Developer Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Developer
England > West Midlands

The median Developer daily rate in the West Midlands is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 May 2026.

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

6 months to
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 17 6
Rank change year-on-year -14 -11 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 203 113 233
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.40% 8.26% 12.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.93% 9.09% 13.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 139 74 170
10th Percentile £363 £363 £259
25th Percentile £408 £408 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £463 £425
Median % change year-on-year +2.70% +8.82% -10.53%
75th Percentile £519 £538 £505
90th Percentile £575 £613 £611
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 6
10th Percentile - - £38.75
25th Percentile - £56.88 £40.13
Median hourly rate - £58.75 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year - +19.90% +46.77%
75th Percentile - £60.63 £55.94
90th Percentile - - £56.25
England median hourly rate £55.00 £59.88 £65.00
% change year-on-year -8.14% -7.88% +2.77%

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 2,930 1,243 1,751
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 90.86% 91.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,851 815 1,183
10th Percentile £313 £197 £259
25th Percentile £404 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £488
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% - -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £711
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 75 135
10th Percentile £14.94 £12.62 £12.04
25th Percentile £22.50 £14.00 £15.00
Median hourly rate £33.98 £18.00 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +88.78% -18.18% +10.00%
75th Percentile £60.06 £24.44 £41.13
90th Percentile £69.00 £35.91 £55.75
England median hourly rate £47.00 £30.40 £37.18
% change year-on-year +54.61% -18.24% -17.38%

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 10 May 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 10 May 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 -2 79 £475 +8.57% 35
Coventry +4 30 £460 -0.70% 6
Shropshire -32 26 £438 -5.41% 2
Warwickshire -9 21 £525 -8.70% 7
Solihull 0 20 £438 -4.89%
Worcestershire -2 8 £700 - 14
Herefordshire -4 5 £700 - 1
Dudley - 3 £400 - 1
Staffordshire -4 2 £325 -27.78% 8
Wolverhampton -6 1 - - 3
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 10 May 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 69 (33.99%) SQL
2 51 (25.12%) CI/CD
3 49 (24.14%) Security Cleared
4 44 (21.67%) Azure
4 44 (21.67%) SC Cleared
5 43 (21.18%) Java
6 42 (20.69%) Agile
6 42 (20.69%) DevOps
7 38 (18.72%) AWS
8 35 (17.24%) Microsoft
9 31 (15.27%) Containerisation
9 31 (15.27%) Docker
9 31 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
10 30 (14.78%) REST
11 29 (14.29%) Git
12 28 (13.79%) Full-Stack Development
12 28 (13.79%) Microservices
12 28 (13.79%) Spring Boot
13 27 (13.30%) JavaScript
13 27 (13.30%) PostgreSQL
13 27 (13.30%) Spring
14 26 (12.81%) Node.js
15 25 (12.32%) Business Intelligence
15 25 (12.32%) Migration
15 25 (12.32%) Power Platform
16 24 (11.82%) AngularJS
17 23 (11.33%) Data Modelling
17 23 (11.33%) Scrum
18 22 (10.84%) Python
19 21 (10.34%) Grafana

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 (4.43%) Confluence
2 6 (2.96%) WebLogic
3 3 (1.48%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.99%) Apache
4 2 (0.99%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.49%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.49%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
5 1 (0.49%) SAS
5 1 (0.49%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (7.88%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.49%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 44 (21.67%) Azure
2 38 (18.72%) AWS
3 25 (12.32%) Power Platform
4 19 (9.36%) Azure DevOps
5 18 (8.87%) Amazon S3
5 18 (8.87%) Amazon SQS
6 15 (7.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 14 (6.90%) Amazon EC2
7 14 (6.90%) AWS KMS
7 14 (6.90%) Route 53
8 13 (6.40%) Power Automate
9 12 (5.91%) GitHub
9 12 (5.91%) Serverless
10 11 (5.42%) PowerApps
11 8 (3.94%) Azure Key Vault
11 8 (3.94%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (3.45%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (2.46%) Azure Service Bus
14 4 (1.97%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 4 (1.97%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.97%) Firewall
2 1 (0.49%) SSL
2 1 (0.49%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (13.30%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (9.36%) Power BI
3 16 (7.88%) Amazon RDS
3 16 (7.88%) DynamoDB
4 14 (6.90%) Amazon Aurora
5 12 (5.91%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (4.93%) Relational Database
7 8 (3.94%) SQL Server
8 6 (2.96%) Power Query
9 5 (2.46%) Redis
9 5 (2.46%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 4 (1.97%) BusinessObjects
10 4 (1.97%) BusinessObjects XI
10 4 (1.97%) Metadata
10 4 (1.97%) WebFOCUS
11 3 (1.48%) MongoDB
11 3 (1.48%) NoSQL
12 2 (0.99%) IDMS
13 1 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
13 1 (0.49%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 29 (14.29%) Git
2 17 (8.37%) JUnit
2 17 (8.37%) Maven
2 17 (8.37%) Mockito
3 15 (7.39%) Jenkins
4 14 (6.90%) SonarQube
5 13 (6.40%) JIRA
6 11 (5.42%) DbUnit
6 11 (5.42%) jMock
7 9 (4.43%) Bitbucket Server
8 3 (1.48%) GitLab
9 1 (0.49%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.49%) CA Gen
9 1 (0.49%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.49%) Hudson
9 1 (0.49%) MSTest
General
1 36 (17.73%) Public Sector
2 29 (14.29%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (10.34%) Social Skills
4 13 (6.40%) Finance
5 8 (3.94%) Banking
6 4 (1.97%) Marketing
7 3 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.99%) Advertising
8 2 (0.99%) Legal
9 1 (0.49%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Law
9 1 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.49%) Police
9 1 (0.49%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (14.78%) REST
2 28 (13.79%) Spring Boot
3 27 (13.30%) Spring
4 26 (12.81%) Node.js
5 24 (11.82%) AngularJS
6 19 (9.36%) JPA
6 19 (9.36%) React
7 18 (8.87%) Web Services
8 17 (8.37%) Hibernate
8 17 (8.37%) SOAP
9 16 (7.88%) RESTful
9 16 (7.88%) Spring Batch
9 16 (7.88%) Spring Integration
10 15 (7.39%) Flask
11 14 (6.90%) ActiveMQ
11 14 (6.90%) Spring Cloud
12 11 (5.42%) CSS
12 11 (5.42%) Django
12 11 (5.42%) HTML
12 11 (5.42%) PowerMock
Miscellaneous
1 13 (6.40%) Distributed Systems
2 8 (3.94%) Cloud Native
3 6 (2.96%) Product Ownership
4 3 (1.48%) Algorithms
4 3 (1.48%) Credit Risk
4 3 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (0.99%) BYOD
6 1 (0.49%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.49%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.49%) CMDB
6 1 (0.49%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.49%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (0.49%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.49%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (0.49%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (0.49%) Mainframe
6 1 (0.49%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.49%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 13 (6.40%) Linux
2 3 (1.48%) Unix
3 2 (0.99%) Android
4 1 (0.49%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.49%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (25.12%) CI/CD
2 42 (20.69%) Agile
2 42 (20.69%) DevOps
3 31 (15.27%) Containerisation
3 31 (15.27%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (13.79%) Full-Stack Development
4 28 (13.79%) Microservices
5 25 (12.32%) Business Intelligence
5 25 (12.32%) Migration
6 23 (11.33%) Data Modelling
6 23 (11.33%) Scrum
7 21 (10.34%) TDD
7 21 (10.34%) Workflow
8 19 (9.36%) Decision-Making
9 18 (8.87%) Data Integration
10 16 (7.88%) ETL
10 16 (7.88%) Kanban
11 15 (7.39%) Analytics
12 14 (6.90%) Performance Tuning
13 13 (6.40%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 69 (33.99%) SQL
2 43 (21.18%) Java
3 27 (13.30%) JavaScript
4 22 (10.84%) Python
5 13 (6.40%) C#
6 9 (4.43%) PL/SQL
7 8 (3.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 4 (1.97%) Go
8 4 (1.97%) Shell Script
8 4 (1.97%) TypeScript
9 3 (1.48%) R
10 2 (0.99%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.99%) Scala
11 1 (0.49%) C
11 1 (0.49%) C++
11 1 (0.49%) COBOL
11 1 (0.49%) Perl
11 1 (0.49%) Swift
11 1 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 49 (24.14%) Security Cleared
2 44 (21.67%) SC Cleared
3 7 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
4 4 (1.97%) AWS Certification
4 4 (1.97%) Azure Certification
4 4 (1.97%) DV Cleared
5 3 (1.48%) Microsoft Certification
6 2 (0.99%) Degree
7 1 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.94%) QA
2 2 (0.99%) Accessibility
2 2 (0.99%) GRC
2 2 (0.99%) WCAG
3 1 (0.49%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.49%) SLA
System Software
1 31 (15.27%) Docker
2 10 (4.93%) Postfix
3 1 (0.49%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 21 (10.34%) Grafana
2 14 (6.90%) Kubernetes
3 11 (5.42%) Prometheus
4 6 (2.96%) Terraform
5 3 (1.48%) Ansible
5 3 (1.48%) Control-M
5 3 (1.48%) IBM Guardium
5 3 (1.48%) Kibana
5 3 (1.48%) Nessus
Vendors
1 35 (17.24%) Microsoft
2 14 (6.90%) Jaspersoft
3 13 (6.40%) Atlassian
4 8 (3.94%) Oracle
5 5 (2.46%) ServiceNow
5 5 (2.46%) Siemens
6 4 (1.97%) SAP
6 4 (1.97%) Talend
7 3 (1.48%) Tenable
8 2 (0.99%) IFS
8 2 (0.99%) NEC
8 2 (0.99%) Pega
9 1 (0.49%) Google
9 1 (0.49%) ICL
9 1 (0.49%) Infor
9 1 (0.49%) Informatica
9 1 (0.49%) Red Hat
9 1 (0.49%) Splunk