Developer Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Developer
England > West Midlands

The median Developer daily rate in the West Midlands is £450, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 July 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 18 10
Rank change year-on-year -12 -8 +2
Contract jobs requiring a Developer 221 124 211
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 6.53% 8.04% 10.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.01% 8.86% 11.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 88 161
10th Percentile £373 £350 £260
25th Percentile £407 £407 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £440
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% +5.11% -2.22%
75th Percentile £519 £512 £510
90th Percentile £575 £613 £611
England median daily rate £515 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -1.90% - -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 £46.80 £40.30 £65.00
% change year-on-year +16.14% -38.01% +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 3,151 1,399 1,879
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.11% 90.67% 91.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,986 885 1,275
10th Percentile £315 £206 £250
25th Percentile £408 £360 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £469 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.48% -6.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £565 £600
90th Percentile £688 £638 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 107 136
10th Percentile £15.15 £12.62 £11.91
25th Percentile £20.31 £14.00 £14.22
Median hourly rate £32.50 £24.34 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.53% +28.11% -8.82%
75th Percentile £53.75 £33.91 £35.00
90th Percentile £70.18 £50.00 £55.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +60.71% -30.00% -8.57%

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 5 July 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 5 July 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 -7 75 £475 - 35
Coventry +7 43 £450 +16.20% 14
Shropshire -37 33 £438 -4.89% 16
Solihull -2 22 £438 -12.50%
Warwickshire -10 20 £525 -8.70% 18
Worcestershire +2 7 £700 - 12
Herefordshire -2 6 £700 - 6
Dudley - 4 £400 - 3
Wolverhampton -3 3 - - 3
Staffordshire -5 1 £313 -37.50% 14
Brierley Hill - 1 £390 -
Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 5 July 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 77 (34.84%) SQL
2 62 (28.05%) Security Cleared
3 59 (26.70%) SC Cleared
4 57 (25.79%) Java
5 54 (24.43%) Agile
6 50 (22.62%) Azure
7 49 (22.17%) CI/CD
8 45 (20.36%) DevOps
9 43 (19.46%) Microsoft
10 38 (17.19%) AWS
11 34 (15.38%) Docker
12 33 (14.93%) JavaScript
12 33 (14.93%) Microservices
13 32 (14.48%) PostgreSQL
13 32 (14.48%) REST
14 31 (14.03%) Spring
14 31 (14.03%) Spring Boot
15 30 (13.57%) Scrum
16 29 (13.12%) Node.js
17 28 (12.67%) Containerisation
17 28 (12.67%) Git
17 28 (12.67%) Migration
17 28 (12.67%) TDD
18 27 (12.22%) Problem-Solving
19 25 (11.31%) Azure DevOps
19 25 (11.31%) SOAP
20 24 (10.86%) Full-Stack Development
20 24 (10.86%) Power Platform
21 23 (10.41%) Grafana
21 23 (10.41%) JPA

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 (4.07%) Confluence
2 6 (2.71%) SAS
2 6 (2.71%) WebLogic
3 1 (0.45%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.45%) IIS
3 1 (0.45%) OpenStack
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
3 1 (0.45%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.45%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.45%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (7.24%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.45%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.45%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 50 (22.62%) Azure
2 38 (17.19%) AWS
3 25 (11.31%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (10.86%) Power Platform
5 21 (9.50%) Amazon S3
5 21 (9.50%) Amazon SQS
6 18 (8.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 17 (7.69%) Amazon EC2
7 17 (7.69%) AWS KMS
7 17 (7.69%) Route 53
8 11 (4.98%) GitHub
9 10 (4.52%) Dynamics 365
9 10 (4.52%) Microsoft Copilot
10 8 (3.62%) GitHub Actions
10 8 (3.62%) Power Automate
10 8 (3.62%) Serverless
11 6 (2.71%) PowerApps
12 4 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (1.81%) Azure Key Vault
12 4 (1.81%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (14.48%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (8.60%) Amazon RDS
2 19 (8.60%) DynamoDB
3 17 (7.69%) Amazon Aurora
4 16 (7.24%) Power BI
5 8 (3.62%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (3.62%) Relational Database
6 7 (3.17%) SQL Server
7 6 (2.71%) MongoDB
8 5 (2.26%) Metadata
9 4 (1.81%) Redis
9 4 (1.81%) WebFOCUS
10 3 (1.36%) Base SAS
10 3 (1.36%) Power Query
10 3 (1.36%) SAS Enterprise Guide
11 2 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.90%) IDMS
11 2 (0.90%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.90%) Star Schema
12 1 (0.45%) Ingres
Development Applications
1 28 (12.67%) Git
2 23 (10.41%) Mockito
3 21 (9.50%) JUnit
3 21 (9.50%) Maven
4 18 (8.14%) Jenkins
5 17 (7.69%) SonarQube
6 13 (5.88%) DbUnit
6 13 (5.88%) JIRA
6 13 (5.88%) jMock
7 11 (4.98%) Bitbucket Server
8 6 (2.71%) GitLab
9 5 (2.26%) Team Foundation Server
9 5 (2.26%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.45%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.45%) CA Gen
10 1 (0.45%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.45%) Hudson
10 1 (0.45%) MSTest
10 1 (0.45%) NUnit
General
1 44 (19.91%) Public Sector
2 26 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
3 22 (9.95%) Social Skills
4 21 (9.50%) Finance
5 12 (5.43%) Banking
6 5 (2.26%) Marketing
7 4 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (0.90%) Advertising
9 2 (0.90%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.90%) Retail
10 1 (0.45%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.45%) Front Office
10 1 (0.45%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.45%) Law
10 1 (0.45%) Legal
10 1 (0.45%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.45%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (14.48%) REST
2 31 (14.03%) Spring
2 31 (14.03%) Spring Boot
3 29 (13.12%) Node.js
4 25 (11.31%) SOAP
5 23 (10.41%) JPA
6 22 (9.95%) AngularJS
6 22 (9.95%) React
7 21 (9.50%) Web Services
8 19 (8.60%) ActiveMQ
8 19 (8.60%) Hibernate
8 19 (8.60%) Spring Batch
8 19 (8.60%) Spring Integration
9 16 (7.24%) RESTful
9 16 (7.24%) Spring Cloud
10 15 (6.79%) Flask
11 13 (5.88%) .NET
11 13 (5.88%) PowerMock
12 12 (5.43%) Django
13 11 (4.98%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (6.79%) Distributed Systems
2 12 (5.43%) Product Ownership
3 10 (4.52%) Cloud Native
4 3 (1.36%) Algorithms
4 3 (1.36%) Credit Risk
5 2 (0.90%) BYOD
5 2 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (0.90%) Legacy Applications
5 2 (0.90%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.45%) CMDB
6 1 (0.45%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.45%) Data Structures
6 1 (0.45%) Fixed Income
6 1 (0.45%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.45%) Learning Management System
6 1 (0.45%) Legacy Code
6 1 (0.45%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (0.45%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.45%) Reference Data
6 1 (0.45%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.24%) Linux
2 6 (2.71%) Unix
3 2 (0.90%) Android
4 1 (0.45%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.45%) Mac OS X
4 1 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (24.43%) Agile
2 49 (22.17%) CI/CD
3 45 (20.36%) DevOps
4 33 (14.93%) Microservices
5 30 (13.57%) Scrum
6 28 (12.67%) Containerisation
6 28 (12.67%) Migration
6 28 (12.67%) TDD
7 27 (12.22%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (10.86%) Full-Stack Development
9 19 (8.60%) Business Intelligence
9 19 (8.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 19 (8.60%) Kanban
9 19 (8.60%) Workflow
10 18 (8.14%) BDD
10 18 (8.14%) ETL
11 15 (6.79%) Data Integration
11 15 (6.79%) Data Modelling
11 15 (6.79%) Front End Development
11 15 (6.79%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 77 (34.84%) SQL
2 57 (25.79%) Java
3 33 (14.93%) JavaScript
4 19 (8.60%) Python
5 16 (7.24%) C#
6 10 (4.52%) PL/SQL
7 8 (3.62%) TypeScript
8 5 (2.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 5 (2.26%) Shell Script
8 5 (2.26%) VB
8 5 (2.26%) VB6
8 5 (2.26%) VBA
9 4 (1.81%) Go
10 2 (0.90%) C
10 2 (0.90%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.90%) Scala
10 2 (0.90%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.90%) VB.NET
11 1 (0.45%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.45%) C++
Qualifications
1 62 (28.05%) Security Cleared
2 59 (26.70%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.98%) BPSS Clearance
4 5 (2.26%) AWS Certification
4 5 (2.26%) Azure Certification
5 4 (1.81%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
6 1 (0.45%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (0.45%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.07%) QA
2 7 (3.17%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.36%) Basel III
3 3 (1.36%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.90%) GRC
5 1 (0.45%) WCAG
System Software
1 34 (15.38%) Docker
2 11 (4.98%) Postfix
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 23 (10.41%) Grafana
2 15 (6.79%) Kubernetes
3 11 (4.98%) Prometheus
4 5 (2.26%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (1.81%) Kibana
6 3 (1.36%) Control-M
6 3 (1.36%) IBM Guardium
6 3 (1.36%) Nessus
6 3 (1.36%) Terraform
Vendors
1 43 (19.46%) Microsoft
2 17 (7.69%) Jaspersoft
3 15 (6.79%) Atlassian
4 13 (5.88%) Oracle
5 8 (3.62%) Talend
6 7 (3.17%) UiPath
7 5 (2.26%) Siemens
8 3 (1.36%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.36%) Tenable
9 2 (0.90%) Google
9 2 (0.90%) Informatica
9 2 (0.90%) NEC
9 2 (0.90%) Pega
9 2 (0.90%) SAP
10 1 (0.45%) Databricks
10 1 (0.45%) Infor
10 1 (0.45%) Red Hat
10 1 (0.45%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.45%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
10 1 (0.45%) Splunk