Degree Contract Job Trends in the North West

Academic Degree
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 25 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 24 15
Rank change year-on-year -3 -9 +20
Contract jobs citing Degree 180 145 267
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.86% 7.37% 9.51%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.87% 20.25% 31.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 79 125
10th Percentile £234 £207 £158
25th Percentile £350 £353 £248
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £494 £584 £601
90th Percentile £600 £700 £700
England median daily rate £500 £520 £513
% change year-on-year -3.85% +1.46% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 22 32
10th Percentile £25.74 £22.72 £11.77
25th Percentile £40.58 £24.71 £22.51
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.39
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +23.15% -9.00%
75th Percentile - £33.75 £42.88
90th Percentile £58.43 - £46.18
England median hourly rate £45.46 £52.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -13.41% +31.25% -11.11%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 906 716 861
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.48% 36.40% 30.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 601 405 502
10th Percentile £240 £213 £263
25th Percentile £375 £394 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £490 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.24% -4.39% +2.50%
75th Percentile £576 £580 £650
90th Percentile £669 £654 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 46 131
10th Percentile £21.46 £22.72 £10.95
25th Percentile £30.00 £25.51 £11.89
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £69.25 £60.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £82.00 £50.00
England median hourly rate £35.00 £50.00 £38.75
% change year-on-year -30.00% +29.03% -22.50%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Degree job vacancy trend in the North West

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in the North West over the 6 months to 25 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in the North West

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in the North West over the 6 months to 25 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the North West

Degree
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the North West region over the 6 months to 25 March 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
Cheshire -7 80 £389 -24.15% 36
Manchester -33 54 £402 -15.37% 143
Lancashire +6 24 £513 - 60
Merseyside -15 12 £200 -53.62% 28
Cumbria -2 7 £500 +21.21% 9
Degree
England

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 26 (14.44%) Confluence
1 26 (14.44%) SharePoint
2 7 (3.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.11%) SAS
4 1 (0.56%) Apache
4 1 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.56%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.56%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 37 (20.56%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (6.67%) MS Visio
3 11 (6.11%) Microsoft Project
4 8 (4.44%) Microsoft Excel
5 7 (3.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (5.56%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (2.22%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (2.22%) Primavera
3 3 (1.67%) SAP MM
4 2 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.11%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.56%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.56%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.56%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 25 (13.89%) Azure
2 24 (13.33%) Microsoft 365
3 22 (12.22%) AWS
4 16 (8.89%) Power Platform
5 13 (7.22%) Entra ID
6 10 (5.56%) Apigee
7 9 (5.00%) GCP
8 6 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (3.33%) Kong
8 6 (3.33%) OneDrive
8 6 (3.33%) Power Automate
8 6 (3.33%) PowerApps
9 5 (2.78%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (2.78%) SaaS
10 4 (2.22%) GitHub
10 4 (2.22%) GitHub Copilot
11 3 (1.67%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (1.67%) Figma
12 2 (1.11%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 12 (6.67%) Firewall
2 11 (6.11%) Skype
2 11 (6.11%) VPN
3 9 (5.00%) DNS
4 8 (4.44%) VLAN
5 7 (3.89%) SSH
6 6 (3.33%) LAN
6 6 (3.33%) WAN
6 6 (3.33%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.78%) DHCP
8 4 (2.22%) BGP
8 4 (2.22%) HTTP
8 4 (2.22%) HTTPS
8 4 (2.22%) TCP/IP
8 4 (2.22%) Unified Communications
8 4 (2.22%) Wireless
9 3 (1.67%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (1.11%) Network Security
10 2 (1.11%) SAN
10 2 (1.11%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.89%) Power BI
2 6 (3.33%) Relational Database
3 5 (2.78%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (2.22%) MySQL
5 3 (1.67%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.67%) SQL Server
6 2 (1.11%) Qlik Sense
6 2 (1.11%) RDBMS
6 2 (1.11%) SAP HANA
6 2 (1.11%) Tableau
7 1 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.56%) Cognos Framework Manager
7 1 (0.56%) Cognos Report Studio
7 1 (0.56%) Cognos Transformer
7 1 (0.56%) OLAP
7 1 (0.56%) OLAP Cube
7 1 (0.56%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.56%) SAS Data Integration Studio
7 1 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 31 (17.22%) JIRA
2 11 (6.11%) Git
3 9 (5.00%) Postman
4 4 (2.22%) GitLab
4 4 (2.22%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.56%) MLflow
5 1 (0.56%) SoapUI
General
1 99 (55.00%) Social Skills
2 67 (37.22%) Finance
3 37 (20.56%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (17.78%) Banking
5 23 (12.78%) Public Sector
6 13 (7.22%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (7.22%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (6.11%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (3.89%) Legal
8 7 (3.89%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (2.78%) Corporate Banking
9 5 (2.78%) Manufacturing
9 5 (2.78%) Retail
10 4 (2.22%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.67%) Retail Banking
12 2 (1.11%) Environmental Health
12 2 (1.11%) Law
12 2 (1.11%) Local Government
12 2 (1.11%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.56%) Humanities
Job Titles
1 43 (23.89%) Analyst
2 24 (13.33%) Business Analyst
3 20 (11.11%) Lead
4 17 (9.44%) Developer
5 10 (5.56%) 1st Line Support
5 10 (5.56%) Project Manager
6 9 (5.00%) Senior
7 8 (4.44%) Java Developer
8 7 (3.89%) Architect
8 7 (3.89%) Designer
8 7 (3.89%) IT Support
8 7 (3.89%) Support Analyst
8 7 (3.89%) UX Designer
9 6 (3.33%) IT Analyst
9 6 (3.33%) IT Support Analyst
9 6 (3.33%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 6 (3.33%) Microsoft Engineer
9 6 (3.33%) Technical Analyst
9 6 (3.33%) Technical Business Analyst
10 5 (2.78%) Banking Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (10.00%) XML
2 17 (9.44%) JSON
3 11 (6.11%) REST
3 11 (6.11%) SOAP
4 10 (5.56%) JWT
4 10 (5.56%) OAuth
4 10 (5.56%) Swagger
5 8 (4.44%) Hibernate
5 8 (4.44%) RESTful
5 8 (4.44%) Spring
5 8 (4.44%) Spring Boot
6 6 (3.33%) OpenAPI
7 5 (2.78%) .NET
7 5 (2.78%) HTML
8 4 (2.22%) 802.1X
8 4 (2.22%) JAX-RS
8 4 (2.22%) OAuth2
8 4 (2.22%) Spring MVC
8 4 (2.22%) Spring Security
9 3 (1.67%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.33%) Management Information System
1 15 (8.33%) Virtual Team
2 13 (7.22%) Product Ownership
3 7 (3.89%) Onboarding
3 7 (3.89%) Tandem
4 5 (2.78%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.22%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.22%) Digital Wallet
5 4 (2.22%) PKI
5 4 (2.22%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.67%) Cloud Native
6 3 (1.67%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.67%) Handset
6 3 (1.67%) IoT
6 3 (1.67%) PMI
7 2 (1.11%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (1.11%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.11%) Graphic Design
Operating Systems
1 38 (21.11%) Windows
2 15 (8.33%) Windows 10
3 10 (5.56%) Linux
4 8 (4.44%) Unix
4 8 (4.44%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.67%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.56%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.56%) Solaris
7 1 (0.56%) VMS
7 1 (0.56%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (43.89%) Agile
2 55 (30.56%) Computer Science
3 47 (26.11%) Problem-Solving
4 40 (22.22%) ITIL
5 37 (20.56%) Change Management
5 37 (20.56%) Continuous Improvement
5 37 (20.56%) DevOps
5 37 (20.56%) Stakeholder Management
6 35 (19.44%) Project Management
7 31 (17.22%) Project Delivery
8 24 (13.33%) AI
8 24 (13.33%) Cybersecurity
8 24 (13.33%) PRINCE2
9 22 (12.22%) CI/CD
9 22 (12.22%) Service Delivery
10 21 (11.67%) ITSM
11 20 (11.11%) Workshop Facilitation
12 19 (10.56%) Requirements Gathering
12 19 (10.56%) Six Sigma
12 19 (10.56%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 24 (13.33%) SQL
2 23 (12.78%) Python
3 14 (7.78%) Java
4 12 (6.67%) PowerShell
5 6 (3.33%) Bash
6 5 (2.78%) C#
7 4 (2.22%) Perl
8 3 (1.67%) C++
8 3 (1.67%) R
9 2 (1.11%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.11%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.56%) Groovy
10 1 (0.56%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.56%) SAS Macro
10 1 (0.56%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.56%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.56%) VB
10 1 (0.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 44 (24.44%) Computer Science Degree
2 39 (21.67%) Security Cleared
3 19 (10.56%) BPSS Clearance
3 19 (10.56%) SC Cleared
4 16 (8.89%) Master's Degree
5 15 (8.33%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 9 (5.00%) CCNA
6 9 (5.00%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (5.00%) MBA
6 9 (5.00%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (4.44%) CISSP
8 7 (3.89%) CCNP
8 7 (3.89%) PMI Certification
8 7 (3.89%) PMP
9 6 (3.33%) ITIL Certification
9 6 (3.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 5 (2.78%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.22%) A+ Certification
12 3 (1.67%) CCDP
12 3 (1.67%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.56%) NIST
2 9 (5.00%) QA
3 7 (3.89%) GDPR
4 6 (3.33%) Accessibility
4 6 (3.33%) GRC
4 6 (3.33%) PSD2
5 5 (2.78%) PCI DSS
5 5 (2.78%) SLA
6 4 (2.22%) Data Quality
6 4 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (1.67%) Basel III
7 3 (1.67%) IFRS
7 3 (1.67%) IFRS 17
7 3 (1.67%) ISO 8583
8 2 (1.11%) ISO 20022
8 2 (1.11%) P3O
8 2 (1.11%) PMO
9 1 (0.56%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.56%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.56%) SEPA
System Software
1 20 (11.11%) Active Directory
2 12 (6.67%) Docker
3 7 (3.89%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.67%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.11%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 13 (7.22%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 3 (1.67%) Ansible
3 3 (1.67%) SCCM
3 3 (1.67%) Terraform
4 2 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.56%) SCOM
5 1 (0.56%) SCOrch
5 1 (0.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 53 (29.44%) Microsoft
2 15 (8.33%) Citrix
3 13 (7.22%) Cisco
4 10 (5.56%) Remedy
5 9 (5.00%) IBM
6 8 (4.44%) Oracle
6 8 (4.44%) SAP
6 8 (4.44%) ServiceNow
7 7 (3.89%) Splunk
7 7 (3.89%) VMware
8 6 (3.33%) Gemalto
8 6 (3.33%) MuleSoft
8 6 (3.33%) Thales
9 5 (2.78%) Aruba
9 5 (2.78%) CheckPoint
9 5 (2.78%) Palo Alto
9 5 (2.78%) Red Hat
10 4 (2.22%) Ekahau
11 3 (1.67%) EMC
11 3 (1.67%) Google