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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 26 15
Rank change year-on-year -1 -11 +24
Contract jobs citing Degree 167 134 261
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.60% 6.47% 9.50%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.04% 20.09% 30.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 55 119
10th Percentile £232 £194 £194
25th Percentile £331 £356 £270
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £389 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -22.25% +5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £475 £593 £600
90th Percentile £550 £695 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 17 34
10th Percentile £15.50 £22.72 £13.39
25th Percentile £41.94 £24.19 £19.69
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £33.10
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -1.81% +37.91%
75th Percentile £52.50 £33.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £62.84 £46.18 -
England median hourly rate £37.50 £42.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -11.76% -7.97% +6.77%

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 877 667 855
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 34.64% 32.21% 31.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 592 361 543
10th Percentile £231 £250 £257
25th Percentile £381 £375 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -13.64% +7.32%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £645
90th Percentile £688 £672 £720
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 83 39 80
10th Percentile £18.90 £23.74 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £31.00 £26.66
Median hourly rate £45.46 £37.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year +22.86% -19.35% +58.21%
75th Percentile £66.25 £53.88 £49.25
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.92 £67.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £50.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% -7.64% +11.11%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +6 81 £359 -28.20% 84
Manchester -22 41 £420 -11.58% 144
Lancashire +10 25 £513 -2.38% 66
Merseyside -22 12 £393 +12.29% 34
Cumbria -4 5 - - 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 28 (16.77%) SharePoint
2 22 (13.17%) Confluence
3 9 (5.39%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.19%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.19%) Skype for Business
5 3 (1.80%) SAS
6 2 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (1.20%) Mule
6 2 (1.20%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.60%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.60%) Apache
7 1 (0.60%) JBoss
7 1 (0.60%) nginx
7 1 (0.60%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.60%) WebLogic
Applications
1 30 (17.96%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (9.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (7.19%) MS Visio
4 10 (5.99%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (5.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.60%) InVision
6 1 (0.60%) Sketch
6 1 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 6 (3.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.60%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.60%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.60%) Primavera
3 1 (0.60%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.60%) SAP IBP
3 1 (0.60%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 27 (16.17%) Microsoft 365
2 23 (13.77%) Azure
3 18 (10.78%) Power Platform
4 17 (10.18%) AWS
5 10 (5.99%) Apigee
6 9 (5.39%) OneDrive
7 7 (4.19%) GCP
7 7 (4.19%) SaaS
8 6 (3.59%) GitHub
8 6 (3.59%) Kong
9 4 (2.40%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.40%) GitHub Copilot
10 3 (1.80%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (1.80%) Entra ID
10 3 (1.80%) Smartsheet
11 2 (1.20%) Amazon SQS
11 2 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
11 2 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.20%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.20%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 13 (7.78%) Skype
2 10 (5.99%) DNS
3 9 (5.39%) SSH
4 8 (4.79%) Unified Communications
5 7 (4.19%) Firewall
5 7 (4.19%) VPN
6 6 (3.59%) Internet
7 5 (2.99%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (2.40%) BGP
8 4 (2.40%) HTTP
8 4 (2.40%) HTTPS
8 4 (2.40%) Network Security
9 3 (1.80%) DHCP
9 3 (1.80%) Software-Defined Networking
9 3 (1.80%) SSL
9 3 (1.80%) VLAN
10 2 (1.20%) SAN
11 1 (0.60%) LAN
11 1 (0.60%) OSPF
11 1 (0.60%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.39%) Power BI
2 6 (3.59%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (2.40%) MySQL
3 4 (2.40%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.80%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.20%) Cognos Framework Manager
5 2 (1.20%) Cognos Report Studio
5 2 (1.20%) Cognos Transformer
5 2 (1.20%) OLAP
5 2 (1.20%) OLAP Cube
5 2 (1.20%) Oracle Database
5 2 (1.20%) Qlik Sense
5 2 (1.20%) SAP HANA
5 2 (1.20%) Star Schema
6 1 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.60%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.60%) SAS Data Integration Studio
6 1 (0.60%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 31 (18.56%) JIRA
2 9 (5.39%) Git
3 5 (2.99%) Postman
4 4 (2.40%) GitLab
4 4 (2.40%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.20%) TestRail
6 1 (0.60%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.60%) JUnit
6 1 (0.60%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 110 (65.87%) Social Skills
2 61 (36.53%) Finance
3 42 (25.15%) Analytical Skills
4 29 (17.37%) Banking
5 12 (7.19%) Influencing Skills
5 12 (7.19%) Public Sector
6 11 (6.59%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (4.79%) Legal
8 7 (4.19%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (3.59%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (2.99%) Retail
11 4 (2.40%) Corporate Banking
11 4 (2.40%) Local Government
12 3 (1.80%) Investment Banking
12 3 (1.80%) Law
12 3 (1.80%) Telecoms
13 2 (1.20%) Marketing
13 2 (1.20%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.60%) General Ledger
14 1 (0.60%) Military
Job Titles
1 41 (24.55%) Analyst
2 23 (13.77%) Lead
3 18 (10.78%) Developer
4 17 (10.18%) Business Analyst
5 12 (7.19%) Support Analyst
6 10 (5.99%) IT Support
6 10 (5.99%) Senior
7 9 (5.39%) Java Developer
8 7 (4.19%) 1st Line Support
8 7 (4.19%) Operational Support Analyst
8 7 (4.19%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (4.19%) Operations Support Analyst
9 6 (3.59%) Architect
9 6 (3.59%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 6 (3.59%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.59%) Technical Analyst
9 6 (3.59%) Technical Business Analyst
10 5 (2.99%) Banking Analyst
10 5 (2.99%) Banking Business Analyst
10 5 (2.99%) IT Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (9.58%) JSON
2 15 (8.98%) XML
3 11 (6.59%) OAuth
3 11 (6.59%) Spring
4 10 (5.99%) JWT
4 10 (5.99%) Spring Boot
5 9 (5.39%) RESTful
6 8 (4.79%) Hibernate
6 8 (4.79%) REST
6 8 (4.79%) SOAP
7 7 (4.19%) Swagger
8 6 (3.59%) OpenAPI
9 5 (2.99%) OAuth2
10 4 (2.40%) JAX-RS
10 4 (2.40%) Spring MVC
10 4 (2.40%) Spring Security
11 2 (1.20%) .NET
11 2 (1.20%) HTML
11 2 (1.20%) J2EE
11 2 (1.20%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.38%) Virtual Team
2 9 (5.39%) Tandem
3 8 (4.79%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (4.79%) Management Information System
3 8 (4.79%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.79%) Product Ownership
4 5 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
4 5 (2.99%) Low-Code
4 5 (2.99%) PMI
4 5 (2.99%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (2.40%) Driving Licence
5 4 (2.40%) PKI
6 3 (1.80%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.80%) Handset
6 3 (1.80%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.80%) SCADA
6 3 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.20%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.20%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.60%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 37 (22.16%) Windows
2 9 (5.39%) Unix
2 9 (5.39%) Windows 10
2 9 (5.39%) Windows Server
3 4 (2.40%) Linux
3 4 (2.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.80%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.60%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.60%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (39.52%) Agile
2 56 (33.53%) Computer Science
3 53 (31.74%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (26.95%) Project Management
5 43 (25.75%) ITIL
5 43 (25.75%) Stakeholder Management
6 36 (21.56%) Continuous Improvement
7 35 (20.96%) Change Management
7 35 (20.96%) Cybersecurity
8 32 (19.16%) Project Delivery
9 30 (17.96%) DevOps
10 24 (14.37%) Six Sigma
11 23 (13.77%) PRINCE2
12 22 (13.17%) Service Delivery
13 21 (12.57%) Validation
14 20 (11.98%) CI/CD
15 19 (11.38%) Business Intelligence
15 19 (11.38%) Microservices
16 18 (10.78%) Customer Service
17 17 (10.18%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 25 (14.97%) SQL
2 19 (11.38%) Python
3 14 (8.38%) Java
4 8 (4.79%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.99%) Bash
6 4 (2.40%) Perl
7 3 (1.80%) C#
7 3 (1.80%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.20%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.60%) C++
9 1 (0.60%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.60%) R
9 1 (0.60%) SAS Macro
9 1 (0.60%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.60%) VBA
Qualifications
1 46 (27.54%) Computer Science Degree
2 31 (18.56%) Security Cleared
3 17 (10.18%) Master's Degree
4 15 (8.98%) BPSS Clearance
4 15 (8.98%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
5 12 (7.19%) SC Cleared
6 9 (5.39%) MBA
7 8 (4.79%) CISSP
7 8 (4.79%) PMI Certification
7 8 (4.79%) PMP
8 7 (4.19%) CISM
9 5 (2.99%) A+ Certification
9 5 (2.99%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.99%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (2.99%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 5 (2.99%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.40%) CCNA
10 4 (2.40%) CCNP
11 3 (1.80%) CCDP
11 3 (1.80%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.39%) QA
2 8 (4.79%) NIST
3 7 (4.19%) GDPR
4 6 (3.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (2.99%) P3O
5 5 (2.99%) PMO
6 4 (2.40%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.80%) Data Quality
7 3 (1.80%) HIPAA
8 2 (1.20%) Accessibility
8 2 (1.20%) Basel III
8 2 (1.20%) GRC
8 2 (1.20%) IFRS
8 2 (1.20%) IFRS 17
8 2 (1.20%) NCSC
8 2 (1.20%) PSD2
8 2 (1.20%) SLA
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.60%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 26 (15.57%) Active Directory
2 12 (7.19%) Docker
3 7 (4.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.80%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.20%) Firmware
6 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (8.98%) SCCM
2 13 (7.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (7.19%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.40%) QRadar
5 3 (1.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.20%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.60%) Ansible
7 1 (0.60%) Control-M
7 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (0.60%) SCOM
7 1 (0.60%) SCOrch
7 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.60%) Terraform
7 1 (0.60%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 57 (34.13%) Microsoft
2 11 (6.59%) Citrix
2 11 (6.59%) Splunk
3 10 (5.99%) IBM
4 9 (5.39%) Cisco
4 9 (5.39%) Oracle
5 7 (4.19%) MuleSoft
5 7 (4.19%) VMware
6 6 (3.59%) Gemalto
6 6 (3.59%) Remedy
6 6 (3.59%) SAP
6 6 (3.59%) ServiceNow
6 6 (3.59%) Thales
7 4 (2.40%) ArcSight
7 4 (2.40%) Red Hat
8 3 (1.80%) HP
8 3 (1.80%) Planview
9 2 (1.20%) Apple
9 2 (1.20%) EMC
9 2 (1.20%) NetApp