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 15 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 18 23
Rank change year-on-year +9 +5 -11
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 455 196 130
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 12.70% 10.35% 6.94%
As % of the General category 23.47% 16.35% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 134 79
10th Percentile £359 £287 £217
25th Percentile £415 £406 £399
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £510
Median % change year-on-year +3.16% -6.86% +2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £537 £568
90th Percentile £665 £600 £664
England median daily rate £525 £500 £515
% change year-on-year +5.00% -2.91% -6.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 6 8
10th Percentile £18.07 £17.36 £17.75
25th Percentile £20.31 £19.29 £22.33
Median hourly rate £22.00 £23.03 £30.03
Median % change year-on-year -4.45% -23.32% +50.14%
75th Percentile £75.00 £24.64 £40.56
90th Percentile - £25.00 £62.58
England median hourly rate £20.62 £22.02 £23.80
% change year-on-year -6.36% -7.48% +11.66%

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 1,939 1,199 1,069
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 54.12% 63.34% 57.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,168 754 660
10th Percentile £313 £245 £200
25th Percentile £406 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £650 £725
England median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 90 54
10th Percentile £13.45 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.13 £18.50 £15.25
Median hourly rate £22.00 £27.21 £23.82
Median % change year-on-year -19.15% +14.23% +16.20%
75th Percentile £33.99 £38.91 £30.86
90th Percentile £50.90 £50.00 £47.25
England median hourly rate £28.40 £25.08 £35.00
% change year-on-year +13.24% -28.36% +16.67%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +9 232 £492 -5.11% 15
Birmingham -3 88 £525 +10.53% 39
Coventry +6 50 £425 -9.81% 1
Warwickshire -20 18 £450 -9.09% 10
Staffordshire -1 15 £850 +51.79% 5
Solihull -15 14 - -
Worcestershire +13 10 £450 +24.14%
Dudley - 6 £263 -
Herefordshire +8 3 - - 3
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 34 (7.47%) Confluence
2 31 (6.81%) SAS
3 15 (3.30%) SharePoint
4 12 (2.64%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (1.10%) Apache
5 5 (1.10%) Apache Spark
5 5 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
5 5 (1.10%) Tuxedo
6 3 (0.66%) SAP Portal
7 1 (0.22%) IIS
7 1 (0.22%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
Applications
1 9 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (0.88%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.22%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 19 (4.18%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.98%) SAP HR
2 9 (1.98%) SAP Payroll
2 9 (1.98%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (1.76%) ContrOCC
3 8 (1.76%) SAP HCM
4 7 (1.54%) Oracle General Ledger
4 7 (1.54%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (1.54%) Oracle Receivables
5 5 (1.10%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 4 (0.88%) SAP PSCD
7 3 (0.66%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.44%) iTrent
8 2 (0.44%) NetSuite
8 2 (0.44%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.22%) Primavera
9 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.22%) SAP IS-U
Cloud Services
1 96 (21.10%) AWS
1 96 (21.10%) Azure
2 47 (10.33%) Azure DevOps
3 40 (8.79%) Power Platform
4 37 (8.13%) Power Automate
5 34 (7.47%) Dynamics 365
6 19 (4.18%) PowerApps
7 18 (3.96%) GitHub
7 18 (3.96%) Serverless
8 16 (3.52%) Azure Functions
9 14 (3.08%) Azure Data Factory
10 11 (2.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 10 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
12 9 (1.98%) SuccessFactors
13 8 (1.76%) GCP
13 8 (1.76%) GitHub Copilot
13 8 (1.76%) OCI
13 8 (1.76%) SaaS
14 7 (1.54%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.54%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.88%) LAN
1 4 (0.88%) VPN
2 3 (0.66%) Internet
2 3 (0.66%) TCP/IP
3 2 (0.44%) Firewall
3 2 (0.44%) WAN
4 1 (0.22%) BGP
4 1 (0.22%) Cisco ASA
4 1 (0.22%) EIGRP
4 1 (0.22%) Network Security
4 1 (0.22%) OSPF
4 1 (0.22%) RIP
4 1 (0.22%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (6.15%) Data Warehouse
2 26 (5.71%) SQL Server
3 24 (5.27%) Pentaho
4 19 (4.18%) Power BI
5 18 (3.96%) Metadata
5 18 (3.96%) Relational Database
6 15 (3.30%) Oracle Database
7 14 (3.08%) Data Lake
7 14 (3.08%) PostgreSQL
8 13 (2.86%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 12 (2.64%) SAS Enterprise Guide
10 11 (2.42%) MongoDB
11 10 (2.20%) NoSQL
12 7 (1.54%) Ingres
12 7 (1.54%) Oracle Reports
13 6 (1.32%) RDBMS
13 6 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 5 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (1.10%) BusinessObjects
15 4 (0.88%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 48 (10.55%) Git
2 47 (10.33%) JIRA
3 30 (6.59%) Jenkins
4 28 (6.15%) GitLab
5 20 (4.40%) Selenium
6 19 (4.18%) JUnit
7 15 (3.30%) Postman
7 15 (3.30%) SonarQube
8 14 (3.08%) Cucumber
8 14 (3.08%) Mockito
9 13 (2.86%) Maven
10 12 (2.64%) WebDriver
11 11 (2.42%) Cypress.io
12 9 (1.98%) Team Foundation Server
13 6 (1.32%) Gatling
14 5 (1.10%) Oracle Forms
15 4 (0.88%) Zephyr
16 3 (0.66%) Bitbucket Server
16 3 (0.66%) DbUnit
16 3 (0.66%) Protractor
General
1 169 (37.14%) Social Skills
2 75 (16.48%) Analytical Skills
3 59 (12.97%) Finance
4 44 (9.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 26 (5.71%) Local Government
6 25 (5.49%) Influencing Skills
7 20 (4.40%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (3.08%) Military
9 13 (2.86%) Legal
10 8 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.54%) Police
12 6 (1.32%) Telecoms
13 5 (1.10%) Banking
13 5 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.10%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.44%) Advertising
14 2 (0.44%) Law
14 2 (0.44%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.44%) Retail
15 1 (0.22%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 87 (19.12%) Developer
2 66 (14.51%) Senior
3 64 (14.07%) Architect
4 60 (13.19%) Analyst
5 52 (11.43%) Lead
6 43 (9.45%) Data Engineer
7 38 (8.35%) Data Architect
8 28 (6.15%) Java Developer
9 24 (5.27%) Business Analyst
10 22 (4.84%) Senior Developer
11 19 (4.18%) Dynamics 365 Developer
12 18 (3.96%) Test Analyst
13 14 (3.08%) Consultant
13 14 (3.08%) Technical Architect
14 13 (2.86%) SAP Consultant
14 13 (2.86%) Senior Analyst
15 11 (2.42%) Designer
15 11 (2.42%) DevOps Engineer
15 11 (2.42%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
15 11 (2.42%) Support Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (6.37%) REST
2 28 (6.15%) SOAP
3 27 (5.93%) Spring
4 26 (5.71%) JSON
5 23 (5.05%) Spring Boot
6 18 (3.96%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (3.74%) XML
8 16 (3.52%) RESTful
9 14 (3.08%) Gherkin
9 14 (3.08%) Web Services
10 13 (2.86%) ActiveMQ
10 13 (2.86%) AngularJS
10 13 (2.86%) JPA
10 13 (2.86%) Playwright
11 12 (2.64%) Hibernate
11 12 (2.64%) React
12 11 (2.42%) Spring Cloud
12 11 (2.42%) XSLT
13 9 (1.98%) SAPUI5
13 9 (1.98%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 39 (8.57%) Cloud Native
2 33 (7.25%) Product Ownership
3 27 (5.93%) Management Information System
4 17 (3.74%) Enterprise Software
5 13 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
6 11 (2.42%) Taxonomies
7 8 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (1.76%) Virtual Team
8 7 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
8 7 (1.54%) Enterprise Cloud
8 7 (1.54%) Onboarding
8 7 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.32%) Data Fabric
9 6 (1.32%) Data Structures
9 6 (1.32%) Low-Code
10 4 (0.88%) Autonomous Agent
10 4 (0.88%) Driving Licence
11 3 (0.66%) BYOD
11 3 (0.66%) Data Centre
11 3 (0.66%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.54%) Unix
1 7 (1.54%) Windows
2 6 (1.32%) Linux
3 3 (0.66%) Android
3 3 (0.66%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.22%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (52.31%) Agile
2 113 (24.84%) Continuous Improvement
2 113 (24.84%) Stakeholder Management
3 112 (24.62%) DevOps
4 101 (22.20%) CI/CD
5 99 (21.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 86 (18.90%) Problem-Solving
7 83 (18.24%) Analytics
8 73 (16.04%) Scrum
9 70 (15.38%) Migration
10 59 (12.97%) Data Modelling
10 59 (12.97%) Decision-Making
11 57 (12.53%) Technical Leadership
12 56 (12.31%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 56 (12.31%) Test Automation
13 51 (11.21%) Data Integration
14 49 (10.77%) AI
14 49 (10.77%) Microservices
15 47 (10.33%) ETL
16 46 (10.11%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 74 (16.26%) SQL
2 60 (13.19%) Java
3 44 (9.67%) JavaScript
4 27 (5.93%) C#
5 22 (4.84%) Python
6 17 (3.74%) TypeScript
7 12 (2.64%) ABAP
8 11 (2.42%) Scala
9 8 (1.76%) PL/SQL
9 8 (1.76%) VB
9 8 (1.76%) VB6
10 5 (1.10%) C
10 5 (1.10%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.88%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (0.88%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.66%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.66%) R
12 3 (0.66%) VBA
13 2 (0.44%) Bash
13 2 (0.44%) ProC
Qualifications
1 206 (45.27%) Security Cleared
2 186 (40.88%) SC Cleared
3 106 (23.30%) BPSS Clearance
4 30 (6.59%) Microsoft Certification
5 20 (4.40%) Degree
6 17 (3.74%) ISTQB
7 7 (1.54%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (1.32%) Azure Certification
9 5 (1.10%) ACCA
9 5 (1.10%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.10%) CIMA
10 4 (0.88%) CCAB
10 4 (0.88%) Computer Science Degree
10 4 (0.88%) SAS Certification
11 3 (0.66%) A+ Certification
11 3 (0.66%) CCA
11 3 (0.66%) CISM
11 3 (0.66%) CISSP
11 3 (0.66%) DV Cleared
12 2 (0.44%) APMG
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (11.87%) Accessibility
2 47 (10.33%) QA
3 36 (7.91%) Data Quality
4 30 (6.59%) WCAG
5 23 (5.05%) GDPR
6 11 (2.42%) SLA
7 7 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (1.10%) NCSC
9 4 (0.88%) GRC
10 3 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.66%) PMO
11 2 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.44%) NIST
12 1 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 38 (8.35%) Docker
2 7 (1.54%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.44%) Postfix
4 1 (0.22%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 33 (7.25%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.52%) Grafana
3 13 (2.86%) Prometheus
4 4 (0.88%) Ansible
5 3 (0.66%) SCCM
6 1 (0.22%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.22%) Kibana
6 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 69 (15.16%) Oracle
2 57 (12.53%) Microsoft
3 23 (5.05%) Talend
4 18 (3.96%) SAP
5 15 (3.30%) Denodo
6 11 (2.42%) Databricks
6 11 (2.42%) Informatica
7 9 (1.98%) ServiceNow
8 8 (1.76%) Concur
8 8 (1.76%) Liquidlogic
9 5 (1.10%) Actian
10 4 (0.88%) Atlassian
10 4 (0.88%) Google
10 4 (0.88%) Jaspersoft
10 4 (0.88%) Pega
11 3 (0.66%) Blue Prism
12 2 (0.44%) Dynatrace
12 2 (0.44%) OneLogin
12 2 (0.44%) Sparx
12 2 (0.44%) UiPath