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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 27 17
Rank change year-on-year +6 -10 +3
Contract jobs citing Degree 471 221 386
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.11% 6.26% 8.08%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.04% 15.75% 18.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 125 209
10th Percentile £192 £208 £203
25th Percentile £313 £358 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £475 £484
Median % change year-on-year +9.74% -1.86% -3.20%
75th Percentile £593 £588 £608
90th Percentile £713 £650 £632
England median daily rate £500 £500 £511
% change year-on-year - -2.17% -4.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 29 70
10th Percentile £25.38 £21.45 £18.35
25th Percentile £35.22 £32.05 £41.13
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +4.62% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.40 £81.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £89.63 £75.00
England median hourly rate £40.86 £42.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year -2.73% -26.77% +18.79%

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 2,937 1,403 2,102
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.31% 39.75% 44.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,986 901 1,314
10th Percentile £350 £238 £350
25th Percentile £463 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 122 176
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £38.25 £19.10 £33.31
Median hourly rate £63.24 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +151.45% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £68.25 £70.39
90th Percentile £95.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +108.75% -48.21% -11.71%

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 28 August 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 28 August 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 28 August 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 +12 257 £550 +22.22% 490
Berkshire +12 155 £550 +18.92% 212
Hampshire -1 106 £550 +8.64% 235
Surrey +11 64 £330 +53.49% 114
Oxfordshire 0 56 £396 -11.94% 158
Buckinghamshire -5 46 £582 +117.38% 128
Kent +10 12 £201 -52.63% 64
West Sussex -26 9 £225 -21.88% 44
Sussex -2 4 £275 - 7
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 21
Home Counties 0 1 - -
East Sussex -2 1 £600 - 29
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 26 (5.52%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.76%) Confluence
3 6 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.85%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 61 (12.95%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (11.46%) Microsoft Excel
3 32 (6.79%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (4.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (1.06%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.21%) CATIA
6 1 (0.21%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.21%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 11 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.49%) Salesforce CRM
3 6 (1.27%) Primavera
4 3 (0.64%) NEC Housing
5 2 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 2 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.21%) ENOVIA
Cloud Services
1 107 (22.72%) Azure
2 48 (10.19%) AWS
3 44 (9.34%) Entra ID
4 40 (8.49%) Microsoft 365
5 24 (5.10%) Power Platform
6 22 (4.67%) GCP
6 22 (4.67%) SaaS
7 17 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.55%) OneDrive
9 10 (2.12%) Serverless
10 8 (1.70%) IaaS
11 7 (1.49%) Power Automate
12 6 (1.27%) PowerApps
13 5 (1.06%) Azure Functions
13 5 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
13 5 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (1.06%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 4 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 4 (0.85%) Azure Monitor
14 4 (0.85%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 25 (5.31%) TCP/IP
2 24 (5.10%) DNS
3 22 (4.67%) Firewall
4 20 (4.25%) DHCP
5 17 (3.61%) Network Security
6 11 (2.34%) VPN
7 10 (2.12%) LAN
8 8 (1.70%) WAN
9 7 (1.49%) SSH
9 7 (1.49%) VLAN
10 5 (1.06%) BGP
10 5 (1.06%) OSPF
11 4 (0.85%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (0.85%) HTTP
11 4 (0.85%) MQTT
11 4 (0.85%) RSVP
11 4 (0.85%) SD-WAN
11 4 (0.85%) Software-Defined Networking
12 3 (0.64%) Cisco Firepower
12 3 (0.64%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (4.67%) Power BI
2 14 (2.97%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.76%) Relational Database
4 9 (1.91%) Metadata
5 6 (1.27%) MySQL
5 6 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (1.06%) Tableau
7 4 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.42%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.21%) Big Data
9 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.21%) GIS
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 10g
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 11g
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
9 1 (0.21%) SQLite
9 1 (0.21%) Tableau Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) Tableau Server
9 1 (0.21%) Text Mining
Development Applications
1 25 (5.31%) JIRA
1 25 (5.31%) Rational DOORS
2 13 (2.76%) Git
3 8 (1.70%) GitLab
4 4 (0.85%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.64%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
5 3 (0.64%) Eclipse
5 3 (0.64%) Xcode
6 2 (0.42%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.21%) JUnit
7 1 (0.21%) MSI
7 1 (0.21%) Octopus Deploy
7 1 (0.21%) Selenium
7 1 (0.21%) TestNG
7 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 200 (42.46%) Social Skills
2 108 (22.93%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (15.29%) Aerospace
4 65 (13.80%) Finance
5 60 (12.74%) Public Sector
6 27 (5.73%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.10%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
9 15 (3.18%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (3.18%) Law
9 15 (3.18%) Marketing
9 15 (3.18%) Military
10 13 (2.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (2.55%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.91%) French Language
12 9 (1.91%) Pharmaceutical
13 8 (1.70%) Games
13 8 (1.70%) Legal
13 8 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (1.49%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 60 (12.74%) Analyst
2 56 (11.89%) Senior
3 43 (9.13%) Lead
4 34 (7.22%) Delivery Manager
5 32 (6.79%) Product Manager
6 31 (6.58%) Product Delivery Manager
7 25 (5.31%) IT Manager
8 24 (5.10%) Senior Manager
9 22 (4.67%) Architect
9 22 (4.67%) Project Manager
10 21 (4.46%) Systems Manager
11 19 (4.03%) IT Support
12 18 (3.82%) Systems Delivery Manager
13 16 (3.40%) Business Analyst
13 16 (3.40%) Senior IT Manager
14 15 (3.18%) Category Manager
14 15 (3.18%) IT Services Manager
14 15 (3.18%) Senior Category Manager
14 15 (3.18%) Senior Service Manager
15 14 (2.97%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.10%) OAuth
2 23 (4.88%) OpenID
3 19 (4.03%) LDAP
3 19 (4.03%) SAML
4 18 (3.82%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.61%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.18%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (2.76%) Terraform
7 13 (2.76%) Web Services
8 10 (2.12%) .NET
8 10 (2.12%) CSS
8 10 (2.12%) React
8 10 (2.12%) RESTful
9 7 (1.49%) HTML
9 7 (1.49%) Middleware
10 6 (1.27%) ARM Templates
11 5 (1.06%) Django
12 4 (0.85%) GraphQL
12 4 (0.85%) gRPC
12 4 (0.85%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 54 (11.46%) Management Information System
2 53 (11.25%) Product Ownership
3 31 (6.58%) Onboarding
4 27 (5.73%) Data Structures
5 21 (4.46%) Data Centre
6 16 (3.40%) Hybrid Cloud
7 15 (3.18%) Operational Technology
8 14 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
9 13 (2.76%) Cloud Native
9 13 (2.76%) Life Science
9 13 (2.76%) SCADA
10 11 (2.34%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.91%) PMI
11 9 (1.91%) Security Posture
12 8 (1.70%) Animation
12 8 (1.70%) Graphic Design
12 8 (1.70%) Interactive Media
13 7 (1.49%) CCTV
13 7 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
14 6 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 66 (14.01%) Windows
2 45 (9.55%) Linux
3 28 (5.94%) Unix
4 20 (4.25%) Windows Server
5 13 (2.76%) Apple iOS
6 11 (2.34%) Mac OS
7 8 (1.70%) Windows 10
8 7 (1.49%) Android
9 1 (0.21%) OpenVMS
9 1 (0.21%) Solaris
9 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (36.52%) Computer Science
2 135 (28.66%) Agile
3 124 (26.33%) Continuous Improvement
4 112 (23.78%) Problem-Solving
5 104 (22.08%) Stakeholder Management
6 87 (18.47%) ITIL
7 75 (15.92%) ITSM
8 73 (15.50%) Cybersecurity
9 70 (14.86%) PRINCE2
10 68 (14.44%) Project Management
11 58 (12.31%) Decision-Making
12 57 (12.10%) Change Control
13 52 (11.04%) AI
14 51 (10.83%) Information Security
14 51 (10.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 48 (10.19%) Service Management
16 47 (9.98%) Roadmaps
17 44 (9.34%) DevOps
18 43 (9.13%) Systems Engineering
19 40 (8.49%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 67 (14.23%) Python
2 46 (9.77%) PowerShell
3 24 (5.10%) SQL
4 17 (3.61%) JavaScript
5 14 (2.97%) Java
6 8 (1.70%) Bash
7 7 (1.49%) C#
7 7 (1.49%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.27%) Bicep
9 5 (1.06%) C
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%) Lua
11 3 (0.64%) X++
12 2 (0.42%) Ada
13 1 (0.21%) Korn
13 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.21%) R
Qualifications
1 195 (41.40%) Security Cleared
2 114 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 60 (12.74%) Computer Science Degree
4 30 (6.37%) Microsoft Certification
4 30 (6.37%) PMI Certification
5 29 (6.16%) DV Cleared
6 25 (5.31%) PMP
7 24 (5.10%) CISSP
8 22 (4.67%) Master's Degree
9 20 (4.25%) BPSS Clearance
10 17 (3.61%) Azure Certification
11 16 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (3.18%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
13 13 (2.76%) CISM
14 10 (2.12%) ACCA
14 10 (2.12%) CIMA
15 9 (1.91%) ISTQB
16 8 (1.70%) AWS Certification
16 8 (1.70%) CCNP
16 8 (1.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (10.62%) NIST
2 48 (10.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (4.88%) Data Quality
4 17 (3.61%) NCSC
5 16 (3.40%) PMO
6 15 (3.18%) QA
7 12 (2.55%) GDPR
8 7 (1.49%) Accessibility
8 7 (1.49%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.49%) SLA
9 6 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 6 (1.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
10 5 (1.06%) GxP
10 5 (1.06%) ISO 31000
11 4 (0.85%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 4 (0.85%) GRC
11 4 (0.85%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 59 (12.53%) Active Directory
2 19 (4.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (3.40%) Docker
4 7 (1.49%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.27%) Firmware
6 4 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (0.85%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.64%) OpenAM
8 2 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.21%) UAG
9 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.21%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.40%) Kubernetes
3 11 (2.34%) Ansible
4 10 (2.12%) Jamf Pro
5 8 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (1.06%) Grafana
7 5 (1.06%) Prometheus
8 4 (0.85%) Podman
8 4 (0.85%) Puppet
8 4 (0.85%) SCCM
9 2 (0.42%) Istio
9 2 (0.42%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.42%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.21%) Argo
10 1 (0.21%) CASB
10 1 (0.21%) Dell DRAC
10 1 (0.21%) MOM
10 1 (0.21%) vRealize
10 1 (0.21%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 135 (28.66%) Microsoft
2 39 (8.28%) Oracle
3 36 (7.64%) ServiceNow
4 32 (6.79%) SAP
5 25 (5.31%) IBM
5 25 (5.31%) VMware
6 15 (3.18%) Ariba
6 15 (3.18%) CyberArk
7 14 (2.97%) BeyondTrust
7 14 (2.97%) Salesforce
8 12 (2.55%) Google
9 8 (1.70%) Cisco
10 5 (1.06%) Palo Alto
10 5 (1.06%) Workday
11 4 (0.85%) Dell
11 4 (0.85%) F5
11 4 (0.85%) NVIDIA
11 4 (0.85%) Rockwell
11 4 (0.85%) Tenable
12 3 (0.64%) EMC