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 1 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 19 23
Rank change year-on-year -4 +4 +6
Contract jobs citing NHS 26 30 28
As % of all contract jobs in Wales 5.66% 7.44% 6.57%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 18.71% 21.43% 21.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 21 26
10th Percentile £187 £162 £174
25th Percentile £211 £196 £195
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £300 £250 £207
Median % change year-on-year +20.10% +20.63% -17.92%
75th Percentile £330 £388 £298
90th Percentile £415 £438 £341
UK median daily rate £425 £363 £280
% change year-on-year +17.24% +29.46% -2.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 8 0
Median hourly rate - £25.60 -
UK median hourly rate £16.00 £25.60 £21.75
% change year-on-year -37.50% +17.70% +22.74%

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 139 140 130
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Wales 30.28% 34.74% 30.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 89 94
10th Percentile £163 £150 £162
25th Percentile £200 £210 £207
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £325 £375 £331
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% +13.21% -23.19%
75th Percentile £442 £550 £538
90th Percentile £581 £700 £675
UK median daily rate £501 £526 £550
% change year-on-year -4.75% -4.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 18 6
10th Percentile £16.05 £19.44 £31.50
25th Percentile £17.30 £21.75 £41.06
Median hourly rate £21.00 £25.60 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.97% -52.15% +242.84%
75th Percentile £30.00 £28.44 £55.25
90th Percentile £85.00 £41.25 £55.88
UK median hourly rate £27.36 £33.54 £42.40
% change year-on-year -18.44% -20.90% +34.61%

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 1 January 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 1 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
South Wales 0 26 £300 +15.70% 11
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 5 (19.23%) SharePoint
2 1 (3.85%) CMS
2 1 (3.85%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (15.38%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (3.85%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (3.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 4 (15.38%) Azure
2 3 (11.54%) Azure DevOps
2 3 (11.54%) GCP
2 3 (11.54%) Power Platform
3 2 (7.69%) Azure Data Factory
3 2 (7.69%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 2 (7.69%) GitHub
3 2 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (7.69%) Microsoft Purview
3 2 (7.69%) Power Automate
3 2 (7.69%) PowerApps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (11.54%) Power BI
2 2 (7.69%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (7.69%) Data Lake
2 2 (7.69%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (7.69%) SQL Server
2 2 (7.69%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 1 (3.85%) JIRA
1 1 (3.85%) Selenium
1 1 (3.85%) SpecFlow
General
1 11 (42.31%) Social Skills
2 9 (34.62%) Public Sector
3 4 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (15.38%) Welsh Language
4 3 (11.54%) Legal
4 3 (11.54%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (7.69%) Digital Health
5 2 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (7.69%) Finance
6 1 (3.85%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (3.85%) Local Government
6 1 (3.85%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 5 (19.23%) Project Manager
2 4 (15.38%) Analyst
2 4 (15.38%) Lead
3 3 (11.54%) IT Support
3 3 (11.54%) IT Support Technician
3 3 (11.54%) IT Technician
3 3 (11.54%) Support Technician
4 2 (7.69%) Data Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Developer
4 2 (7.69%) Facilitator
4 2 (7.69%) NHS Project Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Principal Project Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Transformation Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Transformation Project Manager
5 1 (3.85%) Business Analyst
5 1 (3.85%) Consultant
5 1 (3.85%) Governance Consultant
5 1 (3.85%) PMO Analyst
5 1 (3.85%) Senior Manager
5 1 (3.85%) Web Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (7.69%) ADO
1 2 (7.69%) CSS
1 2 (7.69%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 4 (15.38%) Management Information System
2 2 (7.69%) Data Structures
2 2 (7.69%) PMI
2 2 (7.69%) Public Cloud
3 1 (3.85%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (38.46%) Agile
2 6 (23.08%) Migration
2 6 (23.08%) PRINCE2
2 6 (23.08%) Project Management
2 6 (23.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 5 (19.23%) Business Intelligence
3 5 (19.23%) Change Management
3 5 (19.23%) Problem-Solving
3 5 (19.23%) Risk Management
4 4 (15.38%) Business Case
4 4 (15.38%) Information Governance
4 4 (15.38%) Project Delivery
5 3 (11.54%) Analytics
5 3 (11.54%) Budget Management
5 3 (11.54%) Budgeting and Resource Allocation
5 3 (11.54%) Collaborative Working
5 3 (11.54%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (11.54%) Contract Negotiation
5 3 (11.54%) Customer Service
5 3 (11.54%) Project Governance
Programming Languages
1 3 (11.54%) Python
1 3 (11.54%) SQL
2 2 (7.69%) T-SQL
3 1 (3.85%) C#
3 1 (3.85%) JavaScript
3 1 (3.85%) R
Qualifications
1 7 (26.92%) Degree
2 4 (15.38%) Master's Degree
3 3 (11.54%) PMI Certification
4 2 (7.69%) CIPD
4 2 (7.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 2 (7.69%) Security Cleared
5 1 (3.85%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (11.54%) SLA
2 2 (7.69%) QA
3 1 (3.85%) Accessibility
3 1 (3.85%) PMO
Vendors
1 10 (38.46%) Microsoft
2 3 (11.54%) Google