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 22 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 15 22
Rank change year-on-year +5 +7 -10
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 405 164 127
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 11.72% 9.49% 6.70%
As % of the General category 22.23% 14.84% 12.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 311 108 89
10th Percentile £358 £254 £261
25th Percentile £418 £406 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year +3.58% +2.70% -7.50%
75th Percentile £575 £531 £550
90th Percentile £663 £591 £640
England median daily rate £525 £513 £520
% change year-on-year +2.44% -1.44% -3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 4 10
10th Percentile £17.57 £16.16 £18.25
25th Percentile £20.31 £17.48 £18.50
Median hourly rate £21.50 £18.59 £30.03
Median % change year-on-year +15.67% -38.10% +66.82%
75th Percentile £75.00 £19.95 £35.00
90th Percentile - £22.12 £39.00
England median hourly rate £21.50 £21.70 £25.00
% change year-on-year -0.92% -13.20% +25.00%

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 1,822 1,105 1,050
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 52.72% 63.91% 55.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,135 696 698
10th Percentile £315 £216 £240
25th Percentile £405 £375 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £580 £575 £634
90th Percentile £675 £638 £750
England median daily rate £525 £508 £538
% change year-on-year +3.45% -5.58% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 146 84 67
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £17.68 £18.16 £14.85
Median hourly rate £27.30 £28.59 £19.59
Median % change year-on-year -4.51% +45.94% -11.36%
75th Percentile £43.96 £40.25 £31.78
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £45.75
England median hourly rate £32.36 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +28.68% -34.02% +38.62%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 22 August 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 +8 191 £494 -4.08% 31
Birmingham -8 77 £525 +10.53% 105
Coventry +8 43 £425 - 3
Warwickshire -11 21 £450 +5.88% 6
Staffordshire +6 16 £850 +51.79% 7
Solihull -12 16 £447 +5.18% 1
Worcestershire +5 9 £450 - 1
Dudley -5 3 £375 -
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 36 (8.89%) SAS
2 25 (6.17%) Confluence
3 16 (3.95%) Apache Airflow
4 9 (2.22%) SharePoint
5 5 (1.23%) Tuxedo
6 3 (0.74%) Apache
6 3 (0.74%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.25%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.25%) IIS
8 1 (0.25%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 8 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.99%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.25%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (2.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.98%) ContrOCC
3 7 (1.73%) Oracle Receivables
4 6 (1.48%) Oracle General Ledger
4 6 (1.48%) Oracle Payables
5 5 (1.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 4 (0.99%) SAP PSCD
7 3 (0.74%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.49%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.25%) Oracle Assets
9 1 (0.25%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.25%) Primavera
9 1 (0.25%) SAP BRIM
9 1 (0.25%) SAP HR
9 1 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
9 1 (0.25%) SAP IS-U
9 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.25%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 86 (21.23%) Azure
2 82 (20.25%) AWS
3 34 (8.40%) Azure DevOps
4 29 (7.16%) Power Platform
5 25 (6.17%) Power Automate
6 23 (5.68%) Dynamics 365
7 18 (4.44%) GitHub
8 15 (3.70%) PowerApps
9 13 (3.21%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 13 (3.21%) Azure Data Factory
9 13 (3.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 12 (2.96%) Amazon EC2
10 12 (2.96%) Amazon S3
11 11 (2.72%) PaaS
12 10 (2.47%) Amazon SQS
12 10 (2.47%) AWS KMS
12 10 (2.47%) Route 53
13 9 (2.22%) Serverless
14 8 (1.98%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (1.73%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.48%) Firewall
2 3 (0.74%) LAN
2 3 (0.74%) VPN
3 2 (0.49%) SSL
3 2 (0.49%) WAN
4 1 (0.25%) DNS
4 1 (0.25%) HTTPS
4 1 (0.25%) Internet
4 1 (0.25%) Network Security
4 1 (0.25%) SMTP
4 1 (0.25%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (6.42%) Data Warehouse
2 23 (5.68%) Pentaho
3 19 (4.69%) Oracle Database
4 18 (4.44%) SAS Visual Analytics
4 18 (4.44%) SQL Server
5 17 (4.20%) Power BI
5 17 (4.20%) SAS Enterprise Guide
6 16 (3.95%) PostgreSQL
7 12 (2.96%) Data Lake
7 12 (2.96%) Oracle Reports
8 11 (2.72%) Metadata
8 11 (2.72%) Relational Database
9 10 (2.47%) Amazon Aurora
9 10 (2.47%) Amazon RDS
9 10 (2.47%) DynamoDB
10 8 (1.98%) NoSQL
11 7 (1.73%) Ingres
12 6 (1.48%) RDBMS
12 6 (1.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (1.23%) BusinessObjects
Development Applications
1 39 (9.63%) JIRA
2 33 (8.15%) Git
3 30 (7.41%) Jenkins
4 23 (5.68%) GitLab
5 15 (3.70%) JUnit
5 15 (3.70%) Selenium
6 14 (3.46%) SonarQube
7 13 (3.21%) Mockito
7 13 (3.21%) Postman
8 12 (2.96%) Maven
9 10 (2.47%) WebDriver
10 9 (2.22%) Cucumber
10 9 (2.22%) Cypress.io
10 9 (2.22%) JMeter
11 8 (1.98%) Team Foundation Server
12 7 (1.73%) Bitbucket Server
12 7 (1.73%) DbUnit
12 7 (1.73%) jMock
13 5 (1.23%) Oracle Forms
14 3 (0.74%) Bitbucket
General
1 123 (30.37%) Social Skills
2 56 (13.83%) Analytical Skills
2 56 (13.83%) Finance
3 33 (8.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 31 (7.65%) Local Government
5 19 (4.69%) Influencing Skills
6 9 (2.22%) Military
7 8 (1.98%) Legal
7 8 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (1.48%) Police
10 5 (1.23%) Telecoms
11 4 (0.99%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.74%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.74%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.49%) Banking
13 2 (0.49%) Law
13 2 (0.49%) Retail
14 1 (0.25%) Advertising
14 1 (0.25%) Billing
Job Titles
1 59 (14.57%) Senior
2 54 (13.33%) Architect
2 54 (13.33%) Developer
3 48 (11.85%) Analyst
4 45 (11.11%) Data Engineer
5 42 (10.37%) Lead
6 29 (7.16%) Data Architect
7 22 (5.43%) Business Analyst
8 18 (4.44%) Java Developer
9 15 (3.70%) Senior Developer
10 13 (3.21%) Test Analyst
11 12 (2.96%) Release Manager
11 12 (2.96%) Senior Analyst
12 11 (2.72%) Designer
12 11 (2.72%) DevOps Engineer
12 11 (2.72%) Dynamics 365 Developer
13 10 (2.47%) HR Director
13 10 (2.47%) Technical Architect
14 9 (2.22%) Senior Java Developer
14 9 (2.22%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.69%) Oracle Fusion
1 19 (4.69%) Spring
2 18 (4.44%) SOAP
3 16 (3.95%) REST
3 16 (3.95%) Spring Boot
4 15 (3.70%) JSON
5 13 (3.21%) ActiveMQ
5 13 (3.21%) AngularJS
6 12 (2.96%) Hibernate
6 12 (2.96%) JPA
6 12 (2.96%) RESTful
7 11 (2.72%) Gherkin
7 11 (2.72%) Spring Cloud
7 11 (2.72%) Web Services
8 10 (2.47%) Spring Batch
8 10 (2.47%) Spring Integration
8 10 (2.47%) Terraform
9 8 (1.98%) Playwright
10 7 (1.73%) Kafka
10 7 (1.73%) PowerMock
Miscellaneous
1 33 (8.15%) Product Ownership
2 26 (6.42%) Cloud Native
3 17 (4.20%) Management Information System
4 15 (3.70%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (2.96%) Data Structures
6 10 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (1.73%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (1.48%) Enterprise Cloud
9 6 (1.48%) Low-Code
9 6 (1.48%) Onboarding
10 5 (1.23%) BYOD
11 4 (0.99%) NHS
12 3 (0.74%) Autonomous Agent
12 3 (0.74%) Freedom of Information
12 3 (0.74%) Taxonomies
12 3 (0.74%) Virtual Team
13 2 (0.49%) AI Agents
13 2 (0.49%) Legacy Applications
13 2 (0.49%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 12 (2.96%) Linux
2 8 (1.98%) Unix
3 5 (1.23%) Windows
4 2 (0.49%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 207 (51.11%) Agile
2 106 (26.17%) DevOps
3 92 (22.72%) CI/CD
4 91 (22.47%) Continuous Improvement
5 90 (22.22%) Stakeholder Management
6 78 (19.26%) Analytics
7 76 (18.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 72 (17.78%) Scrum
9 69 (17.04%) Migration
10 63 (15.56%) Problem-Solving
11 54 (13.33%) Decision-Making
12 53 (13.09%) Data Modelling
13 51 (12.59%) Data Integration
14 45 (11.11%) ETL
15 42 (10.37%) Technical Leadership
16 39 (9.63%) SFIA
17 38 (9.38%) Test Automation
18 37 (9.14%) AI
18 37 (9.14%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 36 (8.89%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 70 (17.28%) SQL
2 39 (9.63%) Java
3 21 (5.19%) JavaScript
3 21 (5.19%) Python
4 18 (4.44%) C#
5 13 (3.21%) Scala
6 9 (2.22%) PL/SQL
7 7 (1.73%) TypeScript
7 7 (1.73%) VB
7 7 (1.73%) VB6
8 5 (1.23%) C
9 4 (0.99%) T-SQL
10 3 (0.74%) ABAP
10 3 (0.74%) Bash
10 3 (0.74%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 3 (0.74%) R
11 2 (0.49%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.49%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.49%) ProC
11 2 (0.49%) VBA
Qualifications
1 187 (46.17%) Security Cleared
2 158 (39.01%) SC Cleared
3 63 (15.56%) BPSS Clearance
4 21 (5.19%) Degree
5 18 (4.44%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (3.21%) ISTQB
7 6 (1.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 5 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (0.99%) SAS Certification
10 3 (0.74%) ACCA
10 3 (0.74%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.74%) CCA
10 3 (0.74%) CCAB
10 3 (0.74%) CIMA
10 3 (0.74%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.49%) APMG
11 2 (0.49%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.49%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.49%) CISSP
11 2 (0.49%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (10.62%) QA
2 37 (9.14%) Accessibility
2 37 (9.14%) Data Quality
3 14 (3.46%) WCAG
4 13 (3.21%) GDPR
5 9 (2.22%) SLA
6 6 (1.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 5 (1.23%) GRC
7 5 (1.23%) PMO
8 4 (0.99%) NCSC
9 2 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 2 (0.49%) NIST
10 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 38 (9.38%) Docker
2 6 (1.48%) Postfix
3 4 (0.99%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.25%) etcd
4 1 (0.25%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 31 (7.65%) Kubernetes
2 16 (3.95%) Grafana
3 12 (2.96%) Prometheus
4 4 (0.99%) Ansible
5 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.25%) CASB
6 1 (0.25%) Fluentd
6 1 (0.25%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.25%) SCCM
6 1 (0.25%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 69 (17.04%) Oracle
2 43 (10.62%) Microsoft
3 23 (5.68%) Talend
4 15 (3.70%) Denodo
5 11 (2.72%) Databricks
5 11 (2.72%) Informatica
6 10 (2.47%) Atlassian
6 10 (2.47%) Jaspersoft
7 9 (2.22%) SAP
8 8 (1.98%) Dynatrace
8 8 (1.98%) Liquidlogic
9 5 (1.23%) Actian
10 4 (0.99%) Blue Prism
10 4 (0.99%) Pega
11 3 (0.74%) ServiceNow
11 3 (0.74%) Sparx
11 3 (0.74%) UiPath
12 2 (0.49%) Alteryx
12 2 (0.49%) MuleSoft
12 2 (0.49%) OneLogin