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 26 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 18 13
Rank change year-on-year 0 -5 -5
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 293 109 173
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 9.56% 8.01% 8.96%
As % of the General category 18.72% 12.76% 15.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 68 124
10th Percentile £352 £246 £312
25th Percentile £415 £393 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £494 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.91% -9.33% -7.41%
75th Percentile £578 £581 £541
90th Percentile £645 £613 £618
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 6 6
10th Percentile £17.09 - £12.82
25th Percentile £18.44 £14.70 £15.04
Median hourly rate £24.39 £15.57 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +56.64% -18.07% +7.34%
75th Percentile £46.76 £17.99 £31.13
90th Percentile £65.50 £18.44 £35.00
England median hourly rate £23.25 £22.27 £22.12
% change year-on-year +4.40% +0.70% +10.58%

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 1,565 854 1,092
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 51.06% 62.75% 56.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,025 561 749
10th Percentile £300 £185 £262
25th Percentile £400 £363 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £510
Median % change year-on-year - -6.86% +0.94%
75th Percentile £581 £585 £625
90th Percentile £675 £678 £750
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 48 110
10th Percentile £14.07 - £11.06
25th Percentile £17.09 £14.00 £13.89
Median hourly rate £25.00 £18.00 £19.59
Median % change year-on-year +38.89% -8.12% +10.55%
75th Percentile £34.56 £28.64 £39.63
90th Percentile £62.70 £34.91 £56.50
England median hourly rate £30.08 £28.18 £30.00
% change year-on-year +6.72% -6.07% -13.82%

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 26 April 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 26 April 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 26 April 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 85 £525 +4.90% 42
Shropshire -5 72 £450 -0.81% 12
Warwickshire +16 44 £550 +29.41% 5
Coventry -8 24 £500 +25.00%
Solihull -6 18 £402 -4.29%
Staffordshire +9 12 £400 -30.25% 13
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 18 (6.14%) SAS
2 17 (5.80%) Confluence
3 14 (4.78%) SharePoint
4 6 (2.05%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (1.71%) WebLogic
6 2 (0.68%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.34%) Apache
7 1 (0.34%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.34%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.34%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.68%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.34%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.34%) Sketch
3 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.02%) NEC Housing
1 3 (1.02%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.68%) Maximo
2 2 (0.68%) SAP ERP
2 2 (0.68%) SAP FI
2 2 (0.68%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.34%) Primavera
3 1 (0.34%) SAP PSCD
3 1 (0.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 57 (19.45%) AWS
2 48 (16.38%) Azure
3 16 (5.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 16 (5.46%) Amazon S3
4 15 (5.12%) Amazon EC2
5 14 (4.78%) Amazon SQS
5 14 (4.78%) AWS KMS
5 14 (4.78%) Route 53
6 10 (3.41%) Power Platform
7 9 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (2.05%) PaaS
9 5 (1.71%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 5 (1.71%) Entra ID
9 5 (1.71%) GitHub
9 5 (1.71%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (1.71%) SaaS
10 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (1.02%) OCI
10 3 (1.02%) Tricentis Tosca
10 3 (1.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 7 (2.39%) Firewall
2 5 (1.71%) VPN
3 3 (1.02%) LAN
3 3 (1.02%) SSL
4 2 (0.68%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.68%) Network Security
4 2 (0.68%) WAN
5 1 (0.34%) BGP
5 1 (0.34%) DNS
5 1 (0.34%) Internet
5 1 (0.34%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (0.34%) IPsec
5 1 (0.34%) MPLS
5 1 (0.34%) SMTP
5 1 (0.34%) VLAN
5 1 (0.34%) VSAN
5 1 (0.34%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (6.48%) PostgreSQL
2 17 (5.80%) Pentaho
3 16 (5.46%) Amazon RDS
4 14 (4.78%) Amazon Aurora
4 14 (4.78%) DynamoDB
4 14 (4.78%) Oracle Reports
5 9 (3.07%) Oracle Database
5 9 (3.07%) Power BI
6 7 (2.39%) Data Warehouse
7 5 (1.71%) Electronic Patient Records
7 5 (1.71%) MongoDB
7 5 (1.71%) NoSQL
7 5 (1.71%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 5 (1.71%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 4 (1.37%) Metadata
8 4 (1.37%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.37%) SQL Server
9 3 (1.02%) Tableau
10 2 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.68%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 28 (9.56%) Git
2 26 (8.87%) JIRA
3 22 (7.51%) Jenkins
4 16 (5.46%) JUnit
5 15 (5.12%) Maven
5 15 (5.12%) Mockito
6 14 (4.78%) SonarQube
7 11 (3.75%) DbUnit
7 11 (3.75%) jMock
8 9 (3.07%) Bitbucket Server
8 9 (3.07%) JMeter
9 5 (1.71%) GitLab
10 3 (1.02%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 3 (1.02%) Postman
10 3 (1.02%) Toad
11 2 (0.68%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.68%) ERwin
11 2 (0.68%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.68%) Selenium
12 1 (0.34%) MSI
General
1 73 (24.91%) Social Skills
2 33 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (10.92%) Finance
4 23 (7.85%) Local Government
5 17 (5.80%) Legal
6 15 (5.12%) Police
7 6 (2.05%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.05%) Military
7 6 (2.05%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (1.71%) Law
8 5 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.68%) Banking
12 1 (0.34%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.34%) Automotive
12 1 (0.34%) Publishing
12 1 (0.34%) Retail
12 1 (0.34%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (13.31%) Developer
2 32 (10.92%) Senior
3 31 (10.58%) Architect
4 29 (9.90%) Analyst
5 25 (8.53%) Data Engineer
6 24 (8.19%) Java Developer
7 18 (6.14%) Lead
8 13 (4.44%) Accountant
8 13 (4.44%) Systems Accountant
9 12 (4.10%) Consultant
10 11 (3.75%) Designer
10 11 (3.75%) Release Manager
10 11 (3.75%) Senior Accountant
10 11 (3.75%) Senior Developer
10 11 (3.75%) Senior Systems Accountant
11 10 (3.41%) Business Analyst
11 10 (3.41%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (2.73%) DBA
12 8 (2.73%) Performance Engineer
12 8 (2.73%) Service Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (8.19%) Spring Boot
2 23 (7.85%) Spring
3 22 (7.51%) REST
4 20 (6.83%) AngularJS
5 17 (5.80%) SOAP
6 15 (5.12%) Hibernate
6 15 (5.12%) JPA
7 14 (4.78%) ActiveMQ
7 14 (4.78%) RESTful
7 14 (4.78%) Spring Batch
7 14 (4.78%) Spring Cloud
7 14 (4.78%) Spring Integration
7 14 (4.78%) Web Services
8 11 (3.75%) Oracle Fusion
8 11 (3.75%) PowerMock
9 10 (3.41%) Node.js
10 9 (3.07%) Bootstrap
11 5 (1.71%) .NET
11 5 (1.71%) Kafka
11 5 (1.71%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.14%) Management Information System
1 18 (6.14%) Product Ownership
2 15 (5.12%) Data Structures
3 11 (3.75%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (3.07%) NHS
5 8 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.05%) Onboarding
7 5 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.71%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.37%) Driving Licence
9 3 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.68%) BYOD
10 2 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.68%) Linux Command Line
10 2 (0.68%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.68%) PKI
10 2 (0.68%) Private Cloud
10 2 (0.68%) Reference Data
10 2 (0.68%) Replication
10 2 (0.68%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 19 (6.48%) Linux
2 9 (3.07%) Windows
3 4 (1.37%) Unix
4 3 (1.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.68%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 90 (30.72%) Agile
2 51 (17.41%) DevOps
3 44 (15.02%) Stakeholder Management
4 43 (14.68%) CI/CD
4 43 (14.68%) Continuous Improvement
5 42 (14.33%) Migration
6 32 (10.92%) Scrum
7 31 (10.58%) Decision-Making
8 30 (10.24%) Analytics
9 29 (9.90%) Data Modelling
10 28 (9.56%) Problem-Solving
10 28 (9.56%) Records Management
10 28 (9.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 27 (9.22%) Data Integration
12 26 (8.87%) Change Management
12 26 (8.87%) ETL
13 24 (8.19%) Containerisation
13 24 (8.19%) Microservices
14 22 (7.51%) Project Delivery
15 20 (6.83%) Data Pipeline
Programming Languages
1 76 (25.94%) SQL
2 38 (12.97%) Java
3 17 (5.80%) Python
4 8 (2.73%) PL/SQL
5 6 (2.05%) Bash
5 6 (2.05%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.02%) C#
6 3 (1.02%) PowerShell
6 3 (1.02%) Scala
6 3 (1.02%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.68%) Bicep
7 2 (0.68%) Perl
8 1 (0.34%) ABAP
8 1 (0.34%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.34%) R
8 1 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.34%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 136 (46.42%) Security Cleared
2 84 (28.67%) SC Cleared
3 11 (3.75%) BPSS Clearance
4 9 (3.07%) Degree
5 5 (1.71%) AWS Certification
5 5 (1.71%) Azure Certification
6 4 (1.37%) DV Cleared
7 3 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.68%) CCNP
8 2 (0.68%) ISTQB
8 2 (0.68%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.34%) CCNA
9 1 (0.34%) CISSP
9 1 (0.34%) ISEB
9 1 (0.34%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 1 (0.34%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.34%) OCP
9 1 (0.34%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.83%) Data Quality
2 13 (4.44%) QA
3 11 (3.75%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.71%) WCAG
5 4 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.02%) GDPR
7 2 (0.68%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.68%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.68%) PMO
8 1 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.34%) COBIT
8 1 (0.34%) GRC
8 1 (0.34%) NIST
8 1 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.34%) SLA
System Software
1 28 (9.56%) Docker
2 10 (3.41%) Postfix
3 6 (2.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.71%) Active Directory
5 2 (0.68%) vSphere
6 1 (0.34%) etcd
6 1 (0.34%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (6.83%) Kubernetes
2 14 (4.78%) Grafana
3 5 (1.71%) Prometheus
4 4 (1.37%) Terraform
5 2 (0.68%) EMC NetWorker
5 2 (0.68%) FortiGate
5 2 (0.68%) Kibana
5 2 (0.68%) vRealize
5 2 (0.68%) VxRail
6 1 (0.34%) Ansible
6 1 (0.34%) CASB
6 1 (0.34%) Fluentd
6 1 (0.34%) logstash
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.34%) SCCM
6 1 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 47 (16.04%) Oracle
2 19 (6.48%) Talend
3 18 (6.14%) Microsoft
4 14 (4.78%) Jaspersoft
5 13 (4.44%) Atlassian
5 13 (4.44%) SAP
6 10 (3.41%) Informatica
7 9 (3.07%) Denodo
8 7 (2.39%) Dynatrace
9 6 (2.05%) Salesforce
9 6 (2.05%) ServiceNow
9 6 (2.05%) VMware
10 5 (1.71%) Databricks
11 4 (1.37%) Cisco
11 4 (1.37%) Cloudera
11 4 (1.37%) IBM
11 4 (1.37%) MuleSoft
11 4 (1.37%) Pega
12 3 (1.02%) Ariba
12 3 (1.02%) Dell