NHS Contract Job Trends in Wales

National Health Service (NHS)
UK > Wales

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term NHS in contract job vacancies in Wales. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited NHS over the 6 months leading up to 24 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 19 16
Rank change year-on-year +1 -3 -5
Contract jobs citing NHS 35 22 32
As % of all contract jobs in Wales 6.51% 7.28% 7.84%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 21.47% 19.30% 22.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 22 29
10th Percentile £245 £204 £203
25th Percentile £300 £256 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £310 £309 £425
Median % change year-on-year +0.41% -27.36% +107.32%
75th Percentile £438 £416 £500
90th Percentile £475 £475 £531
UK median daily rate £450 £395 £300
% change year-on-year +13.92% +31.67% -

All Generic Skills
Wales

NHS falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in Wales.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 163 114 141
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Wales 30.30% 37.75% 34.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 82 98
10th Percentile £178 £160 £167
25th Percentile £289 £278 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £400 £490
Median % change year-on-year - -18.37% +15.29%
75th Percentile £475 £486 £531
90th Percentile £650 £600 £572
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 14 7
10th Percentile £17.30 £18.96 -
25th Percentile £21.28 £21.01 £11.75
Median hourly rate £50.00 £33.38 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year +49.81% +147.22% -20.73%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.06 £19.00
90th Percentile £87.50 £45.00 £45.80
UK median hourly rate £45.46 £32.05 £28.13
% change year-on-year +41.84% +13.96% +25.00%

NHS
Job Vacancy Trend in Wales

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing NHS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Wales.

NHS job vacancy trend in Wales

NHS
Daily Rate Trend in Wales

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Wales citing NHS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Wales citing NHS

NHS
Daily Rate Histogram in Wales

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NHS in Wales over the 6 months to 24 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NHS in Wales

NHS
Hourly Rate Trend in Wales

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Wales citing NHS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Wales citing NHS

NHS
Contract Job Locations in Wales

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NHS within the Wales region over the 6 months to 24 April 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
South Wales +5 35 £310 +0.41% 12
NHS
UK

NHS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Wales 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 4 (11.43%) SharePoint
2 1 (2.86%) CMS
Applications
1 1 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 16 (45.71%) Azure
2 9 (25.71%) Power Platform
2 9 (25.71%) PowerApps
3 7 (20.00%) GCP
4 5 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
5 3 (8.57%) Power Automate
6 1 (2.86%) Azure Storage
6 1 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 10 (28.57%) Firewall
2 5 (14.29%) Ethernet VPN
2 5 (14.29%) VXLAN
3 2 (5.71%) BGP
3 2 (5.71%) Cisco ISE
3 2 (5.71%) LAN
4 1 (2.86%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (8.57%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (2.86%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (11.43%) JMeter
General
1 12 (34.29%) Social Skills
2 6 (17.14%) Public Sector
3 4 (11.43%) Digital Health
4 2 (5.71%) Finance
4 2 (5.71%) Military
4 2 (5.71%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 7 (20.00%) Developer
1 7 (20.00%) Lead
2 6 (17.14%) Applications Developer
2 6 (17.14%) Power Apps Developer
3 5 (14.29%) Network Engineer
3 5 (14.29%) Project Manager
4 4 (11.43%) Juniper Engineer
4 4 (11.43%) Performance Test Leader
4 4 (11.43%) Senior
4 4 (11.43%) Senior Network Engineer
4 4 (11.43%) Test Leader
5 3 (8.57%) Analyst
5 3 (8.57%) Architect
5 3 (8.57%) Lead Architect
5 3 (8.57%) Network Architect
6 2 (5.71%) Consultant
6 2 (5.71%) NHS Project Manager
6 2 (5.71%) Test Analyst
6 2 (5.71%) Test Engineer
6 2 (5.71%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (11.43%) .NET
2 2 (5.71%) ADO
2 2 (5.71%) Playwright
3 1 (2.86%) CSS
3 1 (2.86%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (37.14%) Data Centre
2 6 (17.14%) Low-Code
3 2 (5.71%) PMI
3 2 (5.71%) Public Cloud
4 1 (2.86%) Data Structures
4 1 (2.86%) Greenfield Project
4 1 (2.86%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.86%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (40.00%) Migration
2 13 (37.14%) Agile
3 6 (17.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 6 (17.14%) Test Automation
4 5 (14.29%) Defect Management
4 5 (14.29%) DevOps
4 5 (14.29%) Regression Testing
4 5 (14.29%) Test Scripting
5 4 (11.43%) Performance Testing
5 4 (11.43%) Performance Tuning
5 4 (11.43%) Project Management
5 4 (11.43%) Validation
6 3 (8.57%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (8.57%) Functional Testing
6 3 (8.57%) Integration Testing
6 3 (8.57%) Risk Management
6 3 (8.57%) Scenario Testing
6 3 (8.57%) Traceability Matrix
6 3 (8.57%) Translating Business Requirements
6 3 (8.57%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 3 (8.57%) SQL
2 1 (2.86%) Bicep
2 1 (2.86%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 3 (8.57%) PMI Certification
2 2 (5.71%) Degree
2 2 (5.71%) Master's Degree
2 2 (5.71%) Security Cleared
3 1 (2.86%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (5.71%) QA
2 1 (2.86%) Accessibility
2 1 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 1 (2.86%) GDPR
2 1 (2.86%) IASME
2 1 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
Systems Management
1 1 (2.86%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (28.57%) Microsoft
2 7 (20.00%) Google
2 7 (20.00%) Juniper
3 2 (5.71%) Cisco