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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 24 15
Rank change year-on-year 0 -9 +8
Contract jobs citing Degree 472 231 408
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 7.05% 6.55% 8.47%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.81% 16.24% 18.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 133 225
10th Percentile £193 £208 £205
25th Percentile £315 £354 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.37% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £592 £588 £608
90th Percentile £713 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £522
% change year-on-year - -4.16% -2.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 32 74
10th Percentile £26.92 £21.87 £18.64
25th Percentile £36.81 £32.25 £41.06
Median hourly rate £75.00 £62.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +20.97% +8.11% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.92 £76.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £88.97 £74.63
England median hourly rate £41.71 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -1.86% -25.89% +15.20%

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 2,985 1,422 2,160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.61% 40.31% 44.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,028 921 1,350
10th Percentile £350 £235 £350
25th Percentile £463 £415 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 316 121 180
10th Percentile £18.73 £18.87 £18.30
25th Percentile £38.25 £19.79 £35.00
Median hourly rate £66.50 £25.30 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +162.85% -55.88% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.00 £67.50 £70.39
90th Percentile £90.25 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +110.74% -47.05% -13.64%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +10 259 £550 +22.22% 429
Berkshire +10 158 £550 +15.79% 181
Hampshire -2 106 £550 +10.00% 196
Surrey +5 62 £310 +27.84% 117
Oxfordshire -5 55 £396 -11.94% 132
Buckinghamshire -8 46 £582 +13.46% 119
Kent +8 11 £201 -52.63% 64
West Sussex -27 10 £338 +16.78% 33
Sussex -1 4 £275 - 9
East Sussex -2 2 £461 - 31
Middlesex - 2 £334 - 20
Home Counties +1 1 - -
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 25 (5.30%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.75%) Confluence
3 7 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.85%) FactoryTalk
5 2 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) CMS
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Service Bus
6 1 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
6 1 (0.21%) WebLogic
Applications
1 58 (12.29%) Microsoft Office
2 51 (10.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 32 (6.78%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (4.87%) 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 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.48%) Primavera
2 7 (1.48%) Salesforce CRM
3 3 (0.64%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 2 (0.42%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.21%) ENOVIA
Cloud Services
1 106 (22.46%) Azure
2 51 (10.81%) AWS
3 44 (9.32%) Entra ID
4 41 (8.69%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (4.66%) GCP
5 22 (4.66%) Power Platform
5 22 (4.66%) SaaS
6 17 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
7 12 (2.54%) OneDrive
8 10 (2.12%) Serverless
9 7 (1.48%) IaaS
9 7 (1.48%) Power Automate
10 6 (1.27%) PowerApps
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Functions
11 5 (1.06%) Azure Logic Apps
11 5 (1.06%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.06%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
12 4 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 4 (0.85%) PaaS
12 4 (0.85%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 25 (5.30%) TCP/IP
2 24 (5.08%) DNS
3 22 (4.66%) Firewall
4 19 (4.03%) DHCP
4 19 (4.03%) Network Security
5 10 (2.12%) LAN
5 10 (2.12%) VPN
6 8 (1.69%) WAN
7 7 (1.48%) SSH
7 7 (1.48%) VLAN
8 6 (1.27%) HTTP
9 5 (1.06%) BGP
9 5 (1.06%) OSPF
10 4 (0.85%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.85%) MQTT
10 4 (0.85%) RSVP
10 4 (0.85%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.64%) Cisco Firepower
11 3 (0.64%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 3 (0.64%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (4.24%) Power BI
2 16 (3.39%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.75%) Relational Database
4 9 (1.91%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (1.48%) Metadata
5 7 (1.48%) MySQL
6 4 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
6 4 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
7 3 (0.64%) Oracle Database
7 3 (0.64%) Tableau
8 1 (0.21%) Big Data
8 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.21%) GIS
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 10g
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 11g
8 1 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.21%) SQLite
8 1 (0.21%) Tableau Desktop
8 1 (0.21%) Tableau Server
8 1 (0.21%) Text Mining
Development Applications
1 31 (6.57%) Rational DOORS
2 26 (5.51%) JIRA
3 14 (2.97%) Git
4 8 (1.69%) GitLab
5 4 (0.85%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.64%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.64%) Eclipse
6 3 (0.64%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.64%) Xcode
7 2 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.21%) JUnit
8 1 (0.21%) MSI
8 1 (0.21%) Octopus Deploy
8 1 (0.21%) Selenium
8 1 (0.21%) TestNG
8 1 (0.21%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 200 (42.37%) Social Skills
2 105 (22.25%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (15.68%) Aerospace
4 67 (14.19%) Finance
5 59 (12.50%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.30%) Manufacturing
7 24 (5.08%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (5.08%) Organisational Skills
8 16 (3.39%) Marketing
9 15 (3.18%) Law
9 15 (3.18%) Military
10 14 (2.97%) Influencing Skills
11 13 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (2.54%) Telecoms
13 9 (1.91%) French Language
13 9 (1.91%) Pharmaceutical
14 8 (1.69%) Games
14 8 (1.69%) Legal
14 8 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
15 7 (1.48%) Retail
Job Titles
1 62 (13.14%) Analyst
2 56 (11.86%) Senior
3 44 (9.32%) Lead
4 37 (7.84%) Product Manager
5 36 (7.63%) Delivery Manager
6 34 (7.20%) Product Delivery Manager
7 26 (5.51%) IT Manager
8 24 (5.08%) Senior Manager
8 24 (5.08%) Systems Manager
9 23 (4.87%) Project Manager
10 22 (4.66%) Architect
11 21 (4.45%) Systems Delivery Manager
12 19 (4.03%) IT Support
13 16 (3.39%) Senior IT Manager
14 15 (3.18%) Business Analyst
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 (5.08%) OAuth
2 23 (4.87%) OpenID
3 19 (4.03%) LDAP
3 19 (4.03%) SAML
4 18 (3.81%) SailPoint
5 17 (3.60%) OAuth2
6 15 (3.18%) Oracle Fusion
7 13 (2.75%) Web Services
8 12 (2.54%) Terraform
9 11 (2.33%) CSS
9 11 (2.33%) React
9 11 (2.33%) RESTful
10 10 (2.12%) .NET
11 8 (1.69%) HTML
12 7 (1.48%) Middleware
13 5 (1.06%) AngularJS
13 5 (1.06%) Django
13 5 (1.06%) gRPC
13 5 (1.06%) Kafka
13 5 (1.06%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 57 (12.08%) Management Information System
1 57 (12.08%) Product Ownership
2 31 (6.57%) Onboarding
3 30 (6.36%) Data Structures
4 21 (4.45%) Data Centre
5 15 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 15 (3.18%) Operational Technology
6 14 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
7 13 (2.75%) Cloud Native
7 13 (2.75%) Life Science
7 13 (2.75%) SCADA
8 11 (2.33%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.91%) PMI
9 9 (1.91%) Security Posture
10 8 (1.69%) Animation
10 8 (1.69%) Graphic Design
10 8 (1.69%) Interactive Media
11 7 (1.48%) CCTV
11 7 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (1.27%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 66 (13.98%) Windows
2 47 (9.96%) Linux
3 28 (5.93%) Unix
4 19 (4.03%) Windows Server
5 13 (2.75%) Apple iOS
6 11 (2.33%) Mac OS
7 8 (1.69%) Windows 10
8 7 (1.48%) Android
9 2 (0.42%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.21%) Solaris
10 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (37.92%) Computer Science
2 140 (29.66%) Agile
3 124 (26.27%) Continuous Improvement
4 106 (22.46%) Problem-Solving
5 101 (21.40%) Stakeholder Management
6 87 (18.43%) ITIL
7 78 (16.53%) Cybersecurity
8 75 (15.89%) ITSM
9 71 (15.04%) PRINCE2
10 67 (14.19%) Project Management
11 63 (13.35%) Change Control
12 58 (12.29%) Decision-Making
13 53 (11.23%) AI
13 53 (11.23%) Information Security
13 53 (11.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 48 (10.17%) Systems Engineering
15 45 (9.53%) Roadmaps
15 45 (9.53%) Service Management
16 44 (9.32%) DevOps
16 44 (9.32%) Scaled Agile Framework
Programming Languages
1 65 (13.77%) Python
2 45 (9.53%) PowerShell
3 24 (5.08%) SQL
4 18 (3.81%) JavaScript
5 15 (3.18%) Java
6 8 (1.69%) Bash
6 8 (1.69%) Shell Script
7 7 (1.48%) C#
8 5 (1.06%) Bicep
8 5 (1.06%) C
8 5 (1.06%) Perl
9 4 (0.85%) Rust
10 3 (0.64%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.64%) C++
10 3 (0.64%) Korn
10 3 (0.64%) Lua
10 3 (0.64%) X++
11 2 (0.42%) Ada
12 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.21%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 198 (41.95%) Security Cleared
2 113 (23.94%) SC Cleared
3 60 (12.71%) Computer Science Degree
4 30 (6.36%) PMI Certification
5 29 (6.14%) DV Cleared
5 29 (6.14%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (5.51%) CISSP
6 26 (5.51%) PMP
7 22 (4.66%) Master's Degree
8 20 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
9 16 (3.39%) Azure Certification
9 16 (3.39%) Cisco Certification
10 15 (3.18%) CISM
11 13 (2.75%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 10 (2.12%) ACCA
12 10 (2.12%) CIMA
13 8 (1.69%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.69%) CCNP
13 8 (1.69%) CESG Certified Professional
14 7 (1.48%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (11.23%) NIST
2 51 (10.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (5.08%) Data Quality
4 17 (3.60%) NCSC
5 16 (3.39%) PMO
6 15 (3.18%) QA
7 13 (2.75%) GDPR
8 8 (1.69%) NIST 800
8 8 (1.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 7 (1.48%) Accessibility
9 7 (1.48%) SLA
10 6 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 6 (1.27%) PCI DSS
11 5 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
11 5 (1.06%) GxP
11 5 (1.06%) ISO 31000
12 4 (0.85%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.85%) GRC
13 3 (0.64%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 60 (12.71%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.81%) Docker
3 17 (3.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.27%) Firmware
4 6 (1.27%) VMware NSX
5 4 (0.85%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.64%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.64%) OpenAM
6 3 (0.64%) Oracle RAC
7 1 (0.21%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 1 (0.21%) UAG
7 1 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 18 (3.81%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.39%) Kubernetes
3 10 (2.12%) Ansible
3 10 (2.12%) Jamf Pro
4 8 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (1.06%) Grafana
6 5 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.85%) Podman
7 4 (0.85%) Puppet
7 4 (0.85%) SCCM
8 3 (0.64%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 2 (0.42%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.21%) Argo
10 1 (0.21%) CASB
10 1 (0.21%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.21%) Dell DRAC
10 1 (0.21%) Istio
10 1 (0.21%) MOM
Vendors
1 132 (27.97%) Microsoft
2 41 (8.69%) Oracle
3 36 (7.63%) ServiceNow
4 31 (6.57%) SAP
5 29 (6.14%) IBM
6 23 (4.87%) VMware
7 15 (3.18%) Ariba
7 15 (3.18%) CyberArk
8 14 (2.97%) BeyondTrust
8 14 (2.97%) Salesforce
9 12 (2.54%) Google
10 8 (1.69%) Cisco
11 5 (1.06%) Dell
11 5 (1.06%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.06%) Workday
12 4 (0.85%) F5
12 4 (0.85%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.85%) Red Hat
12 4 (0.85%) Rockwell
12 4 (0.85%) Splunk