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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 23 22
Rank change year-on-year -12 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing Degree 206 157 149
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.26% 7.30% 6.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 17.15% 21.63% 22.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 86 68
10th Percentile £201 £310 £356
25th Percentile £373 £358 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £458 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.83% -16.82% +15.79%
75th Percentile £583 £522 £588
90th Percentile £630 £675 £642
England median daily rate £510 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +2.00% -1.96% -3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 20 21
10th Percentile £17.25 £15.50 £21.25
25th Percentile £28.50 £24.76 £37.55
Median hourly rate £36.00 £42.75 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% -11.96% +20.65%
75th Percentile £65.38 £70.48 £62.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £81.00 £93.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £39.32 £57.35
% change year-on-year -1.53% -31.44% +19.48%

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 1,201 726 648
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.65% 33.77% 27.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 779 439 364
10th Percentile £310 £313 £294
25th Percentile £418 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £492 £503
Median % change year-on-year +5.18% -2.24% -4.14%
75th Percentile £613 £619 £613
90th Percentile £688 £713 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 70 57
10th Percentile £17.25 £15.34 £16.71
25th Percentile £28.69 £19.15 £22.22
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.19 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +61.69% -41.13% +4.50%
75th Percentile £64.09 £57.57 £55.79
90th Percentile £83.75 £71.68 £81.77
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% -

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 14 September 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 14 September 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 14 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
Manchester -19 95 £505 +8.60% 392
Cheshire -1 74 £475 +13.10% 100
Lancashire -7 23 £220 -59.35% 73
Merseyside -15 8 £126 -74.75% 44
Cumbria -16 5 £318 - 25
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 35 (16.99%) SharePoint
2 17 (8.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (7.28%) Confluence
4 12 (5.83%) SharePoint Server
5 5 (2.43%) Camunda
6 3 (1.46%) SAS
7 2 (0.97%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.49%) JBoss
8 1 (0.49%) Mule
8 1 (0.49%) Mule ESB
8 1 (0.49%) nginx
8 1 (0.49%) WebLogic
Applications
1 47 (22.82%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (9.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (5.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (4.37%) MS Visio
5 7 (3.40%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.49%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.49%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 4 (1.94%) Primavera
1 4 (1.94%) SAP MM
1 4 (1.94%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.49%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 65 (31.55%) Azure
2 47 (22.82%) Microsoft 365
3 46 (22.33%) Power Platform
4 35 (16.99%) AWS
5 20 (9.71%) GCP
6 19 (9.22%) Power Automate
6 19 (9.22%) PowerApps
7 16 (7.77%) Entra ID
7 16 (7.77%) OneDrive
8 15 (7.28%) Azure DevOps
9 14 (6.80%) Azure AI
9 14 (6.80%) Azure Monitor
10 13 (6.31%) Azure Sentinel
10 13 (6.31%) Microsoft Copilot
11 10 (4.85%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 9 (4.37%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (2.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 5 (2.43%) OpenShift
14 5 (2.43%) Serverless
15 4 (1.94%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 24 (11.65%) Firewall
2 14 (6.80%) SSL
3 13 (6.31%) VPN
4 12 (5.83%) Network Security
5 9 (4.37%) Wireless
6 7 (3.40%) DNS
7 5 (2.43%) WAN
8 4 (1.94%) BGP
8 4 (1.94%) Internet
8 4 (1.94%) MPLS
8 4 (1.94%) OSPF
8 4 (1.94%) SSH
8 4 (1.94%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (1.46%) Cisco ISE
9 3 (1.46%) FTP
10 2 (0.97%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.97%) Cisco Nexus
10 2 (0.97%) Multicast
10 2 (0.97%) VLAN
10 2 (0.97%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (13.59%) Power BI
2 17 (8.25%) SQL Server
3 12 (5.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 11 (5.34%) MySQL
5 3 (1.46%) Metadata
5 3 (1.46%) Power Query
6 2 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.97%) Data Vault
6 2 (0.97%) EDRMS
6 2 (0.97%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.97%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.49%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.49%) Big Data
7 1 (0.49%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.49%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.49%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.49%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.49%) SAP BW
7 1 (0.49%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 20 (9.71%) JIRA
2 8 (3.88%) GitLab
3 6 (2.91%) Git
3 6 (2.91%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.43%) JUnit
5 4 (1.94%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (1.46%) Bitbucket Server
6 3 (1.46%) Gradle
6 3 (1.46%) Maven
6 3 (1.46%) Mockito
6 3 (1.46%) REST Assured
6 3 (1.46%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.97%) ClearCase
7 2 (0.97%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.49%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.49%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.49%) IntelliJ
8 1 (0.49%) Postman
8 1 (0.49%) Robot Framework
8 1 (0.49%) Selenium
General
1 70 (33.98%) Social Skills
2 49 (23.79%) Finance
3 40 (19.42%) Analytical Skills
4 22 (10.68%) Manufacturing
5 12 (5.83%) Banking
6 9 (4.37%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (3.88%) Legal
8 7 (3.40%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (2.43%) Local Government
9 5 (2.43%) Public Sector
10 4 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.46%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.46%) Automotive
11 3 (1.46%) Marketing
11 3 (1.46%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (0.97%) Aviation
12 2 (0.97%) French Language
12 2 (0.97%) Law
12 2 (0.97%) Police
Job Titles
1 32 (15.53%) Analyst
2 20 (9.71%) Security Engineer
3 19 (9.22%) Developer
4 15 (7.28%) IT Analyst
4 15 (7.28%) Senior
5 14 (6.80%) Cloud Engineer
6 13 (6.31%) Support Analyst
7 12 (5.83%) IT Support
7 12 (5.83%) IT Support Analyst
7 12 (5.83%) Lead
8 10 (4.85%) Cloud Security Engineer
8 10 (4.85%) DBA
8 10 (4.85%) SQL DBA
9 9 (4.37%) Administrator
9 9 (4.37%) Architect
10 8 (3.88%) Business Analyst
11 7 (3.40%) Consultant
11 7 (3.40%) Operations Analyst
11 7 (3.40%) Senior Developer
11 7 (3.40%) SharePoint Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (10.19%) Terraform
2 7 (3.40%) Microsoft Graph
2 7 (3.40%) REST
3 6 (2.91%) HTML
4 5 (2.43%) CSS
4 5 (2.43%) React
4 5 (2.43%) SOAP
5 4 (1.94%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.94%) JPA
5 4 (1.94%) Kafka
5 4 (1.94%) Lightning Web Components
5 4 (1.94%) Spring Boot
6 3 (1.46%) .NET
6 3 (1.46%) ARM Templates
6 3 (1.46%) Azure Blueprints
6 3 (1.46%) Hibernate
6 3 (1.46%) Middleware
6 3 (1.46%) PySpark
6 3 (1.46%) Redux
6 3 (1.46%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (17.96%) Management Information System
2 17 (8.25%) Security Posture
3 14 (6.80%) Cloud Native
3 14 (6.80%) Onboarding
4 10 (4.85%) PKI
5 9 (4.37%) Clustering
5 9 (4.37%) Replication
6 8 (3.88%) Enterprise Cloud
7 6 (2.91%) Data Structures
7 6 (2.91%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (1.94%) Driving Licence
8 4 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (1.94%) Life Science
8 4 (1.94%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.94%) Tandem
9 3 (1.46%) Cloud Security Posture
10 2 (0.97%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.97%) CMDB
10 2 (0.97%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.97%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 43 (20.87%) Windows
2 25 (12.14%) Linux
3 15 (7.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 11 (5.34%) Windows Server
5 9 (4.37%) Windows 10
6 7 (3.40%) Unix
7 3 (1.46%) AIX
8 1 (0.49%) Android
8 1 (0.49%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.49%) CentOS
8 1 (0.49%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.49%) VMS
8 1 (0.49%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (25.24%) Agile
2 51 (24.76%) Computer Science
3 47 (22.82%) ITIL
4 43 (20.87%) Problem-Solving
5 38 (18.45%) DevOps
6 33 (16.02%) CI/CD
7 31 (15.05%) Change Management
8 27 (13.11%) Continuous Improvement
8 27 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
9 26 (12.62%) AI
9 26 (12.62%) Scrum
10 24 (11.65%) Cybersecurity
10 24 (11.65%) Roadmaps
11 22 (10.68%) Business Intelligence
11 22 (10.68%) Cloud Security
12 21 (10.19%) Analytics
13 20 (9.71%) Data Analysis
13 20 (9.71%) Generative AI
14 19 (9.22%) Decision-Making
14 19 (9.22%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 48 (23.30%) Python
2 44 (21.36%) PowerShell
3 34 (16.50%) SQL
4 25 (12.14%) Java
5 17 (8.25%) Bash
6 10 (4.85%) Bicep
6 10 (4.85%) T-SQL
7 7 (3.40%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.94%) Apex Code
8 4 (1.94%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (1.46%) C#
9 3 (1.46%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (1.46%) VB
10 2 (0.97%) Perl
10 2 (0.97%) Scala
10 2 (0.97%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.97%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.97%) VB6
11 1 (0.49%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 37 (17.96%) Computer Science Degree
2 29 (14.08%) Microsoft Certification
3 24 (11.65%) CISSP
4 23 (11.17%) Azure Certification
4 23 (11.17%) Security Cleared
5 21 (10.19%) SC Cleared
6 18 (8.74%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (5.83%) AWS Certification
7 12 (5.83%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 9 (4.37%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (3.40%) A+ Certification
9 7 (3.40%) CCNP
9 7 (3.40%) CISM
9 7 (3.40%) ITIL Certification
9 7 (3.40%) Network+ Certification
10 6 (2.91%) HNC
11 5 (2.43%) CEH
11 5 (2.43%) DBS Check
11 5 (2.43%) Master's Degree
12 4 (1.94%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.37%) GDPR
1 9 (4.37%) NIST
2 6 (2.91%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.43%) QA
3 5 (2.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 4 (1.94%) GRC
4 4 (1.94%) PCI DSS
4 4 (1.94%) SLA
5 2 (0.97%) Accessibility
5 2 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (0.97%) GAAP
5 2 (0.97%) IFRS
6 1 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.49%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.49%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.49%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.49%) PMO
6 1 (0.49%) SEPA
System Software
1 18 (8.74%) Active Directory
2 14 (6.80%) Docker
3 11 (5.34%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.46%) NFS
4 3 (1.46%) Veritas Volume Manager
5 2 (0.97%) Firmware
6 1 (0.49%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (9.22%) Kubernetes
2 16 (7.77%) Progress Chef
3 10 (4.85%) Ansible
3 10 (4.85%) SCOM
4 3 (1.46%) CASB
4 3 (1.46%) Cisco Prime
4 3 (1.46%) PowerBroker
4 3 (1.46%) Tivoli
4 3 (1.46%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 2 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.97%) SCCM
6 1 (0.49%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.49%) Istio
6 1 (0.49%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.49%) QRadar
Vendors
1 78 (37.86%) Microsoft
2 23 (11.17%) ServiceNow
3 20 (9.71%) SAP
4 19 (9.22%) Google
5 18 (8.74%) Splunk
6 16 (7.77%) Cisco
6 16 (7.77%) Red Hat
7 10 (4.85%) IBM
7 10 (4.85%) Oracle
8 7 (3.40%) Databricks
9 6 (2.91%) Bomgar
9 6 (2.91%) Ribbon
9 6 (2.91%) Salesforce
10 5 (2.43%) Adobe
10 5 (2.43%) ForeScout
10 5 (2.43%) Thales
10 5 (2.43%) UiPath
11 4 (1.94%) CyberArk
11 4 (1.94%) Gemalto
11 4 (1.94%) Veracode