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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 27 18
Rank change year-on-year +7 -9 +4
Contract jobs citing Degree 472 221 391
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.09% 6.27% 8.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.09% 15.77% 18.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 123 213
10th Percentile £192 £208 £203
25th Percentile £313 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +8.16% -2.06% -3.01%
75th Percentile £593 £588 £608
90th Percentile £713 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -4.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 31 70
10th Percentile £25.75 £21.50 £18.35
25th Percentile £35.74 £32.18 £41.13
Median hourly rate £67.70 £60.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +12.83% +4.62% -4.42%
75th Percentile £86.33 £78.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £89.63 £75.00
England median hourly rate £41.71 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -1.86% -25.89% +17.06%

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 2,934 1,401 2,115
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.08% 39.72% 44.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,987 898 1,321
10th Percentile £346 £237 £350
25th Percentile £463 £420 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 126 176
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £38.25 £20.15 £33.31
Median hourly rate £64.24 £28.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +129.43% -51.18% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.00 £69.36 £70.39
90th Percentile £95.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +108.75% -48.21% -11.71%

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 26 August 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 26 August 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 26 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
Thames Valley +12 258 £550 +22.22% 178
Berkshire +13 157 £550 +22.22% 70
Hampshire -3 106 £550 +8.64% 129
Surrey +9 64 £330 +53.49% 33
Oxfordshire +1 55 £396 -11.94% 67
Buckinghamshire -4 46 £593 +121.68% 49
Kent +9 11 £201 -52.63% 25
West Sussex -28 10 £338 +17.19% 17
Sussex -1 4 £275 - 7
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 1
Home Counties 0 1 - -
East Sussex -1 1 £600 - 11
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 26 (5.51%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.75%) Confluence
3 6 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.85%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (12.50%) Microsoft Office
2 52 (11.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 32 (6.78%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (4.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.06%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.21%) CATIA
6 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.48%) Primavera
2 7 (1.48%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.64%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 2 (0.42%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.21%) ENOVIA
Cloud Services
1 106 (22.46%) Azure
2 48 (10.17%) AWS
3 44 (9.32%) Entra ID
4 40 (8.47%) Microsoft 365
5 23 (4.87%) Power Platform
6 22 (4.66%) GCP
6 22 (4.66%) SaaS
7 17 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.54%) OneDrive
9 10 (2.12%) Serverless
10 7 (1.48%) IaaS
10 7 (1.48%) Power Automate
11 6 (1.27%) PowerApps
12 5 (1.06%) Azure Functions
12 5 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
12 5 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (1.06%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 4 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 4 (0.85%) Azure Monitor
13 4 (0.85%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 25 (5.30%) TCP/IP
2 24 (5.08%) DNS
3 21 (4.45%) Firewall
4 19 (4.03%) DHCP
5 17 (3.60%) Network Security
6 10 (2.12%) LAN
6 10 (2.12%) VPN
7 8 (1.69%) WAN
8 7 (1.48%) SSH
8 7 (1.48%) VLAN
9 5 (1.06%) BGP
9 5 (1.06%) OSPF
10 4 (0.85%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.85%) HTTP
10 4 (0.85%) MQTT
10 4 (0.85%) RSVP
10 4 (0.85%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.64%) Cisco Firepower
11 3 (0.64%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 3 (0.64%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.45%) Power BI
2 14 (2.97%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.75%) Relational Database
4 8 (1.69%) Metadata
5 6 (1.27%) MySQL
5 6 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.85%) Tableau
7 2 (0.42%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.21%) Big Data
8 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.21%) GIS
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 10g
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 11g
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.21%) SQLite
8 1 (0.21%) Tableau Desktop
8 1 (0.21%) Tableau Server
8 1 (0.21%) Text Mining
Development Applications
1 29 (6.14%) Rational DOORS
2 25 (5.30%) JIRA
3 13 (2.75%) Git
4 8 (1.69%) GitLab
5 4 (0.85%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.64%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.64%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.64%) Xcode
7 2 (0.42%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.21%) JUnit
8 1 (0.21%) MSI
8 1 (0.21%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.21%) Selenium
8 1 (0.21%) TestNG
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 198 (41.95%) Social Skills
2 107 (22.67%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (15.68%) Aerospace
4 66 (13.98%) Finance
5 60 (12.71%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.30%) Manufacturing
7 23 (4.87%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (4.87%) Organisational Skills
8 15 (3.18%) Influencing Skills
8 15 (3.18%) Law
8 15 (3.18%) Marketing
8 15 (3.18%) Military
9 13 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (2.54%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.91%) French Language
11 9 (1.91%) Pharmaceutical
12 8 (1.69%) Games
12 8 (1.69%) Legal
12 8 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (1.48%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 61 (12.92%) Analyst
2 55 (11.65%) Senior
3 43 (9.11%) Lead
4 37 (7.84%) Delivery Manager
5 36 (7.63%) Product Manager
6 34 (7.20%) Product Delivery Manager
7 26 (5.51%) IT Manager
8 24 (5.08%) Senior Manager
8 24 (5.08%) Systems Manager
9 23 (4.87%) Project Manager
10 21 (4.45%) Architect
10 21 (4.45%) Systems Delivery Manager
11 19 (4.03%) IT Support
12 16 (3.39%) Business Analyst
12 16 (3.39%) Senior IT Manager
13 15 (3.18%) Category Manager
13 15 (3.18%) IT Services Manager
13 15 (3.18%) Senior Category Manager
13 15 (3.18%) Senior Service Manager
14 14 (2.97%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.08%) OAuth
2 23 (4.87%) OpenID
3 19 (4.03%) LDAP
3 19 (4.03%) SAML
4 18 (3.81%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.60%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.18%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (2.75%) Web Services
8 12 (2.54%) Terraform
9 10 (2.12%) .NET
9 10 (2.12%) CSS
9 10 (2.12%) React
9 10 (2.12%) RESTful
10 7 (1.48%) HTML
10 7 (1.48%) Middleware
11 5 (1.06%) ARM Templates
11 5 (1.06%) Django
12 4 (0.85%) GraphQL
12 4 (0.85%) gRPC
12 4 (0.85%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 57 (12.08%) Product Ownership
2 54 (11.44%) Management Information System
3 31 (6.57%) Onboarding
4 30 (6.36%) Data Structures
5 21 (4.45%) Data Centre
6 15 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
6 15 (3.18%) Operational Technology
7 14 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (2.75%) Life Science
8 13 (2.75%) SCADA
9 11 (2.33%) Cloud Native
10 10 (2.12%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.91%) PMI
11 9 (1.91%) Security Posture
12 8 (1.69%) Animation
12 8 (1.69%) Graphic Design
12 8 (1.69%) Interactive Media
13 7 (1.48%) CCTV
13 7 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
14 6 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 66 (13.98%) Windows
2 45 (9.53%) Linux
3 28 (5.93%) Unix
4 19 (4.03%) Windows Server
5 13 (2.75%) Apple iOS
6 11 (2.33%) Mac OS
7 8 (1.69%) Windows 10
8 7 (1.48%) Android
9 1 (0.21%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.21%) Solaris
9 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (37.08%) Computer Science
2 137 (29.03%) Agile
3 127 (26.91%) Continuous Improvement
4 108 (22.88%) Problem-Solving
5 103 (21.82%) Stakeholder Management
6 86 (18.22%) ITIL
7 75 (15.89%) Cybersecurity
7 75 (15.89%) ITSM
8 73 (15.47%) PRINCE2
9 69 (14.62%) Project Management
10 61 (12.92%) Change Control
11 58 (12.29%) Decision-Making
12 54 (11.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 52 (11.02%) AI
14 51 (10.81%) Information Security
15 47 (9.96%) Roadmaps
15 47 (9.96%) Systems Engineering
16 46 (9.75%) Service Management
17 44 (9.32%) Scaled Agile Framework
18 43 (9.11%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 65 (13.77%) Python
2 44 (9.32%) PowerShell
3 24 (5.08%) SQL
4 17 (3.60%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.97%) Java
6 7 (1.48%) Bash
6 7 (1.48%) C#
6 7 (1.48%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.06%) Bicep
7 5 (1.06%) C
7 5 (1.06%) Perl
8 4 (0.85%) Rust
9 3 (0.64%) Apex Code
9 3 (0.64%) C++
9 3 (0.64%) Lua
9 3 (0.64%) X++
10 2 (0.42%) Ada
11 1 (0.21%) Korn
11 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 199 (42.16%) Security Cleared
2 114 (24.15%) SC Cleared
3 59 (12.50%) Computer Science Degree
4 30 (6.36%) PMI Certification
5 29 (6.14%) DV Cleared
5 29 (6.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (5.51%) PMP
7 24 (5.08%) CISSP
8 22 (4.66%) Master's Degree
9 20 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
10 16 (3.39%) Azure Certification
10 16 (3.39%) Cisco Certification
11 15 (3.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 13 (2.75%) CISM
13 10 (2.12%) ACCA
13 10 (2.12%) CIMA
14 9 (1.91%) ISTQB
15 8 (1.69%) AWS Certification
15 8 (1.69%) CCNP
15 8 (1.69%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (10.59%) NIST
2 48 (10.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (5.08%) Data Quality
4 17 (3.60%) NCSC
5 16 (3.39%) PMO
6 15 (3.18%) QA
7 12 (2.54%) GDPR
8 7 (1.48%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.48%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.48%) SLA
9 6 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 6 (1.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
10 5 (1.06%) GxP
10 5 (1.06%) ISO 31000
11 4 (0.85%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.85%) GRC
11 4 (0.85%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 59 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (3.39%) Docker
4 6 (1.27%) Firmware
4 6 (1.27%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.64%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.64%) OpenAM
7 2 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.21%) UAG
8 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (3.18%) Kubernetes
3 10 (2.12%) Ansible
3 10 (2.12%) Jamf Pro
4 8 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.06%) Grafana
6 5 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.85%) Podman
7 4 (0.85%) Puppet
7 4 (0.85%) SCCM
8 2 (0.42%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.42%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.21%) Argo
9 1 (0.21%) CASB
9 1 (0.21%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.21%) Dell DRAC
9 1 (0.21%) Istio
9 1 (0.21%) MOM
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 131 (27.75%) Microsoft
2 40 (8.47%) Oracle
3 36 (7.63%) ServiceNow
4 31 (6.57%) SAP
5 29 (6.14%) IBM
6 23 (4.87%) VMware
7 15 (3.18%) Ariba
7 15 (3.18%) CyberArk
8 14 (2.97%) BeyondTrust
8 14 (2.97%) Salesforce
9 12 (2.54%) Google
10 8 (1.69%) Cisco
11 5 (1.06%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.06%) Workday
12 4 (0.85%) Dell
12 4 (0.85%) F5
12 4 (0.85%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.85%) Rockwell
12 4 (0.85%) Splunk
12 4 (0.85%) Tenable