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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 26 14
Rank change year-on-year +2 -12 +11
Contract jobs citing Degree 460 230 473
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.02% 6.76% 8.60%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.44% 16.91% 19.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 140 242
10th Percentile £195 £257 £205
25th Percentile £324 £357 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £476 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.99% -4.75% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £701 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £502
% change year-on-year - -0.30% -6.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 100 33 84
10th Percentile £25.65 £25.15 £17.80
25th Percentile £35.22 £41.00 £26.93
Median hourly rate £81.50 £64.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +27.34% +11.60% +6.44%
75th Percentile £87.16 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £89.11 £73.00
England median hourly rate £45.25 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +6.47% -10.53% -5.00%

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 2,980 1,360 2,490
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.50% 39.98% 45.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,025 875 1,475
10th Percentile £325 £254 £350
25th Percentile £456 £410 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.81% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £648
90th Percentile £725 £663 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £537
% change year-on-year - -2.28% -2.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 106 222
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £31.25 £20.32 £27.00
Median hourly rate £62.50 £36.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +70.07% -35.92% -6.94%
75th Percentile £85.00 £70.00 £71.62
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.03 £87.46
England median hourly rate £54.00 £26.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +103.77% -38.37% -22.17%

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 18 July 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 18 July 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 18 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
Thames Valley +7 239 £525 +10.53% 149
Berkshire +8 142 £475 -0.52% 78
Hampshire -2 109 £550 +7.06% 93
Surrey +1 56 £310 -13.29% 62
Oxfordshire +4 52 £525 +16.67% 37
Buckinghamshire -2 45 £582 +10.76% 36
Kent +12 15 £445 +27.14% 17
West Sussex -25 15 £338 +16.38% 10
Sussex - 4 £275 - 5
Home Counties +1 3 - -
East Sussex 0 2 £461 - 15
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 13
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 23 (5.00%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.83%) Confluence
3 7 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.65%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (0.43%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.43%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.22%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.22%) CMS
6 1 (0.22%) MS Project Server
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (13.91%) Microsoft Office
2 46 (10.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (5.87%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (5.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.87%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.22%) CATIA
6 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.22%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (2.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.52%) Salesforce CRM
3 6 (1.30%) Primavera
4 2 (0.43%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.22%) ENOVIA
5 1 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
5 1 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 102 (22.17%) Azure
2 52 (11.30%) AWS
3 43 (9.35%) Entra ID
4 36 (7.83%) Microsoft 365
5 21 (4.57%) GCP
5 21 (4.57%) Power Platform
6 16 (3.48%) SaaS
7 13 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.61%) OneDrive
9 7 (1.52%) IaaS
9 7 (1.52%) Serverless
10 6 (1.30%) Power Automate
11 5 (1.09%) GitHub
11 5 (1.09%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
12 4 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
12 4 (0.87%) PaaS
12 4 (0.87%) PowerApps
12 4 (0.87%) Smartsheet
12 4 (0.87%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 3 (0.65%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 25 (5.43%) TCP/IP
2 24 (5.22%) Firewall
3 22 (4.78%) DNS
4 17 (3.70%) Network Security
5 16 (3.48%) DHCP
6 12 (2.61%) LAN
7 11 (2.39%) WAN
8 8 (1.74%) BGP
8 8 (1.74%) OSPF
9 7 (1.52%) SSH
9 7 (1.52%) VPN
10 6 (1.30%) HTTP
10 6 (1.30%) IPsec
10 6 (1.30%) VLAN
11 4 (0.87%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (0.87%) MQTT
11 4 (0.87%) RSVP
11 4 (0.87%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.65%) Radio Access Network
12 3 (0.65%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (4.13%) Power BI
1 19 (4.13%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.96%) Relational Database
3 8 (1.74%) MySQL
4 6 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (1.09%) Tableau
6 4 (0.87%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.65%) Metadata
7 3 (0.65%) Oracle Database
8 2 (0.43%) Big Data
8 2 (0.43%) Hadoop
9 1 (0.22%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.22%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 10g
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 11g
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.22%) SQLite
9 1 (0.22%) Tableau Desktop
9 1 (0.22%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 30 (6.52%) Rational DOORS
2 28 (6.09%) JIRA
3 11 (2.39%) Git
4 8 (1.74%) GitLab
5 4 (0.87%) CircleCI
5 4 (0.87%) Gradle
5 4 (0.87%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.87%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.65%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.65%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.65%) JUnit
6 3 (0.65%) Xcode
7 2 (0.43%) Balsamiq
7 2 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.22%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.22%) Selenium
8 1 (0.22%) TestNG
8 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 193 (41.96%) Social Skills
2 97 (21.09%) Analytical Skills
3 68 (14.78%) Finance
4 62 (13.48%) Aerospace
5 60 (13.04%) Public Sector
6 27 (5.87%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (4.78%) Organisational Skills
8 21 (4.57%) Manufacturing
9 18 (3.91%) Marketing
10 14 (3.04%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (3.04%) Law
11 13 (2.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 13 (2.83%) Military
11 13 (2.83%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (2.61%) Telecoms
13 9 (1.96%) Legal
13 9 (1.96%) Retail
14 7 (1.52%) Aviation
14 7 (1.52%) French Language
15 6 (1.30%) Games
Job Titles
1 65 (14.13%) Analyst
2 55 (11.96%) Senior
3 38 (8.26%) Lead
4 32 (6.96%) Product Manager
5 30 (6.52%) IT Manager
6 29 (6.30%) Delivery Manager
7 28 (6.09%) Product Delivery Manager
8 26 (5.65%) Project Manager
9 24 (5.22%) Architect
9 24 (5.22%) Senior Manager
10 22 (4.78%) Systems Delivery Manager
10 22 (4.78%) Systems Manager
11 17 (3.70%) Category Manager
11 17 (3.70%) IT Support
12 16 (3.48%) Business Analyst
12 16 (3.48%) Senior IT Manager
13 15 (3.26%) Data Analyst
13 15 (3.26%) IT Services Manager
13 15 (3.26%) Senior Category Manager
13 15 (3.26%) Senior Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.57%) OAuth
2 19 (4.13%) OpenID
3 18 (3.91%) LDAP
3 18 (3.91%) SAML
4 16 (3.48%) SailPoint
5 15 (3.26%) Oracle Fusion
6 14 (3.04%) OAuth2
7 12 (2.61%) Web Services
8 11 (2.39%) React
9 9 (1.96%) REST
10 7 (1.52%) .NET
10 7 (1.52%) CSS
10 7 (1.52%) RESTful
11 6 (1.30%) Kafka
12 5 (1.09%) AngularJS
12 5 (1.09%) GraphQL
12 5 (1.09%) gRPC
13 4 (0.87%) Keycloak
13 4 (0.87%) Protocol Buffers
13 4 (0.87%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (12.17%) Product Ownership
2 51 (11.09%) Management Information System
3 34 (7.39%) Onboarding
4 27 (5.87%) Data Centre
5 26 (5.65%) Data Structures
6 16 (3.48%) Virtual Team
7 13 (2.83%) Operational Technology
7 13 (2.83%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (2.17%) Cloud Native
8 10 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.17%) SCADA
9 9 (1.96%) PMI
9 9 (1.96%) Security Posture
10 8 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.74%) Life Science
10 8 (1.74%) Robotics
11 7 (1.52%) CCTV
11 7 (1.52%) Mobile App
12 6 (1.30%) BYOD
12 6 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 72 (15.65%) Windows
2 49 (10.65%) Linux
3 32 (6.96%) Unix
4 19 (4.13%) Windows Server
5 15 (3.26%) Apple iOS
6 11 (2.39%) Mac OS
7 10 (2.17%) Android
8 9 (1.96%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.43%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.43%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.43%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.22%) Solaris
11 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (40.00%) Computer Science
2 131 (28.48%) Agile
3 110 (23.91%) Problem-Solving
4 104 (22.61%) Continuous Improvement
5 83 (18.04%) Stakeholder Management
6 76 (16.52%) Cybersecurity
7 74 (16.09%) ITIL
8 68 (14.78%) ITSM
9 64 (13.91%) Change Control
9 64 (13.91%) Decision-Making
10 58 (12.61%) Project Management
11 56 (12.17%) AI
11 56 (12.17%) Information Security
12 55 (11.96%) PRINCE2
13 53 (11.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 45 (9.78%) Systems Engineering
15 41 (8.91%) CI/CD
16 39 (8.48%) Scaled Agile Framework
17 37 (8.04%) Roadmaps
18 36 (7.83%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 62 (13.48%) Python
2 43 (9.35%) PowerShell
3 21 (4.57%) SQL
4 18 (3.91%) Java
5 15 (3.26%) JavaScript
6 8 (1.74%) Shell Script
7 7 (1.52%) Bash
8 6 (1.30%) Perl
9 5 (1.09%) C
9 5 (1.09%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.87%) Rust
11 3 (0.65%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.65%) Bicep
11 3 (0.65%) C#
11 3 (0.65%) C++
11 3 (0.65%) Korn
12 2 (0.43%) Ada
12 2 (0.43%) Lua
12 2 (0.43%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.43%) X++
Qualifications
1 189 (41.09%) Security Cleared
2 113 (24.57%) SC Cleared
3 61 (13.26%) Computer Science Degree
4 28 (6.09%) PMI Certification
5 25 (5.43%) CISSP
6 24 (5.22%) PMP
7 23 (5.00%) BPSS Clearance
7 23 (5.00%) DV Cleared
8 22 (4.78%) Master's Degree
9 21 (4.57%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (4.13%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (3.04%) CISM
12 12 (2.61%) CCNP
13 10 (2.17%) ACCA
13 10 (2.17%) Azure Certification
13 10 (2.17%) CIMA
14 9 (1.96%) CESG Certified Professional
15 8 (1.74%) AWS Certification
15 8 (1.74%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 7 (1.52%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (11.96%) NIST
2 54 (11.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (4.35%) Data Quality
4 17 (3.70%) NCSC
5 15 (3.26%) PMO
6 14 (3.04%) GDPR
7 13 (2.83%) QA
8 8 (1.74%) NIST 800
8 8 (1.74%) PCI DSS
8 8 (1.74%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 8 (1.74%) SLA
9 7 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials
10 6 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (1.09%) Government Security Classifications
11 5 (1.09%) ISO 31000
12 4 (0.87%) Accessibility
12 4 (0.87%) GRC
12 4 (0.87%) GxP
13 3 (0.65%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 3 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 57 (12.39%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.70%) Docker
3 14 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.30%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.09%) Firmware
6 4 (0.87%) Embedded Firmware
7 3 (0.65%) OpenAM
7 3 (0.65%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.43%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.22%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 1 (0.22%) UAG
9 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 17 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (3.26%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.61%) Terraform
4 10 (2.17%) Jamf Pro
5 8 (1.74%) Ansible
6 7 (1.52%) Grafana
6 7 (1.52%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (0.87%) Podman
8 4 (0.87%) Puppet
9 3 (0.65%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.65%) SCCM
10 2 (0.43%) Nessus
10 2 (0.43%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 2 (0.43%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.22%) CASB
11 1 (0.22%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.22%) Istio
11 1 (0.22%) linkerd
Vendors
1 117 (25.43%) Microsoft
2 42 (9.13%) Oracle
3 33 (7.17%) ServiceNow
4 32 (6.96%) SAP
5 27 (5.87%) IBM
6 18 (3.91%) VMware
7 17 (3.70%) BeyondTrust
7 17 (3.70%) CyberArk
8 15 (3.26%) Ariba
9 13 (2.83%) Cisco
10 12 (2.61%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.96%) Google
11 9 (1.96%) Palo Alto
12 6 (1.30%) CheckPoint
12 6 (1.30%) Splunk
12 6 (1.30%) Tenable
13 5 (1.09%) Aruba
13 5 (1.09%) Dell
13 5 (1.09%) Workday
14 4 (0.87%) NVIDIA