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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 22 14
Rank change year-on-year -6 -8 +13
Contract jobs citing Degree 422 222 481
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 6.68% 6.99% 8.45%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.82% 17.51% 18.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 214 136 244
10th Percentile £204 £241 £205
25th Percentile £315 £357 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.90% -3.75% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £719 £644 £638
England median daily rate £500 £504 £500
% change year-on-year -0.79% +0.80% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 27 81
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% +19.48%
75th Percentile £87.37 £75.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 - £65.00
England median hourly rate £45.50 £45.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +0.78% +8.80% -15.79%

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 2,848 1,268 2,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.08% 39.91% 44.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,929 808 1,474
10th Percentile £325 £262 £350
25th Percentile £450 £407 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.29% -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 298 91 224
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £29.40 £24.91 £26.61
Median hourly rate £60.58 £47.81 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +26.72% -16.64% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £69.86
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £28.58 £42.50
% change year-on-year +83.73% -32.76% -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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 +5 213 £509 +6.54% 199
Berkshire +5 129 £400 -19.03% 108
Hampshire +6 111 £550 +4.76% 125
Oxfordshire -2 45 £525 +16.67% 54
Surrey -9 45 £305 -16.44% 92
Buckinghamshire -12 39 £582 +10.76% 43
Kent +8 14 £445 +61.82% 30
West Sussex -23 13 £338 +16.78% 15
Sussex - 4 £275 - 3
Home Counties +2 3 - -
East Sussex -4 2 £461 - 17
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 8
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 18 (4.27%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.61%) Confluence
3 5 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.71%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.47%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 2 (0.47%) CMS
5 2 (0.47%) MS Project Server
6 1 (0.24%) Apache Pulsar
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 56 (13.27%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (9.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (5.21%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (4.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.71%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.24%) CATIA
6 1 (0.24%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.24%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (2.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.95%) Primavera
2 4 (0.95%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
3 2 (0.47%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.24%) ENOVIA
4 1 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
4 1 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 91 (21.56%) Azure
2 54 (12.80%) AWS
3 36 (8.53%) Entra ID
4 31 (7.35%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (4.74%) GCP
6 19 (4.50%) Power Platform
7 13 (3.08%) SaaS
8 12 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (2.61%) OneDrive
10 8 (1.90%) Serverless
11 6 (1.42%) Power Automate
12 5 (1.18%) IaaS
13 4 (0.95%) GitHub
13 4 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.95%) PaaS
13 4 (0.95%) PowerApps
13 4 (0.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 3 (0.71%) Lucidchart
14 3 (0.71%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 3 (0.71%) Sauce Labs
Communications & Networking
1 22 (5.21%) Firewall
2 21 (4.98%) DNS
2 21 (4.98%) TCP/IP
3 15 (3.55%) Network Security
4 14 (3.32%) DHCP
4 14 (3.32%) LAN
4 14 (3.32%) WAN
5 10 (2.37%) BGP
5 10 (2.37%) OSPF
6 7 (1.66%) IPsec
7 6 (1.42%) HTTP
8 5 (1.18%) Cisco Nexus
8 5 (1.18%) SSH
8 5 (1.18%) VPN
9 4 (0.95%) BIG-IP
9 4 (0.95%) MQTT
9 4 (0.95%) RSVP
9 4 (0.95%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.95%) Structured Cabling
9 4 (0.95%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (4.50%) SQL Server
2 17 (4.03%) Power BI
3 11 (2.61%) Relational Database
4 10 (2.37%) MySQL
5 6 (1.42%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.95%) Tableau
7 3 (0.71%) Big Data
7 3 (0.71%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.47%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.47%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.24%) Apache Iceberg
9 1 (0.24%) BigQuery
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 (6.64%) Rational DOORS
2 24 (5.69%) JIRA
3 10 (2.37%) Git
4 8 (1.90%) GitLab
5 4 (0.95%) CircleCI
5 4 (0.95%) Gradle
5 4 (0.95%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.95%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.71%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.71%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.71%) Burp Suite
6 3 (0.71%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.71%) JUnit
6 3 (0.71%) Metasploit
6 3 (0.71%) Xcode
7 2 (0.47%) Balsamiq
7 2 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.24%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.24%) MLflow
8 1 (0.24%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 177 (41.94%) Social Skills
2 79 (18.72%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (15.17%) Finance
4 63 (14.93%) Aerospace
5 54 (12.80%) Public Sector
6 24 (5.69%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (4.74%) Organisational Skills
8 17 (4.03%) Manufacturing
8 17 (4.03%) Marketing
9 16 (3.79%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (3.55%) Law
11 12 (2.84%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (2.37%) Telecoms
13 9 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.90%) Retail
15 7 (1.66%) Military
16 6 (1.42%) Aviation
16 6 (1.42%) French Language
16 6 (1.42%) Legal
17 5 (1.18%) Arabic Language
Job Titles
1 58 (13.74%) Analyst
2 50 (11.85%) Senior
3 33 (7.82%) Lead
4 32 (7.58%) Product Manager
5 29 (6.87%) Delivery Manager
6 28 (6.64%) IT Manager
6 28 (6.64%) Product Delivery Manager
7 24 (5.69%) Architect
7 24 (5.69%) Project Manager
8 23 (5.45%) Senior Manager
9 22 (5.21%) Systems Delivery Manager
9 22 (5.21%) Systems Manager
10 17 (4.03%) Category Manager
11 16 (3.79%) Technical Support
12 15 (3.55%) IT Services Manager
12 15 (3.55%) IT Support
12 15 (3.55%) Senior Category Manager
12 15 (3.55%) Senior IT Manager
12 15 (3.55%) Senior Service Manager
13 14 (3.32%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (4.03%) OAuth
2 15 (3.55%) LDAP
2 15 (3.55%) OpenID
2 15 (3.55%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (3.55%) SAML
3 13 (3.08%) SailPoint
4 10 (2.37%) OAuth2
4 10 (2.37%) React
4 10 (2.37%) Web Services
5 9 (2.13%) REST
6 7 (1.66%) .NET
6 7 (1.66%) Kafka
7 6 (1.42%) CSS
7 6 (1.42%) RESTful
8 5 (1.18%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.18%) GraphQL
8 5 (1.18%) gRPC
9 4 (0.95%) Keycloak
9 4 (0.95%) Protocol Buffers
9 4 (0.95%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 49 (11.61%) Product Ownership
2 45 (10.66%) Management Information System
3 29 (6.87%) Data Centre
3 29 (6.87%) Onboarding
4 26 (6.16%) Data Structures
5 16 (3.79%) Virtual Team
6 11 (2.61%) Security Posture
7 9 (2.13%) Cloud Native
7 9 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (1.90%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (1.90%) Operational Technology
8 8 (1.90%) Robotics
9 7 (1.66%) CCTV
9 7 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
9 7 (1.66%) Mobile App
9 7 (1.66%) PMI
10 6 (1.42%) BYOD
10 6 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.42%) SCADA
11 5 (1.18%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 72 (17.06%) Windows
2 50 (11.85%) Linux
3 34 (8.06%) Unix
4 15 (3.55%) Apple iOS
5 14 (3.32%) Windows Server
6 11 (2.61%) Mac OS
7 10 (2.37%) Android
8 9 (2.13%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.47%) OpenVMS
10 2 (0.47%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (39.57%) Computer Science
2 118 (27.96%) Agile
3 93 (22.04%) Problem-Solving
4 85 (20.14%) Continuous Improvement
5 73 (17.30%) Cybersecurity
6 66 (15.64%) Stakeholder Management
7 64 (15.17%) Change Control
8 61 (14.45%) Decision-Making
8 61 (14.45%) ITIL
9 57 (13.51%) ITSM
10 56 (13.27%) Information Security
11 55 (13.03%) AI
12 50 (11.85%) PRINCE2
13 49 (11.61%) Project Management
14 48 (11.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 43 (10.19%) Systems Engineering
16 39 (9.24%) CI/CD
17 36 (8.53%) Programme Management
17 36 (8.53%) Scaled Agile Framework
18 34 (8.06%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 59 (13.98%) Python
2 32 (7.58%) PowerShell
3 22 (5.21%) SQL
4 19 (4.50%) Java
5 16 (3.79%) JavaScript
6 8 (1.90%) Perl
6 8 (1.90%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.18%) Bash
7 5 (1.18%) Kotlin
8 4 (0.95%) C++
8 4 (0.95%) Rust
9 3 (0.71%) C
9 3 (0.71%) C#
9 3 (0.71%) Korn
10 2 (0.47%) Ada
10 2 (0.47%) Go
10 2 (0.47%) R
10 2 (0.47%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.47%) X++
11 1 (0.24%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 178 (42.18%) Security Cleared
2 110 (26.07%) SC Cleared
3 61 (14.45%) Computer Science Degree
4 25 (5.92%) CISSP
5 21 (4.98%) Master's Degree
6 20 (4.74%) Cisco Certification
6 20 (4.74%) PMI Certification
7 19 (4.50%) PMP
8 18 (4.27%) DV Cleared
9 17 (4.03%) BPSS Clearance
10 14 (3.32%) CISM
10 14 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
11 13 (3.08%) CCNP
12 10 (2.37%) ACCA
12 10 (2.37%) CIMA
13 9 (2.13%) CESG Certified Professional
14 8 (1.90%) AWS Certification
14 8 (1.90%) CompTIA Security+
15 7 (1.66%) Azure Certification
16 6 (1.42%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (12.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 52 (12.32%) NIST
2 17 (4.03%) NCSC
2 17 (4.03%) PMO
3 15 (3.55%) Data Quality
4 14 (3.32%) GDPR
5 12 (2.84%) QA
6 10 (2.37%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.90%) NIST 800
7 8 (1.90%) SLA
8 7 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials
8 7 (1.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 5 (1.18%) Government Security Classifications
11 4 (0.95%) GRC
11 4 (0.95%) ISO 31000
12 3 (0.71%) DO-254
12 3 (0.71%) IEC 61508
12 3 (0.71%) ISO 26262
12 3 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 49 (11.61%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.32%) Docker
3 9 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.42%) Firmware
4 6 (1.42%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.95%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.71%) OpenAM
7 2 (0.47%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.47%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.24%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 1 (0.24%) UAG
8 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (3.55%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.32%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (2.37%) Jamf Pro
3 10 (2.37%) Terraform
4 7 (1.66%) Grafana
4 7 (1.66%) Prometheus
5 6 (1.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 6 (1.42%) Ansible
6 5 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.95%) Podman
7 4 (0.95%) Puppet
8 3 (0.71%) Nmap
9 2 (0.47%) Nessus
9 2 (0.47%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 2 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.47%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.24%) CASB
10 1 (0.24%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.24%) Istio
10 1 (0.24%) linkerd
Vendors
1 97 (22.99%) Microsoft
2 44 (10.43%) Oracle
3 33 (7.82%) SAP
4 27 (6.40%) ServiceNow
5 25 (5.92%) IBM
6 17 (4.03%) BeyondTrust
6 17 (4.03%) CyberArk
7 15 (3.55%) Ariba
7 15 (3.55%) Cisco
8 13 (3.08%) VMware
9 10 (2.37%) Palo Alto
10 9 (2.13%) Google
10 9 (2.13%) Salesforce
11 7 (1.66%) CheckPoint
11 7 (1.66%) Splunk
12 6 (1.42%) Aruba
12 6 (1.42%) Tenable
13 5 (1.18%) Dell
13 5 (1.18%) F5
13 5 (1.18%) Workday