Degree Contract Job Trends in the South East

Academic Degree
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 6 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 27 26 14
Rank change year-on-year -1 -12 +12
Contract jobs citing Degree 386 205 495
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.42% 6.94% 8.77%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.15% 17.42% 19.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 122 247
10th Percentile £204 £221 £205
25th Percentile £350 £351 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £545 £608
90th Percentile £713 £624 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 77 26 83
10th Percentile £31.25 £21.33 £17.80
25th Percentile £51.25 £32.12 £23.93
Median hourly rate £83.00 £55.13 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +50.57% -3.88% +27.44%
75th Percentile £88.00 £73.38 £61.30
90th Percentile - £75.00 £65.00
England median hourly rate £55.75 £52.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +6.19% +31.25% -18.35%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,728 1,177 2,519
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.38% 39.87% 44.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,851 747 1,450
10th Percentile £315 £258 £350
25th Percentile £438 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.92% -5.45% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £731
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 82 219
10th Percentile £16.80 £18.54 £17.80
25th Percentile £27.50 £25.55 £27.12
Median hourly rate £55.00 £53.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +3.77% -7.59% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.02 £87.46
England median hourly rate £51.44 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +58.28% -18.75% -27.27%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Degree relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Degree job vacancy trend in the South East

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in the South East over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in the South East

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in the South East over the 6 months to 6 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the South East

Degree
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the South East region over the 6 months to 6 June 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
Thames Valley +1 197 £500 +4.99% 208
Berkshire +6 124 £400 -16.01% 102
Hampshire +4 101 £550 +6.80% 147
Buckinghamshire -18 37 £570 +5.07% 51
Oxfordshire -8 36 £525 +16.67% 57
Surrey -16 36 £208 -43.15% 77
West Sussex -20 13 £275 -5.17% 30
Kent +6 12 £445 +61.82% 36
Sussex - 4 £275 - 11
East Sussex -4 3 £600 - 15
Home Counties - 3 - -
Middlesex - 1 £198 - 12
Degree
England

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 12 (3.11%) SharePoint
2 9 (2.33%) Confluence
3 5 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.78%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.78%) MS Project Server
5 2 (0.52%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.52%) CMS
6 1 (0.26%) Apache
6 1 (0.26%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 48 (12.44%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (9.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (5.70%) Microsoft Project
4 20 (5.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.78%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.26%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 12 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.55%) Primavera
3 2 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.52%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.26%) SAP Hybris
4 1 (0.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 77 (19.95%) Azure
2 50 (12.95%) AWS
3 28 (7.25%) Entra ID
4 25 (6.48%) Microsoft 365
5 15 (3.89%) GCP
5 15 (3.89%) Power Platform
6 12 (3.11%) SaaS
7 8 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
7 8 (2.07%) OneDrive
8 7 (1.81%) GitHub
8 7 (1.81%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (1.81%) IaaS
9 6 (1.55%) PaaS
10 4 (1.04%) Power Automate
10 4 (1.04%) Serverless
11 3 (0.78%) Lucidchart
11 3 (0.78%) Sauce Labs
12 2 (0.52%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.52%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
12 2 (0.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 23 (5.96%) Firewall
2 17 (4.40%) DNS
3 15 (3.89%) TCP/IP
3 15 (3.89%) WAN
4 14 (3.63%) LAN
4 14 (3.63%) Network Security
5 11 (2.85%) DHCP
6 8 (2.07%) BGP
6 8 (2.07%) OSPF
6 8 (2.07%) Wireless
7 6 (1.55%) HTTP
8 5 (1.30%) IPsec
8 5 (1.30%) SSH
8 5 (1.30%) Structured Cabling
9 4 (1.04%) RSVP
9 4 (1.04%) VXLAN
10 3 (0.78%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.78%) SAN
10 3 (0.78%) VPN
10 3 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.15%) SQL Server
2 15 (3.89%) Relational Database
3 13 (3.37%) MySQL
3 13 (3.37%) Power BI
4 6 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.04%) Tableau
6 3 (0.78%) Big Data
6 3 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
6 3 (0.78%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.52%) Hadoop
8 1 (0.26%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
8 1 (0.26%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.26%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.26%) Metadata
8 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.26%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.26%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 28 (7.25%) Rational DOORS
2 16 (4.15%) JIRA
3 8 (2.07%) Git
3 8 (2.07%) GitLab
4 7 (1.81%) CircleCI
4 7 (1.81%) Gradle
5 6 (1.55%) Burp Suite
5 6 (1.55%) JUnit
5 6 (1.55%) Metasploit
6 4 (1.04%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.78%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.78%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (0.78%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.78%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.78%) Xcode
8 2 (0.52%) Balsamiq
8 2 (0.52%) Selenium
8 2 (0.52%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.26%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.26%) WebDriver
General
1 151 (39.12%) Social Skills
2 63 (16.32%) Analytical Skills
3 59 (15.28%) Finance
4 58 (15.03%) Aerospace
5 47 (12.18%) Public Sector
6 22 (5.70%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (4.15%) Law
8 15 (3.89%) Manufacturing
8 15 (3.89%) Organisational Skills
9 12 (3.11%) Marketing
10 11 (2.85%) Influencing Skills
11 8 (2.07%) Legal
11 8 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (1.81%) Military
12 7 (1.81%) Retail
12 7 (1.81%) Telecoms
13 6 (1.55%) Aviation
14 4 (1.04%) Arabic Language
14 4 (1.04%) French Language
Job Titles
1 53 (13.73%) Analyst
2 51 (13.21%) Senior
3 32 (8.29%) Product Manager
4 29 (7.51%) Delivery Manager
5 28 (7.25%) Product Delivery Manager
6 27 (6.99%) IT Manager
7 24 (6.22%) Lead
8 22 (5.70%) Project Manager
8 22 (5.70%) Senior Manager
8 22 (5.70%) Systems Delivery Manager
8 22 (5.70%) Systems Manager
9 21 (5.44%) Architect
10 18 (4.66%) Technical Support
11 17 (4.40%) Category Manager
12 15 (3.89%) IT Services Manager
12 15 (3.89%) Senior Category Manager
12 15 (3.89%) Senior IT Manager
12 15 (3.89%) Senior Service Manager
13 14 (3.63%) Senior Analyst
14 12 (3.11%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.89%) Oracle Fusion
2 13 (3.37%) REST
3 11 (2.85%) OAuth
4 10 (2.59%) SailPoint
5 9 (2.33%) LDAP
5 9 (2.33%) OAuth2
5 9 (2.33%) OpenID
5 9 (2.33%) React
5 9 (2.33%) SAML
5 9 (2.33%) Web Services
6 7 (1.81%) RAML
7 6 (1.55%) Android Jetpack
7 6 (1.55%) CSS
7 6 (1.55%) Kafka
8 5 (1.30%) .NET
8 5 (1.30%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.30%) Dagger
8 5 (1.30%) OkHttp
8 5 (1.30%) RESTful
8 5 (1.30%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.40%) Product Ownership
2 32 (8.29%) Management Information System
3 26 (6.74%) Data Centre
4 25 (6.48%) Onboarding
5 24 (6.22%) Data Structures
6 18 (4.66%) Virtual Team
7 10 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.07%) PMI
8 8 (2.07%) Robotics
8 8 (2.07%) Security Posture
9 7 (1.81%) CCTV
9 7 (1.81%) Legacy Code
9 7 (1.81%) Mobile App
9 7 (1.81%) Security Operations Centre
10 6 (1.55%) BYOD
10 6 (1.55%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.55%) Life Science
11 5 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.30%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 74 (19.17%) Windows
2 50 (12.95%) Linux
3 33 (8.55%) Unix
4 13 (3.37%) Android
4 13 (3.37%) Windows Server
5 12 (3.11%) Apple iOS
6 8 (2.07%) Mac OS
6 8 (2.07%) Windows 10
7 4 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.52%) OpenVMS
8 2 (0.52%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.52%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 158 (40.93%) Computer Science
2 88 (22.80%) Agile
3 77 (19.95%) Problem-Solving
4 76 (19.69%) Continuous Improvement
5 68 (17.62%) Cybersecurity
6 56 (14.51%) Change Control
6 56 (14.51%) Information Security
7 50 (12.95%) Decision-Making
8 47 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
9 45 (11.66%) ITSM
9 45 (11.66%) PRINCE2
10 44 (11.40%) Systems Engineering
11 43 (11.14%) AI
11 43 (11.14%) Project Management
11 43 (11.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 42 (10.88%) ITIL
13 34 (8.81%) Scaled Agile Framework
14 33 (8.55%) CI/CD
15 32 (8.29%) Programme Management
16 28 (7.25%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 51 (13.21%) Python
2 28 (7.25%) PowerShell
3 22 (5.70%) Java
4 20 (5.18%) SQL
5 17 (4.40%) JavaScript
6 11 (2.85%) Perl
7 8 (2.07%) Kotlin
8 7 (1.81%) Shell Script
9 4 (1.04%) Bash
10 3 (0.78%) C
10 3 (0.78%) C++
10 3 (0.78%) Korn
10 3 (0.78%) Rust
11 2 (0.52%) Ada
11 2 (0.52%) C#
11 2 (0.52%) Go
11 2 (0.52%) R
12 1 (0.26%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.26%) Tcl
12 1 (0.26%) VB
Qualifications
1 171 (44.30%) Security Cleared
2 108 (27.98%) SC Cleared
3 65 (16.84%) Computer Science Degree
4 21 (5.44%) CISSP
5 20 (5.18%) Cisco Certification
6 16 (4.15%) DV Cleared
7 15 (3.89%) PMI Certification
8 14 (3.63%) PMP
9 13 (3.37%) CCNP
9 13 (3.37%) CISM
9 13 (3.37%) Master's Degree
10 12 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
11 11 (2.85%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (2.59%) ACCA
12 10 (2.59%) CIMA
13 9 (2.33%) CESG Certified Professional
14 8 (2.07%) Microsoft Certification
15 7 (1.81%) CCNA
16 6 (1.55%) Cyber Scheme
16 6 (1.55%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (12.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (11.66%) NIST
3 20 (5.18%) PMO
4 18 (4.66%) QA
5 17 (4.40%) GDPR
6 14 (3.63%) NCSC
7 13 (3.37%) PCI DSS
8 10 (2.59%) Data Quality
9 8 (2.07%) NIST 800
10 7 (1.81%) Cyber Essentials
10 7 (1.81%) SLA
11 6 (1.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (1.30%) Government Security Classifications
12 5 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 4 (1.04%) Accessibility
13 4 (1.04%) ISO 31000
14 3 (0.78%) DO-254
14 3 (0.78%) IEC 61508
14 3 (0.78%) ISO 26262
14 3 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 40 (10.36%) Active Directory
2 12 (3.11%) Docker
3 8 (2.07%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (1.81%) Firmware
5 4 (1.04%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.78%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.52%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.26%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 1 (0.26%) UAG
8 1 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 14 (3.63%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (2.07%) Terraform
4 7 (1.81%) Jamf Pro
5 6 (1.55%) Grafana
5 6 (1.55%) Nmap
5 6 (1.55%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (1.04%) Ansible
8 3 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.78%) Podman
8 3 (0.78%) Puppet
9 2 (0.52%) Nessus
9 2 (0.52%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 2 (0.52%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.52%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.26%) Dell DRAC
10 1 (0.26%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.26%) Istio
10 1 (0.26%) linkerd
Vendors
1 78 (20.21%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.36%) Oracle
3 33 (8.55%) SAP
4 25 (6.48%) IBM
5 19 (4.92%) ServiceNow
6 15 (3.89%) Ariba
6 15 (3.89%) Cisco
7 13 (3.37%) BeyondTrust
7 13 (3.37%) CyberArk
8 10 (2.59%) Palo Alto
8 10 (2.59%) VMware
9 9 (2.33%) CheckPoint
9 9 (2.33%) Splunk
10 8 (2.07%) Aruba
11 6 (1.55%) Salesforce
11 6 (1.55%) Tenable
12 5 (1.30%) Dell
12 5 (1.30%) Workday
13 4 (1.04%) Juniper
13 4 (1.04%) Red Hat