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

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 -7
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 298 114 181
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 10.30% 8.64% 9.17%
As % of the General category 19.29% 14.14% 16.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 76 126
10th Percentile £343 £272 £300
25th Percentile £413 £381 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £458 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.15% -8.38% -4.76%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £558
90th Percentile £648 £606 £638
England median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 7
10th Percentile £17.09 - £13.03
25th Percentile £19.80 £14.70 £16.19
Median hourly rate £25.00 £15.57 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.59% -18.07% +7.83%
75th Percentile £25.39 £17.99 £35.00
90th Percentile £46.36 £18.44 £52.91
England median hourly rate £22.08 £24.18 £21.62
% change year-on-year -8.71% +11.87% +8.08%

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 1,545 806 1,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 53.42% 61.11% 55.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,011 545 759
10th Percentile £300 £197 £254
25th Percentile £400 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £624
90th Percentile £675 £678 £738
England median daily rate £500 £525 £535
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 36 113
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.13 £11.07
25th Percentile £16.13 £14.00 £13.91
Median hourly rate £25.00 £17.16 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +45.73% -9.71% +6.38%
75th Percentile £30.00 £22.56 £37.50
90th Percentile £59.50 £31.22 £56.25
England median hourly rate £25.46 £30.21 £26.00
% change year-on-year -15.72% +16.17% -25.71%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +3 93 £510 +7.03% 41
Shropshire -10 64 £463 +0.96% 14
Warwickshire +20 52 £550 +4.76% 9
Coventry -6 30 £500 +25.00% 1
Solihull -7 15 £402 -4.29% 2
Staffordshire +3 9 £413 -28.07% 11
Worcestershire -19 1 £363 -30.95% 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 19 (6.38%) SAS
2 17 (5.70%) Confluence
3 15 (5.03%) SharePoint
4 5 (1.68%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.67%) Anypoint
5 2 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.34%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.34%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 5 (1.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.01%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.34%) Adobe Illustrator
3 1 (0.34%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.34%) Photoshop
3 1 (0.34%) Sketch
3 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.01%) NEC Housing
1 3 (1.01%) SAP ERP
1 3 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.67%) Maximo
2 2 (0.67%) SAP FI
2 2 (0.67%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
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 53 (17.79%) AWS
2 47 (15.77%) Azure
3 13 (4.36%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 13 (4.36%) Amazon S3
3 13 (4.36%) Power Platform
4 11 (3.69%) Amazon EC2
4 11 (3.69%) AWS KMS
5 10 (3.36%) Amazon SQS
5 10 (3.36%) Azure DevOps
5 10 (3.36%) Route 53
6 7 (2.35%) Entra ID
6 7 (2.35%) GitHub
6 7 (2.35%) SaaS
7 6 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (1.68%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 5 (1.68%) GCP
8 5 (1.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 4 (1.34%) PaaS
9 4 (1.34%) Serverless
10 3 (1.01%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 11 (3.69%) Firewall
2 7 (2.35%) VPN
3 3 (1.01%) LAN
3 3 (1.01%) SSL
4 2 (0.67%) BGP
4 2 (0.67%) DNS
4 2 (0.67%) HTTPS
4 2 (0.67%) Internet
4 2 (0.67%) MPLS
4 2 (0.67%) Network Security
4 2 (0.67%) VLAN
4 2 (0.67%) WAN
4 2 (0.67%) Wireless
5 1 (0.34%) Broadband
5 1 (0.34%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (0.34%) EIGRP
5 1 (0.34%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (0.34%) IPsec
5 1 (0.34%) OSPF
5 1 (0.34%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (5.37%) Pentaho
1 16 (5.37%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (4.36%) Amazon RDS
3 12 (4.03%) Oracle Reports
3 12 (4.03%) Power BI
4 10 (3.36%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (3.36%) DynamoDB
5 6 (2.01%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.68%) NoSQL
6 5 (1.68%) Relational Database
7 4 (1.34%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.34%) Electronic Patient Records
7 4 (1.34%) Oracle Database
7 4 (1.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 4 (1.34%) SQL Server
8 3 (1.01%) Metadata
8 3 (1.01%) Tableau
9 2 (0.67%) Data Hub
9 2 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
9 2 (0.67%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (9.73%) Git
1 29 (9.73%) JIRA
2 24 (8.05%) Jenkins
3 13 (4.36%) JUnit
4 11 (3.69%) Maven
4 11 (3.69%) Mockito
5 10 (3.36%) SonarQube
6 8 (2.68%) DbUnit
6 8 (2.68%) jMock
7 7 (2.35%) JMeter
8 6 (2.01%) Bitbucket Server
9 5 (1.68%) GitLab
10 3 (1.01%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 3 (1.01%) Toad
11 2 (0.67%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.67%) ERwin
11 2 (0.67%) LoadRunner
11 2 (0.67%) Postman
11 2 (0.67%) Selenium
12 1 (0.34%) REST Assured
General
1 81 (27.18%) Social Skills
2 34 (11.41%) Finance
3 30 (10.07%) Analytical Skills
4 23 (7.72%) Local Government
5 15 (5.03%) Legal
5 15 (5.03%) Police
6 8 (2.68%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.01%) Military
9 5 (1.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.68%) Law
9 5 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.34%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.67%) Banking
11 2 (0.67%) Retail
12 1 (0.34%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.34%) Automotive
12 1 (0.34%) Publishing
12 1 (0.34%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 36 (12.08%) Analyst
2 33 (11.07%) Developer
3 31 (10.40%) Architect
4 30 (10.07%) Senior
5 22 (7.38%) Data Engineer
6 20 (6.71%) Lead
7 19 (6.38%) Java Developer
8 16 (5.37%) Consultant
9 14 (4.70%) Business Analyst
10 12 (4.03%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (3.69%) Accountant
11 11 (3.69%) Release Manager
11 11 (3.69%) Systems Accountant
12 10 (3.36%) Senior Accountant
12 10 (3.36%) Senior Systems Accountant
13 9 (3.02%) Senior Developer
14 7 (2.35%) DBA
14 7 (2.35%) Designer
14 7 (2.35%) Technical Architect
15 6 (2.01%) Head of Infrastructure
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.38%) Spring Boot
2 18 (6.04%) REST
2 18 (6.04%) Spring
3 16 (5.37%) AngularJS
4 13 (4.36%) RESTful
5 12 (4.03%) Oracle Fusion
5 12 (4.03%) Web Services
6 11 (3.69%) Hibernate
6 11 (3.69%) JPA
6 11 (3.69%) SOAP
7 10 (3.36%) ActiveMQ
7 10 (3.36%) Spring Batch
7 10 (3.36%) Spring Cloud
7 10 (3.36%) Spring Integration
8 8 (2.68%) Node.js
8 8 (2.68%) PowerMock
9 6 (2.01%) Bootstrap
9 6 (2.01%) CSS
9 6 (2.01%) XML
10 5 (1.68%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 17 (5.70%) Management Information System
2 14 (4.70%) Data Structures
3 12 (4.03%) Product Ownership
4 9 (3.02%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (3.02%) NHS
5 7 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (2.35%) Onboarding
6 6 (2.01%) Cloud Native
7 5 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.68%) Driving Licence
8 4 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.01%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.01%) PKI
10 2 (0.67%) CMDB
10 2 (0.67%) e-Learning
10 2 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
10 2 (0.67%) Public Cloud
10 2 (0.67%) Reference Data
10 2 (0.67%) Replication
10 2 (0.67%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 17 (5.70%) Linux
2 10 (3.36%) Windows
3 3 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.67%) Unix
4 2 (0.67%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.34%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (28.86%) Agile
2 51 (17.11%) DevOps
3 48 (16.11%) Stakeholder Management
4 45 (15.10%) CI/CD
5 40 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
6 34 (11.41%) Problem-Solving
7 33 (11.07%) Migration
8 29 (9.73%) Analytics
9 28 (9.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 27 (9.06%) Data Modelling
10 27 (9.06%) Records Management
10 27 (9.06%) Scrum
11 25 (8.39%) Change Management
11 25 (8.39%) Containerisation
12 24 (8.05%) ETL
13 23 (7.72%) Microservices
14 22 (7.38%) Decision-Making
14 22 (7.38%) Project Delivery
15 21 (7.05%) Data Integration
16 20 (6.71%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 69 (23.15%) SQL
2 34 (11.41%) Java
3 21 (7.05%) Python
4 9 (3.02%) JavaScript
5 8 (2.68%) PL/SQL
6 7 (2.35%) Bash
7 4 (1.34%) PowerShell
7 4 (1.34%) Scala
8 3 (1.01%) C#
8 3 (1.01%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.67%) Bicep
9 2 (0.67%) Go
9 2 (0.67%) Perl
10 1 (0.34%) ABAP
10 1 (0.34%) COBOL
10 1 (0.34%) Groovy
10 1 (0.34%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.34%) R
10 1 (0.34%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.34%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 142 (47.65%) Security Cleared
2 76 (25.50%) SC Cleared
3 9 (3.02%) Degree
4 8 (2.68%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (2.35%) AWS Certification
5 7 (2.35%) Azure Certification
6 6 (2.01%) DV Cleared
7 4 (1.34%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (1.01%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 3 (1.01%) CCNP
8 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (0.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 2 (0.67%) CCNA
9 2 (0.67%) CISSP
9 2 (0.67%) ISTQB
9 2 (0.67%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.67%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.34%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.34%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.71%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.70%) QA
3 9 (3.02%) Accessibility
4 7 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.68%) GDPR
6 4 (1.34%) WCAG
7 3 (1.01%) NIST
7 3 (1.01%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.67%) PMO
8 2 (0.67%) SLA
9 1 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.34%) COBIT
9 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.34%) NCSC
9 1 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 28 (9.40%) Docker
2 7 (2.35%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.35%) Postfix
2 7 (2.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.67%) vSphere
4 1 (0.34%) etcd
4 1 (0.34%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 25 (8.39%) Kubernetes
2 11 (3.69%) Grafana
3 10 (3.36%) Terraform
4 5 (1.68%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.01%) Ansible
6 2 (0.67%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.67%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.67%) Kibana
6 2 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.67%) vRealize
6 2 (0.67%) VxRail
7 1 (0.34%) CASB
7 1 (0.34%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.34%) logstash
7 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.34%) QRadar
7 1 (0.34%) SCCM
Vendors
1 46 (15.44%) Oracle
2 21 (7.05%) Microsoft
3 18 (6.04%) Talend
4 14 (4.70%) SAP
5 10 (3.36%) Atlassian
5 10 (3.36%) Informatica
5 10 (3.36%) Jaspersoft
6 9 (3.02%) Denodo
7 8 (2.68%) VMware
8 7 (2.35%) ServiceNow
9 6 (2.01%) Ariba
9 6 (2.01%) Cisco
9 6 (2.01%) IBM
9 6 (2.01%) Salesforce
9 6 (2.01%) Splunk
10 5 (1.68%) Databricks
10 5 (1.68%) Dynatrace
11 4 (1.34%) Cloudera
11 4 (1.34%) MuleSoft
12 3 (1.01%) SolarWinds