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 25 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 29 25 16
Rank change year-on-year -4 -9 +19
Contract jobs citing Degree 169 138 240
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 6.68% 6.40% 9.07%
As % of the Qualifications category 18.99% 20.20% 28.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 92 55 118
10th Percentile £268 £201 £192
25th Percentile £355 £375 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% +5.26% +5.56%
75th Percentile £494 £593 £573
90th Percentile £599 £674 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 22 35
10th Percentile £15.50 £22.72 £15.75
25th Percentile £31.69 £25.96 £16.77
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -4.64% +42.00%
75th Percentile £53.13 £46.18 £46.18
90th Percentile £63.40 £68.35 -
England median hourly rate £38.04 £42.88 £50.00
% change year-on-year -11.29% -14.24% +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 890 683 837
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.19% 31.69% 31.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 582 351 553
10th Percentile £226 £213 £255
25th Percentile £388 £356 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £479 £475 £545
Median % change year-on-year +0.79% -12.84% +6.86%
75th Percentile £613 £582 £645
90th Percentile £688 £675 £720
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 55 72
10th Percentile £18.88 £19.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £22.16 £23.36 £27.89
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -29.62% +81.78%
75th Percentile £65.06 £53.88 £46.89
90th Percentile £73.75 £78.25 £55.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £52.05
% change year-on-year -46.91% -8.99% +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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025.

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 25 December 2025. 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 -1 74 £375 -28.57% 112
Manchester -16 50 £450 -10.00% 270
Lancashire +11 27 £550 +4.76% 104
Merseyside -14 7 £450 +125.00% 49
Cumbria -3 5 - - 21
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 (17.16%) SharePoint
2 19 (11.24%) Confluence
3 9 (5.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.14%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.14%) Skype for Business
5 3 (1.78%) 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 29 (17.16%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (5.33%) Microsoft Project
3 9 (5.33%) MS Visio
4 8 (4.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.59%) InVision
5 1 (0.59%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 5 (2.96%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.18%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.59%) Maximo
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 29 (17.16%) Azure
1 29 (17.16%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (10.06%) AWS
3 16 (9.47%) Power Platform
4 10 (5.92%) GCP
4 10 (5.92%) OneDrive
4 10 (5.92%) SaaS
5 7 (4.14%) Apigee
6 6 (3.55%) Azure Logic Apps
6 6 (3.55%) GitHub
7 5 (2.96%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.37%) Entra ID
8 4 (2.37%) GitHub Copilot
8 4 (2.37%) Smartsheet
9 3 (1.78%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.78%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.78%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (1.78%) Kong
10 2 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
10 2 (1.18%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 12 (7.10%) Skype
2 11 (6.51%) SSH
3 9 (5.33%) Firewall
4 8 (4.73%) DNS
4 8 (4.73%) Unified Communications
5 6 (3.55%) Internet
5 6 (3.55%) VPN
6 5 (2.96%) Network Security
6 5 (2.96%) Wi-Fi
7 4 (2.37%) BGP
7 4 (2.37%) HTTP
7 4 (2.37%) HTTPS
8 3 (1.78%) Software-Defined Networking
8 3 (1.78%) SSL
8 3 (1.78%) VLAN
9 2 (1.18%) Intrusion Detection
9 2 (1.18%) SAN
10 1 (0.59%) IP Telephony
10 1 (0.59%) LAN
10 1 (0.59%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.14%) Power BI
2 6 (3.55%) Relational Database
3 4 (2.37%) Data Warehouse
3 4 (2.37%) MySQL
3 4 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.78%) 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%) SAS Data Integration Studio
6 1 (0.59%) SAS Visual Analytics
6 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (16.57%) JIRA
2 9 (5.33%) Git
3 7 (4.14%) GitLab
3 7 (4.14%) Jenkins
4 5 (2.96%) Postman
5 2 (1.18%) JUnit
5 2 (1.18%) TestRail
6 1 (0.59%) Ant
6 1 (0.59%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.59%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.59%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.59%) NUnit
6 1 (0.59%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 107 (63.31%) Social Skills
2 50 (29.59%) Finance
3 42 (24.85%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (12.43%) Banking
5 12 (7.10%) Public Sector
6 11 (6.51%) Influencing Skills
7 9 (5.33%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (4.73%) Legal
9 7 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (4.14%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (2.37%) Local Government
11 3 (1.78%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.78%) Law
11 3 (1.78%) 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
12 2 (1.18%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 35 (20.71%) Analyst
2 25 (14.79%) Lead
3 19 (11.24%) Developer
4 12 (7.10%) Senior
5 11 (6.51%) Business Analyst
6 10 (5.92%) Java Developer
7 7 (4.14%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 7 (4.14%) Operational Support Analyst
7 7 (4.14%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (4.14%) Operations Support Analyst
7 7 (4.14%) Project Manager
7 7 (4.14%) Support Analyst
8 6 (3.55%) 1st Line Support
9 5 (2.96%) Architect
9 5 (2.96%) Designer
9 5 (2.96%) IT Support
9 5 (2.96%) IT Support Technician
9 5 (2.96%) Platform Engineer
9 5 (2.96%) Service Desk Technician
9 5 (2.96%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (8.28%) JSON
1 14 (8.28%) XML
2 12 (7.10%) Spring
3 10 (5.92%) Spring Boot
4 9 (5.33%) Hibernate
4 9 (5.33%) RESTful
5 8 (4.73%) OAuth
6 7 (4.14%) JWT
7 5 (2.96%) OAuth2
7 5 (2.96%) REST
7 5 (2.96%) SOAP
8 4 (2.37%) JAX-RS
8 4 (2.37%) Middleware
8 4 (2.37%) Spring MVC
8 4 (2.37%) Spring Security
8 4 (2.37%) Swagger
9 3 (1.78%) .NET
9 3 (1.78%) J2EE
9 3 (1.78%) OpenAPI
9 3 (1.78%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.28%) Virtual Team
2 11 (6.51%) Tandem
3 9 (5.33%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.73%) Enterprise Software
4 8 (4.73%) Management Information System
4 8 (4.73%) Product Ownership
5 5 (2.96%) Data Protection Act
5 5 (2.96%) Low-Code
5 5 (2.96%) PMI
5 5 (2.96%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (2.37%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.37%) Data Centre
6 4 (2.37%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.37%) PKI
7 3 (1.78%) Handset
7 3 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.78%) Synthetic Data
8 2 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.18%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (1.18%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 36 (21.30%) Windows
2 11 (6.51%) Unix
3 6 (3.55%) Windows 10
3 6 (3.55%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.37%) Linux
4 4 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.59%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.59%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.59%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (37.28%) Computer Science
2 60 (35.50%) Agile
3 53 (31.36%) Problem-Solving
4 48 (28.40%) ITIL
5 47 (27.81%) Project Management
6 43 (25.44%) Stakeholder Management
7 39 (23.08%) Continuous Improvement
7 39 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
8 37 (21.89%) Change Management
9 33 (19.53%) Project Delivery
10 30 (17.75%) DevOps
11 24 (14.20%) Six Sigma
12 22 (13.02%) Service Delivery
13 21 (12.43%) CI/CD
13 21 (12.43%) PRINCE2
14 19 (11.24%) Business Intelligence
14 19 (11.24%) Incident Response
15 17 (10.06%) Lean Six Sigma
15 17 (10.06%) Validation
16 16 (9.47%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (13.61%) Python
2 22 (13.02%) SQL
3 15 (8.88%) Java
4 11 (6.51%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.96%) Bash
5 5 (2.96%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (2.37%) C#
6 4 (2.37%) Perl
7 3 (1.78%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.78%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.18%) R
9 1 (0.59%) C++
9 1 (0.59%) SAS Macro
9 1 (0.59%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.59%) VBA
Qualifications
1 50 (29.59%) Computer Science Degree
2 33 (19.53%) Security Cleared
3 15 (8.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
3 15 (8.88%) SC Cleared
4 10 (5.92%) Master's Degree
5 9 (5.33%) Azure Certification
5 9 (5.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (4.73%) CISSP
7 7 (4.14%) CISM
7 7 (4.14%) PMI Certification
7 7 (4.14%) PMP
8 6 (3.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 5 (2.96%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (2.37%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.37%) CCNA
10 4 (2.37%) CCNP
10 4 (2.37%) MBA
11 3 (1.78%) CIMA
11 3 (1.78%) CISA
11 3 (1.78%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.92%) QA
2 9 (5.33%) NIST
3 7 (4.14%) GDPR
4 6 (3.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (2.37%) Data Quality
5 4 (2.37%) PCI DSS
6 3 (1.78%) Accessibility
6 3 (1.78%) HIPAA
6 3 (1.78%) P3O
6 3 (1.78%) PMO
7 2 (1.18%) Basel III
7 2 (1.18%) NCSC
7 2 (1.18%) PSD2
7 2 (1.18%) SLA
8 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.59%) GAAP
8 1 (0.59%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.59%) ISO 8583
8 1 (0.59%) PMBOK
8 1 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 22 (13.02%) Active Directory
2 12 (7.10%) Docker
3 4 (2.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.18%) Firmware
5 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (8.88%) SCCM
2 13 (7.69%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (7.10%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (2.37%) Ansible
4 4 (2.37%) QRadar
4 4 (2.37%) Terraform
5 2 (1.18%) HP ALM
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%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 58 (34.32%) Microsoft
2 12 (7.10%) IBM
3 11 (6.51%) SAP
3 11 (6.51%) Splunk
4 10 (5.92%) Citrix
4 10 (5.92%) Oracle
5 9 (5.33%) Cisco
6 7 (4.14%) ServiceNow
7 6 (3.55%) Gemalto
7 6 (3.55%) Thales
8 5 (2.96%) Remedy
9 4 (2.37%) ArcSight
9 4 (2.37%) MuleSoft
9 4 (2.37%) Red Hat
9 4 (2.37%) VMware
10 3 (1.78%) HP
10 3 (1.78%) LogRhythm
10 3 (1.78%) Palo Alto
10 3 (1.78%) Planview
10 3 (1.78%) Zscaler