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 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 35 25 19
Rank change year-on-year -10 -6 +9
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,136 1,869 3,019
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.18% 7.72% 8.29%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.23% 24.53% 26.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,226 1,126 1,626
10th Percentile £238 £243 £225
25th Percentile £388 £384 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £650 £638
90th Percentile £738 £775 £769
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 138 376
10th Percentile £20.31 £17.71 £14.15
25th Percentile £28.40 £28.00 £23.94
Median hourly rate £59.31 £54.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% +36.25% -11.11%
75th Percentile £84.00 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.00 £73.13
UK median hourly rate £55.00 £53.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +2.80% +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 13,159 7,619 11,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.92% 31.46% 30.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,834 4,839 6,942
10th Percentile £350 £281 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £530
% change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 964 437 971
10th Percentile £17.00 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £47.52 £37.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.43% -7.50% -24.42%
75th Percentile £72.51 £67.50 £62.05
90th Percentile £85.25 £81.15 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £47.80 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +36.56% -12.50% -27.26%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 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
London -16 901 £513 -6.82% 1,073
South East -1 374 £500 +2.04% 645
North of England -12 318 £425 -9.38% 438
Midlands -21 210 £523 +46.77% 274
North West -8 161 £402 -14.29% 229
West Midlands -25 147 £495 +36.55% 177
Yorkshire -13 141 £450 +0.67% 160
East of England -6 139 £450 -10.00% 238
South West -14 133 £545 +14.68% 271
East Midlands -11 61 £531 +49.16% 97
North East -26 16 £450 -5.26% 58
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
1 128 (5.99%) Confluence
2 112 (5.24%) SharePoint
3 60 (2.81%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (1.64%) Apache Spark
5 20 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (0.80%) Apache
7 7 (0.33%) IIS
8 6 (0.28%) CMS
8 6 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
8 6 (0.28%) SAS
9 5 (0.23%) OpenStack
10 3 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.14%) Appian
10 3 (0.14%) Camunda
10 3 (0.14%) Moodle
10 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
11 2 (0.094%) Ethereum
11 2 (0.094%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.094%) WebSphere
Applications
1 268 (12.55%) Microsoft Office
2 208 (9.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 154 (7.21%) Microsoft Project
4 124 (5.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 56 (2.62%) MS Visio
6 12 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.51%) Adobe Illustrator
7 11 (0.51%) Photoshop
7 11 (0.51%) Simulink
8 10 (0.47%) Adobe After Effects
9 8 (0.37%) Navisworks
9 8 (0.37%) Revit
10 7 (0.33%) Trello
11 5 (0.23%) Adobe XD
11 5 (0.23%) Chatbot
11 5 (0.23%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 3 (0.14%) UserZoom
13 2 (0.094%) CPLEX
13 2 (0.094%) FrameMaker
Business Applications
1 49 (2.29%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (0.61%) Primavera
4 12 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
6 9 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
7 8 (0.37%) Aladdin
7 8 (0.37%) Oracle General Ledger
7 8 (0.37%) Veritas eDiscovery
8 6 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 6 (0.28%) SAP EWM
9 5 (0.23%) Oracle EBS
9 5 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
9 5 (0.23%) Shopify
10 4 (0.19%) Fidessa
10 4 (0.19%) Magento
10 4 (0.19%) NetSuite
10 4 (0.19%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
11 3 (0.14%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 452 (21.16%) Azure
2 258 (12.08%) AWS
3 184 (8.61%) Microsoft 365
4 171 (8.01%) Power Platform
5 108 (5.06%) Entra ID
6 85 (3.98%) GCP
7 83 (3.89%) SaaS
8 70 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
9 50 (2.34%) GitHub
10 33 (1.54%) Google Workspace
11 32 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
12 31 (1.45%) Figma
12 31 (1.45%) PaaS
13 29 (1.36%) Power Automate
14 28 (1.31%) IaaS
15 26 (1.22%) Snowflake
16 25 (1.17%) PowerApps
16 25 (1.17%) Serverless
17 23 (1.08%) OneDrive
18 22 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 89 (4.17%) Firewall
2 53 (2.48%) TCP/IP
3 52 (2.43%) LAN
3 52 (2.43%) WAN
4 49 (2.29%) DNS
5 47 (2.20%) Network Security
6 34 (1.59%) VPN
7 27 (1.26%) Wireless
8 24 (1.12%) BGP
9 22 (1.03%) DHCP
10 21 (0.98%) Ethernet
10 21 (0.98%) OSPF
11 17 (0.80%) Skype
12 14 (0.66%) SAN
12 14 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
13 12 (0.56%) HTTP
13 12 (0.56%) VXLAN
14 11 (0.51%) IPsec
14 11 (0.51%) Structured Cabling
15 10 (0.47%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (6.60%) Power BI
2 89 (4.17%) SQL Server
3 49 (2.29%) Data Warehouse
3 49 (2.29%) PostgreSQL
4 47 (2.20%) Relational Database
5 36 (1.69%) Tableau
6 33 (1.54%) NoSQL
7 29 (1.36%) Big Data
7 29 (1.36%) Metadata
8 24 (1.12%) MySQL
9 21 (0.98%) MongoDB
10 17 (0.80%) Elasticsearch
11 16 (0.75%) Hadoop
11 16 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 15 (0.70%) Oracle Database
13 14 (0.66%) Data Lake
14 12 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
14 12 (0.56%) Power Query
14 12 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
15 11 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 218 (10.21%) JIRA
2 96 (4.49%) Git
3 43 (2.01%) Jenkins
4 38 (1.78%) GitLab
5 31 (1.45%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.03%) Visual Studio
7 18 (0.84%) MLflow
8 16 (0.75%) Selenium
9 13 (0.61%) Gradle
9 13 (0.61%) Postman
10 12 (0.56%) Burp Suite
10 12 (0.56%) Cucumber
10 12 (0.56%) JUnit
11 11 (0.51%) Metasploit
12 9 (0.42%) Jaeger
12 9 (0.42%) REST Assured
12 9 (0.42%) TeamCity
13 7 (0.33%) CircleCI
13 7 (0.33%) Cypress.io
13 7 (0.33%) SonarQube
General
1 1,000 (46.82%) Social Skills
2 660 (30.90%) Finance
3 444 (20.79%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (9.22%) Banking
5 172 (8.05%) Public Sector
6 117 (5.48%) Organisational Skills
7 110 (5.15%) Presentation Skills
8 86 (4.03%) Marketing
9 77 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
10 73 (3.42%) Legal
11 71 (3.32%) Aerospace
12 66 (3.09%) Influencing Skills
13 64 (3.00%) Manufacturing
14 52 (2.43%) Law
14 52 (2.43%) Retail
15 51 (2.39%) Telecoms
16 44 (2.06%) Military
17 40 (1.87%) Front Office
18 36 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 33 (1.54%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 308 (14.42%) Analyst
2 244 (11.42%) Senior
3 172 (8.05%) Architect
4 161 (7.54%) Lead
5 155 (7.26%) Project Manager
6 150 (7.02%) Developer
7 149 (6.98%) Business Analyst
8 62 (2.90%) Senior Analyst
9 61 (2.86%) Delivery Manager
10 58 (2.72%) Solutions Architect
11 57 (2.67%) Technical Support
12 55 (2.57%) Consultant
13 52 (2.43%) Software Engineer
14 50 (2.34%) Product Manager
15 47 (2.20%) Senior Manager
16 46 (2.15%) Designer
17 41 (1.92%) Data Scientist
18 40 (1.87%) Data Engineer
19 39 (1.83%) Systems Engineer
20 38 (1.78%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (4.17%) REST
2 71 (3.32%) .NET
3 53 (2.48%) React
4 52 (2.43%) Middleware
5 45 (2.11%) Kafka
6 43 (2.01%) Oracle Fusion
7 40 (1.87%) HTML
8 39 (1.83%) RESTful
9 34 (1.59%) Spring Boot
10 31 (1.45%) Spring
10 31 (1.45%) XML
11 29 (1.36%) CSS
12 28 (1.31%) .NET Framework
13 27 (1.26%) Pandas
13 27 (1.26%) SOAP
14 25 (1.17%) OAuth
14 25 (1.17%) PyTorch
15 24 (1.12%) AngularJS
15 24 (1.12%) JSON
15 24 (1.12%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 154 (7.21%) Management Information System
2 145 (6.79%) Product Ownership
3 121 (5.66%) Onboarding
4 73 (3.42%) Cloud Native
5 72 (3.37%) Self-Motivation
6 62 (2.90%) Data Centre
7 59 (2.76%) Virtual Team
8 52 (2.43%) Data Structures
9 50 (2.34%) Distributed Systems
10 47 (2.20%) Algorithms
11 46 (2.15%) Data Protection Act
12 44 (2.06%) PMI
13 38 (1.78%) Robotics
14 35 (1.64%) Analytical Mindset
15 33 (1.54%) Derivative
15 33 (1.54%) Operational Technology
16 30 (1.40%) Legacy Systems
16 30 (1.40%) Security Posture
17 27 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
18 26 (1.22%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 263 (12.31%) Windows
2 160 (7.49%) Linux
3 71 (3.32%) Unix
4 64 (3.00%) Windows Server
5 56 (2.62%) Windows 10
6 26 (1.22%) Android
7 22 (1.03%) Mac OS
8 21 (0.98%) Apple iOS
8 21 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.47%) Ubuntu
10 10 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (0.28%) Windows 7
13 5 (0.23%) AIX
13 5 (0.23%) VMS
14 4 (0.19%) Debian
14 4 (0.19%) Rocky
15 3 (0.14%) Solaris
16 2 (0.094%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 730 (34.18%) Computer Science
2 632 (29.59%) Agile
3 546 (25.56%) Problem-Solving
4 343 (16.06%) Stakeholder Management
5 323 (15.12%) Continuous Improvement
6 312 (14.61%) AI
7 293 (13.72%) Project Management
8 287 (13.44%) DevOps
9 241 (11.28%) CI/CD
10 229 (10.72%) Analytics
11 228 (10.67%) Decision-Making
12 221 (10.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 209 (9.78%) Migration
14 201 (9.41%) Change Management
15 199 (9.32%) Cybersecurity
16 194 (9.08%) ITIL
17 191 (8.94%) Risk Management
18 184 (8.61%) PRINCE2
18 184 (8.61%) Roadmaps
19 172 (8.05%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 341 (15.96%) Python
2 324 (15.17%) SQL
3 154 (7.21%) Java
4 102 (4.78%) PowerShell
5 86 (4.03%) C#
6 79 (3.70%) JavaScript
7 56 (2.62%) C++
8 36 (1.69%) Bash
9 31 (1.45%) TypeScript
10 25 (1.17%) R
11 22 (1.03%) PL/SQL
12 18 (0.84%) C
13 16 (0.75%) T-SQL
14 15 (0.70%) Rust
14 15 (0.70%) Shell Script
15 14 (0.66%) Perl
16 13 (0.61%) Go
17 12 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 12 (0.56%) Kotlin
18 11 (0.51%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 459 (21.49%) Computer Science Degree
2 404 (18.91%) Security Cleared
3 284 (13.30%) SC Cleared
4 228 (10.67%) Master's Degree
5 130 (6.09%) PMI Certification
6 113 (5.29%) PMP
7 95 (4.45%) CISSP
8 73 (3.42%) Cisco Certification
9 72 (3.37%) Microsoft Certification
10 54 (2.53%) CISM
11 52 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 51 (2.39%) DV Cleared
13 46 (2.15%) PhD
14 44 (2.06%) Azure Certification
14 44 (2.06%) TOGAF Certification
15 41 (1.92%) CCNP
16 34 (1.59%) MBA
17 33 (1.54%) CCNA
18 32 (1.50%) CBAP
19 27 (1.26%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 140 (6.55%) QA
2 110 (5.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 102 (4.78%) NIST
4 99 (4.63%) PMO
5 95 (4.45%) GDPR
6 90 (4.21%) Data Quality
7 50 (2.34%) SLA
8 41 (1.92%) Accessibility
9 40 (1.87%) PCI DSS
10 27 (1.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 22 (1.03%) GRC
12 20 (0.94%) NCSC
13 17 (0.80%) IFRS
14 15 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials
15 12 (0.56%) NIST 800
15 12 (0.56%) SOC 2
16 10 (0.47%) COBIT
16 10 (0.47%) HIPAA
17 9 (0.42%) Basel III
17 9 (0.42%) IFRS 17
System Software
1 142 (6.65%) Active Directory
2 119 (5.57%) Docker
3 37 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.22%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.98%) Firmware
6 7 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.33%) vSphere
7 6 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.23%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.19%) VMware NSX
9 4 (0.19%) XenApp
9 4 (0.19%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.14%) KVM
11 2 (0.094%) HDFS
11 2 (0.094%) Oracle RAC
11 2 (0.094%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.047%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.047%) Squid
Systems Management
1 137 (6.41%) Kubernetes
2 70 (3.28%) Terraform
3 61 (2.86%) Microsoft Intune
4 58 (2.72%) Ansible
5 36 (1.69%) Grafana
6 34 (1.59%) SCCM
7 30 (1.40%) Prometheus
8 19 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
9 17 (0.80%) OPNET
10 15 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 15 (0.70%) Puppet
11 12 (0.56%) Kibana
12 11 (0.51%) Nmap
13 9 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
13 9 (0.42%) Kiali
13 9 (0.42%) WSUS
14 8 (0.37%) Nessus
14 8 (0.37%) vCenter Server
15 7 (0.33%) HP ALM
16 6 (0.28%) Control-M
Vendors
1 490 (22.94%) Microsoft
2 150 (7.02%) Oracle
3 113 (5.29%) SAP
4 110 (5.15%) ServiceNow
5 71 (3.32%) Google
6 70 (3.28%) Cisco
7 50 (2.34%) Databricks
7 50 (2.34%) Splunk
8 43 (2.01%) VMware
9 41 (1.92%) Citrix
10 40 (1.87%) Salesforce
11 35 (1.64%) IBM
11 35 (1.64%) Remedy
12 34 (1.59%) Adobe
13 32 (1.50%) Palo Alto
14 29 (1.36%) CheckPoint
15 25 (1.17%) Atlassian
16 23 (1.08%) Aruba
17 21 (0.98%) CyberArk
17 21 (0.98%) Siemens