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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 22 20
Rank change year-on-year -15 -2 +1
Contract jobs citing Degree 186 152 169
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.02% 6.92% 6.80%
As % of the Qualifications category 17.99% 20.62% 23.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 89 89
10th Percentile £204 £323 £158
25th Percentile £367 £359 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £475 £533
Median % change year-on-year -5.89% -10.88% +12.21%
75th Percentile £556 £580 £588
90th Percentile £621 £716 £666
England median daily rate £500 £500 £520
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 17 25
10th Percentile £17.25 £21.02 £24.14
25th Percentile £28.50 £30.00 £26.39
Median hourly rate £37.75 £32.50 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +16.15% -33.07% +21.40%
75th Percentile £69.50 £70.16 £62.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £81.00 £95.70
England median hourly rate £45.00 £42.00 £55.63
% change year-on-year +7.14% -24.49% +5.95%

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 1,034 737 714
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 27.89% 33.56% 28.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 658 419 405
10th Percentile £339 £274 £257
25th Percentile £406 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £618 £625 £600
90th Percentile £700 £725 £708
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 67 111
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.44 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.59 £13.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +72.18% -59.67%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.42 £46.84
90th Percentile £89.15 £74.57 £62.50
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +114.71% -41.51% -21.82%

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 27 July 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 27 July 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 27 July 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 -15 91 £415 -21.85% 109
Cheshire -4 72 £475 +5.09% 32
Lancashire -1 14 £220 -59.35% 39
Cumbria -5 5 £450 - 7
Merseyside -18 4 £200 -53.62% 16
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 24 (12.90%) SharePoint
2 17 (9.14%) Confluence
3 10 (5.38%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (2.15%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.61%) SAS
6 2 (1.08%) Camunda
7 1 (0.54%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.54%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.54%) JBoss
7 1 (0.54%) Mule
7 1 (0.54%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.54%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.54%) WebLogic
Applications
1 49 (26.34%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (8.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (6.99%) MS Visio
4 10 (5.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (4.84%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.54%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.54%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 5 (2.69%) Primavera
1 5 (2.69%) SAP MM
2 4 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (1.61%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.54%) Infor M3
4 1 (0.54%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.54%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 47 (25.27%) Azure
2 35 (18.82%) Microsoft 365
3 31 (16.67%) Power Platform
4 29 (15.59%) AWS
5 15 (8.06%) Entra ID
5 15 (8.06%) Power Automate
5 15 (8.06%) PowerApps
6 14 (7.53%) GCP
7 9 (4.84%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 9 (4.84%) Microsoft Copilot
7 9 (4.84%) OneDrive
8 8 (4.30%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (4.30%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (3.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (3.23%) Azure AI
11 5 (2.69%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (2.69%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (2.15%) Figma
13 3 (1.61%) OpenShift
13 3 (1.61%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (13.44%) Firewall
2 16 (8.60%) VPN
3 12 (6.45%) Wireless
4 9 (4.84%) SSL
5 8 (4.30%) DNS
5 8 (4.30%) Network Security
5 8 (4.30%) WAN
5 8 (4.30%) Wi-Fi
6 6 (3.23%) LAN
6 6 (3.23%) VLAN
7 4 (2.15%) BGP
7 4 (2.15%) Internet
7 4 (2.15%) MPLS
7 4 (2.15%) OSPF
7 4 (2.15%) Skype
7 4 (2.15%) TCP/IP
8 3 (1.61%) Cisco ISE
8 3 (1.61%) FTP
8 3 (1.61%) SSH
9 2 (1.08%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (11.29%) Power BI
2 11 (5.91%) SQL Server
3 7 (3.76%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 6 (3.23%) MySQL
5 3 (1.61%) Data Vault
5 3 (1.61%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.61%) Relational Database
5 3 (1.61%) Tableau
6 2 (1.08%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (1.08%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (1.08%) Metadata
6 2 (1.08%) MongoDB
6 2 (1.08%) NoSQL
6 2 (1.08%) Oracle Database
6 2 (1.08%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (1.08%) Power Query
6 2 (1.08%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.54%) Big Data
7 1 (0.54%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.54%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 24 (12.90%) JIRA
2 5 (2.69%) Git
3 3 (1.61%) Postman
4 2 (1.08%) ClearCase
4 2 (1.08%) Cucumber
4 2 (1.08%) GitLab
4 2 (1.08%) JUnit
5 1 (0.54%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.54%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.54%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.54%) Selenium
5 1 (0.54%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.54%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 66 (35.48%) Social Skills
2 57 (30.65%) Finance
3 38 (20.43%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (7.53%) Banking
5 13 (6.99%) Manufacturing
5 13 (6.99%) Public Sector
6 9 (4.84%) Legal
7 8 (4.30%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.23%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.23%) Telecoms
9 4 (2.15%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.61%) Marketing
11 2 (1.08%) Aerospace
11 2 (1.08%) Agriculture
11 2 (1.08%) Aviation
11 2 (1.08%) Environmental Health
11 2 (1.08%) French Language
11 2 (1.08%) Local Government
11 2 (1.08%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 35 (18.82%) Analyst
2 14 (7.53%) IT Analyst
2 14 (7.53%) Security Engineer
3 13 (6.99%) Senior
4 12 (6.45%) Business Analyst
5 11 (5.91%) Consultant
5 11 (5.91%) IT Support
5 11 (5.91%) IT Support Analyst
5 11 (5.91%) Support Analyst
6 9 (4.84%) Architect
6 9 (4.84%) Network Engineer
6 9 (4.84%) Security Consultant
7 8 (4.30%) Cloud Engineer
7 8 (4.30%) Developer
8 7 (3.76%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (3.76%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.23%) Designer
9 6 (3.23%) IT Operations Analyst
9 6 (3.23%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
9 6 (3.23%) UX Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.30%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.23%) HTML
2 6 (3.23%) REST
2 6 (3.23%) XML
3 4 (2.15%) .NET
3 4 (2.15%) CSS
3 4 (2.15%) JSON
3 4 (2.15%) Microsoft Graph
3 4 (2.15%) SOAP
4 3 (1.61%) Middleware
4 3 (1.61%) PySpark
5 2 (1.08%) AngularJS
5 2 (1.08%) Kafka
5 2 (1.08%) LangChain
5 2 (1.08%) PyTorch
5 2 (1.08%) React
5 2 (1.08%) scikit-learn
5 2 (1.08%) Web Services
5 2 (1.08%) WinForms
5 2 (1.08%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 30 (16.13%) Management Information System
2 17 (9.14%) Security Posture
3 14 (7.53%) Cloud Native
4 12 (6.45%) Onboarding
5 8 (4.30%) Product Ownership
6 7 (3.76%) PKI
7 6 (3.23%) Enterprise Cloud
8 4 (2.15%) Clustering
8 4 (2.15%) Data Structures
8 4 (2.15%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.15%) Life Science
8 4 (2.15%) Replication
8 4 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.61%) Graphic Design
9 3 (1.61%) Tandem
10 2 (1.08%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.08%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.08%) Cloud Security Posture
10 2 (1.08%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 43 (23.12%) Windows
2 24 (12.90%) Linux
3 13 (6.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 11 (5.91%) Windows 10
5 7 (3.76%) Unix
6 5 (2.69%) Windows Server
7 3 (1.61%) AIX
8 1 (0.54%) Android
8 1 (0.54%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.54%) VMS
8 1 (0.54%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (31.72%) Agile
2 44 (23.66%) Problem-Solving
3 41 (22.04%) ITIL
4 40 (21.51%) Computer Science
5 34 (18.28%) Change Management
6 33 (17.74%) DevOps
7 27 (14.52%) Roadmaps
8 24 (12.90%) CI/CD
8 24 (12.90%) Scrum
8 24 (12.90%) Stakeholder Management
9 22 (11.83%) Continuous Improvement
10 20 (10.75%) AI
10 20 (10.75%) Analytics
11 18 (9.68%) Business Intelligence
11 18 (9.68%) Cybersecurity
11 18 (9.68%) Decision-Making
11 18 (9.68%) Project Delivery
12 17 (9.14%) Generative AI
12 17 (9.14%) Project Management
12 17 (9.14%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 42 (22.58%) Python
2 28 (15.05%) PowerShell
3 26 (13.98%) SQL
4 20 (10.75%) Java
5 15 (8.06%) Bash
6 6 (3.23%) Bicep
7 5 (2.69%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.69%) T-SQL
8 4 (2.15%) C#
9 3 (1.61%) VB
10 2 (1.08%) Perl
10 2 (1.08%) R
10 2 (1.08%) Scala
10 2 (1.08%) Shell Script
10 2 (1.08%) TypeScript
10 2 (1.08%) VB6
11 1 (0.54%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.54%) Groovy
11 1 (0.54%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.54%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (16.13%) Computer Science Degree
2 23 (12.37%) CISSP
2 23 (12.37%) Security Cleared
3 21 (11.29%) Microsoft Certification
4 19 (10.22%) SC Cleared
5 16 (8.60%) Azure Certification
6 13 (6.99%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (6.45%) Cisco Certification
8 11 (5.91%) AWS Certification
9 10 (5.38%) CCNP
10 8 (4.30%) CCNA
11 6 (3.23%) A+ Certification
11 6 (3.23%) CISM
11 6 (3.23%) DBS Check
11 6 (3.23%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (3.23%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 6 (3.23%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (2.15%) CEH
12 4 (2.15%) PMI Certification
12 4 (2.15%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.38%) NIST
2 7 (3.76%) QA
3 5 (2.69%) Accessibility
3 5 (2.69%) GRC
3 5 (2.69%) SLA
4 4 (2.15%) Data Quality
4 4 (2.15%) GDPR
5 3 (1.61%) IFRS
5 3 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.61%) PCI DSS
6 2 (1.08%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (1.08%) GAAP
6 2 (1.08%) HIPAA
6 2 (1.08%) PSD2
6 2 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.54%) Basel III
7 1 (0.54%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.54%) PMO
7 1 (0.54%) SEPA
System Software
1 16 (8.60%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.99%) Docker
3 6 (3.23%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.61%) NFS
4 3 (1.61%) Veritas Volume Manager
5 2 (1.08%) Firmware
6 1 (0.54%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 17 (9.14%) Kubernetes
1 17 (9.14%) Terraform
2 12 (6.45%) Progress Chef
3 6 (3.23%) Ansible
4 5 (2.69%) SCOM
5 3 (1.61%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.61%) PowerBroker
5 3 (1.61%) Tivoli
5 3 (1.61%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (1.08%) SCCM
7 1 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 64 (34.41%) Microsoft
2 20 (10.75%) ServiceNow
3 17 (9.14%) Cisco
3 17 (9.14%) SAP
4 15 (8.06%) Red Hat
5 13 (6.99%) Google
6 10 (5.38%) Splunk
7 9 (4.84%) Oracle
8 7 (3.76%) Databricks
9 6 (3.23%) Aruba
9 6 (3.23%) Bomgar
9 6 (3.23%) ForeScout
9 6 (3.23%) Fortinet
9 6 (3.23%) Remedy
10 5 (2.69%) CyberArk
10 5 (2.69%) IBM
10 5 (2.69%) UiPath
11 4 (2.15%) Adobe
11 4 (2.15%) Ekahau
11 4 (2.15%) Palo Alto