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

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 24 21
Rank change year-on-year -10 -3 +1
Contract jobs citing Degree 192 155 157
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 5.12% 7.06% 6.59%
As % of the Qualifications category 17.96% 20.89% 23.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 91 81
10th Percentile £204 £325 £158
25th Percentile £367 £363 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £533
Median % change year-on-year -5.37% -10.88% +15.24%
75th Percentile £582 £584 £588
90th Percentile £622 £716 £665
England median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% -3.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 18 24
10th Percentile £17.25 £21.02 £24.13
25th Percentile £28.50 £27.00 £34.76
Median hourly rate £39.50 £33.50 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +17.91% -31.01% +19.64%
75th Percentile £69.50 £71.13 £64.31
90th Percentile £178.75 £81.00 £96.15
England median hourly rate £51.00 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +20.00% -25.89% +9.24%

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 1,069 742 680
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 28.52% 33.79% 28.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 416 388
10th Percentile £325 £309 £258
25th Percentile £412 £408 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £621 £623 £600
90th Percentile £694 £725 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 102 68 104
10th Percentile £17.34 £17.33 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.02 £13.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £17.53
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +66.95% -58.75%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.91 £48.38
90th Percentile £83.75 £74.36 £66.97
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £45.88
% change year-on-year +114.71% -45.18% -16.58%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -14 95 £447 -14.86% 153
Cheshire -4 71 £479 +6.09% 49
Lancashire -4 14 £220 -59.35% 55
Cumbria -1 7 £450 - 12
Merseyside -16 5 £200 -52.94% 30
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 26 (13.54%) SharePoint
2 16 (8.33%) Confluence
3 12 (6.25%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (3.13%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.56%) SAS
6 2 (1.04%) Camunda
7 1 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.52%) JBoss
7 1 (0.52%) Mule
7 1 (0.52%) Mule ESB
7 1 (0.52%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.52%) WebLogic
Applications
1 46 (23.96%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (7.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (6.25%) MS Visio
4 9 (4.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (4.17%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.52%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 4 (2.08%) Primavera
1 4 (2.08%) SAP MM
1 4 (2.08%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (1.04%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.52%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 52 (27.08%) Azure
2 37 (19.27%) Microsoft 365
3 34 (17.71%) Power Platform
4 32 (16.67%) AWS
5 17 (8.85%) Power Automate
5 17 (8.85%) PowerApps
6 16 (8.33%) GCP
7 14 (7.29%) Entra ID
8 11 (5.73%) Microsoft Copilot
8 11 (5.73%) OneDrive
9 9 (4.69%) Azure DevOps
9 9 (4.69%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 8 (4.17%) Azure AI
10 8 (4.17%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (3.65%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (3.65%) Azure Sentinel
11 7 (3.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (2.08%) Figma
12 4 (2.08%) SaaS
13 3 (1.56%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 25 (13.02%) Firewall
2 15 (7.81%) VPN
3 13 (6.77%) Wireless
4 10 (5.21%) SSL
5 9 (4.69%) Network Security
5 9 (4.69%) WAN
6 8 (4.17%) Wi-Fi
7 7 (3.65%) DNS
8 6 (3.13%) LAN
8 6 (3.13%) VLAN
9 4 (2.08%) BGP
9 4 (2.08%) Internet
9 4 (2.08%) MPLS
9 4 (2.08%) OSPF
9 4 (2.08%) TCP/IP
10 3 (1.56%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (1.56%) FTP
10 3 (1.56%) Skype
10 3 (1.56%) SSH
11 2 (1.04%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (11.46%) Power BI
2 12 (6.25%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.17%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 7 (3.65%) MySQL
5 3 (1.56%) Data Vault
5 3 (1.56%) Hadoop
5 3 (1.56%) Relational Database
5 3 (1.56%) Tableau
6 2 (1.04%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (1.04%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (1.04%) Metadata
6 2 (1.04%) MongoDB
6 2 (1.04%) NoSQL
6 2 (1.04%) Oracle Database
6 2 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (1.04%) Power Query
6 2 (1.04%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.52%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.52%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.52%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 22 (11.46%) JIRA
2 5 (2.60%) Git
3 3 (1.56%) GitLab
4 2 (1.04%) ClearCase
4 2 (1.04%) Cucumber
4 2 (1.04%) JUnit
4 2 (1.04%) Postman
5 1 (0.52%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.52%) Eclipse
5 1 (0.52%) IntelliJ
5 1 (0.52%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.52%) Selenium
5 1 (0.52%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 68 (35.42%) Social Skills
2 58 (30.21%) Finance
3 42 (21.88%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (6.25%) Banking
4 12 (6.25%) Manufacturing
4 12 (6.25%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.69%) Legal
6 8 (4.17%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (3.65%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.13%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.56%) Marketing
9 3 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.04%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.04%) Agriculture
10 2 (1.04%) Aviation
10 2 (1.04%) Environmental Health
10 2 (1.04%) French Language
10 2 (1.04%) Local Government
10 2 (1.04%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 34 (17.71%) Analyst
2 15 (7.81%) Security Engineer
3 14 (7.29%) IT Analyst
3 14 (7.29%) Senior
4 11 (5.73%) Business Analyst
4 11 (5.73%) Developer
4 11 (5.73%) IT Support
4 11 (5.73%) IT Support Analyst
4 11 (5.73%) Support Analyst
5 10 (5.21%) Cloud Engineer
5 10 (5.21%) Consultant
5 10 (5.21%) Network Engineer
6 9 (4.69%) Security Consultant
7 8 (4.17%) Architect
7 8 (4.17%) Cloud Security Engineer
7 8 (4.17%) Lead
8 7 (3.65%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (3.65%) Project Manager
9 6 (3.13%) IT Operations Analyst
9 6 (3.13%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.17%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.13%) HTML
2 6 (3.13%) REST
3 5 (2.60%) XML
4 4 (2.08%) .NET
4 4 (2.08%) CSS
4 4 (2.08%) Microsoft Graph
4 4 (2.08%) SOAP
5 3 (1.56%) Middleware
5 3 (1.56%) PySpark
6 2 (1.04%) AngularJS
6 2 (1.04%) JSON
6 2 (1.04%) Kafka
6 2 (1.04%) Lightning Web Components
6 2 (1.04%) PyTorch
6 2 (1.04%) React
6 2 (1.04%) scikit-learn
6 2 (1.04%) Web Services
6 2 (1.04%) WinForms
6 2 (1.04%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 30 (15.63%) Management Information System
2 18 (9.38%) Security Posture
3 14 (7.29%) Cloud Native
4 12 (6.25%) Onboarding
5 8 (4.17%) Enterprise Cloud
5 8 (4.17%) Product Ownership
6 7 (3.65%) PKI
7 5 (2.60%) Clustering
7 5 (2.60%) Replication
8 4 (2.08%) Data Structures
8 4 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.08%) Life Science
8 4 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.56%) Graphic Design
9 3 (1.56%) Tandem
10 2 (1.04%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.04%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 41 (21.35%) Windows
2 25 (13.02%) Linux
3 13 (6.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 10 (5.21%) Windows 10
5 6 (3.13%) Unix
5 6 (3.13%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.56%) AIX
7 1 (0.52%) Android
7 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.52%) VMS
7 1 (0.52%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (30.73%) Agile
2 45 (23.44%) Problem-Solving
3 42 (21.88%) Computer Science
3 42 (21.88%) ITIL
4 35 (18.23%) Change Management
5 34 (17.71%) DevOps
6 27 (14.06%) CI/CD
6 27 (14.06%) Roadmaps
7 26 (13.54%) Scrum
8 23 (11.98%) Continuous Improvement
8 23 (11.98%) Stakeholder Management
9 21 (10.94%) AI
9 21 (10.94%) Analytics
10 19 (9.90%) Business Intelligence
10 19 (9.90%) Cloud Security
11 18 (9.38%) Data Analysis
11 18 (9.38%) Decision-Making
11 18 (9.38%) Generative AI
11 18 (9.38%) Project Delivery
11 18 (9.38%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 45 (23.44%) Python
2 30 (15.63%) PowerShell
3 28 (14.58%) SQL
4 20 (10.42%) Java
5 16 (8.33%) Bash
6 8 (4.17%) Bicep
7 6 (3.13%) T-SQL
8 5 (2.60%) JavaScript
9 4 (2.08%) C#
10 3 (1.56%) VB
11 2 (1.04%) Apex Code
11 2 (1.04%) Perl
11 2 (1.04%) R
11 2 (1.04%) Scala
11 2 (1.04%) Search Processing Language
11 2 (1.04%) Shell Script
11 2 (1.04%) TypeScript
11 2 (1.04%) VB6
12 1 (0.52%) Groovy
12 1 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 31 (16.15%) Computer Science Degree
2 24 (12.50%) CISSP
3 22 (11.46%) Microsoft Certification
4 21 (10.94%) Security Cleared
5 18 (9.38%) SC Cleared
6 16 (8.33%) Azure Certification
7 13 (6.77%) BPSS Clearance
8 12 (6.25%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (5.73%) AWS Certification
10 10 (5.21%) CCNP
11 8 (4.17%) CCNA
12 7 (3.65%) ITIL Certification
13 6 (3.13%) A+ Certification
13 6 (3.13%) CISM
13 6 (3.13%) DBS Check
13 6 (3.13%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 6 (3.13%) Network+ Certification
14 5 (2.60%) Master's Degree
15 4 (2.08%) CEH
15 4 (2.08%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.69%) NIST
2 7 (3.65%) QA
3 5 (2.60%) Data Quality
3 5 (2.60%) GDPR
3 5 (2.60%) GRC
3 5 (2.60%) SLA
4 4 (2.08%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.56%) IFRS
5 3 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.56%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (1.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (1.04%) GAAP
6 2 (1.04%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.52%) IFRS 17
7 1 (0.52%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.52%) PMO
7 1 (0.52%) PSD2
7 1 (0.52%) SEPA
System Software
1 15 (7.81%) Active Directory
2 13 (6.77%) Docker
3 7 (3.65%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (1.56%) NFS
4 3 (1.56%) Veritas Volume Manager
5 2 (1.04%) Firmware
6 1 (0.52%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 19 (9.90%) Kubernetes
1 19 (9.90%) Terraform
2 13 (6.77%) Progress Chef
3 7 (3.65%) Ansible
4 6 (3.13%) SCOM
5 3 (1.56%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.56%) PowerBroker
5 3 (1.56%) Tivoli
5 3 (1.56%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (1.04%) SCCM
7 1 (0.52%) CASB
7 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 65 (33.85%) Microsoft
2 22 (11.46%) ServiceNow
3 16 (8.33%) Cisco
3 16 (8.33%) SAP
4 15 (7.81%) Red Hat
5 13 (6.77%) Google
6 12 (6.25%) Splunk
7 10 (5.21%) Oracle
8 7 (3.65%) Databricks
9 6 (3.13%) Aruba
9 6 (3.13%) Bomgar
9 6 (3.13%) ForeScout
9 6 (3.13%) Fortinet
10 5 (2.60%) CyberArk
10 5 (2.60%) IBM
10 5 (2.60%) Remedy
10 5 (2.60%) UiPath
11 4 (2.08%) Ekahau
11 4 (2.08%) Palo Alto
11 4 (2.08%) Salesforce