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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 24 15
Rank change year-on-year -1 -9 +8
Contract jobs citing Degree 473 235 409
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.04% 6.65% 8.43%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.76% 16.55% 18.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 134 227
10th Percentile £192 £208 £205
25th Percentile £313 £355 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £592 £588 £608
90th Percentile £713 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £520
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 110 34 74
10th Percentile £27.11 £22.60 £18.64
25th Percentile £37.31 £34.48 £41.06
Median hourly rate £75.00 £62.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +20.97% +8.11% -4.42%
75th Percentile £86.75 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £87.64 £74.63
England median hourly rate £43.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +2.35% -25.89% +15.69%

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 3,001 1,420 2,170
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.68% 40.18% 44.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,040 916 1,356
10th Percentile £350 £236 £350
25th Percentile £463 £414 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £523 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.21% -4.95% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £669 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 321 121 180
10th Percentile £19.22 £18.87 £18.30
25th Percentile £38.25 £19.79 £35.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £27.76 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +143.16% -51.60% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.00 £67.50 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +110.74% -47.05% -13.64%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +10 259 £548 +21.67% 414
Berkshire +12 159 £550 +15.79% 170
Hampshire -4 107 £550 +10.00% 194
Surrey +7 62 £310 +19.81% 116
Oxfordshire -6 55 £396 -11.94% 130
Buckinghamshire -9 45 £570 +32.17% 117
Kent +8 11 £201 -52.63% 64
West Sussex -30 10 £338 +16.78% 28
Sussex -1 4 £275 - 9
East Sussex -2 2 £461 - 27
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 18
Home Counties +1 1 - -
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 25 (5.29%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.75%) Confluence
3 7 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.85%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) CMS
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (12.47%) Microsoft Office
2 52 (10.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 32 (6.77%) Microsoft Project
4 24 (5.07%) 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 (0.63%) 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
1 105 (22.20%) Azure
2 51 (10.78%) AWS
3 44 (9.30%) Entra ID
4 41 (8.67%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (4.65%) GCP
5 22 (4.65%) Power Platform
5 22 (4.65%) SaaS
6 17 (3.59%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (2.54%) OneDrive
8 10 (2.11%) Serverless
9 7 (1.48%) IaaS
9 7 (1.48%) Power Automate
10 6 (1.27%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Functions
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.06%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
12 4 (0.85%) PaaS
12 4 (0.85%) Smartsheet
13 3 (0.63%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 24 (5.07%) TCP/IP
2 23 (4.86%) DNS
3 21 (4.44%) Firewall
4 18 (3.81%) DHCP
4 18 (3.81%) Network Security
5 10 (2.11%) LAN
6 9 (1.90%) VPN
7 8 (1.69%) WAN
8 7 (1.48%) VLAN
9 6 (1.27%) HTTP
9 6 (1.27%) SSH
10 5 (1.06%) BGP
10 5 (1.06%) OSPF
11 4 (0.85%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (0.85%) MQTT
11 4 (0.85%) RSVP
11 4 (0.85%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.63%) Cisco Firepower
12 3 (0.63%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 3 (0.63%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (4.23%) Power BI
2 16 (3.38%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.75%) Relational Database
4 9 (1.90%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (1.48%) Metadata
5 7 (1.48%) MySQL
6 4 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (0.63%) Oracle Database
7 3 (0.63%) Tableau
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 32 (6.77%) Rational DOORS
2 26 (5.50%) JIRA
3 14 (2.96%) Git
4 8 (1.69%) GitLab
5 4 (0.85%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.63%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.63%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.63%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.63%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.63%) Xcode
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
1 200 (42.28%) Social Skills
2 104 (21.99%) Analytical Skills
3 75 (15.86%) Aerospace
4 67 (14.16%) Finance
5 59 (12.47%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.29%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.07%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (4.86%) Organisational Skills
9 16 (3.38%) Marketing
10 15 (3.17%) Military
11 14 (2.96%) Law
12 13 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 13 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (2.54%) Telecoms
14 9 (1.90%) French Language
14 9 (1.90%) Pharmaceutical
15 8 (1.69%) Games
15 8 (1.69%) Legal
15 8 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (1.48%) Retail
Job Titles
1 62 (13.11%) Analyst
2 55 (11.63%) Senior
3 44 (9.30%) Lead
4 37 (7.82%) Product Manager
5 36 (7.61%) Delivery Manager
6 34 (7.19%) Product Delivery Manager
7 27 (5.71%) IT Manager
8 24 (5.07%) Senior Manager
8 24 (5.07%) Systems Manager
9 23 (4.86%) Project Manager
10 22 (4.65%) Architect
11 21 (4.44%) Systems Delivery Manager
12 19 (4.02%) IT Support
13 16 (3.38%) Senior IT Manager
14 15 (3.17%) Business Analyst
14 15 (3.17%) Category Manager
14 15 (3.17%) IT Services Manager
14 15 (3.17%) Senior Category Manager
14 15 (3.17%) Senior Service Manager
15 14 (2.96%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.07%) OAuth
2 23 (4.86%) OpenID
3 19 (4.02%) LDAP
3 19 (4.02%) SAML
4 18 (3.81%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.59%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.17%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (2.75%) Web Services
8 11 (2.33%) CSS
8 11 (2.33%) React
8 11 (2.33%) RESTful
9 10 (2.11%) .NET
10 8 (1.69%) HTML
11 7 (1.48%) Middleware
12 5 (1.06%) AngularJS
12 5 (1.06%) Django
12 5 (1.06%) GraphQL
12 5 (1.06%) gRPC
12 5 (1.06%) Kafka
12 5 (1.06%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 57 (12.05%) Management Information System
1 57 (12.05%) Product Ownership
2 30 (6.34%) Data Structures
2 30 (6.34%) Onboarding
3 22 (4.65%) Data Centre
4 15 (3.17%) Operational Technology
5 14 (2.96%) Hybrid Cloud
5 14 (2.96%) Self-Motivation
6 13 (2.75%) Cloud Native
6 13 (2.75%) Life Science
6 13 (2.75%) SCADA
7 11 (2.33%) Virtual Team
8 9 (1.90%) PMI
8 9 (1.90%) Security Posture
9 8 (1.69%) Animation
9 8 (1.69%) Graphic Design
9 8 (1.69%) Interactive Media
10 7 (1.48%) CCTV
10 7 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (1.27%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 65 (13.74%) Windows
2 46 (9.73%) Linux
3 28 (5.92%) Unix
4 18 (3.81%) 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 2 (0.42%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.21%) Solaris
10 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (38.27%) Computer Science
2 140 (29.60%) Agile
3 125 (26.43%) Continuous Improvement
4 106 (22.41%) Problem-Solving
5 101 (21.35%) Stakeholder Management
6 89 (18.82%) ITIL
7 77 (16.28%) Cybersecurity
8 76 (16.07%) ITSM
9 71 (15.01%) PRINCE2
10 68 (14.38%) Project Management
11 64 (13.53%) Change Control
12 57 (12.05%) Decision-Making
13 53 (11.21%) Information Security
13 53 (11.21%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 52 (10.99%) AI
15 48 (10.15%) Systems Engineering
16 46 (9.73%) Roadmaps
16 46 (9.73%) Service Management
17 44 (9.30%) DevOps
17 44 (9.30%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 65 (13.74%) Python
2 44 (9.30%) PowerShell
3 24 (5.07%) SQL
4 18 (3.81%) JavaScript
5 15 (3.17%) Java
6 8 (1.69%) Shell Script
7 7 (1.48%) Bash
7 7 (1.48%) C#
8 5 (1.06%) C
8 5 (1.06%) Perl
9 4 (0.85%) Bicep
9 4 (0.85%) Rust
10 3 (0.63%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.63%) C++
10 3 (0.63%) Korn
10 3 (0.63%) Lua
10 3 (0.63%) X++
11 2 (0.42%) Ada
12 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 199 (42.07%) Security Cleared
2 115 (24.31%) SC Cleared
3 60 (12.68%) Computer Science Degree
4 31 (6.55%) PMI Certification
5 29 (6.13%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (5.92%) DV Cleared
7 27 (5.71%) PMP
8 26 (5.50%) CISSP
9 22 (4.65%) Master's Degree
10 20 (4.23%) BPSS Clearance
11 16 (3.38%) Azure Certification
11 16 (3.38%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (3.17%) CISM
13 13 (2.75%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 10 (2.11%) ACCA
14 10 (2.11%) CIMA
15 8 (1.69%) AWS Certification
15 8 (1.69%) CCNP
15 8 (1.69%) CESG Certified Professional
16 7 (1.48%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (11.21%) NIST
2 51 (10.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (5.07%) Data Quality
4 16 (3.38%) NCSC
4 16 (3.38%) PMO
5 15 (3.17%) QA
6 13 (2.75%) GDPR
7 8 (1.69%) NIST 800
7 8 (1.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 7 (1.48%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.48%) SLA
9 6 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 6 (1.27%) PCI DSS
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%) DO-254
11 4 (0.85%) GRC
11 4 (0.85%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 59 (12.47%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.81%) Docker
3 17 (3.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.27%) Firmware
4 6 (1.27%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.63%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.63%) OpenAM
6 3 (0.63%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.21%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (0.21%) UAG
7 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.38%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.33%) Terraform
4 10 (2.11%) Ansible
4 10 (2.11%) Jamf Pro
5 8 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (1.06%) Grafana
7 5 (1.06%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.85%) Podman
8 4 (0.85%) Puppet
8 4 (0.85%) SCCM
9 3 (0.63%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 2 (0.42%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.21%) Argo
11 1 (0.21%) CASB
11 1 (0.21%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.21%) Istio
11 1 (0.21%) MOM
Vendors
1 132 (27.91%) Microsoft
2 41 (8.67%) Oracle
3 37 (7.82%) ServiceNow
4 31 (6.55%) SAP
5 29 (6.13%) IBM
6 23 (4.86%) VMware
7 15 (3.17%) Ariba
7 15 (3.17%) CyberArk
8 14 (2.96%) BeyondTrust
8 14 (2.96%) Salesforce
9 12 (2.54%) Google
10 8 (1.69%) Cisco
11 5 (1.06%) Dell
11 5 (1.06%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.06%) Workday
12 4 (0.85%) F5
12 4 (0.85%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.85%) Red Hat
12 4 (0.85%) Rockwell
12 4 (0.85%) Splunk