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 8 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 24 16
Rank change year-on-year -2 -8 +19
Contract jobs citing Degree 170 136 230
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.82% 6.47% 8.73%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.41% 19.74% 28.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 55 112
10th Percentile £265 £181 £176
25th Percentile £350 £356 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £401 £500 £461
Median % change year-on-year -19.80% +8.40% +2.50%
75th Percentile £488 £599 £575
90th Percentile £575 £695 £699
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 20 30
10th Percentile £15.50 £22.57 £16.25
25th Percentile £37.10 £24.14 £20.81
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £41.55
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -21.77% +73.10%
75th Percentile £53.75 £36.86 £46.18
90th Percentile £63.40 £56.70 -
England median hourly rate £37.54 £42.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -11.67% -15.00% +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 876 689 812
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.12% 32.76% 30.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 587 367 530
10th Percentile £218 £223 £250
25th Percentile £381 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -12.04% +5.37%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £644
90th Percentile £688 £673 £720
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 52 69
10th Percentile £18.92 £18.35 £17.05
25th Percentile £25.15 £22.72 £30.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -29.62% +78.92%
75th Percentile £67.25 £51.38 £50.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £74.63 £65.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £52.05
% change year-on-year -45.54% -11.28% +15.67%

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 8 January 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 8 January 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 8 January 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 +2 80 £358 -28.40% 82
Manchester -15 45 £450 -10.00% 174
Lancashire +5 26 £513 -2.38% 77
Merseyside -16 10 £393 +96.50% 33
Cumbria -2 5 - - 13
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 (17.06%) SharePoint
2 23 (13.53%) Confluence
3 9 (5.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.12%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.12%) Skype for Business
5 3 (1.76%) SAS
6 2 (1.18%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (1.18%) Mule
6 2 (1.18%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.59%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.59%) Apache
7 1 (0.59%) JBoss
7 1 (0.59%) nginx
7 1 (0.59%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.59%) WebLogic
Applications
1 28 (16.47%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (8.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (7.06%) MS Visio
4 9 (5.29%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (4.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.59%) InVision
6 1 (0.59%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 6 (3.53%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.18%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.59%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.59%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.59%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.59%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.59%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 28 (16.47%) Microsoft 365
2 24 (14.12%) Azure
3 18 (10.59%) Power Platform
4 17 (10.00%) AWS
5 10 (5.88%) Apigee
5 10 (5.88%) OneDrive
6 7 (4.12%) GCP
6 7 (4.12%) SaaS
7 6 (3.53%) GitHub
7 6 (3.53%) Kong
8 4 (2.35%) Azure Logic Apps
8 4 (2.35%) Entra ID
8 4 (2.35%) GitHub Copilot
8 4 (2.35%) Smartsheet
9 3 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.76%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.76%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (1.76%) Dynamics 365
10 2 (1.18%) PowerApps
10 2 (1.18%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.65%) Skype
2 10 (5.88%) DNS
2 10 (5.88%) SSH
3 8 (4.71%) Firewall
3 8 (4.71%) Unified Communications
4 7 (4.12%) VPN
5 6 (3.53%) Internet
6 5 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (2.35%) BGP
7 4 (2.35%) HTTP
7 4 (2.35%) HTTPS
7 4 (2.35%) Network Security
8 3 (1.76%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (1.76%) SSL
8 3 (1.76%) VLAN
9 2 (1.18%) DHCP
9 2 (1.18%) SAN
10 1 (0.59%) LAN
10 1 (0.59%) OSPF
10 1 (0.59%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.29%) Power BI
2 6 (3.53%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.35%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (2.35%) MySQL
3 4 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.76%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.18%) Cognos Framework Manager
5 2 (1.18%) Cognos Report Studio
5 2 (1.18%) Cognos Transformer
5 2 (1.18%) OLAP
5 2 (1.18%) OLAP Cube
5 2 (1.18%) Oracle Database
5 2 (1.18%) Qlik Sense
5 2 (1.18%) SAP HANA
5 2 (1.18%) Star Schema
6 1 (0.59%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.59%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.59%) BusinessObjects
6 1 (0.59%) SAS Data Integration Studio
6 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (18.82%) JIRA
2 9 (5.29%) Git
3 5 (2.94%) Postman
4 4 (2.35%) GitLab
4 4 (2.35%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.18%) TestRail
6 1 (0.59%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.59%) JUnit
6 1 (0.59%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 107 (62.94%) Social Skills
2 61 (35.88%) Finance
3 40 (23.53%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (15.88%) Banking
5 12 (7.06%) Influencing Skills
5 12 (7.06%) Public Sector
6 10 (5.88%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (4.71%) Legal
8 7 (4.12%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (4.12%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (2.94%) Retail
10 4 (2.35%) Local Government
11 3 (1.76%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.76%) Law
11 3 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (1.18%) Billing
12 2 (1.18%) Corporate Banking
12 2 (1.18%) Manufacturing
12 2 (1.18%) Military
12 2 (1.18%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 39 (22.94%) Analyst
2 24 (14.12%) Lead
3 18 (10.59%) Developer
4 17 (10.00%) Business Analyst
5 10 (5.88%) Senior
6 9 (5.29%) Java Developer
6 9 (5.29%) Support Analyst
7 7 (4.12%) 1st Line Support
7 7 (4.12%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 7 (4.12%) IT Support
7 7 (4.12%) Operational Support Analyst
7 7 (4.12%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (4.12%) Operations Support Analyst
7 7 (4.12%) Project Manager
8 6 (3.53%) Technical Analyst
8 6 (3.53%) Technical Business Analyst
9 5 (2.94%) Architect
9 5 (2.94%) Banking Analyst
9 5 (2.94%) Banking Business Analyst
9 5 (2.94%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (10.00%) JSON
2 15 (8.82%) XML
3 11 (6.47%) OAuth
3 11 (6.47%) Spring
4 10 (5.88%) JWT
4 10 (5.88%) Spring Boot
5 9 (5.29%) RESTful
6 8 (4.71%) Hibernate
6 8 (4.71%) REST
6 8 (4.71%) SOAP
7 7 (4.12%) Swagger
8 6 (3.53%) OpenAPI
9 5 (2.94%) OAuth2
10 4 (2.35%) JAX-RS
10 4 (2.35%) Spring MVC
10 4 (2.35%) Spring Security
11 3 (1.76%) Middleware
12 2 (1.18%) .NET
12 2 (1.18%) J2EE
12 2 (1.18%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.24%) Virtual Team
2 10 (5.88%) Tandem
3 8 (4.71%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (4.71%) Management Information System
3 8 (4.71%) Product Ownership
4 7 (4.12%) Onboarding
5 5 (2.94%) Data Protection Act
5 5 (2.94%) Low-Code
5 5 (2.94%) PMI
5 5 (2.94%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (2.35%) Data Centre
6 4 (2.35%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.35%) PKI
7 3 (1.76%) Handset
7 3 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.18%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.18%) Learning Management System
8 2 (1.18%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.18%) SCADA
9 1 (0.59%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 37 (21.76%) Windows
2 10 (5.88%) Unix
3 8 (4.71%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.12%) Windows 10
5 4 (2.35%) Linux
5 4 (2.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.59%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.59%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (39.41%) Agile
2 57 (33.53%) Computer Science
3 52 (30.59%) Problem-Solving
4 49 (28.82%) Project Management
5 43 (25.29%) ITIL
5 43 (25.29%) Stakeholder Management
6 37 (21.76%) Change Management
6 37 (21.76%) Continuous Improvement
6 37 (21.76%) Cybersecurity
7 32 (18.82%) Project Delivery
8 30 (17.65%) DevOps
9 24 (14.12%) Six Sigma
10 23 (13.53%) PRINCE2
11 22 (12.94%) Service Delivery
12 21 (12.35%) Business Intelligence
12 21 (12.35%) CI/CD
12 21 (12.35%) Validation
13 19 (11.18%) Microservices
14 17 (10.00%) Lean Six Sigma
14 17 (10.00%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 27 (15.88%) SQL
2 21 (12.35%) Python
3 14 (8.24%) Java
4 9 (5.29%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.94%) Bash
6 4 (2.35%) Perl
7 3 (1.76%) C#
7 3 (1.76%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.76%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.18%) R
9 1 (0.59%) C++
9 1 (0.59%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.59%) SAS Macro
9 1 (0.59%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.59%) VBA
Qualifications
1 45 (26.47%) Computer Science Degree
2 32 (18.82%) Security Cleared
3 15 (8.82%) BPSS Clearance
3 15 (8.82%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
4 14 (8.24%) Master's Degree
4 14 (8.24%) SC Cleared
5 9 (5.29%) PMI Certification
5 9 (5.29%) PMP
6 8 (4.71%) CISSP
7 7 (4.12%) CISM
7 7 (4.12%) MBA
8 6 (3.53%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.94%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (2.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (2.35%) CCNA
10 4 (2.35%) CCNP
11 3 (1.76%) A+ Certification
11 3 (1.76%) CCDP
11 3 (1.76%) ITIL Certification
11 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.29%) NIST
2 8 (4.71%) QA
3 7 (4.12%) GDPR
4 6 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (2.94%) P3O
5 5 (2.94%) PMO
6 4 (2.35%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.76%) Accessibility
7 3 (1.76%) Data Quality
7 3 (1.76%) HIPAA
8 2 (1.18%) Basel III
8 2 (1.18%) GRC
8 2 (1.18%) NCSC
8 2 (1.18%) PSD2
8 2 (1.18%) SLA
9 1 (0.59%) GAAP
9 1 (0.59%) ISO 20022
9 1 (0.59%) ISO 8583
9 1 (0.59%) PMBOK
9 1 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 24 (14.12%) Active Directory
2 12 (7.06%) Docker
3 6 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.18%) Firmware
4 2 (1.18%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (8.82%) SCCM
2 13 (7.65%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (7.06%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (2.35%) QRadar
5 2 (1.18%) HP ALM
6 1 (0.59%) Ansible
6 1 (0.59%) Control-M
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Clustering
6 1 (0.59%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.59%) SCOM
6 1 (0.59%) SCOrch
6 1 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.59%) Terraform
6 1 (0.59%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 59 (34.71%) Microsoft
2 11 (6.47%) Citrix
2 11 (6.47%) IBM
2 11 (6.47%) Splunk
3 10 (5.88%) Oracle
3 10 (5.88%) SAP
4 9 (5.29%) Cisco
5 7 (4.12%) MuleSoft
5 7 (4.12%) ServiceNow
6 6 (3.53%) Gemalto
6 6 (3.53%) Remedy
6 6 (3.53%) Thales
6 6 (3.53%) VMware
7 4 (2.35%) ArcSight
7 4 (2.35%) Red Hat
8 3 (1.76%) HP
8 3 (1.76%) LogRhythm
8 3 (1.76%) Planview
9 2 (1.18%) Apple
9 2 (1.18%) EMC