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 2 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 16 12
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 -6
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 277 129 180
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 10.19% 9.36% 9.38%
As % of the General category 18.63% 15.27% 16.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 81 123
10th Percentile £357 £300 £229
25th Percentile £413 £393 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -8.57% -
75th Percentile £600 £567 £575
90th Percentile £648 £613 £648
England median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 7 5
10th Percentile £16.97 - £12.60
25th Percentile £17.09 £14.70 £13.89
Median hourly rate £23.00 £16.44 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.95% -34.26% +41.88%
75th Percentile £25.00 £18.44 £35.00
90th Percentile £36.07 £20.68 £61.87
England median hourly rate £22.00 £25.00 £21.25
% change year-on-year -12.00% +17.65% +6.25%

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 1,487 845 1,073
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 54.71% 61.32% 55.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 962 546 729
10th Percentile £268 £200 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -
75th Percentile £581 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 37 100
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.00 £11.05
25th Percentile £16.00 £14.70 £13.79
Median hourly rate £21.52 £18.74 £19.23
Median % change year-on-year +14.83% -2.52% +9.11%
75th Percentile £27.21 £24.18 £39.92
90th Percentile £34.20 £32.47 £58.75
England median hourly rate £23.83 £30.45 £26.00
% change year-on-year -21.76% +17.12% -18.75%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 2 March 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 +6 93 £500 +4.17% 30
Shropshire -15 55 £485 -7.98% 21
Warwickshire +23 53 £550 +4.76% 4
Coventry -9 26 £475 +15.15% 3
Solihull -6 11 £335 -19.76% 6
Staffordshire +3 8 £413 -23.15% 4
Worcestershire -27 1 £363 -30.95% 4
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 (6.50%) SAS
2 17 (6.14%) Confluence
3 11 (3.97%) SharePoint
4 5 (1.81%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.72%) SugarCRM
6 1 (0.36%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.36%) nginx
6 1 (0.36%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.36%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.72%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
3 1 (0.36%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.36%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 1 (0.36%) Oracle Smart View
3 1 (0.36%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.36%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (1.08%) NEC Housing
1 3 (1.08%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.72%) Maximo
2 2 (0.72%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.36%) MIS ActiveH
3 1 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.36%) Primavera
3 1 (0.36%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.36%) SAP PSCD
Cloud Services
1 50 (18.05%) AWS
2 40 (14.44%) Azure
3 14 (5.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 14 (5.05%) Amazon S3
3 14 (5.05%) Power Platform
4 12 (4.33%) Amazon EC2
4 12 (4.33%) AWS KMS
5 10 (3.61%) Route 53
6 9 (3.25%) Amazon SQS
6 9 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (2.17%) GitHub
7 6 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (2.17%) SaaS
7 6 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 5 (1.81%) Entra ID
8 5 (1.81%) GCP
9 4 (1.44%) Azure Logic Apps
9 4 (1.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 4 (1.44%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (1.44%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 10 (3.61%) Firewall
2 6 (2.17%) VPN
3 5 (1.81%) Wireless
4 4 (1.44%) DNS
5 3 (1.08%) LAN
5 3 (1.08%) Network Security
5 3 (1.08%) WAN
6 2 (0.72%) BGP
6 2 (0.72%) FTP
6 2 (0.72%) HTTP
6 2 (0.72%) IPsec
6 2 (0.72%) MPLS
6 2 (0.72%) SMTP
6 2 (0.72%) SSH
6 2 (0.72%) SSL
6 2 (0.72%) VLAN
7 1 (0.36%) EIGRP
7 1 (0.36%) Internet
7 1 (0.36%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.36%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (5.42%) Pentaho
1 15 (5.42%) PostgreSQL
2 14 (5.05%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (4.69%) Power BI
4 10 (3.61%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (3.61%) Oracle Reports
5 9 (3.25%) DynamoDB
6 6 (2.17%) MongoDB
7 5 (1.81%) Relational Database
8 4 (1.44%) Electronic Patient Records
8 4 (1.44%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 3 (1.08%) Data Warehouse
9 3 (1.08%) MySQL
9 3 (1.08%) NoSQL
9 3 (1.08%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.08%) SQL Server
9 3 (1.08%) Tableau
10 2 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.72%) QlikView
10 2 (0.72%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (11.55%) Git
2 27 (9.75%) JIRA
3 26 (9.39%) Jenkins
4 12 (4.33%) JUnit
5 10 (3.61%) Maven
5 10 (3.61%) Mockito
6 9 (3.25%) SonarQube
7 7 (2.53%) DbUnit
7 7 (2.53%) jMock
8 5 (1.81%) Bitbucket Server
8 5 (1.81%) GitLab
9 3 (1.08%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 3 (1.08%) Toad
10 2 (0.72%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.72%) Selenium
10 2 (0.72%) Vagrant
11 1 (0.36%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.36%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.36%) MSTest
11 1 (0.36%) TestNG
General
1 80 (28.88%) Social Skills
2 32 (11.55%) Finance
3 25 (9.03%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (5.78%) Local Government
5 14 (5.05%) Police
6 13 (4.69%) Legal
7 8 (2.89%) Influencing Skills
7 8 (2.89%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (2.17%) Manufacturing
9 5 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.81%) Law
9 5 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.44%) Military
10 4 (1.44%) Telecoms
11 2 (0.72%) Banking
11 2 (0.72%) Retail
12 1 (0.36%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.36%) Automotive
12 1 (0.36%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 36 (13.00%) Developer
2 32 (11.55%) Analyst
3 27 (9.75%) Senior
4 25 (9.03%) Architect
5 21 (7.58%) Lead
6 19 (6.86%) Data Engineer
7 18 (6.50%) Java Developer
8 16 (5.78%) Consultant
9 12 (4.33%) Solutions Architect
10 11 (3.97%) Business Analyst
11 10 (3.61%) Accountant
11 10 (3.61%) Release Manager
11 10 (3.61%) Senior Accountant
12 8 (2.89%) Senior Developer
12 8 (2.89%) Senior Systems Accountant
12 8 (2.89%) Systems Accountant
13 6 (2.17%) DBA
13 6 (2.17%) IT Consultant
13 6 (2.17%) Support Engineer
13 6 (2.17%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (6.50%) REST
1 18 (6.50%) Spring Boot
2 17 (6.14%) Spring
3 15 (5.42%) AngularJS
4 12 (4.33%) RESTful
5 11 (3.97%) Oracle Fusion
5 11 (3.97%) SOAP
5 11 (3.97%) Web Services
6 10 (3.61%) Hibernate
6 10 (3.61%) JPA
7 9 (3.25%) ActiveMQ
7 9 (3.25%) Spring Batch
7 9 (3.25%) Spring Cloud
7 9 (3.25%) Spring Integration
8 8 (2.89%) CSS
8 8 (2.89%) Node.js
9 7 (2.53%) HTML
9 7 (2.53%) PowerMock
10 6 (2.17%) React
10 6 (2.17%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.50%) Management Information System
2 11 (3.97%) Data Structures
3 10 (3.61%) Product Ownership
4 8 (2.89%) Distributed Systems
5 7 (2.53%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.17%) NHS
7 5 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.81%) Driving Licence
8 4 (1.44%) Cloud Native
8 4 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.44%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.44%) Replication
9 3 (1.08%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.72%) Data Centre
10 2 (0.72%) e-Learning
10 2 (0.72%) PKI
10 2 (0.72%) Private Cloud
10 2 (0.72%) Public Cloud
10 2 (0.72%) Security Operations Centre
10 2 (0.72%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.14%) Linux
2 10 (3.61%) Windows
3 3 (1.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.72%) Amazon Linux
4 2 (0.72%) Unix
4 2 (0.72%) VMS
5 1 (0.36%) Mac OS X
5 1 (0.36%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.36%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (27.44%) Agile
2 48 (17.33%) DevOps
3 42 (15.16%) CI/CD
3 42 (15.16%) Stakeholder Management
4 36 (13.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 34 (12.27%) Problem-Solving
6 31 (11.19%) Migration
7 27 (9.75%) Scrum
8 25 (9.03%) Records Management
9 24 (8.66%) Analytics
9 24 (8.66%) Data Modelling
10 22 (7.94%) Change Management
10 22 (7.94%) Containerisation
11 21 (7.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 20 (7.22%) ETL
12 20 (7.22%) Microservices
13 19 (6.86%) Project Delivery
14 18 (6.50%) Business Intelligence
14 18 (6.50%) TDD
14 18 (6.50%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 64 (23.10%) SQL
2 32 (11.55%) Java
3 20 (7.22%) Python
4 12 (4.33%) JavaScript
5 7 (2.53%) PL/SQL
6 6 (2.17%) Bash
7 5 (1.81%) PowerShell
8 4 (1.44%) C#
8 4 (1.44%) Scala
9 3 (1.08%) Groovy
9 3 (1.08%) Perl
9 3 (1.08%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.72%) Go
10 2 (0.72%) PHP
10 2 (0.72%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.36%) ABAP
11 1 (0.36%) Bicep
11 1 (0.36%) COBOL
11 1 (0.36%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.36%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 132 (47.65%) Security Cleared
2 75 (27.08%) SC Cleared
3 8 (2.89%) AWS Certification
3 8 (2.89%) Azure Certification
4 7 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
4 7 (2.53%) DV Cleared
5 6 (2.17%) Degree
6 4 (1.44%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
7 3 (1.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (1.08%) CCNP
7 3 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (1.08%) DBS Check
8 2 (0.72%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (0.72%) ACCA
8 2 (0.72%) CCNA
8 2 (0.72%) CIMA
8 2 (0.72%) CISSP
9 1 (0.36%) CIPFA
9 1 (0.36%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (5.78%) Data Quality
2 15 (5.42%) QA
3 6 (2.17%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.08%) GDPR
4 3 (1.08%) NIST
4 3 (1.08%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.08%) WCAG
5 2 (0.72%) SLA
6 1 (0.36%) COBIT
6 1 (0.36%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.36%) NCSC
6 1 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 28 (10.11%) Docker
2 7 (2.53%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.53%) Postfix
3 6 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.72%) DFS Replication
4 2 (0.72%) vSphere
5 1 (0.36%) Dovecot
5 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.36%) Squid
5 1 (0.36%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 22 (7.94%) Kubernetes
2 12 (4.33%) Grafana
3 10 (3.61%) Terraform
4 5 (1.81%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.08%) Ansible
6 2 (0.72%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.72%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.72%) Kibana
6 2 (0.72%) vRealize
6 2 (0.72%) VxRail
7 1 (0.36%) logstash
7 1 (0.36%) Nessus
7 1 (0.36%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.36%) QRadar
7 1 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 42 (15.16%) Oracle
2 20 (7.22%) Microsoft
3 17 (6.14%) Talend
4 12 (4.33%) SAP
5 10 (3.61%) Denodo
5 10 (3.61%) Jaspersoft
6 8 (2.89%) Atlassian
6 8 (2.89%) ServiceNow
7 7 (2.53%) Ariba
7 7 (2.53%) Cisco
7 7 (2.53%) Informatica
7 7 (2.53%) Salesforce
7 7 (2.53%) VMware
8 6 (2.17%) Splunk
9 5 (1.81%) IBM
10 3 (1.08%) Dell
10 3 (1.08%) F5
10 3 (1.08%) Juniper
10 3 (1.08%) NEC
10 3 (1.08%) SolarWinds