Degree Contract Job Trends in England

Academic Degree
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 24 18
Rank change year-on-year -7 -6 +10
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,191 1,910 3,131
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.60% 7.85% 8.37%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.84% 24.99% 26.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,294 1,140 1,685
10th Percentile £263 £250 £206
25th Percentile £400 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £638
90th Percentile £738 £788 £769
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 204 144 347
10th Percentile £17.07 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.44 £29.75 £23.17
Median hourly rate £53.50 £54.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.83% +36.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile £84.00 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £50.00 £53.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -6.54% +33.75% -11.11%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,013 7,644 11,722
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.26% 31.40% 31.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,718 4,899 7,257
10th Percentile £340 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £740
UK median daily rate £518 £525 £536
% change year-on-year -1.43% -2.05% -2.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 991 421 932
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £20.82 £24.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.71 £50.00 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year -14.59% +28.70% -24.93%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £45.00 £38.75
% change year-on-year -6.80% +16.13% -26.19%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Degree relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Degree job vacancy trend in England

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in England over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in England

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in England over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in England

Degree
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the England region over the 6 months to 11 April 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
London -12 954 £507 -7.91% 866
South East -6 358 £500 - 660
North of England -7 329 £408 -13.67% 472
Midlands -25 198 £500 +56.25% 318
North West -4 182 £400 -15.25% 244
South West 0 154 £650 +22.87% 220
West Midlands -31 143 £500 +66.67% 181
East of England -7 137 £500 - 213
Yorkshire -15 130 £475 -6.17% 164
East Midlands -21 54 £525 +47.47% 136
North East -17 18 £407 -4.24% 71
Degree
UK

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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
1 152 (6.94%) Confluence
2 110 (5.02%) SharePoint
3 62 (2.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (1.60%) Apache Spark
5 17 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.59%) Apache
7 9 (0.41%) CMS
8 7 (0.32%) SAS
9 6 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 5 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
11 4 (0.18%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.18%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
13 2 (0.091%) Camunda
13 2 (0.091%) Drupal
13 2 (0.091%) Ethereum
13 2 (0.091%) IIS
13 2 (0.091%) Skype for Business
13 2 (0.091%) WebSphere
13 2 (0.091%) WinCC
Applications
1 289 (13.19%) Microsoft Office
2 218 (9.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 189 (8.63%) Microsoft Project
4 121 (5.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 63 (2.88%) MS Visio
6 15 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
7 10 (0.46%) Trello
8 9 (0.41%) Simulink
9 7 (0.32%) Sketch
10 6 (0.27%) Adobe XD
11 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
12 3 (0.14%) InVision
12 3 (0.14%) Navisworks
12 3 (0.14%) Revit
13 2 (0.091%) Adobe After Effects
13 2 (0.091%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 2 (0.091%) CPLEX
13 2 (0.091%) FrameMaker
14 1 (0.046%) AutoCAD
14 1 (0.046%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 45 (2.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.91%) Primavera
3 17 (0.78%) Remedy ITSM
4 10 (0.46%) Oracle Payables
5 9 (0.41%) Oracle General Ledger
6 8 (0.37%) Aladdin
6 8 (0.37%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
7 6 (0.27%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.23%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 5 (0.23%) SAP ERP
9 4 (0.18%) Fidessa
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 4 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP EWM
9 4 (0.18%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 450 (20.54%) Azure
2 254 (11.59%) AWS
3 190 (8.67%) Microsoft 365
4 170 (7.76%) Power Platform
5 105 (4.79%) Entra ID
6 100 (4.56%) SaaS
7 98 (4.47%) GCP
8 81 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
9 55 (2.51%) GitHub
10 34 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
10 34 (1.55%) Power Automate
11 32 (1.46%) Google Workspace
12 31 (1.41%) PaaS
13 30 (1.37%) IaaS
14 28 (1.28%) PowerApps
15 27 (1.23%) Serverless
16 24 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
16 24 (1.10%) Snowflake
17 23 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
18 22 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 105 (4.79%) Firewall
2 57 (2.60%) LAN
2 57 (2.60%) WAN
3 45 (2.05%) DNS
4 44 (2.01%) TCP/IP
5 41 (1.87%) Network Security
6 37 (1.69%) VPN
7 29 (1.32%) Wireless
8 28 (1.28%) BGP
9 22 (1.00%) OSPF
10 21 (0.96%) Ethernet
10 21 (0.96%) HTTP
11 20 (0.91%) DHCP
12 17 (0.78%) Skype
13 15 (0.68%) Internet
13 15 (0.68%) VXLAN
14 14 (0.64%) VLAN
14 14 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
15 13 (0.59%) SAN
15 13 (0.59%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (6.44%) Power BI
2 85 (3.88%) SQL Server
3 55 (2.51%) PostgreSQL
4 49 (2.24%) Data Warehouse
5 47 (2.15%) Relational Database
6 36 (1.64%) Tableau
7 34 (1.55%) NoSQL
8 28 (1.28%) Big Data
8 28 (1.28%) MySQL
9 24 (1.10%) Metadata
10 17 (0.78%) MongoDB
10 17 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 15 (0.68%) Data Lake
11 15 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
11 15 (0.68%) Hadoop
12 14 (0.64%) Oracle Reports
13 11 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
13 11 (0.50%) Snowflake Schema
14 9 (0.41%) Power Query
15 8 (0.37%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 250 (11.41%) JIRA
2 94 (4.29%) Git
3 45 (2.05%) Jenkins
4 34 (1.55%) GitLab
5 31 (1.41%) Rational DOORS
6 21 (0.96%) Visual Studio
7 18 (0.82%) Selenium
8 17 (0.78%) MLflow
9 14 (0.64%) Burp Suite
9 14 (0.64%) Postman
10 11 (0.50%) Metasploit
11 10 (0.46%) Gradle
12 9 (0.41%) Jaeger
12 9 (0.41%) JUnit
13 8 (0.37%) Bitbucket
14 7 (0.32%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.32%) Cucumber
14 7 (0.32%) TeamCity
15 6 (0.27%) REST Assured
16 5 (0.23%) Cypress.io
General
1 1,052 (48.01%) Social Skills
2 670 (30.58%) Finance
3 494 (22.55%) Analytical Skills
4 218 (9.95%) Banking
5 175 (7.99%) Public Sector
6 110 (5.02%) Presentation Skills
7 107 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
8 81 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
9 79 (3.61%) Marketing
10 76 (3.47%) Influencing Skills
11 72 (3.29%) Aerospace
11 72 (3.29%) Legal
12 66 (3.01%) Manufacturing
13 55 (2.51%) Military
14 48 (2.19%) Front Office
15 46 (2.10%) Telecoms
16 45 (2.05%) Law
16 45 (2.05%) Retail
17 40 (1.83%) Investment Banking
18 39 (1.78%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 308 (14.06%) Analyst
2 223 (10.18%) Senior
3 178 (8.12%) Lead
4 172 (7.85%) Architect
5 165 (7.53%) Developer
5 165 (7.53%) Project Manager
6 147 (6.71%) Business Analyst
7 76 (3.47%) Consultant
8 64 (2.92%) Delivery Manager
9 56 (2.56%) Senior Analyst
9 56 (2.56%) Technical Support
10 51 (2.33%) Solutions Architect
11 50 (2.28%) Software Engineer
12 47 (2.15%) Data Scientist
13 46 (2.10%) Security Engineer
14 45 (2.05%) Product Manager
15 40 (1.83%) Senior Manager
16 39 (1.78%) Systems Engineer
17 36 (1.64%) Data Engineer
18 35 (1.60%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 91 (4.15%) REST
2 63 (2.88%) .NET
3 48 (2.19%) Middleware
4 45 (2.05%) RESTful
5 43 (1.96%) HTML
5 43 (1.96%) React
6 42 (1.92%) Kafka
7 37 (1.69%) XML
8 34 (1.55%) JSON
8 34 (1.55%) Oracle Fusion
8 34 (1.55%) Spring Boot
9 33 (1.51%) SOAP
10 31 (1.41%) Spring
11 29 (1.32%) CSS
11 29 (1.32%) OAuth
12 28 (1.28%) Pandas
12 28 (1.28%) PyTorch
13 24 (1.10%) .NET Framework
13 24 (1.10%) TensorFlow
14 23 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 173 (7.90%) Management Information System
2 150 (6.85%) Product Ownership
3 116 (5.29%) Onboarding
4 75 (3.42%) Cloud Native
5 73 (3.33%) Virtual Team
6 67 (3.06%) Data Centre
7 60 (2.74%) Self-Motivation
8 56 (2.56%) Algorithms
9 53 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
10 50 (2.28%) Data Structures
11 49 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
11 49 (2.24%) PMI
12 41 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
13 39 (1.78%) Derivative
14 32 (1.46%) Robotics
14 32 (1.46%) Security Posture
15 31 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
16 29 (1.32%) Operational Technology
17 28 (1.28%) Equities
18 26 (1.19%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 255 (11.64%) Windows
2 160 (7.30%) Linux
3 70 (3.19%) Windows Server
4 62 (2.83%) Unix
5 56 (2.56%) Windows 10
6 21 (0.96%) Android
6 21 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 20 (0.91%) Mac OS
8 14 (0.64%) Ubuntu
9 12 (0.55%) Apple iOS
9 12 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
11 10 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
12 5 (0.23%) AIX
12 5 (0.23%) VMS
12 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
12 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2003
13 4 (0.18%) CentOS
13 4 (0.18%) Debian
14 3 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 783 (35.74%) Computer Science
2 696 (31.77%) Agile
3 576 (26.29%) Problem-Solving
4 368 (16.80%) Stakeholder Management
5 320 (14.61%) Project Management
6 316 (14.42%) Continuous Improvement
7 311 (14.19%) AI
8 304 (13.87%) DevOps
9 238 (10.86%) CI/CD
10 236 (10.77%) Change Management
10 236 (10.77%) ITIL
11 234 (10.68%) Analytics
11 234 (10.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 227 (10.36%) Cybersecurity
13 225 (10.27%) Decision-Making
14 208 (9.49%) Migration
14 208 (9.49%) PRINCE2
15 204 (9.31%) Project Delivery
16 201 (9.17%) Risk Management
17 190 (8.67%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 352 (16.07%) Python
2 318 (14.51%) SQL
3 149 (6.80%) Java
4 117 (5.34%) PowerShell
5 77 (3.51%) JavaScript
6 75 (3.42%) C#
7 62 (2.83%) C++
8 36 (1.64%) Bash
9 34 (1.55%) TypeScript
10 28 (1.28%) R
11 25 (1.14%) PL/SQL
12 17 (0.78%) C
12 17 (0.78%) Go
12 17 (0.78%) T-SQL
13 16 (0.73%) Perl
14 15 (0.68%) Rust
15 13 (0.59%) Kotlin
15 13 (0.59%) Shell Script
16 11 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 10 (0.46%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 493 (22.50%) Computer Science Degree
2 432 (19.72%) Security Cleared
3 313 (14.29%) SC Cleared
4 263 (12.00%) Master's Degree
5 134 (6.12%) PMI Certification
6 120 (5.48%) PMP
7 104 (4.75%) CISSP
8 84 (3.83%) Microsoft Certification
9 61 (2.78%) Cisco Certification
10 55 (2.51%) CISM
11 54 (2.46%) PhD
12 52 (2.37%) TOGAF Certification
13 50 (2.28%) Azure Certification
13 50 (2.28%) DV Cleared
14 49 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
15 42 (1.92%) CCNP
16 34 (1.55%) MBA
17 31 (1.41%) AWS Certification
17 31 (1.41%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
18 30 (1.37%) CBAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 146 (6.66%) QA
2 104 (4.75%) PMO
3 102 (4.66%) GDPR
4 100 (4.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 91 (4.15%) NIST
6 77 (3.51%) Data Quality
7 44 (2.01%) PCI DSS
7 44 (2.01%) SLA
8 37 (1.69%) Accessibility
9 23 (1.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 22 (1.00%) GRC
11 19 (0.87%) NCSC
12 14 (0.64%) IFRS
13 13 (0.59%) Basel III
14 12 (0.55%) IFRS 17
15 11 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
15 11 (0.50%) NIST 800
15 11 (0.50%) SOC 2
16 10 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
16 10 (0.46%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 146 (6.66%) Active Directory
2 122 (5.57%) Docker
3 43 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (0.96%) Hyper-V
5 18 (0.82%) Firmware
6 9 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (0.32%) vSphere
8 6 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.23%) VMware NSX
9 5 (0.23%) XenApp
9 5 (0.23%) XenDesktop
10 4 (0.18%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.14%) KVM
11 3 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
12 2 (0.091%) Embedded Firmware
12 2 (0.091%) HDFS
12 2 (0.091%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.046%) RACF
13 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 131 (5.98%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.61%) Terraform
3 64 (2.92%) Microsoft Intune
4 56 (2.56%) Ansible
5 37 (1.69%) Grafana
6 36 (1.64%) SCCM
7 30 (1.37%) OPNET
8 27 (1.23%) Prometheus
9 17 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 15 (0.68%) Puppet
12 13 (0.59%) Nmap
13 11 (0.50%) Kibana
13 11 (0.50%) SCOM
14 9 (0.41%) Kiali
15 8 (0.37%) WSUS
16 7 (0.32%) HP ALM
16 7 (0.32%) vCenter Server
17 6 (0.27%) Control-M
17 6 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 489 (22.32%) Microsoft
2 143 (6.53%) Oracle
3 124 (5.66%) ServiceNow
4 119 (5.43%) SAP
5 85 (3.88%) Google
6 70 (3.19%) Cisco
7 52 (2.37%) Splunk
8 51 (2.33%) Remedy
9 49 (2.24%) VMware
10 45 (2.05%) Citrix
11 44 (2.01%) Atlassian
11 44 (2.01%) Databricks
12 38 (1.73%) Salesforce
13 37 (1.69%) IBM
14 35 (1.60%) Palo Alto
15 29 (1.32%) CheckPoint
16 23 (1.05%) Adobe
17 21 (0.96%) Aruba
17 21 (0.96%) CyberArk
18 20 (0.91%) Red Hat