Cloud
11 2 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 20 (6.58%) Linux
2 12 (3.95%) Unix
2 12 (3.95%) Windows
3 6 (1.97%) Mac OS X
4 4 (1.32%) AIX
5 3 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.99%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.66%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.66%) Solaris
7 1 (0.33%) Android
7 1 (0.33%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.33%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (31.58%) Agile
2 66 (21.71%) CI/CD
3 61 (20.07%) DevOps
4 47 (15.46%) Continuous Improvement
5 45 (14.80%) Microservices
5 45 (14.80%) Test Automation
6 31 (10.20%) Stakeholder Management
7 30 (9.87%) Migration
8 29 (9.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 29 (9.54%) User Experience
9 25 (8.22%) Infrastructure as Code
9 25 (8.22%) Problem-Solving
10 22 (7.24%) Mentoring
10 22 (7.24%) Roadmaps
11 21 (6.91%) Containerisation
11 21 (6.91%) Technical Leadership
11 21 (6.91%) User Research
12 20 (6.58%) Cybersecurity
13 19 (6.25%) Digital Transformation Programme
14 18 (5.92%) UX Design
Programming Languages
1 58 (19.08%) Java
2 34 (11.18%) JavaScript
3 22 (7.24%) Python
4 21 (6.91%) TypeScript
5 17 (5.59%) SQL
6 10 (3.29%) PowerShell
7 3 (0.99%) PL/SQL
8 2 (0.66%) COBOL
8 2 (0.66%) Go
8 2 (0.66%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.33%) Bash
9 1 (0.33%) C#
9 1 (0.33%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.33%) ProC
9 1 (0.33%) Ruby
9 1 (0.33%) Scala
9 1 (0.33%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 140 (46.05%) Security Cleared
2 78 (25.66%) SC Cleared
3 16 (5.26%) Degree
4 15 (4.93%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (1.32%) Azure Certification
7 3 (0.99%) Master's Degree
8 2 (0.66%) CCNA
8 2 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.66%) DBS Check
8 2 (0.66%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.66%) ISTQB
8 2 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (0.66%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 2 (0.66%) MBA
8 2 (0.66%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.66%) PMP
9 1 (0.33%) IBM Certification
9 1 (0.33%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (13.82%) Accessibility
2 18 (5.92%) WCAG
3 11 (3.62%) Data Quality
4 10 (3.29%) QA
5 8 (2.63%) NIST
5 8 (2.63%) PMO
6 7 (2.30%) GDPR
7 4 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (1.32%) SLA
8 2 (0.66%) GRC
8 2 (0.66%) IFRS
8 2 (0.66%) IFRS 17
8 2 (0.66%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.33%) Basel III
9 1 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.33%) NCSC
9 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.33%) PSD2
9 1 (0.33%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.33%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 30 (9.87%) Docker
2 22 (7.24%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.66%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.66%) Oracle RAC
3 2 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.33%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.33%) GPFS
4 1 (0.33%) NFS
4 1 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.33%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 42 (13.82%) Terraform
2 28 (9.21%) Kubernetes
3 14 (4.61%) Ansible
4 6 (1.97%) Grafana
5 4 (1.32%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.66%) Cisco CUCM
7 2 (0.66%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.66%) Oracle RMAN
7 2 (0.66%) SCCM
8 1 (0.33%) Argo
8 1 (0.33%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.33%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.33%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.33%) Nagios
8 1 (0.33%) Norton AntiVirus
8 1 (0.33%) VxRail
Vendors
1 51 (16.78%) Microsoft
2 14 (4.61%) Oracle
3 11 (3.62%) Google
4 9 (2.96%) Aruba
4 9 (2.96%) Palo Alto
5 8 (2.63%) F5
5 8 (2.63%) ServiceNow
6 7 (2.30%) Arista
6 7 (2.30%) SAP
7 6 (1.97%) Virgin Media
8 5 (1.64%) Cisco
8 5 (1.64%) PeopleSoft
9 4 (1.32%) IBM
9 4 (1.32%) VMware
10 2 (0.66%) CyberArk
10 2 (0.66%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.66%) Fortinet
10 2 (0.66%) Salesforce
10 2 (0.66%) SolarWinds
10 2 (0.66%) Trend Micro