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 21 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 17 16
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 -8
Contract jobs citing Public Sector 305 109 163
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 9.63% 7.86% 8.62%
As % of the General category 18.91% 12.63% 15.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 64 122
10th Percentile £359 £208 £309
25th Percentile £425 £403 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £452 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.63% -9.70% -7.41%
75th Percentile £588 £548 £550
90th Percentile £650 £627 £625
England median daily rate £501 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 4 8
10th Percentile £17.09 £14.87 £13.24
25th Percentile £23.60 £15.14 £15.47
Median hourly rate £61.25 £17.28 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +254.40% -9.04% -1.30%
75th Percentile £75.00 £18.28 £23.38
90th Percentile - £18.56 £35.00
England median hourly rate £23.83 £22.70 £21.50
% change year-on-year +4.96% +5.58% +4.17%

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 1,613 863 1,070
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 50.92% 62.22% 56.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,031 555 746
10th Percentile £306 £180 £263
25th Percentile £400 £361 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £510
Median % change year-on-year +1.26% -6.86% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £625
90th Percentile £675 £654 £750
England median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 51 110
10th Percentile £15.06 - £11.06
25th Percentile £20.07 £14.00 £13.93
Median hourly rate £30.39 £19.00 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.92% - -8.82%
75th Percentile £47.50 £27.35 £37.81
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £56.50
England median hourly rate £30.78 £27.25 £30.16
% change year-on-year +12.95% -9.65% -5.75%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 -1 86 £460 +0.42% 17
Birmingham +1 83 £525 +4.90% 46
Warwickshire +21 42 £550 +29.41% 1
Coventry -3 24 £500 +29.03% 2
Solihull -9 21 £402 -4.29% 1
Staffordshire +8 12 £388 -27.47% 14
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 22 (7.21%) Confluence
1 22 (7.21%) SAS
2 12 (3.93%) SharePoint
3 8 (2.62%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.98%) WebLogic
5 2 (0.66%) Anypoint
5 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
6 1 (0.33%) Apache
6 1 (0.33%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.33%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.33%) Tuxedo
Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.33%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.33%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 3 (0.98%) NEC Housing
1 3 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.66%) Maximo
2 2 (0.66%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.33%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.33%) Primavera
3 1 (0.33%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 70 (22.95%) AWS
2 48 (15.74%) Azure
3 20 (6.56%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 20 (6.56%) Amazon S3
4 19 (6.23%) Amazon EC2
5 17 (5.57%) Amazon SQS
5 17 (5.57%) AWS KMS
5 17 (5.57%) Route 53
6 12 (3.93%) Power Platform
7 8 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (2.62%) GitHub
8 7 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
9 6 (1.97%) Entra ID
9 6 (1.97%) PaaS
10 5 (1.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 4 (1.31%) SaaS
11 4 (1.31%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 3 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
12 3 (0.98%) GCP
12 3 (0.98%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 6 (1.97%) Firewall
2 5 (1.64%) VPN
3 3 (0.98%) LAN
3 3 (0.98%) SSL
3 3 (0.98%) WAN
4 2 (0.66%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.33%) BGP
5 1 (0.33%) DNS
5 1 (0.33%) Internet
5 1 (0.33%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (0.33%) IPsec
5 1 (0.33%) MPLS
5 1 (0.33%) Network Security
5 1 (0.33%) SMTP
5 1 (0.33%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (7.21%) PostgreSQL
2 19 (6.23%) Amazon RDS
3 18 (5.90%) Pentaho
4 17 (5.57%) Amazon Aurora
4 17 (5.57%) DynamoDB
5 14 (4.59%) Oracle Reports
6 11 (3.61%) Power BI
7 10 (3.28%) Oracle Database
8 9 (2.95%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (2.62%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 8 (2.62%) SAS Visual Analytics
10 6 (1.97%) MongoDB
11 5 (1.64%) Electronic Patient Records
11 5 (1.64%) NoSQL
12 4 (1.31%) Metadata
12 4 (1.31%) Relational Database
12 4 (1.31%) SQL Server
13 3 (0.98%) Tableau
14 2 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
14 2 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 30 (9.84%) JIRA
2 28 (9.18%) Git
3 27 (8.85%) Jenkins
4 18 (5.90%) JUnit
5 17 (5.57%) Maven
5 17 (5.57%) Mockito
5 17 (5.57%) SonarQube
6 13 (4.26%) DbUnit
6 13 (4.26%) jMock
7 11 (3.61%) Bitbucket Server
8 10 (3.28%) GitLab
9 9 (2.95%) JMeter
10 4 (1.31%) Selenium
11 3 (0.98%) Postman
11 3 (0.98%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.98%) Serenity BDD
12 2 (0.66%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.66%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 2 (0.66%) Bitbucket
12 2 (0.66%) LoadRunner
General
1 82 (26.89%) Social Skills
2 40 (13.11%) Analytical Skills
3 33 (10.82%) Finance
4 23 (7.54%) Local Government
5 17 (5.57%) Legal
6 14 (4.59%) Police
7 7 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (1.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
9 5 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.64%) Military
9 5 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.31%) Law
11 3 (0.98%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.33%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.33%) Automotive
12 1 (0.33%) Banking
12 1 (0.33%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.33%) Publishing
12 1 (0.33%) Retail
Job Titles
1 39 (12.79%) Developer
2 38 (12.46%) Architect
2 38 (12.46%) Senior
3 28 (9.18%) Data Engineer
4 27 (8.85%) Analyst
4 27 (8.85%) Java Developer
5 20 (6.56%) Lead
6 16 (5.25%) Business Analyst
7 13 (4.26%) Accountant
7 13 (4.26%) Systems Accountant
8 11 (3.61%) Designer
8 11 (3.61%) Release Manager
8 11 (3.61%) Senior Accountant
8 11 (3.61%) Senior Systems Accountant
9 10 (3.28%) Senior Developer
9 10 (3.28%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (3.28%) Technical Architect
10 9 (2.95%) Consultant
10 9 (2.95%) Test Engineer
11 8 (2.62%) Performance Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (8.20%) Spring
1 25 (8.20%) Spring Boot
2 24 (7.87%) REST
3 23 (7.54%) AngularJS
4 21 (6.89%) SOAP
5 17 (5.57%) ActiveMQ
5 17 (5.57%) Hibernate
5 17 (5.57%) JPA
5 17 (5.57%) Spring Batch
5 17 (5.57%) Spring Integration
5 17 (5.57%) Web Services
6 16 (5.25%) Spring Cloud
7 15 (4.92%) RESTful
8 13 (4.26%) PowerMock
9 12 (3.93%) Node.js
10 11 (3.61%) Bootstrap
10 11 (3.61%) Oracle Fusion
11 7 (2.30%) Kafka
12 5 (1.64%) .NET
12 5 (1.64%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.21%) Product Ownership
2 17 (5.57%) Management Information System
3 14 (4.59%) Data Structures
4 13 (4.26%) Distributed Systems
5 9 (2.95%) Cloud Native
5 9 (2.95%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.95%) NHS
6 7 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.97%) Onboarding
8 3 (0.98%) Enterprise Cloud
9 2 (0.66%) BYOD
9 2 (0.66%) Driving Licence
9 2 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (0.66%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (0.66%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.66%) PKI
9 2 (0.66%) Private Cloud
9 2 (0.66%) Reference Data
9 2 (0.66%) SCADA
10 1 (0.33%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 19 (6.23%) Linux
2 8 (2.62%) Unix
3 6 (1.97%) Windows
4 2 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.66%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 109 (35.74%) Agile
2 60 (19.67%) DevOps
3 54 (17.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 48 (15.74%) CI/CD
5 45 (14.75%) Migration
6 44 (14.43%) Continuous Improvement
7 40 (13.11%) Scrum
8 35 (11.48%) Decision-Making
9 34 (11.15%) Data Modelling
10 33 (10.82%) Data Integration
11 32 (10.49%) Analytics
12 30 (9.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 29 (9.51%) Containerisation
14 28 (9.18%) Records Management
15 27 (8.85%) ETL
16 26 (8.52%) Microservices
17 25 (8.20%) Data Pipeline
18 24 (7.87%) Change Management
18 24 (7.87%) Kanban
18 24 (7.87%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 75 (24.59%) SQL
2 39 (12.79%) Java
3 16 (5.25%) Python
4 11 (3.61%) PL/SQL
5 7 (2.30%) Bash
6 6 (1.97%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.98%) C#
7 3 (0.98%) PowerShell
8 2 (0.66%) Bicep
8 2 (0.66%) Scala
9 1 (0.33%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.33%) Perl
9 1 (0.33%) R
9 1 (0.33%) Search Processing Language
9 1 (0.33%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.33%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 151 (49.51%) Security Cleared
2 103 (33.77%) SC Cleared
3 15 (4.92%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (4.26%) Degree
5 6 (1.97%) AWS Certification
5 6 (1.97%) Azure Certification
6 5 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (0.98%) DV Cleared
8 2 (0.66%) CCNP
8 2 (0.66%) CISM
8 2 (0.66%) CISSP
8 2 (0.66%) SAS Certification
9 1 (0.33%) CCIE
9 1 (0.33%) CCNA
9 1 (0.33%) CIPFA
9 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.33%) OCP
9 1 (0.33%) PMI Certification
9 1 (0.33%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.89%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.59%) Accessibility
3 13 (4.26%) QA
4 6 (1.97%) WCAG
5 4 (1.31%) GDPR
5 4 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.98%) PMO
7 2 (0.66%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.66%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.33%) COBIT
8 1 (0.33%) GRC
8 1 (0.33%) NIST
8 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.33%) SLA
System Software
1 34 (11.15%) Docker
2 11 (3.61%) Postfix
3 6 (1.97%) Active Directory
4 3 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.66%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.33%) etcd
6 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (6.89%) Kubernetes
2 17 (5.57%) Grafana
3 6 (1.97%) Prometheus
4 5 (1.64%) Terraform
5 2 (0.66%) Ansible
5 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.33%) CASB
6 1 (0.33%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.33%) Fluentd
6 1 (0.33%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.33%) Kibana
6 1 (0.33%) logstash
6 1 (0.33%) SCCM
6 1 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 48 (15.74%) Oracle
2 21 (6.89%) Talend
3 19 (6.23%) Microsoft
4 17 (5.57%) Jaspersoft
5 15 (4.92%) Atlassian
6 13 (4.26%) Informatica
7 10 (3.28%) Denodo
8 9 (2.95%) SAP
9 7 (2.30%) Dynatrace
10 6 (1.97%) Databricks
10 6 (1.97%) ServiceNow
11 5 (1.64%) Cloudera
11 5 (1.64%) Pega
11 5 (1.64%) Salesforce
12 4 (1.31%) MuleSoft
13 3 (0.98%) NEC
13 3 (0.98%) Splunk
13 3 (0.98%) VMware
14 2 (0.66%) Google
14 2 (0.66%) IBM Sterling