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 24 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 29 12
Rank change year-on-year +1 -17 +28
Contract jobs citing Degree 182 135 295
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.57% 6.66% 10.55%
As % of the Qualifications category 20.43% 19.88% 34.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 63 136
10th Percentile £235 £192 £158
25th Percentile £350 £356 £248
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £397 £475 £457
Median % change year-on-year -16.45% +4.05% +1.44%
75th Percentile £488 £581 £600
90th Percentile £600 £687 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 19 37
10th Percentile £15.50 £22.72 £11.77
25th Percentile £31.63 £25.22 £24.10
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +21.91% -3.75%
75th Percentile £48.49 £33.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £62.56 £47.99 £46.18
England median hourly rate £35.00 £46.84 £40.00
% change year-on-year -25.28% +17.10% -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 891 679 845
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.15% 33.50% 30.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 596 384 503
10th Percentile £228 £213 £252
25th Percentile £381 £363 £437
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £528
Median % change year-on-year - -9.95% +5.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £649
90th Percentile £680 £650 £720
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 41 107
10th Percentile £19.03 £24.00 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.45 £26.25 £16.06
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +1.20% -10.79%
75th Percentile £67.84 £60.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.59 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% +12.36% -4.30%

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 24 February 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 24 February 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 24 February 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 -3 87 £381 -23.75% 55
Manchester -18 51 £402 -15.37% 138
Lancashire +8 25 £513 - 64
Merseyside -21 11 £236 -46.00% 23
Cumbria -2 5 £593 +43.64% 17
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 29 (15.93%) SharePoint
2 25 (13.74%) Confluence
3 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (3.30%) Skype for Business
5 5 (2.75%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (1.65%) SAS
7 2 (1.10%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.55%) Apache
8 1 (0.55%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 37 (20.33%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (8.24%) MS Visio
3 13 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (5.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.55%) InVision
5 1 (0.55%) Sketch
5 1 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (5.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (2.20%) Payment Gateway
3 3 (1.65%) Primavera
4 2 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.10%) NEC Housing
4 2 (1.10%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.55%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.55%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.55%) SAP IBP
5 1 (0.55%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.55%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 31 (17.03%) Microsoft 365
2 29 (15.93%) Azure
3 21 (11.54%) AWS
4 18 (9.89%) Power Platform
5 10 (5.49%) Apigee
5 10 (5.49%) Entra ID
5 10 (5.49%) SaaS
6 9 (4.95%) GCP
6 9 (4.95%) OneDrive
7 6 (3.30%) Kong
8 5 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (2.75%) GitHub
9 4 (2.20%) GitHub Copilot
9 4 (2.20%) Power Automate
9 4 (2.20%) PowerApps
10 3 (1.65%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (1.65%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (1.65%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (1.10%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.10%) Figma
Communications & Networking
1 16 (8.79%) Skype
2 12 (6.59%) DNS
3 11 (6.04%) VPN
4 8 (4.40%) Unified Communications
5 7 (3.85%) Firewall
5 7 (3.85%) SSH
6 6 (3.30%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.75%) DHCP
7 5 (2.75%) Internet
8 4 (2.20%) BGP
8 4 (2.20%) HTTP
8 4 (2.20%) HTTPS
8 4 (2.20%) VLAN
9 3 (1.65%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (1.10%) LAN
10 2 (1.10%) SAN
10 2 (1.10%) SSL
10 2 (1.10%) WAN
11 1 (0.55%) OSPF
11 1 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.85%) Power BI
2 6 (3.30%) Relational Database
3 5 (2.75%) Data Warehouse
3 5 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (2.20%) MySQL
5 3 (1.65%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.65%) SQL Server
5 3 (1.65%) Tableau
6 2 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (1.10%) Cognos Framework Manager
6 2 (1.10%) Cognos Report Studio
6 2 (1.10%) Cognos Transformer
6 2 (1.10%) OLAP
6 2 (1.10%) OLAP Cube
6 2 (1.10%) Qlik Sense
6 2 (1.10%) RDBMS
6 2 (1.10%) SAP HANA
7 1 (0.55%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.55%) SAP BW
7 1 (0.55%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 30 (16.48%) JIRA
2 11 (6.04%) Git
3 9 (4.95%) Postman
4 4 (2.20%) GitLab
4 4 (2.20%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.55%) MLflow
5 1 (0.55%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.55%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 109 (59.89%) Social Skills
2 70 (38.46%) Finance
3 45 (24.73%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (16.48%) Banking
5 18 (9.89%) Public Sector
6 14 (7.69%) Influencing Skills
7 13 (7.14%) Organisational Skills
8 12 (6.59%) Documentation Skills
9 9 (4.95%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (3.30%) Legal
11 5 (2.75%) Corporate Banking
11 5 (2.75%) Retail
12 4 (2.20%) Manufacturing
12 4 (2.20%) Telecoms
13 3 (1.65%) Retail Banking
14 2 (1.10%) Law
14 2 (1.10%) Local Government
14 2 (1.10%) Marketing
14 2 (1.10%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (1.10%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 46 (25.27%) Analyst
2 24 (13.19%) Business Analyst
2 24 (13.19%) Lead
3 18 (9.89%) Developer
4 12 (6.59%) Support Analyst
5 11 (6.04%) IT Support
5 11 (6.04%) Project Manager
6 10 (5.49%) 1st Line Support
7 9 (4.95%) Senior
8 8 (4.40%) Architect
8 8 (4.40%) Java Developer
9 6 (3.30%) Banking Analyst
9 6 (3.30%) Banking Business Analyst
9 6 (3.30%) IT Analyst
9 6 (3.30%) IT Support Analyst
9 6 (3.30%) Technical Analyst
9 6 (3.30%) Technical Business Analyst
10 5 (2.75%) Operations Support Analyst
10 5 (2.75%) Service Desk Support
10 5 (2.75%) Service Desk Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (9.89%) XML
2 17 (9.34%) JSON
3 11 (6.04%) REST
3 11 (6.04%) SOAP
4 10 (5.49%) JWT
4 10 (5.49%) OAuth
4 10 (5.49%) Swagger
5 8 (4.40%) Hibernate
5 8 (4.40%) RESTful
5 8 (4.40%) Spring
5 8 (4.40%) Spring Boot
6 6 (3.30%) OpenAPI
7 4 (2.20%) .NET
7 4 (2.20%) JAX-RS
7 4 (2.20%) OAuth2
7 4 (2.20%) Spring MVC
7 4 (2.20%) Spring Security
8 3 (1.65%) HTML
8 3 (1.65%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (1.10%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.24%) Management Information System
1 15 (8.24%) Virtual Team
2 9 (4.95%) Product Ownership
3 8 (4.40%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (4.40%) Onboarding
4 7 (3.85%) Tandem
5 6 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
6 5 (2.75%) Low-Code
6 5 (2.75%) Video Conferencing
7 4 (2.20%) Digital Wallet
7 4 (2.20%) PKI
8 3 (1.65%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.65%) Data Centre
8 3 (1.65%) Driving Licence
8 3 (1.65%) Handset
8 3 (1.65%) IoT
8 3 (1.65%) PMI
9 2 (1.10%) AI Agents
9 2 (1.10%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.10%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 40 (21.98%) Windows
2 15 (8.24%) Windows 10
3 8 (4.40%) Unix
3 8 (4.40%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.85%) Linux
5 5 (2.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.65%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.55%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.55%) Solaris
7 1 (0.55%) VMS
7 1 (0.55%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (42.86%) Agile
2 54 (29.67%) Computer Science
3 51 (28.02%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (24.18%) ITIL
5 41 (22.53%) Project Management
5 41 (22.53%) Stakeholder Management
6 39 (21.43%) Change Management
7 37 (20.33%) Continuous Improvement
8 36 (19.78%) DevOps
9 34 (18.68%) Project Delivery
10 29 (15.93%) Cybersecurity
11 24 (13.19%) Validation
12 23 (12.64%) AI
12 23 (12.64%) PRINCE2
12 23 (12.64%) Service Delivery
12 23 (12.64%) Six Sigma
13 22 (12.09%) CI/CD
13 22 (12.09%) Customer Service
13 22 (12.09%) ITSM
14 19 (10.44%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 26 (14.29%) SQL
2 25 (13.74%) Python
3 13 (7.14%) Java
4 11 (6.04%) PowerShell
5 6 (3.30%) Bash
6 5 (2.75%) C#
7 4 (2.20%) Perl
8 3 (1.65%) C++
8 3 (1.65%) R
9 2 (1.10%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.55%) Groovy
10 1 (0.55%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.55%) SAS Macro
10 1 (0.55%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.55%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.55%) VB
10 1 (0.55%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 43 (23.63%) Computer Science Degree
2 36 (19.78%) Security Cleared
3 20 (10.99%) Master's Degree
4 18 (9.89%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (8.24%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 13 (7.14%) SC Cleared
7 10 (5.49%) MBA
8 7 (3.85%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (3.30%) Azure Certification
9 6 (3.30%) CISSP
9 6 (3.30%) ITIL Certification
9 6 (3.30%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 6 (3.30%) PMI Certification
9 6 (3.30%) PMP
10 5 (2.75%) A+ Certification
10 5 (2.75%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.20%) CCNA
11 4 (2.20%) CCNP
11 4 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (2.20%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.04%) QA
2 7 (3.85%) GDPR
3 6 (3.30%) NIST
4 5 (2.75%) Data Quality
4 5 (2.75%) PSD2
5 4 (2.20%) GRC
5 4 (2.20%) PCI DSS
6 3 (1.65%) Accessibility
6 3 (1.65%) Basel III
6 3 (1.65%) IFRS
6 3 (1.65%) IFRS 17
6 3 (1.65%) ISO 8583
6 3 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.65%) SLA
7 2 (1.10%) NCSC
7 2 (1.10%) P3O
7 2 (1.10%) PMO
8 1 (0.55%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.55%) PMBOK
System Software
1 27 (14.84%) Active Directory
2 13 (7.14%) Docker
3 7 (3.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.65%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.10%) Firmware
6 1 (0.55%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 13 (7.14%) Kubernetes
1 13 (7.14%) SCCM
2 10 (5.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (2.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 4 (2.20%) Terraform
4 3 (1.65%) Ansible
5 2 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.55%) CA Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.55%) Control-M
6 1 (0.55%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.55%) SCOM
6 1 (0.55%) SCOrch
6 1 (0.55%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 63 (34.62%) Microsoft
2 15 (8.24%) Citrix
3 11 (6.04%) Cisco
3 11 (6.04%) ServiceNow
4 10 (5.49%) Remedy
5 9 (4.95%) IBM
5 9 (4.95%) Oracle
5 9 (4.95%) SAP
6 7 (3.85%) VMware
7 6 (3.30%) Gemalto
7 6 (3.30%) MuleSoft
7 6 (3.30%) Thales
8 5 (2.75%) Red Hat
8 5 (2.75%) Splunk
9 3 (1.65%) EMC
9 3 (1.65%) Google
10 2 (1.10%) NEC
10 2 (1.10%) NetApp
10 2 (1.10%) Salesforce
10 2 (1.10%) Veritas