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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 25 19
Rank change year-on-year -10 -6 +9
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,126 1,881 3,042
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.18% 7.73% 8.35%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.23% 24.53% 27.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,226 1,130 1,621
10th Percentile £225 £250 £225
25th Percentile £381 £385 £380
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 190 141 377
10th Percentile £20.31 £17.50 £14.06
25th Percentile £28.58 £27.39 £23.75
Median hourly rate £59.31 £53.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.85% +33.75% -11.11%
75th Percentile £84.00 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.00 £73.00
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 13,098 7,669 11,228
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.92% 31.53% 30.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,823 4,882 6,959
10th Percentile £350 £285 £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 £533
% change year-on-year - -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 944 436 971
10th Percentile £17.00 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £17.94
Median hourly rate £47.54 £39.66 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.87% -0.85% -23.81%
75th Percentile £72.50 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.25 £81.35 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £47.80 £37.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year +28.31% -6.88% -27.25%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -17 901 £505 -8.18% 995
South East -4 370 £500 +1.21% 681
North of England -9 314 £425 -8.11% 431
Midlands -21 208 £520 +46.07% 290
North West -11 160 £402 -13.69% 223
West Midlands -25 145 £494 +36.14% 186
East of England -7 138 £450 -10.00% 243
Yorkshire -16 138 £450 +4.53% 152
South West -12 135 £540 +13.58% 277
East Midlands -13 61 £531 +49.16% 104
North East -25 16 £450 -5.26% 65
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
1 129 (6.07%) Confluence
2 113 (5.32%) SharePoint
3 61 (2.87%) Microsoft Exchange
4 36 (1.69%) Apache Spark
5 18 (0.85%) Apache
5 18 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.33%) IIS
7 6 (0.28%) CMS
7 6 (0.28%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (0.28%) SAS
8 5 (0.24%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.14%) Appian
9 3 (0.14%) Camunda
9 3 (0.14%) Moodle
9 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.094%) Ethereum
10 2 (0.094%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.094%) WebSphere
Applications
1 275 (12.94%) Microsoft Office
2 208 (9.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 157 (7.38%) Microsoft Project
4 124 (5.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 57 (2.68%) MS Visio
6 12 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.52%) Adobe Illustrator
7 11 (0.52%) Photoshop
7 11 (0.52%) Simulink
8 10 (0.47%) Adobe After Effects
9 8 (0.38%) Navisworks
9 8 (0.38%) Revit
10 7 (0.33%) Trello
11 5 (0.24%) Adobe XD
11 5 (0.24%) Chatbot
11 5 (0.24%) Sketch
12 3 (0.14%) UserZoom
13 2 (0.094%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 2 (0.094%) CPLEX
13 2 (0.094%) FrameMaker
Business Applications
1 51 (2.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (0.61%) Primavera
3 13 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
4 10 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
5 9 (0.42%) Oracle Payables
6 8 (0.38%) Aladdin
6 8 (0.38%) Oracle General Ledger
6 8 (0.38%) Veritas eDiscovery
7 6 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 6 (0.28%) SAP EWM
8 5 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 5 (0.24%) Shopify
9 4 (0.19%) Fidessa
9 4 (0.19%) Magento
9 4 (0.19%) NEC Housing
9 4 (0.19%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.19%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
Cloud Services
1 447 (21.03%) Azure
2 259 (12.18%) AWS
3 184 (8.65%) Microsoft 365
4 169 (7.95%) Power Platform
5 102 (4.80%) Entra ID
6 86 (4.05%) SaaS
7 84 (3.95%) GCP
8 70 (3.29%) Azure DevOps
9 48 (2.26%) GitHub
10 34 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
11 32 (1.51%) Google Workspace
11 32 (1.51%) PaaS
12 30 (1.41%) Figma
13 29 (1.36%) IaaS
13 29 (1.36%) Power Automate
14 25 (1.18%) Serverless
14 25 (1.18%) Snowflake
15 24 (1.13%) PowerApps
16 23 (1.08%) OneDrive
17 22 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 89 (4.19%) Firewall
2 52 (2.45%) LAN
2 52 (2.45%) TCP/IP
2 52 (2.45%) WAN
3 48 (2.26%) DNS
4 44 (2.07%) Network Security
5 34 (1.60%) VPN
6 27 (1.27%) Wireless
7 24 (1.13%) BGP
8 21 (0.99%) DHCP
8 21 (0.99%) Ethernet
8 21 (0.99%) OSPF
9 18 (0.85%) Skype
10 14 (0.66%) SAN
10 14 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (0.61%) HTTP
12 12 (0.56%) VXLAN
13 11 (0.52%) IPsec
13 11 (0.52%) Structured Cabling
14 10 (0.47%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (6.63%) Power BI
2 88 (4.14%) SQL Server
3 51 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
4 47 (2.21%) PostgreSQL
4 47 (2.21%) Relational Database
5 36 (1.69%) Tableau
6 33 (1.55%) NoSQL
7 30 (1.41%) Big Data
8 28 (1.32%) Metadata
9 23 (1.08%) MySQL
10 21 (0.99%) MongoDB
11 17 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 16 (0.75%) Elasticsearch
12 16 (0.75%) Hadoop
13 14 (0.66%) Data Lake
13 14 (0.66%) Oracle Database
14 12 (0.56%) Oracle Reports
14 12 (0.56%) Power Query
14 12 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
15 9 (0.42%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 221 (10.40%) JIRA
2 93 (4.37%) Git
3 40 (1.88%) Jenkins
4 36 (1.69%) GitLab
5 31 (1.46%) Rational DOORS
6 21 (0.99%) Visual Studio
7 18 (0.85%) MLflow
8 16 (0.75%) Selenium
9 13 (0.61%) Gradle
9 13 (0.61%) Postman
10 12 (0.56%) Burp Suite
11 11 (0.52%) Metasploit
12 10 (0.47%) Cucumber
12 10 (0.47%) JUnit
13 9 (0.42%) Jaeger
13 9 (0.42%) REST Assured
13 9 (0.42%) TeamCity
14 7 (0.33%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.33%) Cypress.io
14 7 (0.33%) Maven
General
1 999 (46.99%) Social Skills
2 657 (30.90%) Finance
3 448 (21.07%) Analytical Skills
4 197 (9.27%) Banking
5 173 (8.14%) Public Sector
6 119 (5.60%) Organisational Skills
7 111 (5.22%) Presentation Skills
8 87 (4.09%) Marketing
9 77 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
10 71 (3.34%) Aerospace
10 71 (3.34%) Legal
11 66 (3.10%) Influencing Skills
12 63 (2.96%) Manufacturing
13 51 (2.40%) Telecoms
14 50 (2.35%) Law
15 49 (2.30%) Retail
16 46 (2.16%) Military
17 40 (1.88%) Front Office
18 34 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 33 (1.55%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 305 (14.35%) Analyst
2 243 (11.43%) Senior
3 171 (8.04%) Architect
4 160 (7.53%) Lead
5 155 (7.29%) Project Manager
6 151 (7.10%) Developer
7 149 (7.01%) Business Analyst
8 62 (2.92%) Senior Analyst
9 61 (2.87%) Delivery Manager
10 57 (2.68%) Consultant
10 57 (2.68%) Technical Support
11 56 (2.63%) Solutions Architect
12 51 (2.40%) Software Engineer
13 50 (2.35%) Product Manager
14 47 (2.21%) Senior Manager
15 45 (2.12%) Designer
16 41 (1.93%) Data Scientist
17 40 (1.88%) Data Engineer
18 39 (1.83%) Systems Engineer
19 38 (1.79%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 88 (4.14%) REST
2 70 (3.29%) .NET
3 53 (2.49%) React
4 52 (2.45%) Middleware
5 44 (2.07%) Kafka
6 41 (1.93%) Oracle Fusion
7 40 (1.88%) HTML
8 36 (1.69%) RESTful
9 32 (1.51%) Spring Boot
10 30 (1.41%) XML
11 29 (1.36%) Spring
12 28 (1.32%) CSS
12 28 (1.32%) SOAP
13 27 (1.27%) .NET Framework
13 27 (1.27%) Pandas
14 25 (1.18%) PyTorch
15 24 (1.13%) AngularJS
15 24 (1.13%) JSON
15 24 (1.13%) Web Services
16 23 (1.08%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 157 (7.38%) Management Information System
2 146 (6.87%) Product Ownership
3 121 (5.69%) Onboarding
4 71 (3.34%) Cloud Native
4 71 (3.34%) Self-Motivation
5 62 (2.92%) Data Centre
6 59 (2.78%) Virtual Team
7 52 (2.45%) Data Structures
8 50 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
9 46 (2.16%) Algorithms
10 45 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
10 45 (2.12%) PMI
11 38 (1.79%) Robotics
12 34 (1.60%) Derivative
13 32 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
14 31 (1.46%) Operational Technology
15 30 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
15 30 (1.41%) Security Posture
16 28 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
17 25 (1.18%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 261 (12.28%) Windows
2 158 (7.43%) Linux
3 70 (3.29%) Unix
4 62 (2.92%) Windows Server
5 55 (2.59%) Windows 10
6 26 (1.22%) Android
7 22 (1.03%) Mac OS
8 21 (0.99%) Apple iOS
8 21 (0.99%) 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 (0.24%) AIX
13 5 (0.24%) VMS
14 4 (0.19%) Debian
14 4 (0.19%) Rocky
15 3 (0.14%) Solaris
16 2 (0.094%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 725 (34.10%) Computer Science
2 634 (29.82%) Agile
3 545 (25.63%) Problem-Solving
4 340 (15.99%) Stakeholder Management
5 317 (14.91%) Continuous Improvement
6 309 (14.53%) AI
7 295 (13.88%) Project Management
8 285 (13.41%) DevOps
9 233 (10.96%) CI/CD
10 225 (10.58%) Analytics
10 225 (10.58%) Decision-Making
11 217 (10.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 201 (9.45%) Migration
13 200 (9.41%) Change Management
14 196 (9.22%) ITIL
15 192 (9.03%) Cybersecurity
16 191 (8.98%) Risk Management
17 184 (8.65%) Roadmaps
18 182 (8.56%) PRINCE2
19 171 (8.04%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 341 (16.04%) Python
2 322 (15.15%) SQL
3 153 (7.20%) Java
4 102 (4.80%) PowerShell
5 86 (4.05%) C#
6 78 (3.67%) JavaScript
7 57 (2.68%) C++
8 35 (1.65%) Bash
9 31 (1.46%) TypeScript
10 27 (1.27%) R
11 23 (1.08%) PL/SQL
12 18 (0.85%) C
13 16 (0.75%) T-SQL
14 14 (0.66%) Perl
14 14 (0.66%) Rust
14 14 (0.66%) Shell Script
15 13 (0.61%) Go
16 12 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 12 (0.56%) Kotlin
17 11 (0.52%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 455 (21.40%) Computer Science Degree
2 398 (18.72%) Security Cleared
3 282 (13.26%) SC Cleared
4 232 (10.91%) Master's Degree
5 134 (6.30%) PMI Certification
6 116 (5.46%) PMP
7 94 (4.42%) CISSP
8 73 (3.43%) Microsoft Certification
9 72 (3.39%) Cisco Certification
10 53 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
10 53 (2.49%) CISM
11 48 (2.26%) DV Cleared
12 47 (2.21%) PhD
13 46 (2.16%) TOGAF Certification
14 43 (2.02%) Azure Certification
15 41 (1.93%) CCNP
16 34 (1.60%) MBA
17 33 (1.55%) CBAP
18 32 (1.51%) CCNA
19 27 (1.27%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 140 (6.59%) QA
2 110 (5.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 102 (4.80%) NIST
4 100 (4.70%) PMO
5 96 (4.52%) GDPR
6 89 (4.19%) Data Quality
7 49 (2.30%) SLA
8 41 (1.93%) Accessibility
9 40 (1.88%) PCI DSS
10 26 (1.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 23 (1.08%) GRC
12 20 (0.94%) NCSC
13 15 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials
13 15 (0.71%) IFRS
14 12 (0.56%) NIST 800
14 12 (0.56%) SOC 2
15 10 (0.47%) Basel III
15 10 (0.47%) COBIT
15 10 (0.47%) HIPAA
16 9 (0.42%) IFRS 17
System Software
1 140 (6.59%) Active Directory
2 116 (5.46%) Docker
3 36 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (1.18%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.99%) Firmware
6 7 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.33%) vSphere
7 6 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.24%) BitLocker
8 5 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.19%) XenApp
9 4 (0.19%) XenDesktop
10 3 (0.14%) KVM
10 3 (0.14%) VMware NSX
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
1 131 (6.16%) Kubernetes
2 69 (3.25%) Terraform
3 59 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
4 55 (2.59%) Ansible
5 34 (1.60%) SCCM
6 33 (1.55%) Grafana
7 27 (1.27%) Prometheus
8 20 (0.94%) OPNET
9 19 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
10 15 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 14 (0.66%) Puppet
12 12 (0.56%) Kibana
13 11 (0.52%) Nmap
14 9 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
14 9 (0.42%) Kiali
14 9 (0.42%) WSUS
15 8 (0.38%) Nessus
15 8 (0.38%) vCenter Server
16 7 (0.33%) HP ALM
17 6 (0.28%) Control-M
Vendors
1 487 (22.91%) Microsoft
2 149 (7.01%) Oracle
3 115 (5.41%) SAP
4 111 (5.22%) ServiceNow
5 70 (3.29%) Google
6 69 (3.25%) Cisco
7 49 (2.30%) Splunk
8 48 (2.26%) Databricks
9 42 (1.98%) Citrix
9 42 (1.98%) VMware
10 40 (1.88%) Salesforce
11 38 (1.79%) Remedy
12 36 (1.69%) IBM
13 34 (1.60%) Adobe
14 32 (1.51%) Palo Alto
15 29 (1.36%) CheckPoint
16 28 (1.32%) Atlassian
17 23 (1.08%) Aruba
18 21 (0.99%) CyberArk
18 21 (0.99%) Siemens