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 6 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 17 12
Rank change year-on-year -1 -5 -6
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 242 130 190
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 9.64% 8.58% 10.01%
As % of the General category 17.36% 13.86% 18.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 163 78 126
10th Percentile £326 £288 £211
25th Percentile £425 £393 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £553 £581
90th Percentile £645 £596 £650
England median daily rate £500 £523 £528
% change year-on-year -4.44% -0.81% -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 8
10th Percentile £17.03 - £13.24
25th Percentile £18.44 £14.70 £14.07
Median hourly rate £23.03 £20.87 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.35% -40.39% +98.64%
75th Percentile £25.00 £28.77 £69.06
90th Percentile £30.92 £41.68 £72.93
England median hourly rate £22.00 £25.50 £20.85
% change year-on-year -13.73% +22.29% +4.89%

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 1,394 938 1,049
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 55.54% 61.91% 55.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 901 585 710
10th Percentile £238 £200 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £376
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% +2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £700 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 63 36 94
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.70 £11.06
25th Percentile £15.88 £17.85 £14.58
Median hourly rate £20.50 £23.82 £22.30
Median % change year-on-year -13.94% +6.82% +26.56%
75th Percentile £27.06 £30.68 £41.86
90th Percentile £32.55 £43.75 £65.75
England median hourly rate £22.81 £30.41 £25.71
% change year-on-year -24.98% +18.26% -2.98%

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 6 February 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 6 February 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 6 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 +2 94 £488 -0.51% 42
Warwickshire +27 52 £563 +7.14% 6
Shropshire -15 41 £513 -4.95% 11
Coventry -7 23 £463 +1.37% 6
Staffordshire +2 6 £413 -17.50% 6
Solihull -8 2 £448 +18.54% 1
Worcestershire -25 1 £363 +13.73% 2
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 17 (7.02%) Confluence
2 12 (4.96%) SAS
3 9 (3.72%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.48%) nginx
5 3 (1.24%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.24%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.83%) SugarCRM
7 1 (0.41%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.41%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.41%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 7 (2.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.48%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 5 (2.07%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (1.24%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.24%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.41%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.41%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.41%) Oracle Smart View
5 1 (0.41%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.41%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (1.24%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.83%) Maximo
2 2 (0.83%) NEC Housing
2 2 (0.83%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.41%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.41%) Primavera
3 1 (0.41%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.41%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 41 (16.94%) AWS
2 39 (16.12%) Azure
3 13 (5.37%) Power Platform
4 12 (4.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 11 (4.55%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 11 (4.55%) Amazon S3
6 10 (4.13%) AWS KMS
7 9 (3.72%) Amazon EC2
7 9 (3.72%) Amazon ELB
7 9 (3.72%) Microsoft 365
8 7 (2.89%) Amazon ECS
8 7 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (2.48%) GitHub
9 6 (2.48%) Route 53
9 6 (2.48%) SaaS
10 5 (2.07%) Dynamics 365
10 5 (2.07%) Entra ID
10 5 (2.07%) PaaS
11 4 (1.65%) Azure Data Factory
11 4 (1.65%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 16 (6.61%) Firewall
2 11 (4.55%) DNS
3 9 (3.72%) FTP
3 9 (3.72%) HTTP
3 9 (3.72%) SMTP
3 9 (3.72%) SSH
3 9 (3.72%) VPN
4 7 (2.89%) WAN
5 6 (2.48%) IMAP
5 6 (2.48%) OpenLDAP
6 5 (2.07%) Wireless
7 4 (1.65%) BGP
7 4 (1.65%) IPsec
7 4 (1.65%) LAN
7 4 (1.65%) MPLS
8 3 (1.24%) SD-WAN
9 2 (0.83%) Internet
9 2 (0.83%) SSL
9 2 (0.83%) VLAN
9 2 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.96%) Power BI
2 11 (4.55%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (4.13%) Amazon RDS
4 6 (2.48%) Amazon Aurora
4 6 (2.48%) MongoDB
4 6 (2.48%) Pentaho
4 6 (2.48%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 5 (2.07%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.65%) Electronic Patient Records
6 4 (1.65%) Oracle Database
6 4 (1.65%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (1.24%) MySQL
7 3 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.83%) Metadata
8 2 (0.83%) QlikView
8 2 (0.83%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 2 (0.83%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.83%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 25 (10.33%) Git
2 24 (9.92%) JIRA
3 19 (7.85%) Jenkins
4 9 (3.72%) Vagrant
5 4 (1.65%) GitLab
6 3 (1.24%) Toad
7 2 (0.83%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 2 (0.83%) JUnit
8 1 (0.41%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.41%) Liquibase
8 1 (0.41%) Maven
8 1 (0.41%) Mockito
8 1 (0.41%) MSI
8 1 (0.41%) MSTest
8 1 (0.41%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.41%) Selenium
General
1 67 (27.69%) Social Skills
2 24 (9.92%) Finance
3 15 (6.20%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (6.20%) Police
4 9 (3.72%) Local Government
5 8 (3.31%) Organisational Skills
5 8 (3.31%) Presentation Skills
6 7 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (2.89%) Legal
7 5 (2.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (2.07%) Law
8 4 (1.65%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.65%) Military
8 4 (1.65%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.24%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (0.83%) Banking
10 2 (0.83%) Retail
11 1 (0.41%) Electronics
11 1 (0.41%) Marketing
11 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 29 (11.98%) Analyst
2 24 (9.92%) Developer
3 22 (9.09%) Architect
4 21 (8.68%) Lead
5 20 (8.26%) Senior
6 14 (5.79%) Consultant
7 13 (5.37%) DevOps Engineer
8 11 (4.55%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (4.13%) AWS Engineer
9 10 (4.13%) Release Manager
10 9 (3.72%) Cloud Platform Engineer
10 9 (3.72%) Platform Engineer
11 8 (3.31%) AWS DevOps
11 8 (3.31%) AWS DevOps Engineer
11 8 (3.31%) Data Engineer
12 7 (2.89%) Business Analyst
12 7 (2.89%) Senior Developer
12 7 (2.89%) Support Engineer
13 6 (2.48%) 2nd Line Support
13 6 (2.48%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.13%) RESTful
2 9 (3.72%) CSS
2 9 (3.72%) React
2 9 (3.72%) REST
3 8 (3.31%) LDAP
4 6 (2.48%) .NET
4 6 (2.48%) AngularJS
4 6 (2.48%) HTML
4 6 (2.48%) Oracle Fusion
4 6 (2.48%) XML
5 5 (2.07%) Spring
5 5 (2.07%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.65%) EDI
6 4 (1.65%) Middleware
6 4 (1.65%) Play Framework
6 4 (1.65%) Playwright
7 3 (1.24%) .NET Framework
7 3 (1.24%) JSON
7 3 (1.24%) Material-UI
7 3 (1.24%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 14 (5.79%) Management Information System
2 11 (4.55%) Replication
3 10 (4.13%) Product Ownership
4 8 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
5 6 (2.48%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.07%) Data Structures
6 5 (2.07%) Driving Licence
6 5 (2.07%) NHS
7 4 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (1.65%) Cloud Native
7 4 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (1.65%) PKI
8 3 (1.24%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.24%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.83%) e-Learning
9 2 (0.83%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.83%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (0.83%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.41%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.41%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 19 (7.85%) Linux
1 19 (7.85%) Windows
2 9 (3.72%) Amazon Linux
2 9 (3.72%) VMS
3 6 (2.48%) Ubuntu
4 3 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.24%) Unix
5 1 (0.41%) Mac OS X
5 1 (0.41%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (20.66%) Agile
2 45 (18.60%) DevOps
3 39 (16.12%) CI/CD
4 30 (12.40%) Migration
5 28 (11.57%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
6 26 (10.74%) Continuous Improvement
7 25 (10.33%) Records Management
8 23 (9.50%) Analytics
8 23 (9.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 22 (9.09%) Change Management
10 17 (7.02%) Data Modelling
11 15 (6.20%) Configuration Management
12 14 (5.79%) Business Intelligence
13 13 (5.37%) Containerisation
13 13 (5.37%) Integration Patterns
13 13 (5.37%) Project Delivery
13 13 (5.37%) Scrum
13 13 (5.37%) Validation
14 12 (4.96%) Actionable Insight
Programming Languages
1 47 (19.42%) SQL
2 25 (10.33%) Python
3 18 (7.44%) Java
4 14 (5.79%) JavaScript
5 13 (5.37%) PowerShell
6 10 (4.13%) Groovy
7 6 (2.48%) TypeScript
8 5 (2.07%) Perl
8 5 (2.07%) Scala
9 4 (1.65%) C#
10 3 (1.24%) Bash
10 3 (1.24%) PHP
10 3 (1.24%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.24%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.83%) Go
11 2 (0.83%) R
12 1 (0.41%) ABAP
12 1 (0.41%) C++
12 1 (0.41%) COBOL
12 1 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 104 (42.98%) Security Cleared
2 54 (22.31%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.55%) Degree
4 10 (4.13%) AWS Certification
4 10 (4.13%) Azure Certification
5 7 (2.89%) DV Cleared
6 6 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (1.24%) DBS Check
8 3 (1.24%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.83%) ACCA
9 2 (0.83%) CCNP
9 2 (0.83%) CIMA
9 2 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.41%) CIPFA
10 1 (0.41%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.41%) JNCIE
10 1 (0.41%) JNCIP
10 1 (0.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (4.96%) QA
2 11 (4.55%) Data Quality
3 7 (2.89%) Accessibility
4 4 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.65%) WCAG
5 3 (1.24%) NIST
6 2 (0.83%) GDPR
6 2 (0.83%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.83%) SLA
7 1 (0.41%) NCSC
System Software
1 21 (8.68%) Docker
2 10 (4.13%) Active Directory
3 9 (3.72%) DFS Replication
4 6 (2.48%) Dovecot
4 6 (2.48%) Postfix
4 6 (2.48%) Squid
4 6 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.83%) vSphere
6 1 (0.41%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.41%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 18 (7.44%) Terraform
2 17 (7.02%) Kubernetes
3 11 (4.55%) Prometheus
4 10 (4.13%) Grafana
5 6 (2.48%) Nessus
5 6 (2.48%) Proxmox
6 3 (1.24%) Ansible
7 2 (0.83%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.83%) Kibana
7 2 (0.83%) vRealize
7 2 (0.83%) VxRail
8 1 (0.41%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.41%) logstash
8 1 (0.41%) QRadar
8 1 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 29 (11.98%) Oracle
2 23 (9.50%) Microsoft
3 12 (4.96%) SAP
4 11 (4.55%) ServiceNow
5 7 (2.89%) Ariba
5 7 (2.89%) Cisco
5 7 (2.89%) Talend
5 7 (2.89%) VMware
6 6 (2.48%) Jaspersoft
6 6 (2.48%) Juniper
6 6 (2.48%) Salesforce
6 6 (2.48%) Splunk
7 5 (2.07%) Denodo
7 5 (2.07%) IBM
8 3 (1.24%) Databricks
8 3 (1.24%) Dell
8 3 (1.24%) F5
8 3 (1.24%) SolarWinds
9 2 (0.83%) Fortinet
9 2 (0.83%) Isilon