Postgraduate Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Postgraduate
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North of England with a requirement for Postgraduate qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 29 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 204 152 176
Rank change year-on-year -52 +24 -
Contract jobs citing Postgraduate 2 8 9
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.042% 0.23% 0.19%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.14% 0.74% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 2 1
10th Percentile - £676 -
25th Percentile £413 £677 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £679 £356
Median % change year-on-year -37.38% +90.54% -
75th Percentile £438 £681 -
90th Percentile - £682 -
England median daily rate £492 £494 £356
% change year-on-year -0.35% +38.60% -35.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £30.03
Median hourly rate - - £30.05
75th Percentile - - £30.08
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £35.00 £23.80 £30.05
% change year-on-year +47.06% -20.80% -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North of England

Postgraduate 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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,453 1,083 1,208
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 30.52% 30.85% 26.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 985 622 787
10th Percentile £239 £220 £270
25th Percentile £400 £357 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -9.52% -
75th Percentile £588 £579 £638
90th Percentile £688 £675 £711
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 63 85
10th Percentile £16.63 £18.03 £16.25
25th Percentile £22.63 £22.22 £26.78
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -29.62% +84.72%
75th Percentile £60.61 £47.47 £49.00
90th Percentile £72.75 £74.51 £62.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.89
% change year-on-year -45.54% -11.00% +15.31%

Postgraduate
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Postgraduate job vacancy trend in the North of England

Postgraduate
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Postgraduate.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Postgraduate

Postgraduate
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Postgraduate.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Postgraduate

Postgraduate
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Postgraduate within the North of England region over the 6 months to 29 December 2025. 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
North West -27 1 £425 -37.38% 2
Yorkshire - 1 £425 - 2
Postgraduate
England

Postgraduate
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of 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:

General
1 2 (100.00%) Finance
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Data Scientist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (100.00%) Pandas
1 2 (100.00%) pytest
1 2 (100.00%) scikit-learn
1 2 (100.00%) TensorFlow
1 2 (100.00%) XGBoost
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Actionable Insight
1 2 (100.00%) Agile
1 2 (100.00%) Analytics
1 2 (100.00%) API Development
1 2 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 2 (100.00%) Data Science
1 2 (100.00%) Decision-Making
1 2 (100.00%) DevOps
1 2 (100.00%) E-Commerce
1 2 (100.00%) Electronic Design Automation
1 2 (100.00%) Machine Learning
1 2 (100.00%) Mathematics
1 2 (100.00%) MLOps
1 2 (100.00%) Neural Network
1 2 (100.00%) Physics
1 2 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 2 (100.00%) Statistics
1 2 (100.00%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 2 (100.00%) Python
1 2 (100.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) Degree