Degree Contract Job Trends in the South West

Academic Degree
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South West with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 29 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 25 21
Rank change year-on-year -25 -4 +1
Contract jobs citing Degree 126 125 189
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.37% 6.40% 7.45%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.78% 12.08% 14.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 83 88
10th Percentile £150 £145 £154
25th Percentile £260 £235 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £516
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -3.15% -6.14%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £649
90th Percentile £630 £686 £752
England median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -5.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 18 35
10th Percentile £14.00 £25.92 £60.75
25th Percentile £19.78 - £65.00
Median hourly rate £41.71 £33.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +24.51% -52.14% +23.92%
75th Percentile £75.25 - £72.50
90th Percentile £77.95 £72.88 £75.00
England median hourly rate £39.50 £34.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +14.49% -39.84% +18.79%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South West

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 West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,619 1,035 1,262
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 43.36% 53.02% 49.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,011 635 750
10th Percentile £350 £213 £363
25th Percentile £459 £386 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £551
Median % change year-on-year - -0.18% -4.17%
75th Percentile £640 £644 £656
90th Percentile £725 £738 £734
England median daily rate £530 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +0.95% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 234 147 103
10th Percentile £19.33 £18.51 £40.50
25th Percentile £25.77 £20.82 £60.75
Median hourly rate £60.00 £25.15 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +138.57% -64.07% +12.40%
75th Percentile £76.00 £33.75 £74.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £71.00 £84.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £53.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -52.55% -1.24%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Degree relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Degree job vacancy trend in the South West

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in the South West over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in the South West

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in the South West over the 6 months to 29 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the South West

Degree
Contract Job Locations in the South West

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 West region over the 6 months to 29 September 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
Devon -5 36 £310 +93.44% 63
Bristol -34 25 £400 -27.27% 144
Somerset -20 22 £430 -32.02% 78
Wiltshire -16 20 £585 -6.40% 68
Gloucestershire -4 13 £363 -23.68% 91
Dorset -7 8 £438 - 43
Cornwall -3 1 - - 11
Avon - 1 - - 59
Degree
England

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 19 (15.08%) SharePoint
2 5 (3.97%) Apache
2 5 (3.97%) Confluence
3 2 (1.59%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.59%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.79%) CMS
Applications
1 25 (19.84%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (15.08%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (10.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.79%) 3ds Max
5 1 (0.79%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.79%) InDesign
5 1 (0.79%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.79%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.79%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.79%) Simulink
5 1 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
5 1 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.79%) Trello
Business Applications
1 4 (3.17%) Payment Gateway
2 3 (2.38%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (1.59%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (1.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.79%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.79%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.79%) Primavera
4 1 (0.79%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 23 (18.25%) Power Platform
2 19 (15.08%) AWS
2 19 (15.08%) Azure
3 16 (12.70%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (3.17%) Power Automate
4 4 (3.17%) PowerApps
5 3 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (1.59%) GCP
6 2 (1.59%) GitHub
6 2 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (0.79%) Adobe Analytics
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon EC2
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon S3
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon SQS
7 1 (0.79%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (0.79%) Google Compute Engine
7 1 (0.79%) Google Kubernetes Engine
7 1 (0.79%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.17%) DHCP
1 4 (3.17%) DNS
2 3 (2.38%) Network Security
3 2 (1.59%) ATM
4 1 (0.79%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.79%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (18.25%) Power BI
2 6 (4.76%) SQL Server
3 5 (3.97%) Elasticsearch
3 5 (3.97%) GIS
3 5 (3.97%) Relational Database
4 4 (3.17%) Oracle Database
5 3 (2.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (1.59%) Spatial Data
7 1 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.79%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.79%) Big Data
7 1 (0.79%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.79%) Flink
7 1 (0.79%) HBase
7 1 (0.79%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.79%) MySQL
7 1 (0.79%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.79%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 8 (6.35%) Git
1 8 (6.35%) JIRA
2 5 (3.97%) Cucumber
3 4 (3.17%) Postman
3 4 (3.17%) REST Assured
4 3 (2.38%) GitLab
4 3 (2.38%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 2 (1.59%) Selenium
6 1 (0.79%) JUnit
6 1 (0.79%) Maven
6 1 (0.79%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.79%) Visual Studio
General
1 62 (49.21%) Social Skills
2 26 (20.63%) Finance
3 25 (19.84%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
5 16 (12.70%) Public Sector
6 14 (11.11%) Aerospace
7 13 (10.32%) Military
8 6 (4.76%) Automotive
8 6 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (3.97%) Manufacturing
9 5 (3.97%) Pharmaceutical
10 4 (3.17%) Law
11 3 (2.38%) Aviation
11 3 (2.38%) Banking
11 3 (2.38%) Police
12 2 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.59%) Legal
12 2 (1.59%) Local Government
12 2 (1.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 12 (9.52%) Developer
2 11 (8.73%) Analyst
3 10 (7.94%) Administrator
3 10 (7.94%) Project Officer
3 10 (7.94%) Project Support Officer
3 10 (7.94%) Senior
3 10 (7.94%) Support Officer
4 8 (6.35%) Systems Engineer
5 7 (5.56%) Product Manager
6 6 (4.76%) Digital Product Manager
7 5 (3.97%) Coordinator
7 5 (3.97%) Lead
7 5 (3.97%) Software Developer
7 5 (3.97%) Software Engineer
7 5 (3.97%) Test Engineer
8 4 (3.17%) Commercial Manager
8 4 (3.17%) Data Administrator
8 4 (3.17%) Salesforce Engineer
8 4 (3.17%) Senior Commercial Manager
8 4 (3.17%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (9.52%) React
2 11 (8.73%) HTML
3 6 (4.76%) CSS
4 4 (3.17%) .NET
4 4 (3.17%) ASP.NET
4 4 (3.17%) Next.js
4 4 (3.17%) Playwright
5 3 (2.38%) ASP.NET Core
5 3 (2.38%) Blazor
5 3 (2.38%) JDO
5 3 (2.38%) jQuery
5 3 (2.38%) Spring
5 3 (2.38%) Spring Boot
6 2 (1.59%) Kafka
6 2 (1.59%) REST
7 1 (0.79%) AngularJS
7 1 (0.79%) CSS3
7 1 (0.79%) HTML5
7 1 (0.79%) RESTful
7 1 (0.79%) V-Ray
Miscellaneous
1 14 (11.11%) Management Information System
2 12 (9.52%) Self-Motivation
3 8 (6.35%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (6.35%) Legacy Systems
4 5 (3.97%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 4 (3.17%) Freedom of Information
6 3 (2.38%) Cyber Defence
6 3 (2.38%) e-Learning
6 3 (2.38%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.59%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.59%) CSOC
7 2 (1.59%) Cyber Security Posture
7 2 (1.59%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (1.59%) FMCG
7 2 (1.59%) Learning Management System
7 2 (1.59%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.59%) SCADA
7 2 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
7 2 (1.59%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.59%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 13 (10.32%) Windows
2 9 (7.14%) Linux
3 8 (6.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 8 (6.35%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.38%) Solaris
4 3 (2.38%) Windows 10
4 3 (2.38%) Windows Server 2012
5 2 (1.59%) Debian
5 2 (1.59%) Rocky
5 2 (1.59%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (32.54%) Agile
2 28 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 23 (18.25%) Computer Science
4 22 (17.46%) Continuous Improvement
5 20 (15.87%) CI/CD
6 18 (14.29%) Project Management
6 18 (14.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 16 (12.70%) Software Engineering
8 15 (11.90%) Change Control
8 15 (11.90%) Mentoring
8 15 (11.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 14 (11.11%) PRINCE2
9 14 (11.11%) Software Testing
9 14 (11.11%) Validation
10 13 (10.32%) Analytics
11 12 (9.52%) DevOps
11 12 (9.52%) Test Automation
12 11 (8.73%) AI
12 11 (8.73%) Business Intelligence
12 11 (8.73%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 19 (15.08%) JavaScript
1 19 (15.08%) SQL
2 6 (4.76%) Ada
2 6 (4.76%) Java
2 6 (4.76%) Python
3 5 (3.97%) TypeScript
4 4 (3.17%) Apex Code
4 4 (3.17%) C#
4 4 (3.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 3 (2.38%) PL/SQL
5 3 (2.38%) PowerShell
5 3 (2.38%) T-SQL
6 2 (1.59%) Go
7 1 (0.79%) Bash
7 1 (0.79%) MATLAB
7 1 (0.79%) R
Qualifications
1 50 (39.68%) Security Cleared
2 34 (26.98%) SC Cleared
3 14 (11.11%) Computer Science Degree
4 13 (10.32%) DV Cleared
5 9 (7.14%) Chartered Engineer
5 9 (7.14%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
6 7 (5.56%) Master's Degree
7 5 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (3.97%) PMI Certification
7 5 (3.97%) PMP
7 5 (3.97%) SANS
8 4 (3.17%) ISTQB
8 4 (3.17%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (1.59%) CCA
9 2 (1.59%) CCNP
9 2 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.79%) ACCA
10 1 (0.79%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.79%) CIMA
10 1 (0.79%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.94%) GDPR
2 6 (4.76%) QA
3 5 (3.97%) Data Quality
3 5 (3.97%) Def Stans
4 4 (3.17%) Accessibility
4 4 (3.17%) PMO
5 3 (2.38%) IEC 61508
6 2 (1.59%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 1 (0.79%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 1 (0.79%) ARP4761
7 1 (0.79%) DO-254
7 1 (0.79%) GAMP
7 1 (0.79%) GMP
7 1 (0.79%) ISO 20022
7 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 1 (0.79%) SEPA
System Software
1 7 (5.56%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.17%) Docker
2 4 (3.17%) Hyper-V
2 4 (3.17%) Virtual Machines
2 4 (3.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (2.38%) VMware Workstation
4 1 (0.79%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 5 (3.97%) Kubernetes
2 3 (2.38%) Functional Safety
3 2 (1.59%) Computer Incident Response Team
4 1 (0.79%) Ansible
4 1 (0.79%) Data Guard
4 1 (0.79%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
4 1 (0.79%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
4 1 (0.79%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 28 (22.22%) Microsoft
2 10 (7.94%) ServiceNow
3 6 (4.76%) Oracle
3 6 (4.76%) Salesforce
4 4 (3.17%) ArcSight
4 4 (3.17%) Conga
4 4 (3.17%) GoCardless
4 4 (3.17%) VMware
5 3 (2.38%) Red Hat
5 3 (2.38%) SAP
6 2 (1.59%) Adobe
6 2 (1.59%) Cisco
6 2 (1.59%) Databricks
6 2 (1.59%) Sparx
7 1 (0.79%) Alteryx
7 1 (0.79%) Cloudera
7 1 (0.79%) Facebook
7 1 (0.79%) IBM
7 1 (0.79%) Rockwell
7 1 (0.79%) Siemens