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 27 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 26 24 14
Rank change year-on-year -2 -10 +11
Contract jobs citing Degree 418 211 489
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.70% 6.85% 8.60%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.83% 17.28% 19.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 214 129 247
10th Percentile £204 £228 £205
25th Percentile £308 £354 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £719 £640 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 27 83
10th Percentile £25.77 £22.09 £17.80
25th Percentile £36.81 £32.18 £22.50
Median hourly rate £82.75 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +45.81% -1.05% +20.74%
75th Percentile £87.37 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 - £65.00
England median hourly rate £50.72 £47.81 £42.00
% change year-on-year +6.10% +13.82% -12.04%

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 2,818 1,221 2,553
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.15% 39.66% 44.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,913 772 1,472
10th Percentile £313 £250 £350
25th Percentile £447 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.52% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £663 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 295 88 226
10th Percentile £18.02 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £29.07 £25.15 £27.55
Median hourly rate £60.00 £50.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +19.64% -12.55% -5.70%
75th Percentile £84.50 £70.31 £70.21
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.30 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.00 £29.27 £42.50
% change year-on-year +81.07% -31.13% -22.73%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 +4 213 £500 +4.71% 145
Berkshire +8 129 £400 -16.23% 70
Hampshire +7 106 £550 +6.80% 111
Oxfordshire -4 45 £525 +16.67% 43
Surrey -12 45 £305 -16.44% 57
Buckinghamshire -12 39 £570 +6.79% 35
Kent +8 14 £445 +61.82% 22
West Sussex -22 14 £275 -4.84% 22
Sussex - 4 £275 - 6
Home Counties +1 3 - -
East Sussex -4 2 £461 - 13
Middlesex - 1 £198 - 10
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 16 (3.83%) SharePoint
2 9 (2.15%) Confluence
3 5 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.72%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.48%) CMS
5 2 (0.48%) MS Project Server
6 1 (0.24%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 54 (12.92%) Microsoft Office
2 39 (9.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (5.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 21 (5.02%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.72%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.24%) CATIA
5 1 (0.24%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.24%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (2.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.20%) Primavera
3 3 (0.72%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
4 2 (0.48%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.24%) ENOVIA
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
5 1 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 88 (21.05%) Azure
2 53 (12.68%) AWS
3 36 (8.61%) Entra ID
4 30 (7.18%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (4.55%) GCP
6 18 (4.31%) Power Platform
7 13 (3.11%) SaaS
8 11 (2.63%) OneDrive
9 10 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.67%) Serverless
11 6 (1.44%) IaaS
11 6 (1.44%) Power Automate
12 5 (1.20%) GitHub
12 5 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (1.20%) PaaS
13 4 (0.96%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 3 (0.72%) Lucidchart
14 3 (0.72%) Sauce Labs
15 2 (0.48%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 22 (5.26%) Firewall
2 21 (5.02%) DNS
2 21 (5.02%) TCP/IP
3 14 (3.35%) DHCP
3 14 (3.35%) LAN
3 14 (3.35%) Network Security
3 14 (3.35%) WAN
4 10 (2.39%) BGP
4 10 (2.39%) OSPF
5 7 (1.67%) IPsec
6 6 (1.44%) HTTP
7 5 (1.20%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (1.20%) SSH
7 5 (1.20%) VPN
8 4 (0.96%) BIG-IP
8 4 (0.96%) MQTT
8 4 (0.96%) RSVP
8 4 (0.96%) SD-WAN
8 4 (0.96%) Structured Cabling
8 4 (0.96%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (4.55%) SQL Server
2 16 (3.83%) Power BI
3 12 (2.87%) Relational Database
4 11 (2.63%) MySQL
5 6 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.96%) Tableau
7 3 (0.72%) Big Data
8 2 (0.48%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.48%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.48%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.24%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.24%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.24%) Metadata
9 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 28 (6.70%) Rational DOORS
2 21 (5.02%) JIRA
3 10 (2.39%) Git
4 8 (1.91%) GitLab
5 5 (1.20%) CircleCI
5 5 (1.20%) Gradle
6 4 (0.96%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.96%) JUnit
6 4 (0.96%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.72%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.72%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (0.72%) Burp Suite
7 3 (0.72%) Eclipse
7 3 (0.72%) Metasploit
7 3 (0.72%) Xcode
8 2 (0.48%) Balsamiq
8 2 (0.48%) Selenium
8 2 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.24%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.24%) WebDriver
General
1 175 (41.87%) Social Skills
2 80 (19.14%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (15.31%) Finance
4 62 (14.83%) Aerospace
5 53 (12.68%) Public Sector
6 24 (5.74%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (4.78%) Organisational Skills
8 17 (4.07%) Manufacturing
9 16 (3.83%) Influencing Skills
9 16 (3.83%) Law
10 15 (3.59%) Marketing
11 12 (2.87%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (2.39%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (1.67%) Legal
14 7 (1.67%) Military
14 7 (1.67%) Retail
15 6 (1.44%) Aviation
16 5 (1.20%) Arabic Language
16 5 (1.20%) French Language
Job Titles
1 56 (13.40%) Analyst
2 50 (11.96%) Senior
3 32 (7.66%) Lead
3 32 (7.66%) Product Manager
4 29 (6.94%) Delivery Manager
5 28 (6.70%) Product Delivery Manager
6 27 (6.46%) IT Manager
7 23 (5.50%) Architect
7 23 (5.50%) Project Manager
7 23 (5.50%) Senior Manager
8 22 (5.26%) Systems Delivery Manager
8 22 (5.26%) Systems Manager
9 17 (4.07%) Category Manager
10 16 (3.83%) Technical Support
11 15 (3.59%) IT Services Manager
11 15 (3.59%) IT Support
11 15 (3.59%) Senior Category Manager
11 15 (3.59%) Senior IT Manager
11 15 (3.59%) Senior Service Manager
12 14 (3.35%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.07%) OAuth
2 15 (3.59%) LDAP
2 15 (3.59%) OpenID
2 15 (3.59%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (3.59%) SAML
3 13 (3.11%) SailPoint
4 10 (2.39%) OAuth2
4 10 (2.39%) React
4 10 (2.39%) REST
4 10 (2.39%) Web Services
5 7 (1.67%) .NET
5 7 (1.67%) Kafka
6 6 (1.44%) CSS
6 6 (1.44%) RESTful
7 5 (1.20%) AngularJS
7 5 (1.20%) GraphQL
7 5 (1.20%) gRPC
7 5 (1.20%) RAML
8 4 (0.96%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.96%) Protocol Buffers
Miscellaneous
1 48 (11.48%) Product Ownership
2 45 (10.77%) Management Information System
3 29 (6.94%) Data Centre
3 29 (6.94%) Onboarding
4 26 (6.22%) Data Structures
5 17 (4.07%) Virtual Team
6 11 (2.63%) Security Posture
7 10 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
8 9 (2.15%) Cloud Native
9 8 (1.91%) Operational Technology
9 8 (1.91%) PMI
9 8 (1.91%) Robotics
10 7 (1.67%) CCTV
10 7 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.67%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (1.67%) Mobile App
11 6 (1.44%) BYOD
11 6 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
11 6 (1.44%) Private Cloud
11 6 (1.44%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 72 (17.22%) Windows
2 51 (12.20%) Linux
3 35 (8.37%) Unix
4 15 (3.59%) Apple iOS
5 14 (3.35%) Windows Server
6 11 (2.63%) Android
6 11 (2.63%) Mac OS
7 8 (1.91%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.48%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.48%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (39.95%) Computer Science
2 115 (27.51%) Agile
3 91 (21.77%) Problem-Solving
4 87 (20.81%) Continuous Improvement
5 73 (17.46%) Cybersecurity
6 63 (15.07%) Change Control
6 63 (15.07%) Stakeholder Management
7 60 (14.35%) ITIL
8 58 (13.88%) Decision-Making
9 57 (13.64%) Information Security
9 57 (13.64%) ITSM
10 54 (12.92%) AI
11 51 (12.20%) PRINCE2
12 48 (11.48%) Project Management
13 47 (11.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 43 (10.29%) Systems Engineering
15 38 (9.09%) CI/CD
16 36 (8.61%) Programme Management
17 35 (8.37%) Scaled Agile Framework
18 33 (7.89%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 59 (14.11%) Python
2 31 (7.42%) PowerShell
3 22 (5.26%) SQL
4 20 (4.78%) Java
5 17 (4.07%) JavaScript
6 9 (2.15%) Perl
7 8 (1.91%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.44%) Kotlin
9 4 (0.96%) Bash
9 4 (0.96%) C#
9 4 (0.96%) C++
9 4 (0.96%) Rust
10 3 (0.72%) C
10 3 (0.72%) Korn
11 2 (0.48%) Ada
11 2 (0.48%) Go
11 2 (0.48%) R
11 2 (0.48%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.48%) X++
12 1 (0.24%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 177 (42.34%) Security Cleared
2 110 (26.32%) SC Cleared
3 62 (14.83%) Computer Science Degree
4 25 (5.98%) CISSP
5 20 (4.78%) Cisco Certification
5 20 (4.78%) PMI Certification
6 19 (4.55%) Master's Degree
7 18 (4.31%) PMP
8 17 (4.07%) BPSS Clearance
8 17 (4.07%) DV Cleared
9 15 (3.59%) CISM
10 14 (3.35%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (3.11%) CCNP
12 10 (2.39%) ACCA
12 10 (2.39%) CIMA
13 9 (2.15%) CESG Certified Professional
14 8 (1.91%) CompTIA Security+
15 7 (1.67%) AWS Certification
16 6 (1.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 5 (1.20%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (12.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 51 (12.20%) NIST
3 17 (4.07%) NCSC
4 16 (3.83%) PMO
5 15 (3.59%) Data Quality
6 14 (3.35%) GDPR
6 14 (3.35%) QA
7 10 (2.39%) PCI DSS
8 8 (1.91%) NIST 800
9 7 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials
9 7 (1.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (1.67%) SLA
10 6 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (1.20%) Government Security Classifications
12 4 (0.96%) Accessibility
12 4 (0.96%) GRC
12 4 (0.96%) ISO 31000
13 3 (0.72%) IEC 61508
13 3 (0.72%) ISO 26262
13 3 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 48 (11.48%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.35%) Docker
3 9 (2.15%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.44%) Firmware
4 6 (1.44%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.96%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.72%) OpenAM
7 2 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.24%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 1 (0.24%) UAG
8 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 14 (3.35%) Kubernetes
1 14 (3.35%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (2.39%) Jamf Pro
2 10 (2.39%) Terraform
3 7 (1.67%) Grafana
3 7 (1.67%) Prometheus
4 6 (1.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 6 (1.44%) Ansible
5 5 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.96%) Podman
6 4 (0.96%) Puppet
7 3 (0.72%) Nmap
8 2 (0.48%) Nessus
8 2 (0.48%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 2 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.48%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.24%) Dell DRAC
9 1 (0.24%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.24%) linkerd
9 1 (0.24%) SCCM
Vendors
1 95 (22.73%) Microsoft
2 44 (10.53%) Oracle
3 32 (7.66%) SAP
4 26 (6.22%) ServiceNow
5 25 (5.98%) IBM
6 17 (4.07%) BeyondTrust
6 17 (4.07%) CyberArk
7 15 (3.59%) Ariba
7 15 (3.59%) Cisco
8 13 (3.11%) VMware
9 10 (2.39%) Palo Alto
10 8 (1.91%) Google
10 8 (1.91%) Salesforce
11 7 (1.67%) CheckPoint
11 7 (1.67%) Splunk
12 6 (1.44%) Aruba
12 6 (1.44%) Tenable
13 5 (1.20%) Dell
13 5 (1.20%) F5
13 5 (1.20%) Workday