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 18 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 13 11
Rank change year-on-year -14 -2 -3
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 242 234 246
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.22% 10.71% 10.25%
As % of the General category 12.11% 17.35% 18.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 166 138
10th Percentile £363 £233 £343
25th Percentile £416 £388 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -10.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £638 £562 £627
90th Percentile £734 £659 £688
England median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 8 11
10th Percentile £15.40 £16.11 £16.00
25th Percentile £24.72 £17.30 £17.14
Median hourly rate £25.49 £20.07 £19.18
Median % change year-on-year +27.01% +4.64% +13.83%
75th Percentile £68.16 £32.95 £29.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £67.25 £36.00
England median hourly rate £21.35 £21.40 £23.99
% change year-on-year -0.23% -10.80% +15.45%

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 1,999 1,349 1,342
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 51.35% 61.77% 55.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,120 865 763
10th Percentile £230 £271 £275
25th Percentile £400 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £458 £493
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% -7.20% -1.40%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £585
90th Percentile £681 £688 £675
England median daily rate £525 £500 £538
% change year-on-year +5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 111 80
10th Percentile £14.68 £12.82 £15.99
25th Percentile £23.75 £15.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £24.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.90% -30.00% +55.35%
75th Percentile £63.75 £48.56 £46.51
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £57.55
England median hourly rate £31.16 £25.15 £38.50
% change year-on-year +23.88% -34.68% +29.41%

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 18 September 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 -14 159 £525 +16.67% 278
Cheshire -8 25 £505 +15.43% 16
Merseyside -11 24 £525 +2.94% 31
Lancashire -7 19 £575 +26.37% 35
Cumbria -31 9 £334 -38.53%
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 16 (6.61%) SharePoint
2 9 (3.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.89%) Confluence
4 4 (1.65%) SharePoint 2013
5 3 (1.24%) Apache
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Spark
5 3 (1.24%) SAS
6 2 (0.83%) CMS
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.83%) WordPress
7 1 (0.41%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.41%) nginx
7 1 (0.41%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.41%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.83%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.41%) AutoCAD
2 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.41%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.41%) Navisworks
2 1 (0.41%) ProjectWise
2 1 (0.41%) Revit
2 1 (0.41%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (1.24%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (1.24%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Cash Management
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Payables
2 2 (0.83%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
2 2 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.41%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.41%) Primavera
3 1 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.41%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 54 (22.31%) AWS
2 49 (20.25%) Azure
3 26 (10.74%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (7.44%) SaaS
5 13 (5.37%) OCI
6 10 (4.13%) Google Workspace
6 10 (4.13%) Serverless
7 9 (3.72%) Microsoft Copilot
8 8 (3.31%) Dynamics 365
8 8 (3.31%) Power Platform
9 7 (2.89%) GCP
9 7 (2.89%) GitHub
9 7 (2.89%) Google Drive
10 5 (2.07%) Entra ID
11 4 (1.65%) Amazon EC2
11 4 (1.65%) Amazon S3
11 4 (1.65%) Azure Data Factory
11 4 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (1.65%) GitHub Actions
12 3 (1.24%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.96%) Firewall
2 10 (4.13%) BGP
2 10 (4.13%) OSPF
2 10 (4.13%) Wi-Fi
3 8 (3.31%) BIG-IP
3 8 (3.31%) Ethernet VPN
3 8 (3.31%) SD-WAN
3 8 (3.31%) VXLAN
3 8 (3.31%) WAN
4 7 (2.89%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 6 (2.48%) WLAN
6 4 (1.65%) DNS
7 3 (1.24%) Cisco ASA
7 3 (1.24%) Cisco Firepower
7 3 (1.24%) DKIM
7 3 (1.24%) DMARC
7 3 (1.24%) EIGRP
7 3 (1.24%) HSRP
7 3 (1.24%) IPsec
8 2 (0.83%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (3.72%) Relational Database
2 8 (3.31%) MongoDB
3 7 (2.89%) Oracle Database
4 6 (2.48%) RDBMS
5 4 (1.65%) Metadata
5 4 (1.65%) Oracle Exadata
5 4 (1.65%) Power BI
6 2 (0.83%) Amazon QuickSight
6 2 (0.83%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.83%) DocumentDB
6 2 (0.83%) EDMS
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 2 (0.83%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.41%) Big Data
7 1 (0.41%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.41%) PowerCenter
7 1 (0.41%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 1 (0.41%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (7.44%) GitLab
2 13 (5.37%) JIRA
3 11 (4.55%) Cucumber
4 10 (4.13%) Selenium
5 7 (2.89%) Git
6 6 (2.48%) Jenkins
6 6 (2.48%) REST Assured
7 4 (1.65%) Mockito
8 3 (1.24%) Cypress.io
8 3 (1.24%) JUnit
9 2 (0.83%) Gatling
9 2 (0.83%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.83%) Maven
9 2 (0.83%) Postman
9 2 (0.83%) WebDriver
10 1 (0.41%) Gradle
10 1 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
10 1 (0.41%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.41%) TestNG
10 1 (0.41%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 55 (22.73%) Social Skills
2 43 (17.77%) Military
3 23 (9.50%) Finance
4 15 (6.20%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (5.79%) Local Government
6 5 (2.07%) Police
7 4 (1.65%) Legal
7 4 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.24%) Marketing
9 2 (0.83%) General Ledger
9 2 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.41%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 49 (20.25%) Lead
2 35 (14.46%) Architect
2 35 (14.46%) Senior
3 33 (13.64%) Developer
4 14 (5.79%) Administrator
4 14 (5.79%) Analyst
4 14 (5.79%) Security Architect
5 12 (4.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (4.55%) Business Analyst
6 11 (4.55%) Consultant
6 11 (4.55%) Designer
7 10 (4.13%) Java Developer
7 10 (4.13%) Lead Developer
7 10 (4.13%) Test Engineer
8 9 (3.72%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (3.72%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (3.31%) Lead Architect
9 8 (3.31%) Product Manager
9 8 (3.31%) Senior Developer
9 8 (3.31%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (11.57%) Terraform
2 17 (7.02%) Node.js
3 12 (4.96%) REST
4 9 (3.72%) Kafka
4 9 (3.72%) Spring
4 9 (3.72%) Spring Boot
5 8 (3.31%) OAuth
6 4 (1.65%) AWS CDK
6 4 (1.65%) Django
6 4 (1.65%) OpenID
6 4 (1.65%) Oracle Fusion
6 4 (1.65%) Oracle GoldenGate
6 4 (1.65%) Playwright
7 3 (1.24%) ActiveMQ
7 3 (1.24%) JAX-RS
7 3 (1.24%) Middleware
7 3 (1.24%) Nunjucks
7 3 (1.24%) PySpark
7 3 (1.24%) React
8 2 (0.83%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 15 (6.20%) Cloud Native
2 11 (4.55%) Legacy Systems
3 10 (4.13%) Management Information System
4 7 (2.89%) Data Centre
4 7 (2.89%) NHS
4 7 (2.89%) Product Ownership
5 6 (2.48%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (2.48%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.07%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
6 5 (2.07%) Taxonomies
7 4 (1.65%) Public Cloud
7 4 (1.65%) Replication
8 3 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.24%) Freedom of Information
9 2 (0.83%) CSOC
9 2 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.83%) SCADA
9 2 (0.83%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 15 (6.20%) Linux
2 8 (3.31%) Unix
3 5 (2.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (2.07%) Windows
4 4 (1.65%) AIX
5 2 (0.83%) CentOS
6 1 (0.41%) Android
6 1 (0.41%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.41%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.41%) Mac OS X
6 1 (0.41%) Solaris
6 1 (0.41%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.41%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (21.49%) Agile
2 47 (19.42%) Stakeholder Management
3 40 (16.53%) CI/CD
4 33 (13.64%) DevOps
5 32 (13.22%) Continuous Improvement
6 29 (11.98%) Test Automation
7 28 (11.57%) Migration
8 26 (10.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 23 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
9 23 (9.50%) Infrastructure as Code
9 23 (9.50%) Microservices
10 21 (8.68%) Mentoring
11 20 (8.26%) Roadmaps
11 20 (8.26%) Technical Leadership
12 19 (7.85%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 19 (7.85%) Risk Management
13 17 (7.02%) Software Engineering
14 16 (6.61%) Decision-Making
14 16 (6.61%) ERP
14 16 (6.61%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 27 (11.16%) Java
2 25 (10.33%) JavaScript
3 24 (9.92%) Python
4 12 (4.96%) SQL
5 7 (2.89%) TypeScript
6 5 (2.07%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.65%) Bash
7 4 (1.65%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.83%) PHP
8 2 (0.83%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.41%) Bicep
9 1 (0.41%) C#
9 1 (0.41%) Go
9 1 (0.41%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 114 (47.11%) Security Cleared
2 88 (36.36%) SC Cleared
3 14 (5.79%) BPSS Clearance
4 3 (1.24%) AWS Certification
4 3 (1.24%) Azure Certification
4 3 (1.24%) Degree
5 2 (0.83%) DBS Check
5 2 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.41%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
6 1 (0.41%) DV Cleared
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Certification
6 1 (0.41%) PMI Certification
6 1 (0.41%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.26%) Accessibility
2 12 (4.96%) QA
3 8 (3.31%) PMO
3 8 (3.31%) WCAG
4 7 (2.89%) Data Quality
5 5 (2.07%) GDPR
6 4 (1.65%) NCSC
6 4 (1.65%) NIST
7 2 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 2 (0.83%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.41%) ISO 19650
8 1 (0.41%) SLA
8 1 (0.41%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 18 (7.44%) Docker
2 12 (4.96%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.07%) Oracle RAC
4 1 (0.41%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.41%) Microsoft App-V
4 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (5.37%) Ansible
1 13 (5.37%) Kubernetes
2 5 (2.07%) Data Guard
3 4 (1.65%) Oracle RMAN
4 3 (1.24%) Grafana
4 3 (1.24%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (0.83%) Packer
5 2 (0.83%) SCCM
6 1 (0.41%) Argo
6 1 (0.41%) CASB
6 1 (0.41%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.41%) HAProxy
6 1 (0.41%) Istio
6 1 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.41%) linkerd
6 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle ZFS
6 1 (0.41%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 32 (13.22%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.79%) Oracle
3 11 (4.55%) Palo Alto
4 10 (4.13%) Google
5 8 (3.31%) F5
5 8 (3.31%) ServiceNow
6 7 (2.89%) Arista
6 7 (2.89%) Aruba
7 5 (2.07%) Cisco
8 4 (1.65%) SAP
9 3 (1.24%) CheckPoint
10 2 (0.83%) BeyondTrust
10 2 (0.83%) CyberArk
10 2 (0.83%) Databricks
10 2 (0.83%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.83%) Splunk
10 2 (0.83%) Thycotic
10 2 (0.83%) Trend Micro
11 1 (0.41%) Tanium
11 1 (0.41%) Tenable