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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 24 14
Rank change year-on-year -4 -10 +15
Contract jobs citing Degree 359 236 494
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.33% 7.91% 8.78%
As % of the Qualifications category 13.72% 19.36% 19.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 127 252
10th Percentile £272 £217 £205
25th Percentile £400 £400 £345
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +4.17%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £682 £650 £649
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -6.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 27 87
10th Percentile £30.13 £17.50 £17.80
25th Percentile £80.50 £38.28 £27.12
Median hourly rate £84.00 £60.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% +4.62% +27.44%
75th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile - £76.34 £65.00
England median hourly rate £54.50 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year - +36.25% -11.11%

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 2,617 1,219 2,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.13% 40.86% 44.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,750 783 1,420
10th Percentile £309 £306 £298
25th Percentile £429 £450 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £644
90th Percentile £725 £688 £722
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 84 211
10th Percentile £16.25 £20.01 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.20 £28.00 £24.81
Median hourly rate £54.50 £57.13 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -4.60% -0.39% +4.37%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £65.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.01 £84.45
England median hourly rate £45.46 £50.00 £39.44
% change year-on-year -9.08% +26.79% -24.19%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -2 194 £475 -0.52% 202
Berkshire 0 138 £400 -15.79% 89
Hampshire -1 85 £530 +1.92% 115
Buckinghamshire -1 38 £570 +8.06% 54
Surrey -17 29 £525 +10.53% 171
Oxfordshire -11 18 £500 -16.67% 60
West Sussex -8 14 £348 -30.50% 19
Kent -1 13 £445 +27.14% 64
Home Counties - 5 £700 -
East Sussex -2 4 £600 -14.29% 23
Sussex -4 2 £275 -41.02% 6
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 10 (2.79%) Confluence
1 10 (2.79%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.84%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 3 (0.84%) Apache Spark
3 3 (0.84%) CMS
3 3 (0.84%) MS Project Server
4 1 (0.28%) Apache
4 1 (0.28%) Apache Pulsar
4 1 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
4 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 55 (15.32%) Microsoft Office
2 49 (13.65%) Microsoft Excel
3 35 (9.75%) Microsoft Project
4 22 (6.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.56%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (3.06%) Primavera
1 11 (3.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.39%) SAP ERP
3 2 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.28%) Dynamics GP
4 1 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
4 1 (0.28%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 55 (15.32%) Azure
2 49 (13.65%) AWS
3 16 (4.46%) Power Platform
4 15 (4.18%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (3.62%) GCP
6 9 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
6 9 (2.51%) Entra ID
6 9 (2.51%) GitHub
6 9 (2.51%) GitHub Actions
7 5 (1.39%) SaaS
8 4 (1.11%) IaaS
9 3 (0.84%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (0.84%) Amazon S3
9 3 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
9 3 (0.84%) Power Automate
10 2 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
10 2 (0.56%) Amazon ECS
10 2 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.56%) PaaS
10 2 (0.56%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 32 (8.91%) Firewall
2 20 (5.57%) WAN
3 17 (4.74%) LAN
4 15 (4.18%) Network Security
5 14 (3.90%) Wireless
6 11 (3.06%) BGP
6 11 (3.06%) OSPF
7 9 (2.51%) IPsec
7 9 (2.51%) Structured Cabling
8 8 (2.23%) DNS
8 8 (2.23%) TCP/IP
9 7 (1.95%) Unified Communications
10 6 (1.67%) HTTP
11 4 (1.11%) SSH
12 3 (0.84%) Ethernet
12 3 (0.84%) NAS
12 3 (0.84%) SAN
12 3 (0.84%) VXLAN
12 3 (0.84%) WebEx
13 2 (0.56%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.46%) Power BI
2 15 (4.18%) SQL Server
3 11 (3.06%) Relational Database
4 10 (2.79%) MySQL
5 7 (1.95%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.67%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
7 4 (1.11%) Big Data
8 3 (0.84%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.84%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.84%) Tableau
9 2 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.56%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.56%) Metadata
9 2 (0.56%) NoSQL
10 1 (0.28%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.28%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.28%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.28%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.28%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 28 (7.80%) Rational DOORS
2 22 (6.13%) JIRA
3 13 (3.62%) Burp Suite
4 11 (3.06%) Metasploit
5 9 (2.51%) Git
6 7 (1.95%) CircleCI
6 7 (1.95%) GitLab
6 7 (1.95%) Gradle
7 6 (1.67%) Jenkins
7 6 (1.67%) JUnit
8 4 (1.11%) Selenium
9 2 (0.56%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.56%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.56%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.56%) WebDriver
10 1 (0.28%) Artifactory
10 1 (0.28%) Maven
10 1 (0.28%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.28%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.28%) TestNG
General
1 131 (36.49%) Social Skills
2 62 (17.27%) Analytical Skills
3 56 (15.60%) Aerospace
4 51 (14.21%) Finance
5 28 (7.80%) Public Sector
6 21 (5.85%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (5.01%) Influencing Skills
8 16 (4.46%) Manufacturing
9 15 (4.18%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (2.79%) Marketing
11 9 (2.51%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (2.23%) Law
12 8 (2.23%) Legal
13 7 (1.95%) Telecoms
14 6 (1.67%) Retail
15 4 (1.11%) Electronics
15 4 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 4 (1.11%) Military
16 3 (0.84%) Avionics
16 3 (0.84%) Billing
Job Titles
1 40 (11.14%) Analyst
2 33 (9.19%) Product Manager
3 32 (8.91%) Delivery Manager
4 31 (8.64%) Senior
5 29 (8.08%) Lead
5 29 (8.08%) Project Manager
6 28 (7.80%) Product Delivery Manager
7 22 (6.13%) Systems Delivery Manager
7 22 (6.13%) Systems Manager
8 18 (5.01%) Architect
9 14 (3.90%) Technical Support
10 13 (3.62%) SC Cleared Project Manager
11 12 (3.34%) Penetration Tester
11 12 (3.34%) Tester
12 11 (3.06%) Consultant
12 11 (3.06%) Developer
12 11 (3.06%) IT Manager
12 11 (3.06%) Project Planner
13 10 (2.79%) Network Engineer
13 10 (2.79%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.06%) REST
2 7 (1.95%) RAML
3 6 (1.67%) Android Jetpack
4 5 (1.39%) ADO
4 5 (1.39%) Dagger
4 5 (1.39%) Jetpack Compose
4 5 (1.39%) OkHttp
4 5 (1.39%) React
4 5 (1.39%) RxJava
4 5 (1.39%) WireMock
5 4 (1.11%) Kafka
6 3 (0.84%) HTML
6 3 (0.84%) Spring
6 3 (0.84%) Web Services
7 2 (0.56%) HTML5
7 2 (0.56%) JSR 170
7 2 (0.56%) OAuth
7 2 (0.56%) OSGi
7 2 (0.56%) RabbitMQ
7 2 (0.56%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 41 (11.42%) Product Ownership
2 37 (10.31%) Management Information System
3 24 (6.69%) Data Structures
4 23 (6.41%) Data Centre
5 20 (5.57%) Virtual Team
6 16 (4.46%) Onboarding
7 13 (3.62%) Security Posture
8 11 (3.06%) Analytical Mindset
8 11 (3.06%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (3.06%) PMI
9 9 (2.51%) Security Operations Centre
10 7 (1.95%) Cloud Native
10 7 (1.95%) Legacy Code
10 7 (1.95%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.67%) BYOD
11 6 (1.67%) Driving Licence
12 5 (1.39%) Cyberattack
12 5 (1.39%) Handset
12 5 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
13 4 (1.11%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 61 (16.99%) Windows
2 38 (10.58%) Linux
3 20 (5.57%) Unix
4 12 (3.34%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.95%) Android
6 5 (1.39%) Windows 10
7 4 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.56%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.56%) Kali Linux
8 2 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.56%) OpenVMS
8 2 (0.56%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (43.45%) Computer Science
2 100 (27.86%) Agile
3 76 (21.17%) Continuous Improvement
4 68 (18.94%) Problem-Solving
5 67 (18.66%) Cybersecurity
6 60 (16.71%) PRINCE2
7 56 (15.60%) Project Management
8 45 (12.53%) Systems Engineering
9 44 (12.26%) Stakeholder Management
10 43 (11.98%) Information Security
11 42 (11.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 40 (11.14%) Change Control
13 36 (10.03%) Programme Management
14 35 (9.75%) ITIL
15 33 (9.19%) Scaled Agile Framework
16 29 (8.08%) Decision-Making
17 28 (7.80%) AI
17 28 (7.80%) Configuration Management
18 27 (7.52%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
18 27 (7.52%) Requirements Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (10.31%) Python
2 21 (5.85%) Java
2 21 (5.85%) SQL
3 15 (4.18%) JavaScript
3 15 (4.18%) PowerShell
4 9 (2.51%) Perl
5 8 (2.23%) Kotlin
6 5 (1.39%) Bash
7 3 (0.84%) C
7 3 (0.84%) C#
7 3 (0.84%) C++
7 3 (0.84%) Go
7 3 (0.84%) Korn
7 3 (0.84%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.56%) Ada
8 2 (0.56%) R
9 1 (0.28%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.28%) PL/SQL
9 1 (0.28%) Tcl
9 1 (0.28%) VB
Qualifications
1 170 (47.35%) Security Cleared
2 114 (31.75%) SC Cleared
3 70 (19.50%) Computer Science Degree
4 20 (5.57%) PMI Certification
4 20 (5.57%) PMP
5 19 (5.29%) Cisco Certification
5 19 (5.29%) CISSP
6 18 (5.01%) DV Cleared
6 18 (5.01%) Master's Degree
7 17 (4.74%) CCNP
8 13 (3.62%) CREST Certified
9 12 (3.34%) Postgraduate
10 11 (3.06%) CHECK Team Member
10 11 (3.06%) CompTIA Security+
10 11 (3.06%) Cyber Scheme
11 10 (2.79%) CCNA
12 9 (2.51%) BPSS Clearance
13 8 (2.23%) ACCA
13 8 (2.23%) CIMA
14 7 (1.95%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (10.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 37 (10.31%) PMO
3 32 (8.91%) NIST
4 24 (6.69%) QA
5 23 (6.41%) GDPR
6 18 (5.01%) PCI DSS
7 12 (3.34%) NCSC
8 8 (2.23%) NIST 800
9 7 (1.95%) Data Quality
10 6 (1.67%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (1.39%) Accessibility
11 5 (1.39%) Government Security Classifications
11 5 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (1.39%) SLA
12 3 (0.84%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.84%) DO-254
12 3 (0.84%) IEC 61508
12 3 (0.84%) ISO 26262
13 2 (0.56%) HIPAA
13 2 (0.56%) RMADS
System Software
1 21 (5.85%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.06%) Docker
3 5 (1.39%) Firmware
4 4 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.84%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.56%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.28%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (0.28%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.28%) UAG
7 1 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 13 (3.62%) Nmap
2 11 (3.06%) Kubernetes
3 9 (2.51%) Terraform
4 5 (1.39%) Ansible
4 5 (1.39%) Grafana
5 3 (0.84%) Nessus
5 3 (0.84%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.84%) Puppet
6 2 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
6 2 (0.56%) Oracle RMAN
7 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.28%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.28%) Istio
7 1 (0.28%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.28%) linkerd
7 1 (0.28%) Podman
7 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 64 (17.83%) Microsoft
2 31 (8.64%) SAP
3 25 (6.96%) IBM
4 22 (6.13%) Oracle
5 17 (4.74%) Cisco
6 13 (3.62%) Palo Alto
7 12 (3.34%) CheckPoint
8 11 (3.06%) Aruba
9 10 (2.79%) BeyondTrust
9 10 (2.79%) CyberArk
9 10 (2.79%) Splunk
10 9 (2.51%) ServiceNow
11 6 (1.67%) VMware
12 4 (1.11%) Google
12 4 (1.11%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.11%) Tenable
13 3 (0.84%) Adobe
13 3 (0.84%) Fortinet
13 3 (0.84%) Salesforce
13 3 (0.84%) Siemens