Developer Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Developer
England > West Midlands

The median Developer daily rate in the West Midlands is £463, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 September 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 29 25 12
Rank change year-on-year -4 -13 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 244 133 189
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.93% 7.33% 9.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.59% 8.21% 10.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 179 97 127
10th Percentile £394 £363 £313
25th Percentile £413 £410 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% +11.11% -
75th Percentile £543 £519 £575
90th Percentile £610 £625 £650
England median daily rate £520 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +1.96% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 2
10th Percentile - - £41.95
25th Percentile - £56.88 £44.13
Median hourly rate - £58.75 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year - +19.90% +182.01%
75th Percentile - £60.63 £52.63
90th Percentile - - £54.05
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.62%

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 3,216 1,619 1,770
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.34% 89.20% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,903 1,043 1,136
10th Percentile £328 £233 £250
25th Percentile £413 £375 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.41% -1.60% +2.56%
75th Percentile £588 £584 £625
90th Percentile £677 £660 £725
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 248 108 61
10th Percentile £13.99 £12.62 £12.59
25th Percentile £17.75 £14.00 £14.25
Median hourly rate £29.80 £25.15 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +18.49% +16.49% -2.31%
75th Percentile £53.75 £40.07 £33.93
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £52.50
England median hourly rate £44.46 £25.15 £46.18
% change year-on-year +76.76% -45.54% +2.62%

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 21 September 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 21 September 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
Shropshire +3 95 £490 +5.95% 16
Birmingham -3 64 £475 -5.00% 93
Coventry +4 40 £431 +2.99% 9
Solihull -6 18 £600 +4.35% 12
Warwickshire -18 9 £450 -6.49% 11
Herefordshire -2 3 - - 1
Wolverhampton - 3 £350 - 8
Dudley - 2 £400 - 5
Worcestershire -1 1 £450 -30.77% 8
Staffordshire -12 1 £313 -30.56% 27
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 21 September 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.

1 104 (42.62%) Agile
2 78 (31.97%) Security Cleared
3 76 (31.15%) Java
4 70 (28.69%) SC Cleared
5 57 (23.36%) Microsoft
6 56 (22.95%) CI/CD
6 56 (22.95%) JavaScript
7 52 (21.31%) SQL
8 50 (20.49%) BPSS Clearance
9 48 (19.67%) Git
10 47 (19.26%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (17.62%) DevOps
11 43 (17.62%) REST
12 42 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
12 42 (17.21%) Scrum
12 42 (17.21%) SOAP
13 41 (16.80%) Microservices
14 40 (16.39%) Front End Development
14 40 (16.39%) Spring
14 40 (16.39%) Sprint Planning
15 39 (15.98%) Power Platform
15 39 (15.98%) Spring Boot
16 37 (15.16%) AWS
16 37 (15.16%) Azure
17 35 (14.34%) Accessibility
18 32 (13.11%) Power Automate
18 32 (13.11%) React
18 32 (13.11%) Test Automation
19 29 (11.89%) TDD
19 29 (11.89%) User Stories

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 15 (6.15%) Confluence
2 11 (4.51%) SharePoint
3 6 (2.46%) SAS
4 2 (0.82%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 2 (0.82%) Oracle Workflow
4 2 (0.82%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.41%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.41%) CMS
5 1 (0.41%) IIS
5 1 (0.41%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 16 (6.56%) Teamcenter
2 9 (3.69%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.41%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 39 (15.98%) Power Platform
2 37 (15.16%) AWS
2 37 (15.16%) Azure
3 32 (13.11%) Power Automate
4 26 (10.66%) PowerApps
5 23 (9.43%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (7.79%) Dynamics 365
7 11 (4.51%) Amazon S3
7 11 (4.51%) Amazon SQS
7 11 (4.51%) Microsoft 365
7 11 (4.51%) Serverless
8 10 (4.10%) Microsoft Copilot
9 9 (3.69%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 8 (3.28%) Amazon EC2
10 8 (3.28%) AWS KMS
10 8 (3.28%) Azure Functions
10 8 (3.28%) Route 53
11 5 (2.05%) Figma
12 4 (1.64%) OCI
12 4 (1.64%) Oracle Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.82%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (9.84%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (6.97%) Relational Database
3 16 (6.56%) MongoDB
4 14 (5.74%) SQL Server
5 12 (4.92%) Power BI
6 10 (4.10%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (3.69%) DynamoDB
8 8 (3.28%) Amazon Aurora
9 6 (2.46%) NoSQL
10 5 (2.05%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (1.23%) Base SAS
11 3 (1.23%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (1.23%) SAS Enterprise Guide
12 2 (0.82%) Data Hub
12 2 (0.82%) Data Mining
12 2 (0.82%) Oracle Database
12 2 (0.82%) Power Query
13 1 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
13 1 (0.41%) Ingres
13 1 (0.41%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 48 (19.67%) Git
2 24 (9.84%) Maven
3 23 (9.43%) Mockito
4 22 (9.02%) JUnit
5 20 (8.20%) Jenkins
6 18 (7.38%) SonarQube
7 15 (6.15%) JIRA
8 13 (5.33%) Team Foundation Server
8 13 (5.33%) Visual Studio
9 6 (2.46%) Bitbucket Server
9 6 (2.46%) DbUnit
9 6 (2.46%) GitLab
9 6 (2.46%) jMock
10 5 (2.05%) Storybook
11 2 (0.82%) Hudson
12 1 (0.41%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.41%) NUnit
12 1 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
12 1 (0.41%) Rational Rhapsody
12 1 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 88 (36.07%) Public Sector
2 51 (20.90%) Social Skills
3 31 (12.70%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (11.48%) Finance
5 20 (8.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 10 (4.10%) Banking
7 6 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (1.64%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.23%) Legal
10 2 (0.82%) Military
10 2 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.82%) Retail
11 1 (0.41%) Front Office
11 1 (0.41%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Marketing
11 1 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (17.62%) REST
2 42 (17.21%) SOAP
3 40 (16.39%) Spring
4 39 (15.98%) Spring Boot
5 32 (13.11%) React
6 23 (9.43%) Web Services
6 23 (9.43%) XML
7 22 (9.02%) AngularJS
8 21 (8.61%) JPA
9 20 (8.20%) ActiveMQ
10 19 (7.79%) Hibernate
10 19 (7.79%) JSON
11 18 (7.38%) Node.js
11 18 (7.38%) RESTful
12 17 (6.97%) CSS
12 17 (6.97%) HTML
12 17 (6.97%) Spring Cloud
13 13 (5.33%) ActiveX
14 11 (4.51%) Kafka
14 11 (4.51%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 21 (8.61%) Cloud Native
2 19 (7.79%) Product Ownership
3 9 (3.69%) Distributed Systems
3 9 (3.69%) Management Information System
4 8 (3.28%) Taxonomies
5 7 (2.87%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.64%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.82%) BYOD
9 2 (0.82%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (0.82%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.41%) CMDB
10 1 (0.41%) Data Structures
10 1 (0.41%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.41%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.41%) Legacy Code
10 1 (0.41%) Low-Code
10 1 (0.41%) Onboarding
10 1 (0.41%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 12 (4.92%) Linux
2 6 (2.46%) Unix
3 1 (0.41%) Android
3 1 (0.41%) Mac OS X
3 1 (0.41%) Windows
3 1 (0.41%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (42.62%) Agile
2 56 (22.95%) CI/CD
3 47 (19.26%) Continuous Improvement
4 43 (17.62%) DevOps
5 42 (17.21%) Problem-Solving
5 42 (17.21%) Scrum
6 41 (16.80%) Microservices
7 40 (16.39%) Front End Development
7 40 (16.39%) Sprint Planning
8 32 (13.11%) Test Automation
9 29 (11.89%) TDD
9 29 (11.89%) User Stories
10 28 (11.48%) Backlog Refinement
10 28 (11.48%) Migration
11 25 (10.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 24 (9.84%) Technical Leadership
13 23 (9.43%) Data Modelling
14 22 (9.02%) Containerisation
14 22 (9.02%) SDLC
15 21 (8.61%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 76 (31.15%) Java
2 56 (22.95%) JavaScript
3 52 (21.31%) SQL
4 27 (11.07%) C#
4 27 (11.07%) TypeScript
5 14 (5.74%) VB
5 14 (5.74%) VB6
6 13 (5.33%) VBA
7 11 (4.51%) PL/SQL
8 10 (4.10%) Python
8 10 (4.10%) Scala
9 5 (2.05%) COBOL
9 5 (2.05%) Shell Script
10 3 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (1.23%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.82%) C
11 2 (0.82%) VB.NET
12 1 (0.41%) ABAP
12 1 (0.41%) C++
12 1 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 78 (31.97%) Security Cleared
2 70 (28.69%) SC Cleared
3 50 (20.49%) BPSS Clearance
4 19 (7.79%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (2.46%) Azure Certification
5 6 (2.46%) Degree
6 4 (1.64%) DBS Check
7 2 (0.82%) AWS Certification
7 2 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
8 1 (0.41%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (14.34%) Accessibility
2 18 (7.38%) WCAG
3 10 (4.10%) QA
4 8 (3.28%) GDPR
5 3 (1.23%) Basel III
5 3 (1.23%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.82%) GRC
7 1 (0.41%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.41%) GMP
7 1 (0.41%) GxP
7 1 (0.41%) HL7
7 1 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 17025
System Software
1 22 (9.02%) Docker
2 5 (2.05%) Postfix
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 18 (7.38%) Grafana
2 14 (5.74%) Prometheus
3 11 (4.51%) Kubernetes
4 9 (3.69%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.23%) Kibana
Vendors
1 57 (23.36%) Microsoft
2 19 (7.79%) Oracle
3 11 (4.51%) ServiceNow
4 8 (3.28%) Atlassian
4 8 (3.28%) Jaspersoft
4 8 (3.28%) Talend
4 8 (3.28%) UiPath
5 3 (1.23%) SAP
6 2 (0.82%) Adobe
6 2 (0.82%) Databricks
6 2 (0.82%) Google
6 2 (0.82%) Informatica
6 2 (0.82%) Pega
7 1 (0.41%) Denodo
7 1 (0.41%) Dynatrace
7 1 (0.41%) Infor
7 1 (0.41%) NEC
7 1 (0.41%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.41%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud