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 13 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 30 27
Rank change year-on-year +9 -3 -13
Contract jobs citing Degree 470 222 300
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.16% 6.25% 7.03%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.42% 15.83% 17.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 122 193
10th Percentile £189 £208 £203
25th Percentile £313 £328 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £569 £588
90th Percentile £697 £648 £629
England median daily rate £510 £504 £500
% change year-on-year +1.22% +0.80% -6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 31 22
10th Percentile £20.16 £21.50 £22.73
25th Percentile £31.25 £23.83 £31.94
Median hourly rate £52.50 £29.61 £51.44
Median % change year-on-year +77.30% -42.44% -6.47%
75th Percentile £69.75 £81.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £82.18 £89.63 £91.80
England median hourly rate £38.72 £34.48 £50.00
% change year-on-year +12.30% -31.04% +3.56%

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 2,863 1,402 1,751
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.64% 39.47% 41.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,861 915 1,116
10th Percentile £325 £204 £310
25th Percentile £463 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £529
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -5.48% -1.58%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £638
90th Percentile £738 £650 £700
England median daily rate £535 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 335 132 108
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.47
25th Percentile £33.70 £18.87 £35.00
Median hourly rate £62.50 £25.15 £60.83
Median % change year-on-year +148.51% -58.66% +1.38%
75th Percentile £86.13 £49.06 £73.75
90th Percentile £100.51 £81.00 £92.11
England median hourly rate £48.81 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +94.08% -52.10% -1.87%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 October 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 +13 256 £550 +22.22% 351
Berkshire +12 164 £550 +22.22% 188
Hampshire +4 97 £550 +15.18% 190
Surrey +9 69 £450 +109.30% 96
Oxfordshire 0 52 £405 -10.00% 85
Buckinghamshire -9 40 £525 +65.35% 80
West Sussex -25 18 £345 +19.79% 66
Kent +13 17 £250 - 31
Sussex +1 3 £275 - 14
Middlesex - 3 £334 - 2
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 28 (5.96%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.98%) Confluence
3 5 (1.06%) FactoryTalk
3 5 (1.06%) IIS
3 5 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.21%) CMS
5 1 (0.21%) Headless CMS
5 1 (0.21%) Oracle Service Bus
5 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (12.55%) Microsoft Office
2 55 (11.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (5.74%) Microsoft Project
4 25 (5.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.85%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.64%) Revit
7 2 (0.43%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.43%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.21%) CATIA
8 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 6 (1.28%) Salesforce CRM
2 5 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.85%) Primavera
4 3 (0.64%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.21%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.21%) SAP CAR
6 1 (0.21%) SAP CRM
6 1 (0.21%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 108 (22.98%) Azure
2 43 (9.15%) AWS
2 43 (9.15%) Entra ID
3 39 (8.30%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (5.32%) GCP
5 23 (4.89%) SaaS
6 19 (4.04%) Azure DevOps
6 19 (4.04%) Power Platform
7 13 (2.77%) OneDrive
8 11 (2.34%) Serverless
9 9 (1.91%) IaaS
10 6 (1.28%) GitHub
10 6 (1.28%) Power Automate
11 5 (1.06%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Functions
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.06%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.06%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (6.17%) TCP/IP
2 24 (5.11%) DNS
3 20 (4.26%) DHCP
4 19 (4.04%) Firewall
5 12 (2.55%) Network Security
5 12 (2.55%) VPN
6 8 (1.70%) VLAN
7 7 (1.49%) SSH
8 6 (1.28%) LAN
9 5 (1.06%) Wireshark
10 4 (0.85%) BGP
10 4 (0.85%) MQTT
10 4 (0.85%) OSPF
10 4 (0.85%) Software-Defined Networking
10 4 (0.85%) WAN
10 4 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (0.64%) Cisco Firepower
11 3 (0.64%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (0.64%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 3 (0.64%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (4.26%) Metadata
2 17 (3.62%) Power BI
3 13 (2.77%) Relational Database
4 8 (1.70%) SQL Server
5 7 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.28%) MySQL
6 6 (1.28%) Tableau
7 5 (1.06%) GIS
8 4 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
9 1 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.21%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.21%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.21%) Redis
9 1 (0.21%) Tableau Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 24 (5.11%) JIRA
2 13 (2.77%) Git
3 6 (1.28%) GitLab
4 5 (1.06%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (0.85%) CircleCI
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%) Gradle
6 3 (0.64%) Xcode
7 2 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.43%) XCTest
7 2 (0.43%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.21%) JUnit
8 1 (0.21%) MSI
8 1 (0.21%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 212 (45.11%) Social Skills
2 104 (22.13%) Analytical Skills
3 69 (14.68%) Aerospace
4 54 (11.49%) Public Sector
5 53 (11.28%) Finance
6 38 (8.09%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.11%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
9 17 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (3.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 15 (3.19%) Marketing
10 15 (3.19%) Pharmaceutical
11 13 (2.77%) Military
12 11 (2.34%) Law
12 11 (2.34%) Telecoms
13 10 (2.13%) Automotive
14 9 (1.91%) French Language
14 9 (1.91%) Games
15 8 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (1.70%) Retail
Job Titles
1 53 (11.28%) Analyst
1 53 (11.28%) Senior
2 34 (7.23%) Lead
3 31 (6.60%) Delivery Manager
4 22 (4.68%) Architect
5 21 (4.47%) IT Manager
5 21 (4.47%) Senior Manager
6 20 (4.26%) Product Delivery Manager
6 20 (4.26%) Product Manager
6 20 (4.26%) Project Manager
7 19 (4.04%) IT Support
8 16 (3.40%) Senior IT Manager
9 15 (3.19%) Category Manager
9 15 (3.19%) IT Services Manager
9 15 (3.19%) Senior Category Manager
9 15 (3.19%) Senior Service Manager
9 15 (3.19%) Test Manager
10 14 (2.98%) Business Analyst
10 14 (2.98%) Data Analyst
11 12 (2.55%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.11%) OAuth
2 23 (4.89%) OpenID
3 19 (4.04%) SAML
4 18 (3.83%) LDAP
4 18 (3.83%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.62%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.19%) Oracle Fusion
6 15 (3.19%) Terraform
7 13 (2.77%) Web Services
8 11 (2.34%) CSS
8 11 (2.34%) Middleware
8 11 (2.34%) React
8 11 (2.34%) RESTful
9 10 (2.13%) .NET
10 8 (1.70%) HTML
11 7 (1.49%) ARM Templates
11 7 (1.49%) REST
12 6 (1.28%) Django
13 5 (1.06%) XML
14 4 (0.85%) Protocol Buffers
Miscellaneous
1 58 (12.34%) Management Information System
2 35 (7.45%) Product Ownership
3 28 (5.96%) Onboarding
4 21 (4.47%) Data Centre
4 21 (4.47%) SCADA
5 20 (4.26%) Operational Technology
6 16 (3.40%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (3.19%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.19%) Life Science
8 14 (2.98%) Hybrid Cloud
9 13 (2.77%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.91%) Animation
10 9 (1.91%) Data Structures
10 9 (1.91%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (1.91%) Interactive Media
10 9 (1.91%) PMI
11 8 (1.70%) Graphic Design
11 8 (1.70%) Security Posture
12 7 (1.49%) Embedded Systems
13 6 (1.28%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 65 (13.83%) Windows
2 45 (9.57%) Linux
3 22 (4.68%) Unix
3 22 (4.68%) Windows Server
4 16 (3.40%) Apple iOS
5 14 (2.98%) macOS
6 8 (1.70%) Android
6 8 (1.70%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.21%) Solaris
7 1 (0.21%) VMS
7 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (33.40%) Computer Science
2 125 (26.60%) Stakeholder Management
3 121 (25.74%) Agile
4 120 (25.53%) Problem-Solving
5 119 (25.32%) Continuous Improvement
6 97 (20.64%) ITIL
7 75 (15.96%) Project Management
8 72 (15.32%) PRINCE2
9 68 (14.47%) ITSM
9 68 (14.47%) Roadmaps
10 64 (13.62%) Decision-Making
11 60 (12.77%) Service Management
12 59 (12.55%) Cybersecurity
13 52 (11.06%) AI
13 52 (11.06%) Change Management
13 52 (11.06%) DevOps
13 52 (11.06%) Project Delivery
14 51 (10.85%) CI/CD
15 49 (10.43%) Analytics
16 43 (9.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 67 (14.26%) Python
2 44 (9.36%) PowerShell
3 25 (5.32%) SQL
4 18 (3.83%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.98%) Java
6 9 (1.91%) Bash
7 7 (1.49%) Bicep
7 7 (1.49%) C#
8 6 (1.28%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.06%) Perl
10 4 (0.85%) Rust
11 3 (0.64%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.64%) C
11 3 (0.64%) Kotlin
11 3 (0.64%) Lua
11 3 (0.64%) X++
12 2 (0.43%) Objective-C
12 2 (0.43%) Swift
13 1 (0.21%) C++
13 1 (0.21%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 187 (39.79%) Security Cleared
2 134 (28.51%) SC Cleared
3 70 (14.89%) Computer Science Degree
4 39 (8.30%) DV Cleared
5 30 (6.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 29 (6.17%) PMI Certification
7 28 (5.96%) Master's Degree
8 25 (5.32%) Azure Certification
9 24 (5.11%) CISSP
10 23 (4.89%) PMP
11 22 (4.68%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 19 (4.04%) BPSS Clearance
13 17 (3.62%) Cisco Certification
14 16 (3.40%) ISTQB
15 14 (2.98%) CISM
16 11 (2.34%) AWS Certification
17 10 (2.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 10 (2.13%) PhD
18 7 (1.49%) CISA
18 7 (1.49%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (7.45%) NIST
2 34 (7.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (5.53%) QA
4 25 (5.32%) Data Quality
5 16 (3.40%) GDPR
6 14 (2.98%) PMO
7 10 (2.13%) ISO 31000
8 9 (1.91%) NCSC
9 8 (1.70%) Accessibility
10 7 (1.49%) GRC
10 7 (1.49%) ISO 9001
10 7 (1.49%) SLA
11 5 (1.06%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 5 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (1.06%) GxP
11 5 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 5 (1.06%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.43%) DO-254
12 2 (0.43%) ISO 19650
12 2 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 50 (10.64%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (3.62%) Docker
4 7 (1.49%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.06%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.85%) Firmware
6 4 (0.85%) ISA Server
7 3 (0.64%) OpenAM
7 3 (0.64%) vSphere
8 2 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.21%) UAG
9 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 20 (4.26%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.40%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.55%) Ansible
4 10 (2.13%) Jamf Pro
5 7 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (1.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.06%) CASB
6 5 (1.06%) SCCM
7 4 (0.85%) Grafana
7 4 (0.85%) Podman
7 4 (0.85%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.85%) Puppet
8 3 (0.64%) MOM
9 2 (0.43%) Istio
9 2 (0.43%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.43%) vRealize
9 2 (0.43%) vRealize Orchestrator
10 1 (0.21%) Argo
10 1 (0.21%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.21%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 142 (30.21%) Microsoft
2 35 (7.45%) Oracle
3 31 (6.60%) ServiceNow
4 27 (5.74%) SAP
4 27 (5.74%) VMware
5 15 (3.19%) Ariba
5 15 (3.19%) Cisco
5 15 (3.19%) Google
6 14 (2.98%) Salesforce
7 10 (2.13%) CyberArk
8 9 (1.91%) BeyondTrust
9 8 (1.70%) CrowdStrike
10 7 (1.49%) F5
10 7 (1.49%) Splunk
11 5 (1.06%) Rockwell
11 5 (1.06%) Workday
12 4 (0.85%) Centrify
12 4 (0.85%) IBM
12 4 (0.85%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.85%) Palo Alto