Developer Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Developer
North West > Cheshire

The median Developer daily rate in Cheshire is £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 November 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 20 15
Rank change year-on-year -11 -5 +16
Contract Developer jobs 41 73 57
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 5.53% 10.34% 11.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.25% 11.57% 12.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 65 39
10th Percentile £248 £311 £308
25th Percentile £401 £350 £323
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £370 £375
Median % change year-on-year +31.76% -1.33% -23.00%
75th Percentile £541 £445 £488
90th Percentile £550 £481 £548
North West median daily rate £492 £425 £438
% change year-on-year +15.82% -2.86% -7.89%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Cheshire

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts in Cheshire matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
6 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in Cheshire matching a recognised job title 656 631 469
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 88.53% 89.38% 91.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 358 478 274
10th Percentile £221 £270 £324
25th Percentile £383 £358 £382
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £450 £477
Median % change year-on-year +4.72% -5.56% -4.70%
75th Percentile £574 £551 £570
90th Percentile £625 £688 £645
North West median daily rate £500 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 43 27
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.36 £13.49
25th Percentile £17.25 £18.12 £15.36
Median hourly rate £42.00 £22.85 £22.09
Median % change year-on-year +83.81% +3.44% -21.96%
75th Percentile £85.00 £35.38 £35.00
90th Percentile £111.25 £67.25 £43.75
North West median hourly rate £45.53 £29.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +56.99% -10.77% -4.64%

Developer Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Developer job postings relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Developer job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Developer Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in Cheshire

Developer Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for Developer jobs in Cheshire over the 6 months to 6 November 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Developer in Cheshire

Developer Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer job vacancies in Cheshire

Developer Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in Developer jobs within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 6 November 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Chester +14 23 £550 +15.79% 1
Knutsford -18 12 £445 +20.34%
Warrington -9 1 - -
Winsford - 1 £450 -
Developer
North West

Developer Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire

For the 6 months to 6 November 2026, Developer contract job ads cited the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract Developer job ads across the Cheshire region.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1CI/CD39.0%16
2Observability34.1%14
3Incident Response31.7%13
4Python29.3%12
4SQL29.3%12
6Git26.8%11
6JSON26.8%11
8Agile24.4%10
9DevOps22.0%9
9GitLab22.0%9
9SQL Server22.0%9
12Jenkins19.5%8
12Kafka19.5%8
12SD-WAN19.5%8
12Splunk19.5%8
12WAN19.5%8
12Wireless19.5%8
18Ansible17.1%7
18Confluence17.1%7
18Java17.1%7
18Linux17.1%7
18REST17.1%7
23Clean Code14.6%6
23Django14.6%6
23Infrastructure as Code14.6%6
23Test Automation14.6%6
27AI12.2%5
27HTML12.2%5
27JavaScript12.2%5
27JPA12.2%5

Developer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.