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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 29 24
Rank change year-on-year +7 -5 -9
Contract jobs citing Degree 462 228 319
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.07% 6.38% 7.29%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.30% 16.08% 17.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 127 202
10th Percentile £189 £206 £203
25th Percentile £307 £343 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £459
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -1.91% -8.25%
75th Percentile £589 £571 £606
90th Percentile £711 £635 £637
England median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 31 31
10th Percentile £20.13 £22.50 £22.25
25th Percentile £33.70 £27.38 £41.13
Median hourly rate £52.50 £32.05 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +63.81% -44.12% +1.96%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.00 £74.38
90th Percentile £82.50 £89.63 £90.00
England median hourly rate £39.50 £34.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year +14.49% -34.29% +9.95%

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 2,835 1,418 1,826
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.40% 39.66% 41.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,869 923 1,160
10th Percentile £334 £204 £313
25th Percentile £463 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +3.77%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £638
90th Percentile £733 £650 £700
England median daily rate £533 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.43% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 127 122
10th Percentile £18.25 - £21.35
25th Percentile £33.70 £18.87 £37.55
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £60.23
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -58.24% +0.38%
75th Percentile £85.00 £49.38 £73.29
90th Percentile £101.48 £81.00 £90.00
England median hourly rate £50.74 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +101.76% -52.10% -

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +13 246 £550 +22.22% 810
Berkshire +13 151 £565 +25.56% 389
Hampshire -3 98 £550 +13.17% 374
Surrey +11 71 £450 +109.30% 213
Oxfordshire +1 57 £396 -11.94% 260
Buckinghamshire -8 38 £531 +67.32% 166
Kent +13 16 £250 - 91
West Sussex -22 15 £305 +5.90% 117
Sussex +1 4 £275 - 14
Middlesex - 3 £334 - 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 28 (6.06%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.60%) Confluence
3 7 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (1.08%) IIS
5 4 (0.87%) FactoryTalk
6 2 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.22%) CMS
7 1 (0.22%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.22%) Oracle Service Bus
7 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
Applications
1 59 (12.77%) Microsoft Office
2 51 (11.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 24 (5.19%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (4.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.87%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.65%) Revit
7 2 (0.43%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.43%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.22%) CATIA
8 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.22%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 7 (1.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 4 (0.87%) Primavera
4 3 (0.65%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 1 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.22%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.22%) SAP CAR
6 1 (0.22%) SAP CRM
6 1 (0.22%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 105 (22.73%) Azure
2 44 (9.52%) AWS
3 43 (9.31%) Entra ID
4 39 (8.44%) Microsoft 365
5 25 (5.41%) GCP
6 23 (4.98%) SaaS
7 19 (4.11%) Power Platform
8 16 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (2.81%) OneDrive
10 11 (2.38%) Serverless
11 9 (1.95%) IaaS
12 6 (1.30%) Power Automate
13 5 (1.08%) Azure Functions
13 5 (1.08%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (1.08%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (1.08%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.08%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 4 (0.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 4 (0.87%) PaaS
14 4 (0.87%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 27 (5.84%) TCP/IP
2 23 (4.98%) DNS
3 19 (4.11%) DHCP
3 19 (4.11%) Firewall
4 13 (2.81%) Network Security
5 11 (2.38%) VPN
6 8 (1.73%) LAN
7 7 (1.52%) SSH
7 7 (1.52%) VLAN
8 6 (1.30%) WAN
9 5 (1.08%) BGP
9 5 (1.08%) OSPF
9 5 (1.08%) Software-Defined Networking
9 5 (1.08%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.87%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.87%) MQTT
10 4 (0.87%) RSVP
10 4 (0.87%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.65%) BIG-IP
11 3 (0.65%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (4.33%) Metadata
2 17 (3.68%) Power BI
3 13 (2.81%) Relational Database
3 13 (2.81%) SQL Server
4 7 (1.52%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (1.30%) MySQL
5 6 (1.30%) Tableau
6 5 (1.08%) GIS
7 4 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.87%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.22%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.22%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.22%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.22%) Redis
8 1 (0.22%) Tableau Desktop
8 1 (0.22%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 22 (4.76%) JIRA
2 13 (2.81%) Git
3 7 (1.52%) GitLab
4 5 (1.08%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (0.87%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.65%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.65%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.65%) Xcode
7 2 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.22%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
8 1 (0.22%) JUnit
8 1 (0.22%) MSI
8 1 (0.22%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.22%) Selenium
8 1 (0.22%) TestNG
8 1 (0.22%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.22%) XCTest
8 1 (0.22%) XCUITest
General
1 206 (44.59%) Social Skills
2 103 (22.29%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (14.07%) Aerospace
4 57 (12.34%) Public Sector
5 53 (11.47%) Finance
6 35 (7.58%) Manufacturing
7 25 (5.41%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (4.98%) Documentation Skills
9 16 (3.46%) Marketing
10 15 (3.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (3.03%) Influencing Skills
11 14 (3.03%) Military
12 13 (2.81%) Pharmaceutical
13 12 (2.60%) Law
14 9 (1.95%) Automotive
14 9 (1.95%) French Language
14 9 (1.95%) Telecoms
15 8 (1.73%) Games
15 8 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
15 8 (1.73%) Retail
Job Titles
1 54 (11.69%) Analyst
2 52 (11.26%) Senior
3 36 (7.79%) Lead
4 29 (6.28%) Delivery Manager
5 24 (5.19%) IT Manager
6 21 (4.55%) Architect
7 20 (4.33%) Senior Manager
8 19 (4.11%) IT Support
8 19 (4.11%) Product Delivery Manager
8 19 (4.11%) Product Manager
9 17 (3.68%) Project Manager
10 16 (3.46%) Senior IT Manager
11 15 (3.25%) Category Manager
11 15 (3.25%) IT Services Manager
11 15 (3.25%) Senior Category Manager
11 15 (3.25%) Senior Service Manager
11 15 (3.25%) Test Manager
12 14 (3.03%) Data Analyst
13 13 (2.81%) Business Analyst
14 12 (2.60%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.19%) OAuth
2 23 (4.98%) OpenID
3 19 (4.11%) SAML
4 18 (3.90%) LDAP
4 18 (3.90%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.68%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.25%) Oracle Fusion
7 14 (3.03%) Terraform
8 13 (2.81%) Web Services
9 11 (2.38%) CSS
9 11 (2.38%) Middleware
9 11 (2.38%) React
9 11 (2.38%) RESTful
10 10 (2.16%) .NET
11 8 (1.73%) HTML
12 6 (1.30%) ARM Templates
12 6 (1.30%) Django
12 6 (1.30%) REST
13 5 (1.08%) XML
14 4 (0.87%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 58 (12.55%) Management Information System
2 32 (6.93%) Onboarding
3 30 (6.49%) Product Ownership
4 23 (4.98%) Data Centre
5 19 (4.11%) SCADA
6 17 (3.68%) Operational Technology
7 15 (3.25%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.25%) Hybrid Cloud
8 14 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
9 13 (2.81%) Life Science
10 10 (2.16%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.95%) Data Structures
11 9 (1.95%) Embedded Systems
11 9 (1.95%) PMI
12 8 (1.73%) Animation
12 8 (1.73%) Graphic Design
12 8 (1.73%) Interactive Media
12 8 (1.73%) Security Posture
13 7 (1.52%) CCTV
13 7 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 67 (14.50%) Windows
2 48 (10.39%) Linux
3 27 (5.84%) Unix
4 24 (5.19%) Windows Server
5 14 (3.03%) Apple iOS
5 14 (3.03%) Mac OS
6 8 (1.73%) Windows 10
7 6 (1.30%) Android
8 1 (0.22%) Solaris
8 1 (0.22%) VMS
8 1 (0.22%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (33.55%) Computer Science
2 116 (25.11%) Agile
3 115 (24.89%) Problem-Solving
3 115 (24.89%) Stakeholder Management
4 113 (24.46%) Continuous Improvement
5 98 (21.21%) ITIL
6 74 (16.02%) ITSM
7 70 (15.15%) PRINCE2
8 69 (14.94%) Project Management
9 68 (14.72%) Roadmaps
10 66 (14.29%) Decision-Making
11 62 (13.42%) Cybersecurity
12 58 (12.55%) Service Management
13 53 (11.47%) Change Management
14 50 (10.82%) AI
15 49 (10.61%) Information Security
15 49 (10.61%) Project Delivery
16 48 (10.39%) DevOps
17 47 (10.17%) CI/CD
18 45 (9.74%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 73 (15.80%) Python
2 47 (10.17%) PowerShell
3 26 (5.63%) SQL
4 18 (3.90%) JavaScript
5 13 (2.81%) Java
6 8 (1.73%) Bash
7 7 (1.52%) C#
8 6 (1.30%) Bicep
8 6 (1.30%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.08%) Perl
10 4 (0.87%) Rust
11 3 (0.65%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.65%) C
11 3 (0.65%) Lua
11 3 (0.65%) X++
12 1 (0.22%) C++
12 1 (0.22%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.22%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.22%) Swift
12 1 (0.22%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 182 (39.39%) Security Cleared
2 132 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 65 (14.07%) Computer Science Degree
4 35 (7.58%) DV Cleared
5 30 (6.49%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (6.49%) PMI Certification
6 28 (6.06%) Master's Degree
7 24 (5.19%) CISSP
7 24 (5.19%) PMP
8 22 (4.76%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 21 (4.55%) Azure Certification
10 20 (4.33%) BPSS Clearance
11 19 (4.11%) Cisco Certification
12 16 (3.46%) ISTQB
13 14 (3.03%) CISM
14 10 (2.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 10 (2.16%) PhD
15 9 (1.95%) AWS Certification
16 8 (1.73%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 7 (1.52%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (9.09%) NIST
2 41 (8.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (5.19%) Data Quality
4 23 (4.98%) QA
5 15 (3.25%) GDPR
6 14 (3.03%) PMO
7 10 (2.16%) ISO 31000
8 9 (1.95%) NCSC
9 7 (1.52%) Accessibility
9 7 (1.52%) GRC
9 7 (1.52%) ISO 9001
9 7 (1.52%) SLA
10 5 (1.08%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (1.08%) GxP
10 5 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 5 (1.08%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.87%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 3 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.43%) GMP
13 2 (0.43%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 56 (12.12%) Active Directory
2 22 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (3.68%) Docker
4 8 (1.73%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.30%) Firmware
6 5 (1.08%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.87%) Embedded Firmware
7 4 (0.87%) ISA Server
8 3 (0.65%) OpenAM
8 3 (0.65%) vSphere
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.22%) UAG
9 1 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 19 (4.11%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.46%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.38%) Ansible
4 10 (2.16%) Jamf Pro
5 7 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.08%) 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 (0.65%) 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 (0.22%) Argo
10 1 (0.22%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.22%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 138 (29.87%) Microsoft
2 39 (8.44%) Oracle
3 32 (6.93%) ServiceNow
4 29 (6.28%) SAP
5 27 (5.84%) VMware
6 15 (3.25%) Ariba
6 15 (3.25%) CyberArk
6 15 (3.25%) Google
7 14 (3.03%) BeyondTrust
7 14 (3.03%) Cisco
7 14 (3.03%) Salesforce
8 8 (1.73%) F5
9 7 (1.52%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.52%) Splunk
10 5 (1.08%) Dell
10 5 (1.08%) Palo Alto
10 5 (1.08%) Workday
11 4 (0.87%) EMC
11 4 (0.87%) IBM
11 4 (0.87%) Tripwire