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 29 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 23 12
Rank change year-on-year -1 -11 +9
Contract jobs citing NHS 31 18 40
As % of all contract jobs in Wales 5.10% 5.10% 9.50%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 16.58% 14.88% 23.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 18 34
10th Percentile £300 £226 £129
25th Percentile £304 £265 £172
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £305 £425
Median % change year-on-year +6.39% -28.12% +107.32%
75th Percentile £355 £357 £500
90th Percentile £475 £479 £531
UK median daily rate £464 £425 £350
% change year-on-year +9.06% +21.43% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 5
Median hourly rate - - £25.60
UK median hourly rate £26.72 £21.25 £17.68
% change year-on-year +25.74% +20.23% +4.90%

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 187 121 171
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Wales 30.76% 34.28% 40.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 77 112
10th Percentile £256 £180 £144
25th Percentile £325 £266 £268
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £375 £500
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -25.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £525 £469 £550
90th Percentile £713 £526 £587
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 14 16
10th Percentile £22.65 £13.08 £11.75
25th Percentile £31.00 £14.44 £17.11
Median hourly rate £43.96 £20.50 £24.33
Median % change year-on-year +114.44% -15.74% +42.53%
75th Percentile £50.00 £20.95 £25.60
90th Percentile - £22.29 £40.63
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £29.75 £41.13
% change year-on-year +47.76% -27.66% +15.85%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 +2 31 £325 +6.39% 16
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 3 (9.68%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 1 (3.23%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 22 (70.97%) Azure
2 15 (48.39%) Power Platform
3 11 (35.48%) PowerApps
4 6 (19.35%) Azure DevOps
4 6 (19.35%) GCP
5 3 (9.68%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (3.23%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (3.23%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 2 (6.45%) Cisco ISE
1 2 (6.45%) Firewall
1 2 (6.45%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (16.13%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (6.45%) Power BI
2 2 (6.45%) SQL Server
2 2 (6.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (3.23%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 4 (12.90%) JMeter
General
1 9 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 2 (6.45%) Digital Health
2 2 (6.45%) Military
2 2 (6.45%) Public Sector
3 1 (3.23%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (25.81%) Lead
2 5 (16.13%) Analyst
2 5 (16.13%) Developer
3 4 (12.90%) Applications Developer
3 4 (12.90%) Lead DevOps
3 4 (12.90%) Performance Test Leader
3 4 (12.90%) Power Apps Developer
3 4 (12.90%) Test Leader
4 3 (9.68%) Test Engineer
5 2 (6.45%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 2 (6.45%) Data Engineer
5 2 (6.45%) Digital User Researcher
5 2 (6.45%) Security Analyst
5 2 (6.45%) Test Analyst
5 2 (6.45%) User Researcher
6 1 (3.23%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 1 (3.23%) DevOps Engineer
6 1 (3.23%) DevOps Manager
6 1 (3.23%) Governance Manager
6 1 (3.23%) Power BI Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (16.13%) ADO
2 4 (12.90%) .NET
3 3 (9.68%) Playwright
4 1 (3.23%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (19.35%) Data Centre
2 4 (12.90%) Low-Code
3 1 (3.23%) Data Structures
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (35.48%) Migration
2 10 (32.26%) Test Automation
3 9 (29.03%) DevOps
4 8 (25.81%) Agile
5 6 (19.35%) CI/CD
5 6 (19.35%) Defect Management
5 6 (19.35%) Regression Testing
5 6 (19.35%) Test Scripting
5 6 (19.35%) Validation
6 5 (16.13%) Incident Response
6 5 (16.13%) Technical Leadership
7 4 (12.90%) Performance Testing
7 4 (12.90%) Performance Tuning
7 4 (12.90%) Platform Engineering
7 4 (12.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (12.90%) Translating Business Requirements
7 4 (12.90%) Workflow
8 3 (9.68%) Analytics
8 3 (9.68%) Integration Testing
8 3 (9.68%) Manual Testing
Programming Languages
1 5 (16.13%) SQL
2 2 (6.45%) Python
2 2 (6.45%) T-SQL
3 1 (3.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 2 (6.45%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (6.45%) QA
2 1 (3.23%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (3.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 1 (3.23%) GDPR
2 1 (3.23%) IASME
2 1 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 1 (3.23%) Docker
Systems Management
1 4 (12.90%) Terraform
2 2 (6.45%) Nessus
3 1 (3.23%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 14 (45.16%) Microsoft
2 6 (19.35%) Google
3 2 (6.45%) Cisco