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

6 months to
18 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 20 17
Rank change year-on-year -7 -3 +21
Contract jobs citing Degree 172 162 223
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 7.10% 7.01% 8.13%
As % of the Qualifications category 19.93% 25.08% 27.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 65 114
10th Percentile £276 £273 £177
25th Percentile £356 £425 £255
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £530 £461
Median % change year-on-year -17.45% +14.91% -2.89%
75th Percentile £525 £588 £550
90th Percentile £650 £639 £684
England median daily rate £525 £506 £525
% change year-on-year +3.75% -3.62% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 21 32
10th Percentile £15.50 £24.00 £15.75
25th Percentile £29.00 £31.25 £17.01
Median hourly rate £45.46 £40.33 £41.55
Median % change year-on-year +12.73% -2.94% +108.98%
75th Percentile £53.13 £55.79 £46.18
90th Percentile £71.68 £93.00 -
England median hourly rate £35.25 £42.88 £50.00
% change year-on-year -17.79% -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 863 646 811
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.60% 27.94% 29.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 558 317 534
10th Percentile £214 £254 £252
25th Percentile £400 £385 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £499 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% -4.76% +0.02%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £716 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 55 67
10th Percentile £15.50 £19.00 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.46 £24.18 £30.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £37.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.86% -19.88% +98.97%
75th Percentile £67.40 £55.25 £47.59
90th Percentile £74.26 £74.28 £55.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.63 £53.50
% change year-on-year -50.32% -5.37% +18.89%

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 November 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 18 November 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 18 November 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 -10 74 £390 -26.97% 55
Manchester -8 51 £458 -10.73% 216
Lancashire +5 29 £550 +4.76% 158
Merseyside -12 9 £500 +150.00% 42
Cumbria +5 3 - - 6
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 (13.95%) SharePoint
2 17 (9.88%) Confluence
3 9 (5.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (4.07%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (4.07%) Skype for Business
5 2 (1.16%) Mule
5 2 (1.16%) Mule ESB
6 1 (0.58%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.58%) JBoss
6 1 (0.58%) nginx
6 1 (0.58%) SAS
6 1 (0.58%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.58%) WebLogic
Applications
1 29 (16.86%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (9.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (5.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (5.23%) MS Visio
5 6 (3.49%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (1.16%) Simulink
7 1 (0.58%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.58%) InVision
7 1 (0.58%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 4 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.16%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (1.16%) SAP ERP
2 2 (1.16%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.58%) IBM Planning Analytics
3 1 (0.58%) Maximo
3 1 (0.58%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.58%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 26 (15.12%) Azure
2 23 (13.37%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (8.72%) Power Platform
4 14 (8.14%) AWS
4 14 (8.14%) SaaS
5 10 (5.81%) OneDrive
6 9 (5.23%) GCP
7 6 (3.49%) GitHub
8 5 (2.91%) Apigee
8 5 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
8 5 (2.91%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (2.33%) Entra ID
9 4 (2.33%) Google Analytics
9 4 (2.33%) Smartsheet
10 3 (1.74%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (1.74%) GitHub Copilot
11 2 (1.16%) Kong
11 2 (1.16%) Power Automate
11 2 (1.16%) PowerApps
11 2 (1.16%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 11 (6.40%) Firewall
1 11 (6.40%) SSH
2 9 (5.23%) Network Security
3 8 (4.65%) DNS
3 8 (4.65%) Unified Communications
4 7 (4.07%) Skype
5 6 (3.49%) Internet
6 5 (2.91%) BGP
6 5 (2.91%) VLAN
6 5 (2.91%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (1.74%) HTTP
7 3 (1.74%) HTTPS
7 3 (1.74%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (1.74%) Software-Defined Networking
7 3 (1.74%) VPN
8 2 (1.16%) MPLS
8 2 (1.16%) OSPF
9 1 (0.58%) LAN
9 1 (0.58%) SSL
9 1 (0.58%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.07%) Power BI
2 4 (2.33%) Mixpanel
2 4 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
2 4 (2.33%) Relational Database
2 4 (2.33%) SQL Server
3 3 (1.74%) MySQL
4 2 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (1.16%) Qlik Sense
4 2 (1.16%) Star Schema
5 1 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.58%) Cognos Framework Manager
5 1 (0.58%) Cognos Report Studio
5 1 (0.58%) Cognos Transformer
5 1 (0.58%) OLAP Cube
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.58%) Oracle Discoverer
5 1 (0.58%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.58%) Snowflake Schema
5 1 (0.58%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (15.12%) JIRA
2 7 (4.07%) GitLab
3 6 (3.49%) Git
3 6 (3.49%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.74%) Postman
5 2 (1.16%) JUnit
5 2 (1.16%) TestRail
6 1 (0.58%) Ant
6 1 (0.58%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.58%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.58%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.58%) NUnit
6 1 (0.58%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 104 (60.47%) Social Skills
2 46 (26.74%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (25.00%) Finance
4 13 (7.56%) Influencing Skills
5 12 (6.98%) Banking
5 12 (6.98%) Public Sector
6 8 (4.65%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.91%) Legal
8 5 (2.91%) Publishing
9 4 (2.33%) Local Government
10 3 (1.74%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.74%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.74%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.16%) Billing
11 2 (1.16%) Law
11 2 (1.16%) Marketing
11 2 (1.16%) Military
11 2 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 34 (19.77%) Analyst
2 26 (15.12%) Lead
3 15 (8.72%) Developer
4 13 (7.56%) Senior
5 10 (5.81%) Business Analyst
6 9 (5.23%) Architect
7 8 (4.65%) Java Developer
8 7 (4.07%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 7 (4.07%) Operational Support Analyst
8 7 (4.07%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (4.07%) Operations Support Analyst
8 7 (4.07%) Support Analyst
9 5 (2.91%) Consultant
9 5 (2.91%) Designer
9 5 (2.91%) IT Support
9 5 (2.91%) IT Support Technician
9 5 (2.91%) IT Technician
9 5 (2.91%) Security Engineer
9 5 (2.91%) Service Desk Technician
9 5 (2.91%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.40%) JSON
2 10 (5.81%) Spring
2 10 (5.81%) XML
3 8 (4.65%) Spring Boot
4 7 (4.07%) Hibernate
4 7 (4.07%) RESTful
5 6 (3.49%) OAuth
5 6 (3.49%) REST
5 6 (3.49%) SOAP
5 6 (3.49%) Web Services
6 5 (2.91%) HTML
6 5 (2.91%) JWT
7 4 (2.33%) OAuth2
8 3 (1.74%) AngularJS
8 3 (1.74%) CSS
8 3 (1.74%) J2EE
8 3 (1.74%) JAX-RS
8 3 (1.74%) LDAP
8 3 (1.74%) Spring MVC
8 3 (1.74%) Spring Security
Miscellaneous
1 19 (11.05%) Virtual Team
2 14 (8.14%) Management Information System
3 11 (6.40%) Tandem
4 10 (5.81%) Product Ownership
5 9 (5.23%) Onboarding
6 7 (4.07%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (3.49%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (2.91%) Low-Code
8 5 (2.91%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (2.33%) Cloud Native
9 4 (2.33%) Cyberattack
9 4 (2.33%) Data Centre
9 4 (2.33%) Driving Licence
9 4 (2.33%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (2.33%) PMI
9 4 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.74%) Handset
10 3 (1.74%) Synthetic Data
11 2 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
11 2 (1.16%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 29 (16.86%) Windows
2 11 (6.40%) Unix
3 5 (2.91%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.74%) Linux
4 3 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (38.95%) Computer Science
2 57 (33.14%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (31.98%) Agile
3 55 (31.98%) ITIL
4 48 (27.91%) Project Management
5 43 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 42 (24.42%) Cybersecurity
7 40 (23.26%) Change Management
8 38 (22.09%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (18.60%) Project Delivery
10 29 (16.86%) DevOps
11 27 (15.70%) Service Delivery
12 24 (13.95%) Six Sigma
13 21 (12.21%) Analytics
13 21 (12.21%) CI/CD
13 21 (12.21%) PRINCE2
14 20 (11.63%) Incident Response
14 20 (11.63%) ITSM
15 18 (10.47%) Business Intelligence
15 18 (10.47%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 19 (11.05%) Python
2 18 (10.47%) SQL
3 14 (8.14%) Java
4 10 (5.81%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.91%) JavaScript
5 5 (2.91%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (2.33%) Bash
7 3 (1.74%) Perl
8 2 (1.16%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.58%) C#
9 1 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.58%) R
9 1 (0.58%) VBA
Qualifications
1 49 (28.49%) Computer Science Degree
2 27 (15.70%) Security Cleared
3 15 (8.72%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
4 14 (8.14%) SC Cleared
5 11 (6.40%) Master's Degree
6 8 (4.65%) Azure Certification
6 8 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (4.07%) CISSP
7 7 (4.07%) ITIL Certification
8 6 (3.49%) Cisco Certification
8 6 (3.49%) CISM
8 6 (3.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 6 (3.49%) PMI Certification
8 6 (3.49%) PMP
9 5 (2.91%) CCNP
10 4 (2.33%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.74%) CCDP
11 3 (1.74%) CCNA
11 3 (1.74%) CISA
11 3 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.65%) NIST
1 8 (4.65%) QA
2 5 (2.91%) GDPR
2 5 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.33%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.74%) HIPAA
4 3 (1.74%) P3O
4 3 (1.74%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.74%) PMO
5 2 (1.16%) Basel III
5 2 (1.16%) NCSC
6 1 (0.58%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.58%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.58%) COBIT
6 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.58%) GRC
6 1 (0.58%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.58%) PMBOK
6 1 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.58%) SLA
System Software
1 22 (12.79%) Active Directory
2 9 (5.23%) Docker
3 3 (1.74%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (8.14%) SCCM
2 13 (7.56%) Microsoft Intune
3 9 (5.23%) Kubernetes
4 4 (2.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (2.33%) QRadar
4 4 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (2.33%) Terraform
5 3 (1.74%) Ansible
6 2 (1.16%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.58%) Control-M
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 59 (34.30%) Microsoft
2 17 (9.88%) ServiceNow
3 12 (6.98%) IBM
4 10 (5.81%) SAP
5 9 (5.23%) Splunk
6 7 (4.07%) Oracle
7 6 (3.49%) Cisco
7 6 (3.49%) Gemalto
7 6 (3.49%) Google
7 6 (3.49%) Thales
8 5 (2.91%) Citrix
9 4 (2.33%) ArcSight
9 4 (2.33%) Hotjar
9 4 (2.33%) Zscaler
10 3 (1.74%) LogRhythm
10 3 (1.74%) MuleSoft
10 3 (1.74%) Palo Alto
10 3 (1.74%) Planview
10 3 (1.74%) Red Hat
10 3 (1.74%) VMware