Developer Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Developer
England > West Midlands

The median Developer daily rate in the West Midlands is £484, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 February 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 32 21 8
Rank change year-on-year -11 -13 +8
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 172 99 226
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.40% 7.09% 11.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.08% 7.78% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 58 161
10th Percentile £363 £363 £259
25th Percentile £413 £407 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £470 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.98% +10.59% -16.91%
75th Percentile £567 £564 £556
90th Percentile £650 £625 £675
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 3
10th Percentile - - £17.20
25th Percentile - - £17.31
Median hourly rate - - £17.50
75th Percentile - - £28.75
90th Percentile - - £35.50
England median hourly rate £61.00 £65.00 £67.00
% change year-on-year -6.15% -2.99% +11.67%

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 2,430 1,273 1,745
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.47% 91.19% 92.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,586 824 1,164
10th Percentile £293 £200 £225
25th Percentile £400 £379 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £496 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -0.75% +5.26% -3.06%
75th Percentile £588 £594 £588
90th Percentile £688 £700 £675
England median daily rate £503 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 56 125
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.89 £11.81
25th Percentile £17.09 £16.57 £15.00
Median hourly rate £25.00 £20.92 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +19.53% -7.04% +26.98%
75th Percentile £30.00 £30.68 £43.75
90th Percentile £43.00 £39.61 £58.75
England median hourly rate £33.34 £36.25 £35.00
% change year-on-year -8.04% +3.57% -12.50%

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 24 February 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 24 February 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 -6 56 £475 - 41
Shropshire -26 30 £467 -0.53% 11
Warwickshire +5 26 £485 -17.45% 20
Coventry -12 21 £480 +5.49% 20
Worcestershire -1 15 £650 -7.14% 8
Herefordshire -6 14 £650 -7.14% 2
Solihull 0 11 £450 -9.55% 13
Staffordshire -7 1 £338 -28.95% 8
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 - 1
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 24 February 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 61 (35.47%) SQL
2 58 (33.72%) CI/CD
3 54 (31.40%) Security Cleared
4 50 (29.07%) SC Cleared
5 47 (27.33%) DevOps
6 46 (26.74%) Agile
6 46 (26.74%) Azure
6 46 (26.74%) Java
7 42 (24.42%) Problem-Solving
8 39 (22.67%) AWS
9 36 (20.93%) Microsoft
10 35 (20.35%) Microservices
11 34 (19.77%) Containerisation
12 33 (19.19%) Git
12 33 (19.19%) REST
13 31 (18.02%) Docker
13 31 (18.02%) Python
14 30 (17.44%) JavaScript
15 29 (16.86%) PostgreSQL
16 28 (16.28%) Spring
17 27 (15.70%) React
18 26 (15.12%) Scrum
19 24 (13.95%) Grafana
19 24 (13.95%) Node.js
20 23 (13.37%) Kubernetes
20 23 (13.37%) Spring Boot
21 21 (12.21%) Azure DevOps
21 21 (12.21%) Full-Stack Development
21 21 (12.21%) Power Platform
22 20 (11.63%) Data Modelling

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 9 (5.23%) WebLogic
2 5 (2.91%) Apache
2 5 (2.91%) Confluence
3 4 (2.33%) SharePoint
4 3 (1.74%) Drupal
4 3 (1.74%) JBoss
4 3 (1.74%) SugarCRM
5 2 (1.16%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.58%) CMS
6 1 (0.58%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 6 (3.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.58%) SAP HR
1 1 (0.58%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 46 (26.74%) Azure
2 39 (22.67%) AWS
3 21 (12.21%) Azure DevOps
3 21 (12.21%) Power Platform
4 19 (11.05%) Serverless
5 15 (8.72%) GitHub
5 15 (8.72%) Power Automate
6 13 (7.56%) Azure Key Vault
6 13 (7.56%) PowerApps
7 12 (6.98%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (4.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 8 (4.65%) Amazon EC2
8 8 (4.65%) Amazon S3
8 8 (4.65%) Amazon SQS
8 8 (4.65%) AWS KMS
8 8 (4.65%) Route 53
9 7 (4.07%) Dynamics 365
9 7 (4.07%) GCP
10 6 (3.49%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (2.91%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 5 (2.91%) Firewall
2 1 (0.58%) SSL
2 1 (0.58%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (16.86%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (8.72%) Power BI
3 12 (6.98%) MongoDB
3 12 (6.98%) Relational Database
4 11 (6.40%) MySQL
5 10 (5.81%) Redis
6 8 (4.65%) Amazon Aurora
6 8 (4.65%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (4.65%) DynamoDB
7 6 (3.49%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (3.49%) SQL Server
8 5 (2.91%) BusinessObjects
8 5 (2.91%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 4 (2.33%) BusinessObjects XI
9 4 (2.33%) Metadata
9 4 (2.33%) NoSQL
9 4 (2.33%) Power Query
9 4 (2.33%) WebFOCUS
10 2 (1.16%) Data Hub
10 2 (1.16%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 33 (19.19%) Git
2 20 (11.63%) JUnit
3 14 (8.14%) Maven
3 14 (8.14%) Mockito
4 13 (7.56%) JIRA
5 11 (6.40%) Jenkins
6 8 (4.65%) GitLab
6 8 (4.65%) SonarQube
7 7 (4.07%) Selenium
8 6 (3.49%) DbUnit
8 6 (3.49%) jMock
9 4 (2.33%) Bitbucket Server
9 4 (2.33%) Cucumber
10 3 (1.74%) Eclipse
10 3 (1.74%) IntelliJ
11 2 (1.16%) Cypress.io
12 1 (0.58%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.58%) CA Gen
12 1 (0.58%) MSTest
12 1 (0.58%) REST Assured
General
1 37 (21.51%) Public Sector
2 36 (20.93%) Social Skills
3 29 (16.86%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (7.56%) Finance
5 7 (4.07%) Banking
6 5 (2.91%) Presentation Skills
7 4 (2.33%) Marketing
8 3 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.16%) Advertising
9 2 (1.16%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.58%) Law
10 1 (0.58%) Legal
10 1 (0.58%) Police
10 1 (0.58%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.58%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (19.19%) REST
2 28 (16.28%) Spring
3 27 (15.70%) React
4 24 (13.95%) Node.js
5 23 (13.37%) Spring Boot
6 20 (11.63%) HTML
7 19 (11.05%) AngularJS
8 15 (8.72%) CSS
8 15 (8.72%) JPA
8 15 (8.72%) RESTful
8 15 (8.72%) SOAP
9 14 (8.14%) Flask
9 14 (8.14%) Web Services
10 13 (7.56%) FastAPI
10 13 (7.56%) Hibernate
11 10 (5.81%) .NET
12 9 (5.23%) JSON
12 9 (5.23%) Spring Batch
12 9 (5.23%) Spring Integration
12 9 (5.23%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.72%) Cloud Native
2 6 (3.49%) Distributed Systems
2 6 (3.49%) Product Ownership
3 5 (2.91%) Credit Risk
4 4 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.16%) CMDB
5 2 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.16%) Derivative
5 2 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
5 2 (1.16%) Onboarding
5 2 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.58%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.58%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.58%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.58%) IoT
6 1 (0.58%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.58%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.58%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.58%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 12 (6.98%) Linux
2 5 (2.91%) Unix
3 2 (1.16%) Android
4 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.58%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (33.72%) CI/CD
2 47 (27.33%) DevOps
3 46 (26.74%) Agile
4 42 (24.42%) Problem-Solving
5 35 (20.35%) Microservices
6 34 (19.77%) Containerisation
7 26 (15.12%) Scrum
8 21 (12.21%) Full-Stack Development
9 20 (11.63%) Data Modelling
10 19 (11.05%) Business Intelligence
11 16 (9.30%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (8.72%) Decision-Making
12 15 (8.72%) Front End Development
12 15 (8.72%) TDD
13 14 (8.14%) Workflow
14 12 (6.98%) Clean Code
14 12 (6.98%) Performance Tuning
14 12 (6.98%) Software Engineering
15 11 (6.40%) ETL
15 11 (6.40%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 61 (35.47%) SQL
2 46 (26.74%) Java
3 31 (18.02%) Python
4 30 (17.44%) JavaScript
5 15 (8.72%) C#
6 11 (6.40%) TypeScript
7 10 (5.81%) Go
8 8 (4.65%) PL/SQL
9 6 (3.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 6 (3.49%) PHP
10 5 (2.91%) Scala
11 4 (2.33%) Shell Script
11 4 (2.33%) VBA
12 3 (1.74%) R
13 2 (1.16%) Kotlin
13 2 (1.16%) Ruby
14 1 (0.58%) ABAP
14 1 (0.58%) COBOL
14 1 (0.58%) Groovy
14 1 (0.58%) Perl
Qualifications
1 54 (31.40%) Security Cleared
2 50 (29.07%) SC Cleared
3 9 (5.23%) DV Cleared
4 7 (4.07%) BPSS Clearance
5 5 (2.91%) Azure Certification
6 4 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.74%) AWS Certification
7 3 (1.74%) Degree
8 2 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (0.58%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.65%) QA
2 5 (2.91%) WCAG
3 4 (2.33%) Accessibility
4 2 (1.16%) SLA
5 1 (0.58%) Data Quality
System Software
1 31 (18.02%) Docker
2 5 (2.91%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 24 (13.95%) Grafana
2 23 (13.37%) Kubernetes
3 13 (7.56%) Prometheus
4 6 (3.49%) Kibana
5 5 (2.91%) Ansible
6 4 (2.33%) Terraform
7 3 (1.74%) Control-M
7 3 (1.74%) IBM Guardium
7 3 (1.74%) Nessus
7 3 (1.74%) Puppet
Vendors
1 36 (20.93%) Microsoft
2 8 (4.65%) Jaspersoft
3 7 (4.07%) Google
3 7 (4.07%) ServiceNow
4 6 (3.49%) Atlassian
5 4 (2.33%) Oracle
5 4 (2.33%) SAP
6 3 (1.74%) Tenable
6 3 (1.74%) webMethods
7 2 (1.16%) Calypso
7 2 (1.16%) IFS
7 2 (1.16%) NEC
8 1 (0.58%) Adobe
8 1 (0.58%) ICL
8 1 (0.58%) Red Hat
8 1 (0.58%) Salesforce