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 1 February 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 18 8
Rank change year-on-year -13 -10 +6
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 151 134 233
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.14% 8.63% 12.41%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.90% 9.40% 13.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 81 165
10th Percentile £368 £363 £259
25th Percentile £414 £425 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £425
Median % change year-on-year - +17.65% -15.00%
75th Percentile £578 £575 £556
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
England median daily rate £500 £545 £525
% change year-on-year -8.21% +3.76% -9.09%
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 £55.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -15.38% - +4.00%

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 2,187 1,425 1,739
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 88.94% 91.82% 92.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,423 893 1,143
10th Percentile £263 £200 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £688 £700 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 79 59 120
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.95 £13.15
25th Percentile £17.09 £17.00 £15.70
Median hourly rate £25.00 £23.82 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.95% +5.87% +26.98%
75th Percentile £30.00 £30.99 £43.75
90th Percentile £42.00 £44.08 £67.50
England median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £36.05
% change year-on-year -14.29% -2.90% +2.99%

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 1 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 1 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 -23 47 £488 -2.50% 49
Warwickshire +10 30 £485 -17.45% 17
Shropshire -23 30 £500 -4.76% 8
Worcestershire -5 14 £650 - 10
Herefordshire -8 14 £650 +18.18% 5
Coventry -14 14 £471 +3.57% 14
Solihull 0 5 £588 +20.51% 4
Staffordshire -3 1 £338 -28.95% 8
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 1 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 52 (34.44%) CI/CD
2 46 (30.46%) SQL
3 45 (29.80%) DevOps
4 42 (27.81%) Azure
5 41 (27.15%) Agile
6 39 (25.83%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (25.17%) Microsoft
8 36 (23.84%) Security Cleared
9 35 (23.18%) Python
10 31 (20.53%) SC Cleared
11 30 (19.87%) React
12 29 (19.21%) Java
13 28 (18.54%) Containerisation
13 28 (18.54%) Git
13 28 (18.54%) JavaScript
14 27 (17.88%) AWS
15 26 (17.22%) Microservices
16 25 (16.56%) Serverless
17 24 (15.89%) REST
18 23 (15.23%) Docker
19 22 (14.57%) PostgreSQL
20 21 (13.91%) HTML
20 21 (13.91%) Kubernetes
21 20 (13.25%) Power Platform
22 19 (12.58%) Azure DevOps
22 19 (12.58%) Front End Development
23 18 (11.92%) TypeScript
24 17 (11.26%) Data Modelling
25 16 (10.60%) Business Intelligence
25 16 (10.60%) 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 6 (3.97%) Apache
2 4 (2.65%) Confluence
3 3 (1.99%) Apache Spark
3 3 (1.99%) Drupal
3 3 (1.99%) JBoss
3 3 (1.99%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.99%) SugarCRM
3 3 (1.99%) WebLogic
4 2 (1.32%) CMS
5 1 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.66%) CICS
5 1 (0.66%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (3.97%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (2.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.66%) SAP HR
2 1 (0.66%) SAP PSCD
2 1 (0.66%) VisionPLUS
Cloud Services
1 42 (27.81%) Azure
2 27 (17.88%) AWS
3 25 (16.56%) Serverless
4 20 (13.25%) Power Platform
5 19 (12.58%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (10.60%) Power Automate
7 15 (9.93%) GitHub
7 15 (9.93%) PowerApps
8 13 (8.61%) Azure Key Vault
8 13 (8.61%) GitHub Actions
9 11 (7.28%) GCP
10 10 (6.62%) Dynamics 365
11 9 (5.96%) Apigee
11 9 (5.96%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (3.97%) Azure Functions
12 6 (3.97%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (3.31%) Azure Service Bus
13 5 (3.31%) SaaS
14 4 (2.65%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 4 (2.65%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 5 (3.31%) Firewall
2 1 (0.66%) SSL
2 1 (0.66%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (14.57%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (9.27%) MySQL
2 14 (9.27%) Relational Database
3 12 (7.95%) Power BI
4 11 (7.28%) MongoDB
5 10 (6.62%) Redis
6 6 (3.97%) SQL Server
7 5 (3.31%) BusinessObjects
7 5 (3.31%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (3.31%) NoSQL
7 5 (3.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 4 (2.65%) BusinessObjects XI
9 3 (1.99%) Power Query
10 2 (1.32%) Data Hub
10 2 (1.32%) Metadata
10 2 (1.32%) Oracle Database
10 2 (1.32%) WebFOCUS
11 1 (0.66%) Data Mining
11 1 (0.66%) MariaDB
11 1 (0.66%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 28 (18.54%) Git
2 12 (7.95%) JUnit
3 11 (7.28%) JIRA
4 9 (5.96%) GitLab
5 7 (4.64%) Selenium
6 6 (3.97%) Maven
6 6 (3.97%) Mockito
7 4 (2.65%) Cucumber
7 4 (2.65%) Jenkins
8 3 (1.99%) Eclipse
8 3 (1.99%) IntelliJ
9 2 (1.32%) Cypress.io
9 2 (1.32%) Jaeger
10 1 (0.66%) ChangeMan
10 1 (0.66%) REST Assured
10 1 (0.66%) SonarQube
General
1 38 (25.17%) Social Skills
2 24 (15.89%) Analytical Skills
2 24 (15.89%) Public Sector
3 9 (5.96%) Finance
4 5 (3.31%) Banking
4 5 (3.31%) Marketing
5 4 (2.65%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (1.99%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.32%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.66%) Digital Healthcare
8 1 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.66%) Law
8 1 (0.66%) Legal
8 1 (0.66%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.66%) Police
8 1 (0.66%) Retail Banking
8 1 (0.66%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (19.87%) React
2 24 (15.89%) REST
3 21 (13.91%) HTML
4 16 (10.60%) Node.js
5 15 (9.93%) CSS
5 15 (9.93%) RESTful
6 14 (9.27%) Spring
7 13 (8.61%) Playwright
8 12 (7.95%) .NET
8 12 (7.95%) FastAPI
9 11 (7.28%) Flask
10 10 (6.62%) AngularJS
10 10 (6.62%) GraphQL
11 9 (5.96%) WebSockets
12 8 (5.30%) gRPC
12 8 (5.30%) JSON
12 8 (5.30%) OAuth
12 8 (5.30%) Spring Boot
13 7 (4.64%) Gherkin
13 7 (4.64%) Material-UI
Miscellaneous
1 19 (12.58%) Cloud Native
2 6 (3.97%) Product Ownership
3 5 (3.31%) Credit Risk
3 5 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
4 4 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (1.99%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.32%) CMDB
6 2 (1.32%) Derivative
6 2 (1.32%) IoT
6 2 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.66%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (0.66%) Learning Management System
7 1 (0.66%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (0.66%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 7 (4.64%) Linux
2 4 (2.65%) Unix
3 1 (0.66%) Android
3 1 (0.66%) VME
3 1 (0.66%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (34.44%) CI/CD
2 45 (29.80%) DevOps
3 41 (27.15%) Agile
4 39 (25.83%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (18.54%) Containerisation
6 26 (17.22%) Microservices
7 19 (12.58%) Front End Development
8 17 (11.26%) Data Modelling
9 16 (10.60%) Business Intelligence
9 16 (10.60%) Scrum
10 15 (9.93%) Full-Stack Development
10 15 (9.93%) User Experience
11 13 (8.61%) Clean Code
12 12 (7.95%) Decision-Making
13 11 (7.28%) API Management
13 11 (7.28%) ETL
13 11 (7.28%) UX Design
14 10 (6.62%) API Integration
14 10 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
15 9 (5.96%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 46 (30.46%) SQL
2 35 (23.18%) Python
3 29 (19.21%) Java
4 28 (18.54%) JavaScript
5 18 (11.92%) TypeScript
6 15 (9.93%) C#
7 11 (7.28%) Go
8 6 (3.97%) PHP
8 6 (3.97%) VBA
9 5 (3.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (3.31%) Scala
10 4 (2.65%) Shell Script
11 3 (1.99%) R
12 2 (1.32%) PL/SQL
12 2 (1.32%) Ruby
13 1 (0.66%) ABAP
13 1 (0.66%) Bash
13 1 (0.66%) COBOL
13 1 (0.66%) Groovy
13 1 (0.66%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 36 (23.84%) Security Cleared
2 31 (20.53%) SC Cleared
3 9 (5.96%) BPSS Clearance
3 9 (5.96%) DV Cleared
4 5 (3.31%) Degree
5 4 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (1.32%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.66%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.30%) QA
2 6 (3.97%) Accessibility
2 6 (3.97%) WCAG
3 2 (1.32%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (15.23%) Docker
2 1 (0.66%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 21 (13.91%) Kubernetes
2 16 (10.60%) Grafana
3 13 (8.61%) Prometheus
4 6 (3.97%) Kibana
5 5 (3.31%) Ansible
6 4 (2.65%) Terraform
7 3 (1.99%) Puppet
8 2 (1.32%) Control-M
8 2 (1.32%) IBM Guardium
8 2 (1.32%) Nessus
9 1 (0.66%) CA Endevor
9 1 (0.66%) Hadoop YARN
Vendors
1 38 (25.17%) Microsoft
2 12 (7.95%) Google
3 7 (4.64%) ServiceNow
4 4 (2.65%) SAP
5 3 (1.99%) webMethods
6 2 (1.32%) Calypso
6 2 (1.32%) IFS
6 2 (1.32%) MuleSoft
6 2 (1.32%) Oracle
6 2 (1.32%) Tenable
7 1 (0.66%) Adobe
7 1 (0.66%) ICL
7 1 (0.66%) Pega
7 1 (0.66%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.66%) VMware