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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 23 13
Rank change year-on-year -2 -10 +25
Contract jobs citing Degree 177 143 275
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.75% 6.85% 9.86%
As % of the Qualifications category 20.02% 20.91% 32.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 63 122
10th Percentile £226 £192 £200
25th Percentile £350 £356 £270
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 £563 £687 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 18 40
10th Percentile £15.50 £22.72 £11.77
25th Percentile £29.00 £24.71 £17.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £28.33
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +14.72% +18.04%
75th Percentile £53.13 £33.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £62.01 £46.18 -
England median hourly rate £35.00 £42.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -17.65% +6.25% -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 884 684 856
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 33.73% 32.74% 30.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 604 374 535
10th Percentile £227 £230 £255
25th Percentile £380 £363 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -11.21% +7.00%
75th Percentile £588 £552 £650
90th Percentile £687 £650 £720
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 40 91
10th Percentile £16.96 £23.87 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.36 £29.63 £17.50
Median hourly rate £45.46 £34.75 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year +30.82% -13.66% +38.79%
75th Percentile £66.75 £56.00 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.33 £65.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.50
% change year-on-year -45.54% -2.78% +5.56%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +3 86 £375 -25.00% 59
Manchester -22 44 £420 -10.40% 130
Lancashire +5 25 £513 -2.38% 62
Merseyside -17 12 £393 -10.17% 24
Cumbria -8 6 £593 +43.64% 7
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 (16.38%) SharePoint
2 25 (14.12%) Confluence
3 10 (5.65%) Microsoft Exchange
4 8 (4.52%) Skype for Business
5 7 (3.95%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (1.69%) SAS
7 2 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.56%) Apache
8 1 (0.56%) JBoss
8 1 (0.56%) Mule
8 1 (0.56%) Mule ESB
8 1 (0.56%) nginx
8 1 (0.56%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.56%) WebLogic
Applications
1 34 (19.21%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (9.60%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (7.34%) MS Visio
4 10 (5.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (5.65%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.56%) InVision
5 1 (0.56%) Sketch
5 1 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (3.95%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.69%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.13%) NEC Housing
3 2 (1.13%) Primavera
4 1 (0.56%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.56%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.56%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.56%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.56%) SAP PM
4 1 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 28 (15.82%) Microsoft 365
2 26 (14.69%) Azure
3 19 (10.73%) AWS
4 18 (10.17%) Power Platform
5 10 (5.65%) Apigee
6 8 (4.52%) GCP
6 8 (4.52%) OneDrive
6 8 (4.52%) SaaS
7 6 (3.39%) GitHub
7 6 (3.39%) Kong
8 5 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.26%) Entra ID
9 4 (2.26%) GitHub Copilot
10 3 (1.69%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (1.69%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (1.69%) Serverless
11 2 (1.13%) Azure Monitor
11 2 (1.13%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.13%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.47%) Skype
2 12 (6.78%) DNS
3 9 (5.08%) SSH
4 8 (4.52%) Unified Communications
4 8 (4.52%) VPN
5 7 (3.95%) Firewall
6 6 (3.39%) Internet
6 6 (3.39%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (2.82%) DHCP
8 4 (2.26%) BGP
8 4 (2.26%) HTTP
8 4 (2.26%) HTTPS
8 4 (2.26%) Network Security
8 4 (2.26%) VLAN
9 3 (1.69%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (1.13%) LAN
10 2 (1.13%) SAN
10 2 (1.13%) SSL
10 2 (1.13%) WAN
11 1 (0.56%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.08%) Power BI
2 6 (3.39%) Relational Database
3 5 (2.82%) Data Warehouse
4 4 (2.26%) MySQL
4 4 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.69%) SQL Server
6 2 (1.13%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (1.13%) Cognos Framework Manager
6 2 (1.13%) Cognos Report Studio
6 2 (1.13%) Cognos Transformer
6 2 (1.13%) OLAP
6 2 (1.13%) OLAP Cube
6 2 (1.13%) Oracle Database
6 2 (1.13%) Qlik Sense
6 2 (1.13%) SAP HANA
6 2 (1.13%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.56%) BusinessObjects
7 1 (0.56%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.56%) SAS Data Integration Studio
7 1 (0.56%) SAS Visual Analytics
Development Applications
1 32 (18.08%) JIRA
2 11 (6.21%) Git
3 7 (3.95%) Postman
4 4 (2.26%) GitLab
4 4 (2.26%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.56%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.56%) JUnit
5 1 (0.56%) MLflow
5 1 (0.56%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 112 (63.28%) Social Skills
2 64 (36.16%) Finance
3 45 (25.42%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (15.82%) Banking
5 15 (8.47%) Public Sector
6 12 (6.78%) Influencing Skills
6 12 (6.78%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (5.65%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (4.52%) Legal
9 7 (3.95%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (2.82%) Retail
11 4 (2.26%) Corporate Banking
11 4 (2.26%) Local Government
11 4 (2.26%) Manufacturing
11 4 (2.26%) Telecoms
12 3 (1.69%) Law
13 2 (1.13%) Marketing
13 2 (1.13%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (1.13%) Retail Banking
14 1 (0.56%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 45 (25.42%) Analyst
2 23 (12.99%) Lead
3 20 (11.30%) Business Analyst
4 18 (10.17%) Developer
5 14 (7.91%) Support Analyst
6 11 (6.21%) IT Support
7 8 (4.52%) Java Developer
7 8 (4.52%) Project Manager
7 8 (4.52%) Senior
8 7 (3.95%) 1st Line Support
8 7 (3.95%) Architect
8 7 (3.95%) Operational Support Analyst
8 7 (3.95%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (3.95%) Operations Support Analyst
9 6 (3.39%) Banking Analyst
9 6 (3.39%) Banking Business Analyst
9 6 (3.39%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 6 (3.39%) IT Analyst
9 6 (3.39%) Technical Analyst
9 6 (3.39%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (9.60%) JSON
1 17 (9.60%) XML
2 11 (6.21%) OAuth
3 10 (5.65%) JWT
3 10 (5.65%) REST
3 10 (5.65%) SOAP
4 9 (5.08%) RESTful
4 9 (5.08%) Spring
4 9 (5.08%) Spring Boot
4 9 (5.08%) Swagger
5 8 (4.52%) Hibernate
6 6 (3.39%) OpenAPI
7 5 (2.82%) OAuth2
8 4 (2.26%) JAX-RS
8 4 (2.26%) Spring MVC
8 4 (2.26%) Spring Security
9 3 (1.69%) .NET
9 3 (1.69%) HTML
10 2 (1.13%) Middleware
10 2 (1.13%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.47%) Virtual Team
2 10 (5.65%) Management Information System
3 9 (5.08%) Enterprise Software
3 9 (5.08%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.08%) Tandem
4 8 (4.52%) Product Ownership
5 5 (2.82%) Low-Code
5 5 (2.82%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (2.26%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.26%) PKI
7 3 (1.69%) Data Centre
7 3 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.69%) Digital Wallet
7 3 (1.69%) Handset
7 3 (1.69%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.69%) PMI
7 3 (1.69%) SCADA
7 3 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.13%) AI Agents
8 2 (1.13%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 40 (22.60%) Windows
2 12 (6.78%) Windows 10
3 10 (5.65%) Unix
4 9 (5.08%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.82%) Linux
6 4 (2.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.69%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.56%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.56%) Solaris
8 1 (0.56%) VMS
8 1 (0.56%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (40.11%) Agile
2 58 (32.77%) Computer Science
3 54 (30.51%) Problem-Solving
4 48 (27.12%) ITIL
5 47 (26.55%) Project Management
6 45 (25.42%) Stakeholder Management
7 38 (21.47%) Continuous Improvement
8 36 (20.34%) Change Management
9 35 (19.77%) Cybersecurity
10 32 (18.08%) DevOps
10 32 (18.08%) Project Delivery
11 24 (13.56%) Six Sigma
11 24 (13.56%) Validation
12 22 (12.43%) CI/CD
12 22 (12.43%) PRINCE2
12 22 (12.43%) Service Delivery
13 20 (11.30%) Customer Service
14 19 (10.73%) Business Intelligence
14 19 (10.73%) ITSM
15 18 (10.17%) AI
Programming Languages
1 25 (14.12%) SQL
2 22 (12.43%) Python
3 13 (7.34%) Java
4 10 (5.65%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.82%) Bash
6 4 (2.26%) C#
6 4 (2.26%) Perl
7 2 (1.13%) C++
7 2 (1.13%) Kusto Query Language
7 2 (1.13%) PL/SQL
8 1 (0.56%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.56%) R
8 1 (0.56%) SAS Macro
8 1 (0.56%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.56%) VB
8 1 (0.56%) VBA
8 1 (0.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 48 (27.12%) Computer Science Degree
2 35 (19.77%) Security Cleared
3 19 (10.73%) Master's Degree
4 16 (9.04%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (8.47%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 13 (7.34%) SC Cleared
7 9 (5.08%) MBA
8 8 (4.52%) CISSP
9 7 (3.95%) CISM
9 7 (3.95%) PMI Certification
9 7 (3.95%) PMP
10 6 (3.39%) A+ Certification
10 6 (3.39%) Azure Certification
10 6 (3.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 6 (3.39%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (2.82%) Cisco Certification
12 4 (2.26%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.26%) CCNA
12 4 (2.26%) CCNP
12 4 (2.26%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.08%) GDPR
1 9 (5.08%) QA
2 8 (4.52%) NIST
3 6 (3.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (3.39%) PCI DSS
4 4 (2.26%) Data Quality
4 4 (2.26%) GRC
4 4 (2.26%) PSD2
5 3 (1.69%) HIPAA
5 3 (1.69%) ISO 8583
5 3 (1.69%) P3O
5 3 (1.69%) PMO
5 3 (1.69%) SLA
6 2 (1.13%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.13%) Basel III
6 2 (1.13%) IFRS
6 2 (1.13%) IFRS 17
6 2 (1.13%) NCSC
7 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.56%) IEC 61131
System Software
1 27 (15.25%) Active Directory
2 13 (7.34%) Docker
3 7 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.69%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 16 (9.04%) SCCM
2 12 (6.78%) Kubernetes
2 12 (6.78%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (2.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 4 (2.26%) QRadar
4 3 (1.69%) Ansible
4 3 (1.69%) Terraform
5 2 (1.13%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.56%) CA Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.56%) Control-M
6 1 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.56%) SCOM
6 1 (0.56%) SCOrch
6 1 (0.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 63 (35.59%) Microsoft
2 12 (6.78%) Citrix
3 11 (6.21%) IBM
4 10 (5.65%) Splunk
5 9 (5.08%) Cisco
5 9 (5.08%) Oracle
5 9 (5.08%) ServiceNow
6 8 (4.52%) SAP
7 7 (3.95%) MuleSoft
7 7 (3.95%) Remedy
7 7 (3.95%) VMware
8 6 (3.39%) Gemalto
8 6 (3.39%) Thales
9 4 (2.26%) ArcSight
9 4 (2.26%) Red Hat
10 2 (1.13%) Capita
10 2 (1.13%) CheckPoint
10 2 (1.13%) NEC
10 2 (1.13%) NetApp
10 2 (1.13%) Salesforce