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 16 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 31 22
Rank change year-on-year +10 -9 -3
Contract jobs citing Degree 458 206 348
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.92% 5.92% 7.58%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.86% 15.25% 17.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 120 205
10th Percentile £191 £204 £203
25th Percentile £309 £344 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £456 £475
Median % change year-on-year +15.07% -3.95% -4.04%
75th Percentile £592 £588 £608
90th Percentile £713 £650 £638
England median daily rate £510 £500 £507
% change year-on-year +2.00% -1.38% -4.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 26 51
10th Percentile £20.35 £22.00 £30.41
25th Percentile £33.70 £23.16 £53.40
Median hourly rate £57.50 £62.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -7.26% +8.11% -4.42%
75th Percentile £77.50 £81.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £83.40 £89.63 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £37.98 £57.35
% change year-on-year +1.95% -33.78% +19.13%

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 2,887 1,351 1,971
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.61% 38.80% 42.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,944 874 1,241
10th Percentile £350 £222 £330
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% -6.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £731 £650 £715
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 118 154
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.30
25th Percentile £36.13 £18.87 £43.69
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £58.17
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.77% -3.05%
75th Percentile £83.00 £66.38 £72.33
90th Percentile £102.10 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.52 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +108.82% -53.43% -0.81%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 +16 248 £550 +22.22% 771
Berkshire +13 148 £558 +23.89% 359
Hampshire -7 99 £556 +13.06% 359
Surrey +14 67 £350 +62.79% 219
Oxfordshire +3 57 £388 -13.89% 249
Buckinghamshire +1 43 £564 +110.75% 168
Kent +12 12 £201 - 85
West Sussex -28 12 £303 +5.03% 113
Sussex -1 4 £275 - 13
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 25
East Sussex -4 1 £600 - 50
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 (6.11%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.84%) Confluence
3 6 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.87%) FactoryTalk
5 3 (0.66%) IIS
6 2 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Service Bus
7 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (12.88%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (11.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (5.90%) Microsoft Project
4 24 (5.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.09%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.22%) CATIA
6 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.22%) Revit
6 1 (0.22%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 9 (1.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.31%) Salesforce CRM
3 4 (0.87%) Primavera
4 3 (0.66%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.44%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.22%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.22%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 109 (23.80%) Azure
2 46 (10.04%) AWS
3 42 (9.17%) Entra ID
4 39 (8.52%) Microsoft 365
5 24 (5.24%) GCP
6 23 (5.02%) SaaS
7 21 (4.59%) Power Platform
8 19 (4.15%) Azure DevOps
9 12 (2.62%) OneDrive
10 11 (2.40%) Serverless
11 8 (1.75%) IaaS
12 6 (1.31%) Power Automate
13 5 (1.09%) Azure Functions
13 5 (1.09%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (1.09%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (1.09%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.09%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 4 (0.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 4 (0.87%) PaaS
14 4 (0.87%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 25 (5.46%) TCP/IP
2 22 (4.80%) DNS
3 20 (4.37%) Firewall
4 19 (4.15%) DHCP
5 14 (3.06%) Network Security
6 11 (2.40%) VPN
7 9 (1.97%) LAN
8 7 (1.53%) SSH
8 7 (1.53%) VLAN
8 7 (1.53%) WAN
9 5 (1.09%) BGP
9 5 (1.09%) OSPF
10 4 (0.87%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.87%) MQTT
10 4 (0.87%) RSVP
10 4 (0.87%) Software-Defined Networking
10 4 (0.87%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.66%) Cisco Firepower
11 3 (0.66%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 3 (0.66%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (4.15%) Power BI
2 18 (3.93%) Metadata
3 13 (2.84%) Relational Database
3 13 (2.84%) SQL Server
4 6 (1.31%) MySQL
4 6 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.31%) Tableau
5 5 (1.09%) GIS
6 4 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.87%) Elasticsearch
7 1 (0.22%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.22%) BusinessObjects
7 1 (0.22%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.22%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.22%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.22%) Tableau Desktop
7 1 (0.22%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 23 (5.02%) JIRA
2 12 (2.62%) Git
3 6 (1.31%) GitLab
4 4 (0.87%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (0.87%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.66%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.66%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.66%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.66%) Xcode
6 2 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.22%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.22%) JUnit
7 1 (0.22%) MSI
7 1 (0.22%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.22%) Selenium
7 1 (0.22%) TestNG
7 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
7 1 (0.22%) XCTest
7 1 (0.22%) XCUITest
General
1 206 (44.98%) Social Skills
2 107 (23.36%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (13.97%) Aerospace
4 61 (13.32%) Finance
5 57 (12.45%) Public Sector
6 31 (6.77%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.24%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (5.02%) Documentation Skills
9 16 (3.49%) Marketing
10 14 (3.06%) Law
10 14 (3.06%) Military
11 13 (2.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (2.62%) Influencing Skills
13 10 (2.18%) Pharmaceutical
13 10 (2.18%) Telecoms
14 9 (1.97%) Automotive
14 9 (1.97%) French Language
15 8 (1.75%) Games
15 8 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (1.53%) Legal
Job Titles
1 57 (12.45%) Analyst
1 57 (12.45%) Senior
2 40 (8.73%) Lead
3 24 (5.24%) Delivery Manager
3 24 (5.24%) IT Manager
3 24 (5.24%) Senior Manager
4 23 (5.02%) Architect
5 21 (4.59%) Project Manager
6 19 (4.15%) IT Support
7 18 (3.93%) Product Delivery Manager
7 18 (3.93%) Product Manager
8 16 (3.49%) Senior IT Manager
9 15 (3.28%) Category Manager
9 15 (3.28%) IT Services Manager
9 15 (3.28%) Senior Category Manager
9 15 (3.28%) Senior Service Manager
10 14 (3.06%) Business Analyst
10 14 (3.06%) Data Analyst
11 13 (2.84%) Technical Leader
11 13 (2.84%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.24%) OAuth
2 23 (5.02%) OpenID
3 19 (4.15%) SAML
4 18 (3.93%) LDAP
4 18 (3.93%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.71%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.28%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (2.84%) Terraform
7 13 (2.84%) Web Services
8 10 (2.18%) .NET
8 10 (2.18%) CSS
8 10 (2.18%) React
8 10 (2.18%) RESTful
9 8 (1.75%) Middleware
10 7 (1.53%) HTML
11 6 (1.31%) ARM Templates
12 5 (1.09%) Django
12 5 (1.09%) REST
12 5 (1.09%) XML
13 4 (0.87%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 57 (12.45%) Management Information System
2 31 (6.77%) Onboarding
3 29 (6.33%) Product Ownership
4 21 (4.59%) Data Centre
5 17 (3.71%) Operational Technology
5 17 (3.71%) SCADA
6 16 (3.49%) Hybrid Cloud
7 15 (3.28%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.28%) Virtual Team
8 14 (3.06%) Self-Motivation
9 13 (2.84%) Life Science
10 9 (1.97%) Data Structures
10 9 (1.97%) PMI
10 9 (1.97%) Security Posture
11 8 (1.75%) Animation
11 8 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
11 8 (1.75%) Graphic Design
11 8 (1.75%) Interactive Media
11 8 (1.75%) Public Cloud
12 7 (1.53%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 67 (14.63%) Windows
2 48 (10.48%) Linux
3 27 (5.90%) Unix
4 23 (5.02%) Windows Server
5 14 (3.06%) Apple iOS
6 11 (2.40%) Mac OS
7 8 (1.75%) Windows 10
8 7 (1.53%) Android
9 1 (0.22%) Solaris
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (33.19%) Computer Science
2 113 (24.67%) Problem-Solving
3 111 (24.24%) Agile
4 105 (22.93%) Continuous Improvement
5 102 (22.27%) Stakeholder Management
6 89 (19.43%) ITIL
7 71 (15.50%) ITSM
8 69 (15.07%) Project Management
9 65 (14.19%) Cybersecurity
9 65 (14.19%) Decision-Making
10 62 (13.54%) PRINCE2
11 61 (13.32%) Roadmaps
12 53 (11.57%) Service Management
13 49 (10.70%) Information Security
14 48 (10.48%) AI
15 47 (10.26%) DevOps
16 45 (9.83%) Change Management
17 44 (9.61%) Analytics
17 44 (9.61%) CI/CD
18 43 (9.39%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 71 (15.50%) Python
2 46 (10.04%) PowerShell
3 28 (6.11%) SQL
4 17 (3.71%) JavaScript
5 14 (3.06%) Java
6 8 (1.75%) Bash
7 7 (1.53%) C#
8 6 (1.31%) Bicep
8 6 (1.31%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.09%) C
9 5 (1.09%) Perl
10 4 (0.87%) Rust
11 3 (0.66%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.66%) C++
11 3 (0.66%) Lua
11 3 (0.66%) X++
12 2 (0.44%) Ada
13 1 (0.22%) Objective-C
13 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.22%) Swift
Qualifications
1 179 (39.08%) Security Cleared
2 122 (26.64%) SC Cleared
3 63 (13.76%) Computer Science Degree
4 33 (7.21%) DV Cleared
5 30 (6.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (6.11%) PMI Certification
7 27 (5.90%) Master's Degree
8 24 (5.24%) CISSP
9 22 (4.80%) PMP
10 21 (4.59%) Azure Certification
11 20 (4.37%) BPSS Clearance
11 20 (4.37%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 19 (4.15%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (3.06%) ISTQB
14 13 (2.84%) CISM
15 10 (2.18%) AWS Certification
16 9 (1.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 8 (1.75%) ACCA
17 8 (1.75%) CCNP
17 8 (1.75%) CIMA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (10.04%) NIST
2 44 (9.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (5.02%) Data Quality
4 18 (3.93%) QA
5 14 (3.06%) PMO
6 13 (2.84%) GDPR
7 10 (2.18%) NCSC
8 8 (1.75%) ISO 31000
9 7 (1.53%) GRC
9 7 (1.53%) SLA
10 6 (1.31%) Accessibility
11 5 (1.09%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (1.09%) GxP
12 4 (0.87%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.87%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.87%) NIST 800
12 4 (0.87%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 56 (12.23%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (3.49%) Docker
4 7 (1.53%) Firmware
4 7 (1.53%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.09%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.66%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.66%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.66%) OpenAM
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.22%) UAG
7 1 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.22%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (3.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.49%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.40%) Ansible
4 10 (2.18%) Jamf Pro
5 7 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (0.87%) CASB
7 4 (0.87%) Grafana
7 4 (0.87%) Podman
7 4 (0.87%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.87%) Puppet
7 4 (0.87%) SCCM
8 3 (0.66%) MOM
9 2 (0.44%) Istio
9 2 (0.44%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.22%) Argo
10 1 (0.22%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.22%) Oracle RMAN
10 1 (0.22%) vRealize
10 1 (0.22%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 141 (30.79%) Microsoft
2 39 (8.52%) Oracle
3 32 (6.99%) ServiceNow
4 31 (6.77%) SAP
5 24 (5.24%) VMware
6 15 (3.28%) Ariba
6 15 (3.28%) CyberArk
7 14 (3.06%) BeyondTrust
7 14 (3.06%) Google
7 14 (3.06%) Salesforce
8 12 (2.62%) Cisco
9 7 (1.53%) F5
10 6 (1.31%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (1.31%) Splunk
11 5 (1.09%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.09%) Workday
12 4 (0.87%) Dell
12 4 (0.87%) IBM
12 4 (0.87%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.87%) Rockwell