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 5 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Nov 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 12 12 9
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 -2
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 260 230 329
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 10.82% 9.79% 11.98%
As % of the General category 17.74% 16.96% 21.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 193 113 233
10th Percentile £215 £321 £265
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% +5.53%
75th Percentile £550 £638 £625
90th Percentile £626 £710 £720
England median daily rate £500 £520 £540
% change year-on-year -3.85% -3.70% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 10 12
10th Percentile £16.75 £15.86 £14.07
25th Percentile £17.75 £16.06 £15.82
Median hourly rate £21.27 £18.07 £17.93
Median % change year-on-year +17.74% +0.78% -10.38%
75th Percentile £44.94 £29.88 £20.19
90th Percentile £67.25 £36.40 £21.50
England median hourly rate £21.40 £24.09 £22.29
% change year-on-year -11.15% +8.05% +12.15%

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 1,466 1,356 1,502
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 61.03% 57.70% 54.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 951 729 984
10th Percentile £215 £266 £256
25th Percentile £365 £380 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £594
90th Percentile £669 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 91 113
10th Percentile £13.61 £16.00 £15.14
25th Percentile £17.30 £18.13 £16.70
Median hourly rate £29.44 £32.50 £22.53
Median % change year-on-year -9.43% +44.25% +0.13%
75th Percentile £45.46 £43.43 £45.88
90th Percentile £70.11 £65.00 £61.09
England median hourly rate £25.00 £31.97 £30.48
% change year-on-year -21.80% +4.91% +18.53%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 0 163 £445 -8.72% 102
Cheshire -10 34 £438 -15.46% 23
Merseyside +3 24 £510 +20.00% 9
Cumbria +5 19 £537 +7.40%
Lancashire -14 9 £475 +11.76% 43
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 (1.92%) Confluence
2 3 (1.15%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.77%) OpenStack
3 2 (0.77%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.38%) CMS
4 1 (0.38%) IIS
4 1 (0.38%) nginx
Applications
1 20 (7.69%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.38%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.38%) SPSS
4 1 (0.38%) Stata
4 1 (0.38%) Trello
Business Applications
1 16 (6.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.77%) iTrent
4 1 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.38%) SAP EHS
4 1 (0.38%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.38%) SAP QM
4 1 (0.38%) SAP VC
4 1 (0.38%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 58 (22.31%) Azure
2 47 (18.08%) AWS
3 23 (8.85%) Power Platform
4 18 (6.92%) Microsoft 365
5 16 (6.15%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (5.38%) GCP
6 14 (5.38%) SaaS
7 10 (3.85%) PowerApps
8 9 (3.46%) Power Automate
8 9 (3.46%) Serverless
8 9 (3.46%) SuccessFactors
9 8 (3.08%) Amazon SQS
9 8 (3.08%) Google Workspace
10 7 (2.69%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (2.69%) Entra ID
10 7 (2.69%) GitHub
11 6 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (2.31%) Google Tag Manager
12 5 (1.92%) Azure AKS
12 5 (1.92%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (5.38%) Firewall
2 11 (4.23%) DNS
3 7 (2.69%) DHCP
4 6 (2.31%) WAN
4 6 (2.31%) Wireless
5 5 (1.92%) TCP/IP
5 5 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (1.54%) DMZ
6 4 (1.54%) LAN
6 4 (1.54%) VLAN
7 3 (1.15%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.15%) NetScaler
7 3 (1.15%) SAN
7 3 (1.15%) VPN
8 2 (0.77%) BGP
8 2 (0.77%) Skype
9 1 (0.38%) 5G
9 1 (0.38%) MPLS
9 1 (0.38%) NX-OS
9 1 (0.38%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.38%) Power BI
2 10 (3.85%) MongoDB
3 9 (3.46%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (2.69%) BigQuery
4 7 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 7 (2.69%) MySQL
4 7 (2.69%) Redis
5 6 (2.31%) Looker
6 5 (1.92%) SQL Server
7 4 (1.54%) Metadata
8 3 (1.15%) Apache Cassandra
8 3 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
8 3 (1.15%) Big Data
8 3 (1.15%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.15%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.77%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.77%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.77%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.77%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 14 (5.38%) GitLab
2 9 (3.46%) Git
2 9 (3.46%) JIRA
3 7 (2.69%) Jenkins
4 6 (2.31%) Postman
5 5 (1.92%) Selenium
6 4 (1.54%) JUnit
6 4 (1.54%) SonarQube
7 3 (1.15%) Cucumber
7 3 (1.15%) Cypress.io
7 3 (1.15%) Mockito
8 2 (0.77%) Gradle
8 2 (0.77%) Maven
8 2 (0.77%) SonarLint
9 1 (0.38%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.38%) Gatling
9 1 (0.38%) JMeter
9 1 (0.38%) MLflow
9 1 (0.38%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.38%) REST Assured
General
1 58 (22.31%) Social Skills
2 32 (12.31%) Finance
3 22 (8.46%) Military
4 13 (5.00%) Local Government
5 12 (4.62%) Telecoms
6 11 (4.23%) Analytical Skills
6 11 (4.23%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (4.23%) Manufacturing
7 10 (3.85%) Marketing
8 9 (3.46%) Electronics
9 8 (3.08%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.54%) Legal
11 3 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.77%) Banking
12 2 (0.77%) Law
12 2 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.38%) Digital Health
13 1 (0.38%) Digital Healthcare
13 1 (0.38%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 43 (16.54%) Analyst
2 35 (13.46%) Developer
3 27 (10.38%) Architect
4 25 (9.62%) Senior
5 21 (8.08%) Lead
6 15 (5.77%) Consultant
7 14 (5.38%) Business Analyst
8 12 (4.62%) AWS Engineer
8 12 (4.62%) Technical Architect
9 11 (4.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (4.23%) Java Developer
10 10 (3.85%) DevOps Engineer
11 8 (3.08%) Software Engineer
12 7 (2.69%) Data Architect
12 7 (2.69%) Payroll Manager
12 7 (2.69%) Project Manager
12 7 (2.69%) Senior Developer
12 7 (2.69%) Senior Java Developer
12 7 (2.69%) Systems Analyst
12 7 (2.69%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (5.77%) Spring Boot
2 12 (4.62%) JSON
2 12 (4.62%) Spring
3 10 (3.85%) RESTful
4 9 (3.46%) Kafka
5 8 (3.08%) Node.js
6 7 (2.69%) HTML
7 6 (2.31%) HTML5 Canvas
7 6 (2.31%) React
8 5 (1.92%) Web Services
9 4 (1.54%) AngularJS
9 4 (1.54%) jQuery
9 4 (1.54%) Playwright
9 4 (1.54%) POJO
9 4 (1.54%) REST
9 4 (1.54%) Thymeleaf
10 3 (1.15%) 802.1X
10 3 (1.15%) Dropwizard
10 3 (1.15%) Micronaut
10 3 (1.15%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 15 (5.77%) Data Centre
1 15 (5.77%) Onboarding
2 9 (3.46%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (3.08%) Cloud Native
4 7 (2.69%) NHS
4 7 (2.69%) Product Ownership
5 6 (2.31%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (2.31%) Public Cloud
6 5 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
6 5 (1.92%) Low-Code
7 4 (1.54%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.15%) Data Structures
8 3 (1.15%) N-Tier
8 3 (1.15%) Operational Technology
9 2 (0.77%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.77%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (0.77%) Taxonomies
10 1 (0.38%) Digital Signage
10 1 (0.38%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.38%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.54%) Windows
2 13 (5.00%) Linux
3 7 (2.69%) Android
3 7 (2.69%) Mac OS
4 5 (1.92%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.54%) Apple iOS
5 4 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.77%) Windows 7
6 2 (0.77%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.38%) Unix
7 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (17.31%) Agile
2 35 (13.46%) DevOps
3 31 (11.92%) CI/CD
4 24 (9.23%) Problem-Solving
4 24 (9.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 22 (8.46%) Business Intelligence
5 22 (8.46%) Continuous Improvement
6 21 (8.08%) Microservices
6 21 (8.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 20 (7.69%) User Experience
8 17 (6.54%) Containerisation
9 15 (5.77%) Analytics
9 15 (5.77%) Change Management
9 15 (5.77%) Infrastructure as Code
9 15 (5.77%) Mentoring
10 14 (5.38%) Test Automation
11 13 (5.00%) Coaching
11 13 (5.00%) Software Engineering
11 13 (5.00%) Technical Leadership
12 12 (4.62%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 35 (13.46%) Java
2 26 (10.00%) Python
3 17 (6.54%) SQL
4 8 (3.08%) JavaScript
4 8 (3.08%) PowerShell
5 7 (2.69%) Bash
6 6 (2.31%) TypeScript
7 5 (1.92%) Perl
8 4 (1.54%) C#
8 4 (1.54%) Go
9 3 (1.15%) C++
9 3 (1.15%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (1.15%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.15%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.77%) ABAP
10 2 (0.77%) C
10 2 (0.77%) VB
10 2 (0.77%) VBScript
11 1 (0.38%) Rust
Qualifications
1 140 (53.85%) Security Cleared
2 98 (37.69%) SC Cleared
3 15 (5.77%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (3.46%) Degree
5 8 (3.08%) ISTQB
6 4 (1.54%) DV Cleared
6 4 (1.54%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.15%) Azure Certification
8 2 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.38%) APMG
9 1 (0.38%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.38%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 1 (0.38%) CCDP
9 1 (0.38%) CCNP
9 1 (0.38%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.38%) CISM
9 1 (0.38%) CISSP
9 1 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
9 1 (0.38%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 1 (0.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (8.08%) Accessibility
2 10 (3.85%) Data Quality
3 8 (3.08%) QA
4 7 (2.69%) NIST
5 5 (1.92%) SLA
6 4 (1.54%) WCAG
7 3 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.15%) PMO
8 2 (0.77%) IEC 61508
8 2 (0.77%) ISO 26262
8 2 (0.77%) NCSC
9 1 (0.38%) COBIT
9 1 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.38%) GDPR
9 1 (0.38%) IEC 62304
System Software
1 27 (10.38%) Docker
2 9 (3.46%) Active Directory
2 9 (3.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (1.54%) UAG
4 2 (0.77%) BitLocker
4 2 (0.77%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.77%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.38%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (9.62%) Terraform
2 21 (8.08%) Kubernetes
3 7 (2.69%) SCCM
4 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.54%) Ansible
6 3 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (1.15%) Packer
7 2 (0.77%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Clustering
7 2 (0.77%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.77%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.77%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.38%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.38%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.38%) Grafana
8 1 (0.38%) Nessus
8 1 (0.38%) NetApp OnCommand
8 1 (0.38%) SELinux
8 1 (0.38%) vMotion
8 1 (0.38%) WSUS
Vendors
1 44 (16.92%) Microsoft
2 29 (11.15%) SAP
3 18 (6.92%) Google
4 12 (4.62%) Cisco
5 11 (4.23%) Oracle
6 10 (3.85%) VMware
7 8 (3.08%) ServiceNow
7 8 (3.08%) Virgin Media
8 7 (2.69%) Apple
8 7 (2.69%) Dell
8 7 (2.69%) HP
9 5 (1.92%) Palo Alto
10 4 (1.54%) Meraki
10 4 (1.54%) Red Hat
11 3 (1.15%) Dynatrace
11 3 (1.15%) LogRhythm
11 3 (1.15%) Pega
12 2 (0.77%) Gigya
12 2 (0.77%) SolarWinds
12 2 (0.77%) Workday
143 Public Sector jobs in the North West