PHP Contract Job Trends in the South West

PHP
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring PHP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 109 128
Rank change year-on-year -21 +19 +22
Contract jobs citing PHP 12 5 28
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.42% 0.30% 0.87%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.68% 1.03% 4.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 4 22
10th Percentile £323 £352 £213
25th Percentile £519 £353 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £355 £350
Median % change year-on-year +53.74% +1.29% -22.22%
75th Percentile £598 £363 £422
90th Percentile £706 £378 £533
England median daily rate £440 £401 £400
% change year-on-year +9.66% +0.31% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £49.13
25th Percentile - - £49.69
Median hourly rate - - £53.75
75th Percentile - - £57.19
90th Percentile - - £57.38
England median hourly rate - £34.75 £31.88
% change year-on-year - +9.02% -60.16%

All Programming Languages
South West

PHP falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills in the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 714 484 670
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 24.83% 28.91% 20.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 307 450
10th Percentile £350 £355 £325
25th Percentile £413 £429 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £535 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.06% +1.90% -
75th Percentile £592 £625 £675
90th Percentile £714 £688 £706
England median daily rate £506 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -3.71% -2.78% -6.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 51 77
10th Percentile £54.44 £61.25 £40.00
25th Percentile £61.25 £62.00 £48.47
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year - +4.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile - £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £68.75 -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%

PHP
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PHP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

PHP job vacancy trend in the South West

PHP
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing PHP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing PHP

PHP
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PHP in the South West over the 6 months to 9 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PHP in the South West

PHP
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing PHP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing PHP

PHP
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PHP within the South West region over the 6 months to 9 March 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
Wiltshire - 10 £556 - 7
Bristol -17 1 £350 -1.27% 11
Gloucestershire - 1 £300 - 7
PHP
England

PHP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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:

Applications
1 6 (50.00%) Microsoft Office
Communications & Networking
1 4 (33.33%) BGP
1 4 (33.33%) Cisco ASA
1 4 (33.33%) Cisco IOS
1 4 (33.33%) MPLS
1 4 (33.33%) Network Security
1 4 (33.33%) TACACS
1 4 (33.33%) VPN
General
1 10 (83.33%) Public Sector
2 6 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (50.00%) Social Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Military
Job Titles
1 9 (75.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 6 (50.00%) Automation Engineer
3 4 (33.33%) Security Engineer
4 3 (25.00%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
5 1 (8.33%) Developer
5 1 (8.33%) Full-Stack Developer
5 1 (8.33%) Full-Stack Engineer
5 1 (8.33%) Network Engineer
5 1 (8.33%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (41.67%) REST
1 5 (41.67%) SOAP
1 5 (41.67%) Web Services
2 4 (33.33%) LDAP
3 1 (8.33%) .NET
3 1 (8.33%) Laravel
3 1 (8.33%) Next.js
3 1 (8.33%) React
3 1 (8.33%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 4 (33.33%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 5 (41.67%) Linux
2 4 (33.33%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (75.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 6 (50.00%) Agile
2 6 (50.00%) Critical Thinking
2 6 (50.00%) Deployment Automation
2 6 (50.00%) Infrastructure Automation
3 4 (33.33%) Cybersecurity
3 4 (33.33%) Penetration Testing
4 3 (25.00%) Analytical Thinking
4 3 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (25.00%) Waterfall
5 2 (16.67%) Computer Science
5 2 (16.67%) Full-Stack Development
5 2 (16.67%) Service Management
5 2 (16.67%) System Testing
6 1 (8.33%) AI
6 1 (8.33%) CI/CD
6 1 (8.33%) Clean Code
6 1 (8.33%) Containerisation
6 1 (8.33%) Infrastructure as Code
6 1 (8.33%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 6 (50.00%) JavaScript
1 6 (50.00%) Python
2 2 (16.67%) PowerShell
3 1 (8.33%) Bash
3 1 (8.33%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (83.33%) SC Cleared
1 10 (83.33%) Security Cleared
2 4 (33.33%) APMG
2 4 (33.33%) CompTIA Security+
2 4 (33.33%) DV Cleared
2 4 (33.33%) GIAC
2 4 (33.33%) SSCP
3 3 (25.00%) Degree
3 3 (25.00%) GSEC
4 2 (16.67%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (33.33%) Cyber Essentials
1 4 (33.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
1 4 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 4 (33.33%) NIST
2 1 (8.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 4 (33.33%) VMware ESXi
1 4 (33.33%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (8.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (33.33%) vCenter Server
2 3 (25.00%) SCOM
3 1 (8.33%) Ansible
3 1 (8.33%) Kubernetes
3 1 (8.33%) Terraform
Vendors
1 4 (33.33%) Cisco
1 4 (33.33%) VMware
2 3 (25.00%) Microsoft