Public Sector Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Public Sector
England > West Midlands

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Public Sector in contract job vacancies in the West Midlands. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Public Sector over the 6 months leading up to 30 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 16 18
Rank change year-on-year +2 +2 -8
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 389 139 134
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.26% 8.44% 7.07%
As % of the General category 21.19% 13.40% 13.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 288 84 100
10th Percentile £350 £257 £262
25th Percentile £414 £406 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £469 £463
Median % change year-on-year +5.01% +1.35% -11.48%
75th Percentile £575 £526 £550
90th Percentile £658 £614 £639
England median daily rate £515 £511 £520
% change year-on-year +0.78% -1.73% -3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 3 8
10th Percentile £17.57 £15.87 £17.75
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.75 £18.50
Median hourly rate £21.50 £18.44 £26.47
Median % change year-on-year +16.63% -30.34% +47.03%
75th Percentile £75.00 £18.70 £35.00
90th Percentile - £18.72 £47.00
England median hourly rate £25.38 £21.70 £27.00
% change year-on-year +16.96% -19.63% +29.68%

All General Skills
West Midlands

Public Sector falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 1,836 1,037 1,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 53.13% 63.00% 54.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,165 644 710
10th Percentile £315 £206 £263
25th Percentile £405 £362 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £461 £503
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -8.21% -3.37%
75th Percentile £588 £570 £626
90th Percentile £675 £643 £750
England median daily rate £525 £510 £538
% change year-on-year +2.94% -5.12% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 85 75
10th Percentile £15.85 £14.00 £12.56
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.13 £14.00
Median hourly rate £30.27 £27.21 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.25% +43.21% -9.39%
75th Percentile £43.96 £40.02 £33.11
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £53.00
England median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +35.15% -34.02% +27.07%

Public Sector
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Public Sector relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Public Sector job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Public Sector
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Public Sector.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Public Sector in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 30 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Public Sector in the West Midlands

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Public Sector.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Public Sector

Public Sector
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Public Sector in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 30 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Public Sector in the West Midlands

Public Sector
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 Public Sector within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 30 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
Shropshire +6 155 £492 +7.40% 35
Birmingham -2 92 £525 +10.53% 48
Coventry +4 40 £450 +2.86% 3
Solihull -8 23 £447 +6.43% 1
Warwickshire -14 20 £450 +5.88% 9
Staffordshire +9 17 £850 +51.79% 16
Worcestershire +1 9 £450 -35.71%
Dudley -6 1 £375 -
Public Sector
England

Public Sector
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 37 (9.51%) SAS
2 29 (7.46%) Confluence
3 15 (3.86%) Apache Airflow
4 11 (2.83%) SharePoint
5 5 (1.29%) Tuxedo
6 3 (0.77%) Apache
6 3 (0.77%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.51%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.26%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.26%) IIS
8 1 (0.26%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 9 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.03%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.26%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (2.06%) ContrOCC
1 8 (2.06%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (1.80%) Oracle Receivables
3 6 (1.54%) Oracle General Ledger
3 6 (1.54%) Oracle Payables
4 5 (1.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (1.03%) SAP PSCD
6 3 (0.77%) NEC Housing
6 3 (0.77%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.51%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.51%) SAP S/4HANA
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Assets
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Cash Management
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Payroll
8 1 (0.26%) Primavera
8 1 (0.26%) SAP BRIM
8 1 (0.26%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.26%) SAP Hybris
8 1 (0.26%) SAP IS-U
Cloud Services
1 93 (23.91%) AWS
2 88 (22.62%) Azure
3 30 (7.71%) Azure DevOps
4 28 (7.20%) Power Platform
5 21 (5.40%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 20 (5.14%) Amazon EC2
6 20 (5.14%) Amazon S3
7 18 (4.63%) Dynamics 365
7 18 (4.63%) Power Automate
8 17 (4.37%) Amazon SQS
8 17 (4.37%) AWS KMS
8 17 (4.37%) GitHub
8 17 (4.37%) Route 53
9 13 (3.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 12 (3.08%) Azure Data Factory
11 10 (2.57%) PaaS
12 9 (2.31%) PowerApps
13 8 (2.06%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
13 8 (2.06%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.80%) Firewall
2 3 (0.77%) LAN
2 3 (0.77%) VPN
3 2 (0.51%) SSL
3 2 (0.51%) WAN
4 1 (0.26%) DNS
4 1 (0.26%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.26%) Internet
4 1 (0.26%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (0.26%) Network Security
4 1 (0.26%) SMTP
4 1 (0.26%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (6.43%) Pentaho
2 23 (5.91%) Data Warehouse
2 23 (5.91%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (5.14%) Power BI
4 19 (4.88%) Amazon RDS
5 18 (4.63%) Oracle Database
6 17 (4.37%) Amazon Aurora
6 17 (4.37%) DynamoDB
6 17 (4.37%) Oracle Reports
6 17 (4.37%) SQL Server
7 16 (4.11%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 16 (4.11%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 11 (2.83%) Data Lake
9 10 (2.57%) Metadata
10 9 (2.31%) Relational Database
11 7 (1.80%) Ingres
11 7 (1.80%) NoSQL
12 6 (1.54%) RDBMS
12 6 (1.54%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (1.29%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 39 (10.03%) JIRA
2 36 (9.25%) Git
2 36 (9.25%) Jenkins
3 22 (5.66%) JUnit
4 20 (5.14%) GitLab
4 20 (5.14%) Mockito
4 20 (5.14%) SonarQube
5 19 (4.88%) Maven
6 14 (3.60%) Selenium
7 13 (3.34%) DbUnit
7 13 (3.34%) jMock
8 11 (2.83%) Bitbucket Server
8 11 (2.83%) Postman
9 10 (2.57%) JMeter
10 9 (2.31%) WebDriver
11 8 (2.06%) Cucumber
11 8 (2.06%) Cypress.io
11 8 (2.06%) Team Foundation Server
12 5 (1.29%) Oracle Forms
13 3 (0.77%) Bitbucket
General
1 112 (28.79%) Social Skills
2 59 (15.17%) Finance
3 53 (13.62%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (9.25%) Local Government
5 27 (6.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 17 (4.37%) Influencing Skills
7 11 (2.83%) Legal
8 8 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (1.80%) Military
10 5 (1.29%) Police
10 5 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.03%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.03%) General Ledger
11 4 (1.03%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.51%) Banking
12 2 (0.51%) Retail
13 1 (0.26%) Advertising
13 1 (0.26%) Billing
13 1 (0.26%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 56 (14.40%) Senior
2 52 (13.37%) Developer
3 48 (12.34%) Architect
4 44 (11.31%) Analyst
5 41 (10.54%) Data Engineer
6 40 (10.28%) Lead
7 31 (7.97%) Java Developer
8 21 (5.40%) Business Analyst
9 17 (4.37%) Data Architect
10 12 (3.08%) Release Manager
10 12 (3.08%) Senior Developer
11 11 (2.83%) Accountant
11 11 (2.83%) Applications Support
11 11 (2.83%) Senior Analyst
11 11 (2.83%) Systems Accountant
11 11 (2.83%) Technical Architect
12 10 (2.57%) DevOps Engineer
12 10 (2.57%) HR Director
13 9 (2.31%) Consultant
13 9 (2.31%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (7.20%) Spring
2 27 (6.94%) Spring Boot
3 25 (6.43%) SOAP
4 23 (5.91%) REST
5 22 (5.66%) Oracle Fusion
6 20 (5.14%) ActiveMQ
6 20 (5.14%) AngularJS
7 19 (4.88%) Hibernate
7 19 (4.88%) JPA
8 18 (4.63%) Spring Cloud
8 18 (4.63%) Web Services
9 17 (4.37%) Spring Batch
9 17 (4.37%) Spring Integration
10 15 (3.86%) RESTful
11 13 (3.34%) PowerMock
12 12 (3.08%) JSON
12 12 (3.08%) Node.js
13 11 (2.83%) Bootstrap
14 10 (2.57%) Gherkin
15 7 (1.80%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 29 (7.46%) Product Ownership
2 22 (5.66%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.37%) Management Information System
4 16 (4.11%) Data Structures
4 16 (4.11%) Distributed Systems
5 13 (3.34%) Legacy Systems
6 8 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (1.54%) Enterprise Cloud
8 6 (1.54%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.54%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.29%) BYOD
9 5 (1.29%) NHS
10 3 (0.77%) Autonomous Agent
10 3 (0.77%) Freedom of Information
10 3 (0.77%) Taxonomies
10 3 (0.77%) Virtual Team
11 2 (0.51%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.51%) Private Cloud
11 2 (0.51%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 18 (4.63%) Linux
2 8 (2.06%) Unix
3 5 (1.29%) Windows
4 2 (0.51%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (49.10%) Agile
2 97 (24.94%) DevOps
3 84 (21.59%) Stakeholder Management
4 82 (21.08%) CI/CD
5 76 (19.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 66 (16.97%) Scrum
7 64 (16.45%) Analytics
7 64 (16.45%) Migration
8 63 (16.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 54 (13.88%) Decision-Making
10 51 (13.11%) Data Modelling
11 50 (12.85%) Problem-Solving
12 49 (12.60%) Data Integration
13 43 (11.05%) ETL
14 36 (9.25%) Microservices
15 35 (9.00%) Technical Leadership
16 34 (8.74%) Data Pipeline
16 34 (8.74%) Test Automation
17 32 (8.23%) Validation
18 31 (7.97%) AI
Programming Languages
1 85 (21.85%) SQL
2 51 (13.11%) Java
3 24 (6.17%) Python
4 15 (3.86%) JavaScript
5 14 (3.60%) C#
6 13 (3.34%) PL/SQL
7 7 (1.80%) VB
7 7 (1.80%) VB6
8 6 (1.54%) Bash
9 5 (1.29%) C
10 4 (1.03%) Scala
10 4 (1.03%) T-SQL
10 4 (1.03%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.77%) ABAP
11 3 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.77%) R
12 2 (0.51%) Bicep
12 2 (0.51%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.51%) ProC
12 2 (0.51%) VBA
Qualifications
1 190 (48.84%) Security Cleared
2 154 (39.59%) SC Cleared
3 44 (11.31%) BPSS Clearance
4 20 (5.14%) Degree
5 13 (3.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (2.57%) ISTQB
7 6 (1.54%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.29%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (1.03%) DV Cleared
9 4 (1.03%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 4 (1.03%) SAS Certification
10 3 (0.77%) ACCA
10 3 (0.77%) CCA
10 3 (0.77%) CCAB
10 3 (0.77%) CIMA
10 3 (0.77%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.77%) CISM
10 3 (0.77%) CISSP
11 2 (0.51%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (8.74%) Data Quality
2 31 (7.97%) QA
3 28 (7.20%) Accessibility
4 13 (3.34%) GDPR
5 12 (3.08%) WCAG
6 9 (2.31%) SLA
7 7 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (1.29%) PMO
9 3 (0.77%) GRC
9 3 (0.77%) NCSC
10 2 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.51%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.51%) NIST
10 2 (0.51%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.26%) COBIT
11 1 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 43 (11.05%) Docker
2 11 (2.83%) Postfix
3 4 (1.03%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.26%) etcd
4 1 (0.26%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.26%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 28 (7.20%) Kubernetes
2 23 (5.91%) Grafana
3 12 (3.08%) Prometheus
4 9 (2.31%) Terraform
5 4 (1.03%) Ansible
6 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.26%) CASB
7 1 (0.26%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.26%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.26%) SCCM
7 1 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 74 (19.02%) Oracle
2 39 (10.03%) Microsoft
3 25 (6.43%) Talend
4 17 (4.37%) Jaspersoft
5 16 (4.11%) Atlassian
6 15 (3.86%) Informatica
7 14 (3.60%) Denodo
8 12 (3.08%) Databricks
9 10 (2.57%) SAP
10 8 (2.06%) Liquidlogic
11 7 (1.80%) Dynatrace
12 6 (1.54%) ServiceNow
13 5 (1.29%) Actian
13 5 (1.29%) Cloudera
13 5 (1.29%) Pega
14 3 (0.77%) Google
14 3 (0.77%) NEC
14 3 (0.77%) OneLogin
14 3 (0.77%) Salesforce
14 3 (0.77%) Sparx