Service Manager Contract Job Trends in the South West

Services Manager
England > South West

The median Services Manager daily rate in the South West is £575, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 January 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 85 110
Rank change year-on-year -11 +25 +13
Contract jobs requiring a Service Manager 37 38 34
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 1.53% 1.89% 1.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.69% 2.01% 1.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 20 29
10th Percentile £363 £369 £483
25th Percentile £456 £470 £538
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £519 £595
Median % change year-on-year +10.84% -12.82% +25.26%
75th Percentile £613 £590 £625
90th Percentile £619 £622 £650
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% +6.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
Median hourly rate £60.00 - -
England median hourly rate £74.82 £37.00 £71.93
% change year-on-year +102.20% -48.56% -4.09%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South West. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South West with a recognized job title 2,185 1,886 2,757
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.36% 93.92% 94.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,276 1,159 1,786
10th Percentile £230 £213 £225
25th Percentile £403 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £530
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -5.66% +0.95%
75th Percentile £639 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £701 £713
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 126 297
10th Percentile £15.74 £16.85 £18.17
25th Percentile £22.00 £46.56 £45.00
Median hourly rate £44.00 £65.00 £59.68
Median % change year-on-year -32.31% +8.91% -8.18%
75th Percentile £65.00 £69.69 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £73.88 £83.40
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% -22.22% +36.36%

Service Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Service Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Service Manager job vacancy trend in the South West

Service Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South West

Service Manager
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Service Manager in the South West over the 6 months to 3 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Service Manager in the South West

Service Manager
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South West.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Service Manager job vacancies in the South West

Service Manager
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 Service Manager within the South West region over the 6 months to 3 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
Wiltshire -24 22 £600 +9.09% 5
Bristol -6 6 - - 5
Somerset 0 5 £538 +79.17% 2
Gloucestershire -7 4 £350 -25.53%
Service Manager
England

Service Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West

For the 6 months to 3 January 2026, Service Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South West region featuring Service Manager in the job title.

1 27 (72.97%) Security Cleared
2 25 (67.57%) ITIL
2 25 (67.57%) SC Cleared
3 17 (45.95%) Service Delivery
4 14 (37.84%) Service Management
5 11 (29.73%) ITSM
6 10 (27.03%) Service Catalogue
7 6 (16.22%) SLA
7 6 (16.22%) Stakeholder Management
8 5 (13.51%) Continuous Improvement
8 5 (13.51%) Problem Management
8 5 (13.51%) Service Asset and Configuration Management
9 4 (10.81%) Agile
9 4 (10.81%) Change Management
9 4 (10.81%) Configuration Management
9 4 (10.81%) Incident Management
9 4 (10.81%) Performance Metrics
9 4 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
9 4 (10.81%) Service Design
10 3 (8.11%) assyst
10 3 (8.11%) Capacity Planning
10 3 (8.11%) Coaching
10 3 (8.11%) Customer-Centricity
10 3 (8.11%) IFS
10 3 (8.11%) JIRA
10 3 (8.11%) Performance Analysis
10 3 (8.11%) Planning and Forecasting
10 3 (8.11%) Service Delivery Management
10 3 (8.11%) ServiceNow
10 3 (8.11%) Stakeholder Engagement

Service Manager Skill Set
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (2.70%) CMS
Applications
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (8.11%) assyst
2 1 (2.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (2.70%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.41%) GCP
2 1 (2.70%) IaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.70%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (8.11%) JIRA
General
1 9 (24.32%) Public Sector
1 9 (24.32%) Social Skills
2 4 (10.81%) Finance
3 3 (8.11%) Legal
4 2 (5.41%) Military
5 1 (2.70%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.70%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 2 (5.41%) CMDB
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (67.57%) ITIL
2 17 (45.95%) Service Delivery
3 14 (37.84%) Service Management
4 11 (29.73%) ITSM
5 10 (27.03%) Service Catalogue
6 6 (16.22%) Stakeholder Management
7 5 (13.51%) Continuous Improvement
7 5 (13.51%) Problem Management
7 5 (13.51%) Service Asset and Configuration Management
8 4 (10.81%) Agile
8 4 (10.81%) Change Management
8 4 (10.81%) Configuration Management
8 4 (10.81%) Incident Management
8 4 (10.81%) Performance Metrics
8 4 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
8 4 (10.81%) Service Design
9 3 (8.11%) Capacity Planning
9 3 (8.11%) Coaching
9 3 (8.11%) Performance Analysis
9 3 (8.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
Qualifications
1 27 (72.97%) Security Cleared
2 25 (67.57%) SC Cleared
3 1 (2.70%) Degree
3 1 (2.70%) DV Cleared
3 1 (2.70%) ITIL Certification
3 1 (2.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (16.22%) SLA
2 1 (2.70%) PMO
Vendors
1 3 (8.11%) IFS
1 3 (8.11%) ServiceNow
2 2 (5.41%) Google
2 2 (5.41%) Remedy
3 1 (2.70%) Oracle