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 15 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 40 25 20
Rank change year-on-year -15 -5 +4
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,248 1,944 2,538
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.86% 7.11% 7.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.23% 22.56% 26.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,166 1,108 1,446
10th Percentile £204 £262 £269
25th Percentile £357 £392 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -1.48% -4.25%
75th Percentile £621 £638 £625
90th Percentile £733 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 154 190
10th Percentile £16.46 £20.47 £21.25
25th Percentile £26.00 £27.31 £35.00
Median hourly rate £38.72 £38.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +0.57% -32.87% +19.13%
75th Percentile £69.50 £65.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £85.00 £86.25 £79.25
UK median hourly rate £38.25 £38.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -0.65% -30.00% +13.92%

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 14,761 8,617 9,723
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.93% 31.49% 29.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,904 5,456 6,018
10th Percentile £350 £303 £325
25th Percentile £440 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £636 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,173 674 583
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.15 £17.08
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £26.71
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -53.43% -1.42%
75th Percentile £74.00 £47.12 £69.72
90th Percentile £88.75 £73.75 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -49.70% -8.73%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 September 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 -19 977 £525 -4.55% 7,393
South East +6 456 £525 +13.51% 1,785
North of England -19 330 £475 +5.91% 1,174
North West -6 207 £475 +3.83% 674
Midlands -32 179 £450 - 813
East of England -13 137 £350 -28.21% 909
West Midlands -38 132 £450 -5.26% 503
South West -27 127 £400 -15.79% 752
Yorkshire -4 107 £513 +22.02% 341
East Midlands -18 46 £463 +6.69% 310
North East -35 16 £455 +1.11% 183
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
1 158 (7.03%) SharePoint
2 98 (4.36%) Confluence
3 61 (2.71%) Microsoft Exchange
4 26 (1.16%) Apache Spark
5 22 (0.98%) Apache Airflow
6 18 (0.80%) Apache
7 17 (0.76%) IIS
8 13 (0.58%) Camunda
8 13 (0.58%) SharePoint Server
9 12 (0.53%) CMS
10 9 (0.40%) SAS
11 6 (0.27%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 4 (0.18%) Appian
12 4 (0.18%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.18%) FactoryTalk
12 4 (0.18%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.13%) Moodle
13 3 (0.13%) Skype for Business
13 3 (0.13%) WebLogic
Applications
1 231 (10.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 218 (9.70%) Microsoft Office
3 116 (5.16%) Microsoft Project
4 112 (4.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 43 (1.91%) MS Visio
6 16 (0.71%) Photoshop
7 15 (0.67%) Adobe Illustrator
8 12 (0.53%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 11 (0.49%) Adobe After Effects
10 9 (0.40%) Revit
10 9 (0.40%) Windchill
11 8 (0.36%) Chatbot
11 8 (0.36%) Navisworks
11 8 (0.36%) Simulink
11 8 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
12 5 (0.22%) UserZoom
13 3 (0.13%) CPLEX
13 3 (0.13%) Trello
14 2 (0.089%) Adobe XD
14 2 (0.089%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 41 (1.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
3 11 (0.49%) Primavera
4 8 (0.36%) Magento
4 8 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
5 7 (0.31%) HFM
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.27%) SAP EWM
7 5 (0.22%) NEC Housing
7 5 (0.22%) Oracle Receivables
7 5 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
7 5 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 5 (0.22%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.18%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
8 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.13%) Changepoint
9 3 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
9 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 525 (23.35%) Azure
2 282 (12.54%) AWS
3 222 (9.88%) Microsoft 365
4 212 (9.43%) Power Platform
5 135 (6.01%) GCP
6 131 (5.83%) Entra ID
7 113 (5.03%) Azure DevOps
8 76 (3.38%) SaaS
9 61 (2.71%) GitHub
10 53 (2.36%) Power Automate
11 51 (2.27%) Serverless
12 50 (2.22%) PowerApps
13 48 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
14 47 (2.09%) OneDrive
15 43 (1.91%) Microsoft Copilot
16 33 (1.47%) Snowflake
17 32 (1.42%) Figma
18 26 (1.16%) OpenShift
19 25 (1.11%) Azure Monitor
19 25 (1.11%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 97 (4.31%) Firewall
2 73 (3.25%) DNS
3 63 (2.80%) Network Security
4 58 (2.58%) TCP/IP
4 58 (2.58%) VPN
5 45 (2.00%) DHCP
6 33 (1.47%) WAN
7 32 (1.42%) LAN
8 24 (1.07%) Wireless
9 23 (1.02%) 3GPP
10 19 (0.85%) 5G
10 19 (0.85%) Internet
11 18 (0.80%) SSH
12 17 (0.76%) Radio Access Network
12 17 (0.76%) SSL
12 17 (0.76%) Wireshark
13 16 (0.71%) BGP
14 15 (0.67%) VLAN
14 15 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
15 14 (0.62%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (6.94%) Power BI
2 109 (4.85%) SQL Server
3 52 (2.31%) Relational Database
4 51 (2.27%) Metadata
5 49 (2.18%) PostgreSQL
6 38 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
7 32 (1.42%) MySQL
7 32 (1.42%) Tableau
8 30 (1.33%) NoSQL
9 24 (1.07%) Oracle Database
10 23 (1.02%) Big Data
10 23 (1.02%) MongoDB
10 23 (1.02%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 16 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
12 15 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
12 15 (0.67%) GIS
13 14 (0.62%) Data Lake
13 14 (0.62%) Data Mining
14 11 (0.49%) Power Query
14 11 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 166 (7.38%) JIRA
2 128 (5.69%) Git
3 57 (2.54%) Jenkins
4 51 (2.27%) GitLab
5 22 (0.98%) JUnit
5 22 (0.98%) Maven
6 21 (0.93%) SonarQube
7 19 (0.85%) Gradle
7 19 (0.85%) Selenium
8 17 (0.76%) Visual Studio
9 14 (0.62%) REST Assured
9 14 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
10 13 (0.58%) Cucumber
10 13 (0.58%) Mockito
11 11 (0.49%) Subversion
12 9 (0.40%) MLflow
12 9 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
12 9 (0.40%) TeamCity
13 8 (0.36%) Bitbucket Server
13 8 (0.36%) Postman
General
1 1,014 (45.11%) Social Skills
2 667 (29.67%) Finance
3 514 (22.86%) Analytical Skills
4 194 (8.63%) Banking
5 178 (7.92%) Public Sector
6 149 (6.63%) Organisational Skills
7 116 (5.16%) Manufacturing
8 98 (4.36%) Aerospace
9 91 (4.05%) Marketing
10 89 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
11 83 (3.69%) Legal
12 80 (3.56%) Telecoms
13 75 (3.34%) Presentation Skills
14 66 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
15 58 (2.58%) Retail
16 56 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 50 (2.22%) Law
18 45 (2.00%) Pharmaceutical
19 43 (1.91%) Military
20 38 (1.69%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 308 (13.70%) Analyst
2 261 (11.61%) Senior
3 187 (8.32%) Lead
4 184 (8.19%) Developer
5 157 (6.98%) Architect
6 141 (6.27%) Business Analyst
7 115 (5.12%) Project Manager
8 73 (3.25%) Support Engineer
9 67 (2.98%) Senior Manager
10 65 (2.89%) IT Support
11 55 (2.45%) Consultant
12 54 (2.40%) Solutions Architect
13 53 (2.36%) IT Analyst
14 49 (2.18%) IT Manager
15 45 (2.00%) Technical Support
16 44 (1.96%) Designer
17 43 (1.91%) Security Engineer
17 43 (1.91%) Software Engineer
18 42 (1.87%) Senior Analyst
19 40 (1.78%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (4.54%) Terraform
2 95 (4.23%) REST
3 93 (4.14%) .NET
4 64 (2.85%) HTML
5 63 (2.80%) React
6 57 (2.54%) Kafka
7 52 (2.31%) CSS
8 42 (1.87%) RESTful
9 41 (1.82%) XML
10 39 (1.73%) OAuth
11 38 (1.69%) Spring Boot
12 35 (1.56%) Web Services
13 34 (1.51%) .NET Framework
13 34 (1.51%) Middleware
13 34 (1.51%) Oracle Fusion
14 33 (1.47%) Spring
15 30 (1.33%) JSON
15 30 (1.33%) SAML
16 28 (1.25%) AngularJS
16 28 (1.25%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 205 (9.12%) Management Information System
2 132 (5.87%) Onboarding
3 105 (4.67%) Product Ownership
4 91 (4.05%) Self-Motivation
5 89 (3.96%) Cloud Native
6 55 (2.45%) Algorithms
7 54 (2.40%) Data Structures
8 52 (2.31%) Data Centre
9 46 (2.05%) Security Posture
10 44 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
11 42 (1.87%) Operational Technology
12 40 (1.78%) Virtual Team
13 39 (1.73%) Distributed Systems
13 39 (1.73%) Life Science
14 37 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
15 36 (1.60%) AI Agents
16 35 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
17 30 (1.33%) SCADA
18 29 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
18 29 (1.29%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 284 (12.63%) Windows
2 175 (7.78%) Linux
3 78 (3.47%) Windows Server
4 63 (2.80%) Unix
5 42 (1.87%) Windows 10
6 34 (1.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 29 (1.29%) Apple iOS
7 29 (1.29%) Mac OS
8 22 (0.98%) Android
9 11 (0.49%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.22%) VMS
10 5 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.18%) Solaris
11 4 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.13%) AIX
12 3 (0.13%) CentOS
12 3 (0.13%) Debian
12 3 (0.13%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.13%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 725 (32.25%) Computer Science
2 624 (27.76%) Agile
3 604 (26.87%) Problem-Solving
4 458 (20.37%) Stakeholder Management
5 401 (17.84%) Continuous Improvement
6 370 (16.46%) AI
7 322 (14.32%) DevOps
8 290 (12.90%) Project Management
9 286 (12.72%) Analytics
10 282 (12.54%) CI/CD
11 257 (11.43%) ITIL
12 235 (10.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 231 (10.28%) Decision-Making
14 218 (9.70%) Scrum
15 216 (9.61%) Cybersecurity
16 212 (9.43%) Software Engineering
17 211 (9.39%) Change Management
18 209 (9.30%) Roadmaps
19 194 (8.63%) PRINCE2
20 185 (8.23%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 377 (16.77%) Python
2 331 (14.72%) SQL
3 171 (7.61%) PowerShell
4 155 (6.90%) Java
5 121 (5.38%) JavaScript
6 108 (4.80%) C#
7 58 (2.58%) Bash
8 42 (1.87%) C++
9 39 (1.73%) TypeScript
10 28 (1.25%) Bicep
11 27 (1.20%) T-SQL
12 24 (1.07%) C
12 24 (1.07%) PL/SQL
12 24 (1.07%) Shell Script
13 23 (1.02%) R
14 14 (0.62%) Scala
15 11 (0.49%) Apex Code
15 11 (0.49%) X++
16 10 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.44%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 441 (19.62%) Computer Science Degree
2 422 (18.77%) Security Cleared
3 300 (13.35%) SC Cleared
4 186 (8.27%) Master's Degree
5 132 (5.87%) PMI Certification
6 124 (5.52%) Microsoft Certification
7 118 (5.25%) PMP
8 101 (4.49%) CISSP
9 79 (3.51%) DV Cleared
10 78 (3.47%) Azure Certification
11 77 (3.43%) Cisco Certification
12 66 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
13 55 (2.45%) PhD
14 48 (2.14%) CISM
15 45 (2.00%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 40 (1.78%) AWS Certification
17 36 (1.60%) ISTQB
18 33 (1.47%) A+ Certification
18 33 (1.47%) CCNA
18 33 (1.47%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 131 (5.83%) QA
2 122 (5.43%) Data Quality
3 88 (3.91%) NIST
4 85 (3.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 81 (3.60%) PMO
6 66 (2.94%) GDPR
7 40 (1.78%) Accessibility
8 35 (1.56%) SLA
9 25 (1.11%) GRC
10 24 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 17 (0.76%) NCSC
12 16 (0.71%) PCI DSS
13 14 (0.62%) IFRS
14 13 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
15 11 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
15 11 (0.49%) P3O
16 8 (0.36%) COBIT
16 8 (0.36%) IEC 61508
16 8 (0.36%) ISO 31000
16 8 (0.36%) NIST 800
System Software
1 184 (8.19%) Active Directory
2 118 (5.25%) Docker
3 52 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.16%) Firmware
5 22 (0.98%) Virtual Machines
6 21 (0.93%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.40%) Embedded Firmware
8 8 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (0.36%) VMware NSX
9 7 (0.31%) BitLocker
10 6 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
10 6 (0.27%) vSphere
11 5 (0.22%) NFS
12 4 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.13%) ISA Server
13 3 (0.13%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.13%) OpenAM
13 3 (0.13%) Terminal Services
13 3 (0.13%) Veritas Volume Manager
13 3 (0.13%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 115 (5.12%) Kubernetes
2 71 (3.16%) Microsoft Intune
3 59 (2.62%) Ansible
4 31 (1.38%) SCCM
5 26 (1.16%) Grafana
6 24 (1.07%) Prometheus
7 18 (0.80%) Progress Chef
8 17 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (0.62%) Puppet
10 13 (0.58%) Jamf Pro
11 12 (0.53%) SCOM
12 8 (0.36%) CASB
12 8 (0.36%) WSUS
13 7 (0.31%) Functional Safety
14 6 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 6 (0.27%) Control-M
14 6 (0.27%) HP ALM
14 6 (0.27%) Nessus
15 5 (0.22%) Oracle RMAN
15 5 (0.22%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 585 (26.02%) Microsoft
2 159 (7.07%) Oracle
3 135 (6.01%) ServiceNow
4 125 (5.56%) SAP
5 91 (4.05%) Google
6 69 (3.07%) VMware
7 62 (2.76%) Cisco
8 58 (2.58%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.40%) Adobe
10 44 (1.96%) Databricks
11 38 (1.69%) IBM
11 38 (1.69%) Splunk
12 32 (1.42%) Red Hat
13 30 (1.33%) CyberArk
14 25 (1.11%) Citrix
15 21 (0.93%) BeyondTrust
16 20 (0.89%) OpenAI
16 20 (0.89%) Palo Alto
17 19 (0.85%) Apple
18 18 (0.80%) Ariba