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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 25 23
Rank change year-on-year -13 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing Degree 194 165 140
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.96% 7.39% 5.72%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.77% 21.51% 20.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 96 65
10th Percentile £204 £315 £384
25th Percentile £373 £363 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £464 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.02% -15.64% +15.79%
75th Percentile £549 £580 £603
90th Percentile £629 £716 £670
England median daily rate £500 £500 £519
% change year-on-year - -3.57% -3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 20 21
10th Percentile £17.25 £20.92 £25.35
25th Percentile £28.50 £25.13 £37.55
Median hourly rate £34.75 £33.50 £52.19
Median % change year-on-year +3.73% -35.81% +29.66%
75th Percentile £66.02 £66.29 £69.75
90th Percentile £178.75 £74.48 £97.50
England median hourly rate £41.71 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -1.86% -25.89% +14.70%

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 1,157 767 695
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.58% 34.36% 28.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 747 442 394
10th Percentile £316 £313 £313
25th Percentile £418 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £506
Median % change year-on-year +2.26% -1.19% -0.78%
75th Percentile £618 £621 £605
90th Percentile £688 £716 £724
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 74 87
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.18 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.02 £11.07
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.64 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +43.50% +39.25% -48.24%
75th Percentile £66.66 £58.50 £51.91
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.06 £73.52
England median hourly rate £53.00 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +110.74% -48.21% -11.71%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 88 £450 -5.26% 140
Cheshire -4 72 £474 +10.94% 51
Lancashire -3 16 £220 -59.35% 51
Cumbria -11 9 £450 - 13
Merseyside -12 9 £150 -70.00% 22
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 27 (13.92%) SharePoint
2 15 (7.73%) Confluence
3 12 (6.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (3.09%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.55%) SAS
6 2 (1.03%) Camunda
6 2 (1.03%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.52%) JBoss
7 1 (0.52%) Mule
7 1 (0.52%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.52%) nginx
7 1 (0.52%) WebLogic
Applications
1 45 (23.20%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (7.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (4.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (4.64%) MS Visio
4 7 (3.61%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.52%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 4 (2.06%) Primavera
1 4 (2.06%) SAP MM
1 4 (2.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.52%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 54 (27.84%) Azure
2 40 (20.62%) Microsoft 365
3 35 (18.04%) AWS
3 35 (18.04%) Power Platform
4 19 (9.79%) GCP
5 14 (7.22%) Entra ID
5 14 (7.22%) Power Automate
5 14 (7.22%) PowerApps
6 12 (6.19%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (5.67%) OneDrive
8 10 (5.15%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (4.64%) Azure Monitor
9 9 (4.64%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 8 (4.12%) AWS CloudFormation
10 8 (4.12%) Azure AI
10 8 (4.12%) Microsoft Copilot
11 6 (3.09%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (2.06%) SaaS
12 4 (2.06%) Serverless
13 3 (1.55%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 28 (14.43%) Firewall
2 13 (6.70%) Network Security
2 13 (6.70%) VPN
2 13 (6.70%) Wireless
3 10 (5.15%) SSL
4 9 (4.64%) WAN
5 8 (4.12%) Wi-Fi
6 7 (3.61%) DNS
7 6 (3.09%) LAN
7 6 (3.09%) VLAN
8 4 (2.06%) BGP
8 4 (2.06%) Internet
8 4 (2.06%) MPLS
8 4 (2.06%) OSPF
8 4 (2.06%) SSH
8 4 (2.06%) TCP/IP
9 3 (1.55%) Cisco ISE
9 3 (1.55%) FTP
10 2 (1.03%) Multicast
10 2 (1.03%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (12.37%) Power BI
2 10 (5.15%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (3.61%) MySQL
5 2 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (1.03%) Data Vault
5 2 (1.03%) EDRMS
5 2 (1.03%) Metadata
5 2 (1.03%) Oracle Database
5 2 (1.03%) Power Query
5 2 (1.03%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.52%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.52%) Big Data
6 1 (0.52%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.52%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.52%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.52%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.52%) SAP BW
6 1 (0.52%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 21 (10.82%) JIRA
2 6 (3.09%) Git
3 5 (2.58%) GitLab
4 3 (1.55%) Jenkins
5 2 (1.03%) ClearCase
5 2 (1.03%) Cucumber
5 2 (1.03%) JUnit
6 1 (0.52%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.52%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.52%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.52%) Postman
6 1 (0.52%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.52%) Selenium
6 1 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 68 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 48 (24.74%) Finance
3 41 (21.13%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (8.76%) Manufacturing
5 10 (5.15%) Banking
6 9 (4.64%) Public Sector
7 8 (4.12%) Legal
8 7 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (3.61%) Telecoms
9 6 (3.09%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (1.55%) Automotive
11 3 (1.55%) Marketing
12 2 (1.03%) Aerospace
12 2 (1.03%) Agriculture
12 2 (1.03%) Aviation
12 2 (1.03%) French Language
12 2 (1.03%) Local Government
12 2 (1.03%) Police
12 2 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 32 (16.49%) Analyst
2 17 (8.76%) Security Engineer
3 15 (7.73%) IT Analyst
4 14 (7.22%) Senior
5 12 (6.19%) Cloud Engineer
5 12 (6.19%) IT Support
5 12 (6.19%) IT Support Analyst
5 12 (6.19%) Support Analyst
6 11 (5.67%) Developer
7 10 (5.15%) Business Analyst
7 10 (5.15%) Consultant
7 10 (5.15%) Network Engineer
8 9 (4.64%) Cloud Security Engineer
8 9 (4.64%) Lead
8 9 (4.64%) Security Consultant
9 8 (4.12%) Architect
10 7 (3.61%) Operations Analyst
10 7 (3.61%) Senior Developer
11 6 (3.09%) IT Operations Analyst
11 6 (3.09%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (10.31%) Terraform
2 8 (4.12%) 802.1X
3 7 (3.61%) Microsoft Graph
3 7 (3.61%) REST
4 5 (2.58%) HTML
4 5 (2.58%) SOAP
5 4 (2.06%) CSS
5 4 (2.06%) Lightning Web Components
6 3 (1.55%) .NET
6 3 (1.55%) Middleware
6 3 (1.55%) PySpark
6 3 (1.55%) XML
7 2 (1.03%) AngularJS
7 2 (1.03%) ARM Templates
7 2 (1.03%) Azure Blueprints
7 2 (1.03%) PyTorch
7 2 (1.03%) React
7 2 (1.03%) scikit-learn
7 2 (1.03%) WinForms
7 2 (1.03%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 33 (17.01%) Management Information System
2 17 (8.76%) Security Posture
3 13 (6.70%) Cloud Native
3 13 (6.70%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.15%) PKI
5 8 (4.12%) Enterprise Cloud
5 8 (4.12%) Product Ownership
6 6 (3.09%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (2.58%) Clustering
7 5 (2.58%) Replication
8 4 (2.06%) Data Structures
8 4 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.06%) Life Science
8 4 (2.06%) Tandem
9 3 (1.55%) Graphic Design
10 2 (1.03%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.03%) CMDB
10 2 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.03%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.03%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 41 (21.13%) Windows
2 27 (13.92%) Linux
3 14 (7.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 9 (4.64%) Windows 10
5 7 (3.61%) Unix
5 7 (3.61%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.55%) AIX
7 1 (0.52%) Android
7 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.52%) CentOS
7 1 (0.52%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.52%) VMS
7 1 (0.52%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (26.80%) Agile
2 50 (25.77%) Computer Science
3 46 (23.71%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (23.20%) ITIL
5 31 (15.98%) Change Management
6 30 (15.46%) CI/CD
6 30 (15.46%) DevOps
7 24 (12.37%) Continuous Improvement
7 24 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
8 23 (11.86%) Roadmaps
8 23 (11.86%) Scrum
9 22 (11.34%) AI
9 22 (11.34%) Analytics
9 22 (11.34%) Cybersecurity
10 21 (10.82%) Cloud Security
11 20 (10.31%) Service Management
12 19 (9.79%) Decision-Making
13 18 (9.28%) Cryptography
13 18 (9.28%) Data Analysis
13 18 (9.28%) Generative AI
Programming Languages
1 47 (24.23%) Python
2 39 (20.10%) PowerShell
3 27 (13.92%) SQL
4 21 (10.82%) Java
5 16 (8.25%) Bash
6 9 (4.64%) Bicep
7 6 (3.09%) T-SQL
8 4 (2.06%) Apex Code
8 4 (2.06%) JavaScript
8 4 (2.06%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (1.55%) C#
9 3 (1.55%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (1.55%) VB
10 2 (1.03%) Perl
10 2 (1.03%) Scala
10 2 (1.03%) Shell Script
10 2 (1.03%) TypeScript
10 2 (1.03%) VB6
11 1 (0.52%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.52%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 36 (18.56%) Computer Science Degree
2 26 (13.40%) CISSP
3 23 (11.86%) Microsoft Certification
4 21 (10.82%) Security Cleared
5 18 (9.28%) SC Cleared
6 17 (8.76%) Azure Certification
7 13 (6.70%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (6.19%) BPSS Clearance
9 11 (5.67%) AWS Certification
10 10 (5.15%) CCNP
11 8 (4.12%) CCNA
11 8 (4.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 7 (3.61%) A+ Certification
12 7 (3.61%) CISM
12 7 (3.61%) ITIL Certification
12 7 (3.61%) Network+ Certification
13 6 (3.09%) DBS Check
14 5 (2.58%) CEH
15 4 (2.06%) CompTIA Security+
15 4 (2.06%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.67%) NIST
2 6 (3.09%) GDPR
2 6 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (3.09%) QA
3 5 (2.58%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.58%) GRC
3 5 (2.58%) PCI DSS
3 5 (2.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 5 (2.58%) SLA
4 4 (2.06%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (1.03%) GAAP
5 2 (1.03%) IFRS
6 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.52%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.52%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.52%) PMO
6 1 (0.52%) PSD2
6 1 (0.52%) SEPA
System Software
1 17 (8.76%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.70%) Docker
3 7 (3.61%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.55%) NFS
4 3 (1.55%) Veritas Volume Manager
5 2 (1.03%) Firmware
6 1 (0.52%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 18 (9.28%) Kubernetes
2 15 (7.73%) Progress Chef
3 10 (5.15%) Ansible
4 6 (3.09%) SCOM
5 3 (1.55%) CASB
5 3 (1.55%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.55%) PowerBroker
5 3 (1.55%) Tivoli
5 3 (1.55%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (1.03%) SCCM
7 1 (0.52%) Istio
7 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.52%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.52%) QRadar
Vendors
1 67 (34.54%) Microsoft
2 21 (10.82%) ServiceNow
3 20 (10.31%) Splunk
4 19 (9.79%) SAP
5 18 (9.28%) Cisco
6 15 (7.73%) Google
6 15 (7.73%) Red Hat
7 10 (5.15%) Oracle
8 7 (3.61%) Databricks
8 7 (3.61%) IBM
9 6 (3.09%) Aruba
9 6 (3.09%) Bomgar
9 6 (3.09%) ForeScout
9 6 (3.09%) Fortinet
9 6 (3.09%) Ribbon
9 6 (3.09%) Salesforce
10 5 (2.58%) Adobe
10 5 (2.58%) CheckPoint
10 5 (2.58%) Thales
10 5 (2.58%) UiPath