Developer Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Developer
England > West Midlands

The median Developer daily rate in the West Midlands is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 January 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 18 9
Rank change year-on-year -16 -9 +9
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 133 137 208
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 5.77% 8.56% 11.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.55% 9.20% 12.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 90 83 143
10th Percentile £387 £353 £275
25th Percentile £413 £403 £344
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +5.56% -10.00%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £538
90th Percentile £650 £673 £688
England median daily rate £500 £531 £550
% change year-on-year -5.88% -3.41% -6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £17.16
25th Percentile - - £17.22
Median hourly rate - - £17.38
75th Percentile - - £17.47
90th Percentile - - £17.49
England median hourly rate £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -11.54% - +8.33%

All Contract IT Job Roles
West Midlands

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the West Midlands. 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 West Midlands with a recognized job title 2,029 1,489 1,631
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 88.06% 93.06% 93.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,298 945 1,091
10th Percentile £263 £200 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £588 £606 £588
90th Percentile £688 £713 £675
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 57 72
10th Percentile £13.25 £13.95 £16.54
25th Percentile £15.71 £17.00 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.00 £23.82 £24.80
Median % change year-on-year +4.95% -3.95% +39.95%
75th Percentile £30.00 £31.31 £45.00
90th Percentile £48.05 £51.00 £67.50
England median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% -22.22% +28.57%

Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

Developer job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Developer
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the West Midlands.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the West Midlands

Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Developer in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 8 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in the West Midlands

Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the West Midlands.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in the West Midlands

Developer
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Developer within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 8 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
Birmingham -27 40 £500 - 36
Shropshire -12 30 £500 -0.89% 13
Warwickshire +2 24 £485 -11.82% 9
Worcestershire -4 16 £650 - 8
Herefordshire -5 13 £650 +18.18% 4
Coventry -19 11 £425 -8.60% 7
Solihull +4 3 £600 +50.00% 5
Staffordshire 0 1 £338 -15.63% 12
Developer
England

Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands

For the 6 months to 8 January 2026, Developer 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 West Midlands region featuring Developer in the job title.

1 45 (33.83%) CI/CD
2 41 (30.83%) DevOps
3 37 (27.82%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (27.82%) SQL
4 36 (27.07%) Security Cleared
5 35 (26.32%) Azure
6 34 (25.56%) Agile
7 31 (23.31%) Microsoft
7 31 (23.31%) Python
8 30 (22.56%) SC Cleared
9 28 (21.05%) Java
10 27 (20.30%) Git
11 25 (18.80%) AWS
11 25 (18.80%) Containerisation
11 25 (18.80%) Microservices
11 25 (18.80%) React
11 25 (18.80%) Serverless
12 23 (17.29%) JavaScript
13 21 (15.79%) Docker
14 20 (15.04%) REST
15 19 (14.29%) PostgreSQL
16 18 (13.53%) HTML
17 17 (12.78%) Kubernetes
17 17 (12.78%) Power Platform
17 17 (12.78%) TypeScript
18 16 (12.03%) Azure DevOps
18 16 (12.03%) Data Modelling
18 16 (12.03%) Power Automate
19 15 (11.28%) Business Intelligence
19 15 (11.28%) Front End Development

Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 6 (4.51%) Apache
2 3 (2.26%) Apache Spark
2 3 (2.26%) Confluence
2 3 (2.26%) Drupal
2 3 (2.26%) JBoss
2 3 (2.26%) SharePoint
2 3 (2.26%) SugarCRM
2 3 (2.26%) WebLogic
3 2 (1.50%) CMS
4 1 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.75%) CICS
4 1 (0.75%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (4.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (3.76%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.75%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.75%) SAP PSCD
2 1 (0.75%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 35 (26.32%) Azure
2 25 (18.80%) AWS
2 25 (18.80%) Serverless
3 17 (12.78%) Power Platform
4 16 (12.03%) Azure DevOps
4 16 (12.03%) Power Automate
5 15 (11.28%) PowerApps
6 12 (9.02%) Azure Key Vault
6 12 (9.02%) GitHub
7 11 (8.27%) Dynamics 365
7 11 (8.27%) GCP
8 10 (7.52%) GitHub Actions
9 9 (6.77%) Apigee
9 9 (6.77%) Cloud Functions
10 6 (4.51%) Azure Functions
10 6 (4.51%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (3.76%) SaaS
12 4 (3.01%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 4 (3.01%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (3.01%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 5 (3.76%) Firewall
2 1 (0.75%) SSL
2 1 (0.75%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (14.29%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (10.53%) MySQL
3 13 (9.77%) Relational Database
4 11 (8.27%) MongoDB
4 11 (8.27%) Power BI
5 9 (6.77%) Redis
6 6 (4.51%) SQL Server
7 5 (3.76%) BusinessObjects
7 5 (3.76%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (3.01%) BusinessObjects XI
8 4 (3.01%) DataStage
8 4 (3.01%) NoSQL
8 4 (3.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 3 (2.26%) Power Query
10 2 (1.50%) Data Hub
10 2 (1.50%) Oracle Database
11 1 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
11 1 (0.75%) Apache Hive
11 1 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.75%) HBase
Development Applications
1 27 (20.30%) Git
2 11 (8.27%) JUnit
3 8 (6.02%) GitLab
3 8 (6.02%) JIRA
4 7 (5.26%) Selenium
5 4 (3.01%) Cucumber
5 4 (3.01%) Jenkins
5 4 (3.01%) Maven
5 4 (3.01%) Mockito
6 3 (2.26%) Eclipse
6 3 (2.26%) IntelliJ
7 2 (1.50%) Cypress.io
7 2 (1.50%) Jaeger
8 1 (0.75%) ChangeMan
8 1 (0.75%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.75%) SonarQube
General
1 39 (29.32%) Social Skills
2 25 (18.80%) Public Sector
3 19 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (4.51%) Finance
5 5 (3.76%) Banking
6 4 (3.01%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.26%) Marketing
7 3 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.50%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.75%) Digital Healthcare
9 1 (0.75%) Legal
9 1 (0.75%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.75%) Police
9 1 (0.75%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.75%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (18.80%) React
2 20 (15.04%) REST
3 18 (13.53%) HTML
4 15 (11.28%) Node.js
5 14 (10.53%) Spring
6 13 (9.77%) RESTful
7 12 (9.02%) CSS
7 12 (9.02%) Playwright
8 10 (7.52%) .NET
9 9 (6.77%) FastAPI
9 9 (6.77%) Flask
9 9 (6.77%) GraphQL
10 8 (6.02%) AngularJS
10 8 (6.02%) Gherkin
10 8 (6.02%) JSON
10 8 (6.02%) OAuth
10 8 (6.02%) WebSockets
11 7 (5.26%) Material-UI
11 7 (5.26%) OAuth2
11 7 (5.26%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (12.78%) Cloud Native
2 6 (4.51%) Legacy Systems
3 5 (3.76%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (2.26%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.50%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (1.50%) Credit Risk
5 2 (1.50%) Derivative
5 2 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (1.50%) IoT
5 2 (1.50%) Linux Command Line
5 2 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.75%) CMDB
6 1 (0.75%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.75%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.75%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 7 (5.26%) Linux
2 3 (2.26%) Unix
3 1 (0.75%) Android
3 1 (0.75%) VME
3 1 (0.75%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (33.83%) CI/CD
2 41 (30.83%) DevOps
3 37 (27.82%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (25.56%) Agile
5 25 (18.80%) Containerisation
5 25 (18.80%) Microservices
6 16 (12.03%) Data Modelling
7 15 (11.28%) Business Intelligence
7 15 (11.28%) Front End Development
8 14 (10.53%) ETL
8 14 (10.53%) Scrum
9 13 (9.77%) Full-Stack Development
10 12 (9.02%) Clean Code
10 12 (9.02%) Decision-Making
10 12 (9.02%) User Experience
11 11 (8.27%) API Management
12 10 (7.52%) API Integration
12 10 (7.52%) SDLC
12 10 (7.52%) UX Design
13 9 (6.77%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 37 (27.82%) SQL
2 31 (23.31%) Python
3 28 (21.05%) Java
4 23 (17.29%) JavaScript
5 17 (12.78%) TypeScript
6 12 (9.02%) C#
7 10 (7.52%) Go
8 6 (4.51%) PHP
8 6 (4.51%) VBA
9 5 (3.76%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (3.76%) Scala
10 3 (2.26%) R
11 2 (1.50%) Ruby
11 2 (1.50%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.75%) ABAP
12 1 (0.75%) Bash
12 1 (0.75%) COBOL
12 1 (0.75%) Groovy
12 1 (0.75%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.75%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (27.07%) Security Cleared
2 30 (22.56%) SC Cleared
3 8 (6.02%) DV Cleared
4 7 (5.26%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (4.51%) Degree
6 4 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
6 4 (3.01%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (1.50%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.75%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (6.02%) Accessibility
2 6 (4.51%) WCAG
3 5 (3.76%) QA
4 2 (1.50%) SLA
System Software
1 21 (15.79%) Docker
2 1 (0.75%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 17 (12.78%) Kubernetes
2 13 (9.77%) Grafana
3 10 (7.52%) Prometheus
4 5 (3.76%) Ansible
5 4 (3.01%) Kibana
6 3 (2.26%) Puppet
6 3 (2.26%) Terraform
7 1 (0.75%) CA Endevor
7 1 (0.75%) Hadoop YARN
Vendors
1 31 (23.31%) Microsoft
2 12 (9.02%) Google
3 6 (4.51%) ServiceNow
4 4 (3.01%) IBM
4 4 (3.01%) SAP
5 3 (2.26%) Oracle
5 3 (2.26%) webMethods
6 2 (1.50%) Calypso
6 2 (1.50%) IFS
6 2 (1.50%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.75%) Adobe
7 1 (0.75%) ICL
7 1 (0.75%) Pega
7 1 (0.75%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.75%) VMware