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 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 10 9 10
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 -4
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 325 230 334
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 12.56% 10.91% 12.13%
As % of the General category 20.70% 18.55% 22.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 120 235
10th Percentile £313 £330 £350
25th Percentile £400 £417 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £545
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -8.26% +6.34%
75th Percentile £538 £603 £657
90th Percentile £625 £700 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £536
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.96% -0.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 23
10th Percentile £16.32 £13.93 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £15.69 £14.25
Median hourly rate £41.86 £16.25 £15.42
Median % change year-on-year +157.57% +5.42% -22.93%
75th Percentile £50.52 £23.81 £19.63
90th Percentile £67.25 £29.70 £21.40
England median hourly rate £22.00 £25.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year -12.00% +25.00% +0.63%

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 1,570 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%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 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 -2 202 £450 -10.00% 47
Cheshire +5 51 £430 -8.75% 10
Merseyside -4 32 £510 +4.62% 6
Cumbria -2 17 £537 +7.40% 1
Lancashire -14 10 £455 -15.35% 21
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 7 (2.15%) Confluence
2 4 (1.23%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.62%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 2 (0.62%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.62%) CMS
4 2 (0.62%) OpenStack
4 2 (0.62%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.31%) Apache
5 1 (0.31%) nginx
5 1 (0.31%) SAS
Applications
1 24 (7.38%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.31%) Adobe Premiere
4 1 (0.31%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.31%) Quicktime
4 1 (0.31%) Trello
Business Applications
1 13 (4.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.92%) iTrent
4 2 (0.62%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.31%) SAP EHS
5 1 (0.31%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.31%) SAP HR
5 1 (0.31%) SAP PSCD
5 1 (0.31%) SAP QM
5 1 (0.31%) SAP VC
5 1 (0.31%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 79 (24.31%) Azure
2 67 (20.62%) AWS
3 27 (8.31%) Power Platform
4 25 (7.69%) GCP
5 22 (6.77%) Serverless
6 20 (6.15%) GitHub
6 20 (6.15%) Microsoft 365
7 17 (5.23%) Azure DevOps
8 15 (4.62%) AWS Lambda
9 14 (4.31%) Amazon SQS
10 12 (3.69%) SaaS
11 11 (3.38%) Google Tag Manager
11 11 (3.38%) PowerApps
12 10 (3.08%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (3.08%) Google Analytics
12 10 (3.08%) Power Automate
13 8 (2.46%) Dynamics 365
14 7 (2.15%) Amazon ECS
14 7 (2.15%) Azure AKS
14 7 (2.15%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 19 (5.85%) Firewall
2 11 (3.38%) WAN
3 8 (2.46%) DNS
3 8 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (2.15%) LAN
4 7 (2.15%) VPN
4 7 (2.15%) Wireless
5 5 (1.54%) Cisco ISE
5 5 (1.54%) DHCP
5 5 (1.54%) TCP/IP
6 4 (1.23%) MPLS
6 4 (1.23%) NetScaler
6 4 (1.23%) VLAN
7 3 (0.92%) BGP
7 3 (0.92%) Network Security
7 3 (0.92%) SAN
7 3 (0.92%) SNMP
8 2 (0.62%) Internet
8 2 (0.62%) OSPF
8 2 (0.62%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (5.23%) Power BI
2 14 (4.31%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (3.38%) BigQuery
3 11 (3.38%) Looker
3 11 (3.38%) Redis
4 9 (2.77%) MongoDB
4 9 (2.77%) MySQL
5 8 (2.46%) Relational Database
6 7 (2.15%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (2.15%) DocumentDB
7 5 (1.54%) DynamoDB
7 5 (1.54%) Metadata
7 5 (1.54%) NoSQL
8 4 (1.23%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.92%) Apache Cassandra
9 3 (0.92%) Big Data
9 3 (0.92%) SQL Server
10 2 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.62%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 31 (9.54%) GitLab
2 25 (7.69%) Git
3 12 (3.69%) JIRA
3 12 (3.69%) Postman
4 10 (3.08%) Jenkins
4 10 (3.08%) JUnit
5 9 (2.77%) Cypress.io
5 9 (2.77%) SonarQube
6 7 (2.15%) Cucumber
7 6 (1.85%) CircleCI
7 6 (1.85%) Mocha
8 4 (1.23%) Mockito
8 4 (1.23%) Selenium
9 2 (0.62%) Gradle
9 2 (0.62%) Jasmine
9 2 (0.62%) Maven
9 2 (0.62%) MSI
9 2 (0.62%) SonarLint
10 1 (0.31%) MLflow
10 1 (0.31%) REST Assured
General
1 74 (22.77%) Social Skills
2 38 (11.69%) Finance
3 17 (5.23%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (4.92%) Military
5 14 (4.31%) Manufacturing
6 13 (4.00%) Telecoms
7 11 (3.38%) Local Government
7 11 (3.38%) Marketing
8 10 (3.08%) Electronics
9 6 (1.85%) Banking
9 6 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (1.23%) Legal
12 3 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.62%) Law
14 1 (0.31%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.31%) Digital Health
14 1 (0.31%) Digital Healthcare
Job Titles
1 67 (20.62%) Developer
2 39 (12.00%) Analyst
3 37 (11.38%) Architect
4 34 (10.46%) Senior
5 25 (7.69%) Java Developer
6 23 (7.08%) Lead
7 15 (4.62%) DevOps Engineer
8 13 (4.00%) Full-Stack Developer
8 13 (4.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 13 (4.00%) Technical Architect
9 12 (3.69%) Business Analyst
9 12 (3.69%) Consultant
10 11 (3.38%) AWS Engineer
10 11 (3.38%) Test Engineer
11 10 (3.08%) Designer
11 10 (3.08%) Senior Developer
12 8 (2.46%) Data Architect
12 8 (2.46%) Senior Java Developer
13 7 (2.15%) Security Engineer
13 7 (2.15%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (11.69%) Spring Boot
2 35 (10.77%) Spring
3 26 (8.00%) Node.js
4 19 (5.85%) RESTful
5 18 (5.54%) React
6 15 (4.62%) JSON
6 15 (4.62%) REST
7 14 (4.31%) HTML
8 12 (3.69%) Playwright
9 11 (3.38%) Jest
10 10 (3.08%) AngularJS
11 8 (2.46%) Kafka
12 7 (2.15%) CSS
12 7 (2.15%) Hibernate
12 7 (2.15%) Spring MVC
13 6 (1.85%) HTML5 Canvas
13 6 (1.85%) Spring Security
14 5 (1.54%) JAX-RS
14 5 (1.54%) XML
14 5 (1.54%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (8.31%) Onboarding
2 15 (4.62%) Data Centre
2 15 (4.62%) Product Ownership
3 11 (3.38%) Cloud Native
4 7 (2.15%) Distributed Systems
5 6 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (1.85%) NHS
6 5 (1.54%) Low-Code
6 5 (1.54%) Operational Technology
7 4 (1.23%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.23%) Mobile App
7 4 (1.23%) Public Cloud
8 3 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (0.92%) N-Tier
9 2 (0.62%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.62%) Data Structures
9 2 (0.62%) e-Learning
9 2 (0.62%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.62%) Management Information System
9 2 (0.62%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 17 (5.23%) Windows
2 15 (4.62%) Linux
3 9 (2.77%) Mac OS
4 8 (2.46%) Android
5 7 (2.15%) Windows 10
6 6 (1.85%) Apple iOS
7 5 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.62%) Unix
8 2 (0.62%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.31%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (22.46%) Agile
2 59 (18.15%) CI/CD
2 59 (18.15%) DevOps
3 46 (14.15%) Microservices
4 35 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
4 35 (10.77%) User Experience
5 34 (10.46%) Stakeholder Management
6 33 (10.15%) Problem-Solving
6 33 (10.15%) Test Automation
7 31 (9.54%) Containerisation
8 27 (8.31%) User Research
9 26 (8.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 25 (7.69%) Business Intelligence
11 24 (7.38%) Change Management
11 24 (7.38%) Validation
12 23 (7.08%) Analytics
13 22 (6.77%) Full-Stack Development
14 19 (5.85%) Service Design
15 18 (5.54%) Infrastructure as Code
15 18 (5.54%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 60 (18.46%) Java
2 30 (9.23%) Python
3 26 (8.00%) JavaScript
4 18 (5.54%) TypeScript
5 15 (4.62%) SQL
6 10 (3.08%) PowerShell
7 7 (2.15%) Bash
8 4 (1.23%) C#
8 4 (1.23%) Go
8 4 (1.23%) Perl
9 3 (0.92%) ABAP
9 3 (0.92%) C++
9 3 (0.92%) Ruby
9 3 (0.92%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.62%) C
10 2 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.62%) VB
10 2 (0.62%) VBScript
11 1 (0.31%) Bicep
11 1 (0.31%) Rust
Qualifications
1 174 (53.54%) Security Cleared
2 95 (29.23%) SC Cleared
3 21 (6.46%) BPSS Clearance
4 14 (4.31%) Degree
5 7 (2.15%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.85%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.23%) Azure Certification
8 3 (0.92%) AWS Certification
8 3 (0.92%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.62%) CCNP
9 2 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.62%) CISM
9 2 (0.62%) CISSP
9 2 (0.62%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (0.62%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 2 (0.62%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (14.15%) Accessibility
2 17 (5.23%) Data Quality
3 14 (4.31%) WCAG
4 12 (3.69%) QA
5 9 (2.77%) NIST
6 5 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.54%) SLA
7 4 (1.23%) PMO
8 3 (0.92%) GDPR
8 3 (0.92%) IFRS
9 2 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.62%) IEC 61508
9 2 (0.62%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.62%) ISO 26262
9 2 (0.62%) PSD2
10 1 (0.31%) COBIT
10 1 (0.31%) GRC
10 1 (0.31%) IEC 62304
10 1 (0.31%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.31%) SOC 2
System Software
1 39 (12.00%) Docker
2 9 (2.77%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.62%) BitLocker
4 2 (0.62%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.62%) ISA Server
5 1 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.31%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 37 (11.38%) Kubernetes
2 34 (10.46%) Terraform
3 6 (1.85%) SCCM
4 5 (1.54%) Ansible
4 5 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.92%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.62%) Grafana
6 2 (0.62%) Packer
6 2 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 1 (0.31%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.31%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.31%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.31%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.31%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.31%) Nagios
7 1 (0.31%) Nessus
7 1 (0.31%) Norton AntiVirus
7 1 (0.31%) SELinux
Vendors
1 50 (15.38%) Microsoft
2 29 (8.92%) SAP
3 20 (6.15%) Oracle
4 18 (5.54%) Google
5 17 (5.23%) Cisco
6 15 (4.62%) Virgin Media
7 11 (3.38%) ServiceNow
8 9 (2.77%) Palo Alto
9 8 (2.46%) Apple
10 7 (2.15%) Meraki
11 6 (1.85%) Adobe
11 6 (1.85%) Dell
11 6 (1.85%) VMware
12 5 (1.54%) HP
12 5 (1.54%) Splunk
13 4 (1.23%) Dynatrace
13 4 (1.23%) Red Hat
14 3 (0.92%) F5
14 3 (0.92%) PeopleSoft
14 3 (0.92%) Workday