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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 31 23 18
Rank change year-on-year -8 -5 +15
Contract jobs citing Degree 179 145 242
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.64% 7.50% 8.81%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.33% 20.51% 29.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 83 106
10th Percentile £251 £244 £158
25th Percentile £350 £357 £225
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £463 £450
Median % change year-on-year -13.51% +2.78% -
75th Percentile £508 £580 £600
90th Percentile £601 £700 £689
England median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.75% -1.05% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 18 28
10th Percentile £29.55 £22.65 £11.77
25th Percentile - £24.71 £17.38
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.20
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +24.07% -24.07%
75th Percentile £58.28 £33.75 £36.46
90th Percentile £178.75 £40.20 £47.90
England median hourly rate £55.00 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +0.92% +36.25% -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 926 707 813
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.17% 36.56% 29.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 613 411 463
10th Percentile £313 £225 £248
25th Percentile £400 £388 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £490 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.55% -4.39% +0.99%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £656
90th Percentile £688 £650 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 43 121
10th Percentile £23.92 £17.95 £10.95
25th Percentile £35.14 £25.26 £11.77
Median hourly rate £49.12 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +51.13% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £72.25 £60.00 £38.43
90th Percentile £80.13 £82.85 £51.91
England median hourly rate £47.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -6.00% +25.13% -20.08%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -5 77 £397 -16.34% 37
Manchester -23 61 £402 -13.08% 149
Lancashire +6 23 £513 - 52
Merseyside -12 8 £188 -57.14% 20
Cumbria +1 7 £500 +21.21% 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 19 (10.61%) Confluence
2 18 (10.06%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.35%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.12%) SAS
5 1 (0.56%) Apache
5 1 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.56%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.56%) Camunda
5 1 (0.56%) JBoss
5 1 (0.56%) Mule
5 1 (0.56%) Mule ESB
5 1 (0.56%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.56%) WebLogic
Applications
1 39 (21.79%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (6.70%) MS Visio
3 11 (6.15%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (5.03%) Microsoft Excel
5 8 (4.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.56%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.56%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.56%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (5.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (2.23%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (2.23%) Primavera
3 3 (1.68%) SAP MM
4 2 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
4 2 (1.12%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.56%) Infor M3
5 1 (0.56%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.56%) SAP Payroll
5 1 (0.56%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.56%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 26 (14.53%) Microsoft 365
2 25 (13.97%) AWS
3 24 (13.41%) Azure
4 14 (7.82%) Power Platform
5 12 (6.70%) Entra ID
6 10 (5.59%) Apigee
7 9 (5.03%) GCP
8 6 (3.35%) Kong
9 5 (2.79%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (2.79%) Microsoft Copilot
9 5 (2.79%) OneDrive
9 5 (2.79%) Power Automate
9 5 (2.79%) PowerApps
10 4 (2.23%) GitHub
10 4 (2.23%) GitHub Copilot
10 4 (2.23%) SaaS
11 3 (1.68%) Azure Logic Apps
11 3 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
11 3 (1.68%) Figma
11 3 (1.68%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 15 (8.38%) Firewall
2 11 (6.15%) Skype
2 11 (6.15%) VPN
3 9 (5.03%) DNS
4 8 (4.47%) VLAN
5 7 (3.91%) Wireless
6 6 (3.35%) LAN
6 6 (3.35%) WAN
7 5 (2.79%) DHCP
7 5 (2.79%) Network Security
7 5 (2.79%) Wi-Fi
8 4 (2.23%) BGP
8 4 (2.23%) HTTP
8 4 (2.23%) HTTPS
8 4 (2.23%) TCP/IP
9 3 (1.68%) Software-Defined Networking
9 3 (1.68%) Unified Communications
10 2 (1.12%) Internet
10 2 (1.12%) SAN
10 2 (1.12%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.47%) Power BI
1 8 (4.47%) Relational Database
2 6 (3.35%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (3.35%) SQL Server
3 4 (2.23%) MySQL
4 3 (1.68%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (1.68%) Hadoop
4 3 (1.68%) RDBMS
5 2 (1.12%) Apache Cassandra
5 2 (1.12%) MongoDB
5 2 (1.12%) NoSQL
5 2 (1.12%) SAP HANA
5 2 (1.12%) Tableau
6 1 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.56%) Base SAS
6 1 (0.56%) Cognos Framework Manager
6 1 (0.56%) Cognos Report Studio
6 1 (0.56%) Cognos Transformer
6 1 (0.56%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.56%) SAS Data Integration Studio
Development Applications
1 28 (15.64%) JIRA
2 12 (6.70%) Git
3 9 (5.03%) Postman
4 5 (2.79%) GitLab
5 4 (2.23%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.12%) JUnit
7 1 (0.56%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.56%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.56%) IntelliJ
7 1 (0.56%) MLflow
7 1 (0.56%) SoapUI
General
1 95 (53.07%) Social Skills
2 68 (37.99%) Finance
3 40 (22.35%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (16.76%) Banking
5 22 (12.29%) Public Sector
6 13 (7.26%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (6.70%) Influencing Skills
8 9 (5.03%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (4.47%) Legal
9 8 (4.47%) Telecoms
10 7 (3.91%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (2.79%) Corporate Banking
11 5 (2.79%) Manufacturing
11 5 (2.79%) Retail
12 3 (1.68%) Local Government
12 3 (1.68%) Retail Banking
13 2 (1.12%) Environmental Health
13 2 (1.12%) Law
13 2 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.56%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 40 (22.35%) Analyst
2 25 (13.97%) Business Analyst
3 18 (10.06%) Developer
3 18 (10.06%) Lead
4 11 (6.15%) Support Analyst
5 10 (5.59%) 1st Line Support
5 10 (5.59%) IT Analyst
5 10 (5.59%) IT Support
5 10 (5.59%) IT Support Analyst
5 10 (5.59%) Java Developer
5 10 (5.59%) Project Manager
5 10 (5.59%) Senior
6 8 (4.47%) Architect
7 7 (3.91%) Designer
7 7 (3.91%) UX Designer
8 6 (3.35%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
8 6 (3.35%) Microsoft Engineer
8 6 (3.35%) Network Engineer
8 6 (3.35%) Technical Analyst
8 6 (3.35%) Technical Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (10.61%) XML
2 18 (10.06%) JSON
3 13 (7.26%) REST
4 11 (6.15%) SOAP
5 10 (5.59%) JWT
5 10 (5.59%) OAuth
5 10 (5.59%) Swagger
6 9 (5.03%) Spring
6 9 (5.03%) Spring Boot
7 8 (4.47%) Hibernate
7 8 (4.47%) RESTful
8 6 (3.35%) HTML
8 6 (3.35%) OpenAPI
9 5 (2.79%) .NET
10 4 (2.23%) 802.1X
10 4 (2.23%) JAX-RS
10 4 (2.23%) OAuth2
10 4 (2.23%) Spring MVC
10 4 (2.23%) Spring Security
11 3 (1.68%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 15 (8.38%) Management Information System
1 15 (8.38%) Virtual Team
2 13 (7.26%) Product Ownership
3 11 (6.15%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.79%) Security Posture
4 5 (2.79%) Self-Motivation
5 4 (2.23%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.23%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.23%) Digital Wallet
6 3 (1.68%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.68%) Handset
6 3 (1.68%) IoT
6 3 (1.68%) PMI
7 2 (1.12%) AI Agents
7 2 (1.12%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.12%) Data Structures
7 2 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.12%) Graphic Design
7 2 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.12%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 33 (18.44%) Windows
2 19 (10.61%) Windows 10
3 12 (6.70%) Linux
4 7 (3.91%) Windows Server
5 6 (3.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.68%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (1.12%) Unix
8 1 (0.56%) AIX
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 81 (45.25%) Agile
2 50 (27.93%) Computer Science
2 50 (27.93%) Problem-Solving
3 38 (21.23%) ITIL
4 37 (20.67%) DevOps
5 35 (19.55%) Change Management
6 33 (18.44%) Continuous Improvement
7 31 (17.32%) Project Management
8 30 (16.76%) Stakeholder Management
9 28 (15.64%) Project Delivery
10 24 (13.41%) ITSM
11 23 (12.85%) AI
11 23 (12.85%) CI/CD
11 23 (12.85%) PRINCE2
12 21 (11.73%) Customer Service
12 21 (11.73%) Cybersecurity
12 21 (11.73%) Service Delivery
13 20 (11.17%) Workshop Facilitation
14 19 (10.61%) Microservices
14 19 (10.61%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 25 (13.97%) SQL
2 18 (10.06%) Python
3 16 (8.94%) Java
4 13 (7.26%) PowerShell
5 7 (3.91%) Bash
6 5 (2.79%) C#
7 4 (2.23%) Perl
8 3 (1.68%) C++
8 3 (1.68%) R
9 2 (1.12%) JavaScript
9 2 (1.12%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (1.12%) PL/SQL
9 2 (1.12%) Shell Script
9 2 (1.12%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.56%) Groovy
10 1 (0.56%) SAS Macro
10 1 (0.56%) VB
10 1 (0.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 42 (23.46%) Computer Science Degree
2 34 (18.99%) Security Cleared
3 18 (10.06%) SC Cleared
4 16 (8.94%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (8.94%) Master's Degree
5 14 (7.82%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 13 (7.26%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (6.70%) CCNA
7 12 (6.70%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (5.59%) CCNP
9 9 (5.03%) MBA
10 8 (4.47%) A+ Certification
11 7 (3.91%) CISSP
11 7 (3.91%) Network+ Certification
11 7 (3.91%) PMI Certification
11 7 (3.91%) PMP
12 6 (3.35%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (2.79%) Azure Certification
14 3 (1.68%) CCDP
14 3 (1.68%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.03%) NIST
2 8 (4.47%) GDPR
2 8 (4.47%) QA
3 6 (3.35%) Accessibility
3 6 (3.35%) GRC
3 6 (3.35%) PSD2
4 5 (2.79%) PCI DSS
4 5 (2.79%) SLA
5 3 (1.68%) Basel III
5 3 (1.68%) IFRS
5 3 (1.68%) IFRS 17
5 3 (1.68%) ISO 8583
5 3 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.12%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (1.12%) Data Quality
6 2 (1.12%) HIPAA
6 2 (1.12%) ISO 20022
6 2 (1.12%) P3O
6 2 (1.12%) PMO
7 1 (0.56%) SEPA
System Software
1 22 (12.29%) Active Directory
2 14 (7.82%) Docker
3 7 (3.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (1.68%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.12%) Firmware
6 1 (0.56%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.56%) NFS
6 1 (0.56%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 1 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 14 (7.82%) Kubernetes
2 6 (3.35%) Ansible
3 3 (1.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 3 (1.68%) Cisco Prime
3 3 (1.68%) Terraform
4 2 (1.12%) Progress Chef
4 2 (1.12%) SCCM
5 1 (0.56%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) PowerBroker
5 1 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.56%) SCOM
5 1 (0.56%) SCOrch
5 1 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.56%) Tivoli
5 1 (0.56%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 1 (0.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 55 (30.73%) Microsoft
2 16 (8.94%) Cisco
3 15 (8.38%) Citrix
4 11 (6.15%) Oracle
5 10 (5.59%) Remedy
5 10 (5.59%) ServiceNow
5 10 (5.59%) Splunk
6 9 (5.03%) SAP
7 7 (3.91%) VMware
8 6 (3.35%) MuleSoft
8 6 (3.35%) Red Hat
9 5 (2.79%) Aruba
9 5 (2.79%) CheckPoint
9 5 (2.79%) CyberArk
9 5 (2.79%) Palo Alto
10 4 (2.23%) Broadcom
10 4 (2.23%) Ekahau
10 4 (2.23%) ForeScout
11 3 (1.68%) EMC
11 3 (1.68%) Veritas