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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 28 21
Rank change year-on-year -23 -7 +1
Contract jobs citing Degree 126 125 185
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 3.40% 6.33% 7.36%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.91% 11.81% 14.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 78 89
10th Percentile £208 £145 £198
25th Percentile £302 £235 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £415 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -20.95% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £594 £625 £688
90th Percentile £646 £664 £756
England median daily rate £510 £504 £500
% change year-on-year +1.22% +0.80% -6.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 17 34
10th Percentile £14.19 £25.47 £60.75
25th Percentile £19.78 - £63.75
Median hourly rate £46.86 £33.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.87% -52.14% +23.92%
75th Percentile £76.75 - £72.50
90th Percentile £80.52 £68.00 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £34.48 £50.00
% change year-on-year +12.30% -31.04% +3.56%

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 1,593 1,058 1,242
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 42.94% 53.60% 49.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 975 638 725
10th Percentile £381 £213 £353
25th Percentile £470 £386 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -
75th Percentile £650 £647 £672
90th Percentile £725 £738 £744
England median daily rate £535 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 238 156 103
10th Percentile £19.33 £18.51 £35.25
25th Percentile £25.77 £20.82 £59.63
Median hourly rate £60.00 £25.15 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year +138.57% -62.74% +8.78%
75th Percentile £75.75 £33.75 £72.50
90th Percentile £92.53 £69.38 £75.00
England median hourly rate £48.81 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +94.08% -52.10% -1.87%

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 13 October 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 13 October 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 13 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
Devon -4 30 £408 +154.69% 30
Bristol -34 29 £400 -27.27% 56
Somerset -20 22 £550 -13.04% 38
Wiltshire -20 22 £620 -0.80% 37
Gloucestershire -2 13 £363 -23.68% 72
Dorset -6 8 £438 - 25
Cornwall -3 1 - - 6
Avon - 1 - - 25
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 11 (8.73%) SharePoint
2 9 (7.14%) Apache
3 6 (4.76%) Apache Spark
3 6 (4.76%) Confluence
4 2 (1.59%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 1 (0.79%) CMS
Applications
1 19 (15.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (10.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (5.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (1.59%) MS Visio
4 2 (1.59%) Simulink
5 1 (0.79%) 3ds Max
5 1 (0.79%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.79%) InDesign
5 1 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.79%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.79%) Siemens NX
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%) Primavera
3 2 (1.59%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (1.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.79%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 1 (0.79%) SAP Payroll
4 1 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 20 (15.87%) Azure
2 19 (15.08%) AWS
3 15 (11.90%) Power Platform
4 7 (5.56%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (3.97%) Amazon S3
6 4 (3.17%) OpenShift
6 4 (3.17%) Power Automate
6 4 (3.17%) PowerApps
7 3 (2.38%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
8 2 (1.59%) GCP
8 2 (1.59%) GitHub
8 2 (1.59%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (0.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (0.79%) Amazon ECS
9 1 (0.79%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (0.79%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 1 (0.79%) Lucidchart
9 1 (0.79%) Miro
9 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 15 (11.90%) Power BI
2 6 (4.76%) SQL Server
3 5 (3.97%) Big Data
3 5 (3.97%) Elasticsearch
3 5 (3.97%) GIS
4 4 (3.17%) Hadoop
4 4 (3.17%) Metadata
4 4 (3.17%) Oracle Database
4 4 (3.17%) Parquet
5 3 (2.38%) Relational 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%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.79%) Flink
7 1 (0.79%) HBase
7 1 (0.79%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.79%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (7.14%) JIRA
2 8 (6.35%) Git
3 7 (5.56%) GitLab
4 5 (3.97%) Cucumber
5 4 (3.17%) Postman
5 4 (3.17%) REST Assured
6 3 (2.38%) Jenkins
6 3 (2.38%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
7 2 (1.59%) Selenium
8 1 (0.79%) JUnit
8 1 (0.79%) Maven
8 1 (0.79%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.79%) Visual Studio
General
1 57 (45.24%) Social Skills
2 24 (19.05%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (15.87%) Finance
4 16 (12.70%) Aerospace
5 14 (11.11%) Organisational Skills
5 14 (11.11%) Public Sector
6 8 (6.35%) Military
7 6 (4.76%) Automotive
7 6 (4.76%) Manufacturing
8 5 (3.97%) Law
8 5 (3.97%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (3.97%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (2.38%) Aviation
9 3 (2.38%) Banking
9 3 (2.38%) Legal
9 3 (2.38%) Police
10 2 (1.59%) Electronics
10 2 (1.59%) Local Government
10 2 (1.59%) Marketing
10 2 (1.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 13 (10.32%) Senior
2 12 (9.52%) Analyst
2 12 (9.52%) Developer
3 10 (7.94%) Administrator
4 9 (7.14%) Systems Engineer
5 8 (6.35%) Data Engineer
6 7 (5.56%) Product Manager
7 6 (4.76%) Digital Product Manager
8 5 (3.97%) Coordinator
8 5 (3.97%) Software Developer
8 5 (3.97%) Software Engineer
8 5 (3.97%) Test Engineer
9 4 (3.17%) Commercial Manager
9 4 (3.17%) Lead
9 4 (3.17%) Salesforce Engineer
9 4 (3.17%) Senior Commercial Manager
9 4 (3.17%) Senior Manager
10 3 (2.38%) Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)
10 3 (2.38%) Integration Engineer
10 3 (2.38%) Safety Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (9.52%) React
2 11 (8.73%) HTML
3 6 (4.76%) CSS
3 6 (4.76%) REST
4 5 (3.97%) Terraform
5 4 (3.17%) .NET
5 4 (3.17%) Apache NiFi
5 4 (3.17%) ASP.NET
5 4 (3.17%) Next.js
5 4 (3.17%) Playwright
6 3 (2.38%) ASP.NET Core
6 3 (2.38%) Blazor
6 3 (2.38%) jQuery
6 3 (2.38%) Spring
6 3 (2.38%) Spring Boot
7 2 (1.59%) Kafka
8 1 (0.79%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.79%) CSS3
8 1 (0.79%) HTML5
8 1 (0.79%) V-Ray
Miscellaneous
1 17 (13.49%) 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%) Algorithms
6 3 (2.38%) Cyber Defence
6 3 (2.38%) e-Learning
6 3 (2.38%) PMI
6 3 (2.38%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.59%) CSOC
7 2 (1.59%) Cyber Security Posture
7 2 (1.59%) FMCG
7 2 (1.59%) Freedom of Information
7 2 (1.59%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.59%) Replication
7 2 (1.59%) Robotics
7 2 (1.59%) SCADA
7 2 (1.59%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.59%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (11.11%) Windows
2 9 (7.14%) Linux
2 9 (7.14%) Windows Server
3 8 (6.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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 35 (27.78%) Agile
2 30 (23.81%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (19.05%) CI/CD
4 23 (18.25%) Computer Science
5 20 (15.87%) Continuous Improvement
5 20 (15.87%) Validation
6 17 (13.49%) DevOps
6 17 (13.49%) Stakeholder Management
7 16 (12.70%) AI
7 16 (12.70%) Software Engineering
7 16 (12.70%) Test Automation
8 15 (11.90%) Mentoring
9 14 (11.11%) Analytics
9 14 (11.11%) Software Testing
10 12 (9.52%) Project Management
11 11 (8.73%) Business Intelligence
11 11 (8.73%) SDLC
12 10 (7.94%) Collaborative Working
12 10 (7.94%) Contract Negotiation
12 10 (7.94%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 23 (18.25%) SQL
2 19 (15.08%) JavaScript
3 10 (7.94%) Python
4 6 (4.76%) Ada
4 6 (4.76%) Java
5 5 (3.97%) TypeScript
6 4 (3.17%) Apex Code
6 4 (3.17%) C#
6 4 (3.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 3 (2.38%) PL/SQL
7 3 (2.38%) PowerShell
7 3 (2.38%) T-SQL
8 2 (1.59%) Go
8 2 (1.59%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.79%) Bash
9 1 (0.79%) R
Qualifications
1 49 (38.89%) Security Cleared
2 29 (23.02%) SC Cleared
3 17 (13.49%) DV Cleared
4 14 (11.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (7.14%) Chartered Engineer
6 7 (5.56%) Master's Degree
7 6 (4.76%) PMI Certification
8 5 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.97%) PMP
8 5 (3.97%) SANS
9 4 (3.17%) ISTQB
9 4 (3.17%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (2.38%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 2 (1.59%) CCA
11 2 (1.59%) CCNP
11 2 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.79%) ACCA
12 1 (0.79%) AWS Certification
12 1 (0.79%) CIMA
12 1 (0.79%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (7.94%) GDPR
2 6 (4.76%) QA
3 5 (3.97%) Def Stans
4 3 (2.38%) Data Quality
4 3 (2.38%) IEC 61508
4 3 (2.38%) PMO
5 2 (1.59%) Accessibility
5 2 (1.59%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 2 (1.59%) NEBOSH
6 1 (0.79%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 1 (0.79%) ARP4761
6 1 (0.79%) DO-254
6 1 (0.79%) GAMP
6 1 (0.79%) GMP
6 1 (0.79%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.79%) SEPA
System Software
1 7 (5.56%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (3.17%) Docker
3 4 (3.17%) Hyper-V
3 4 (3.17%) Virtual Machines
4 3 (2.38%) VMware Workstation
5 1 (0.79%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 9 (7.14%) Kubernetes
2 5 (3.97%) Ansible
3 3 (2.38%) Functional Safety
4 2 (1.59%) Computer Incident Response Team
5 1 (0.79%) Data Guard
5 1 (0.79%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
5 1 (0.79%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 1 (0.79%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 18 (14.29%) Microsoft
2 7 (5.56%) Oracle
3 6 (4.76%) Salesforce
4 5 (3.97%) SAP
4 5 (3.97%) VMware
5 4 (3.17%) ArcSight
5 4 (3.17%) Conga
5 4 (3.17%) GoCardless
5 4 (3.17%) ServiceNow
6 3 (2.38%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.59%) Adobe
7 2 (1.59%) Cisco
7 2 (1.59%) Databricks
7 2 (1.59%) Facebook
7 2 (1.59%) Sparx
8 1 (0.79%) Alteryx
8 1 (0.79%) Cloudera
8 1 (0.79%) IBM
8 1 (0.79%) Rockwell
8 1 (0.79%) Siemens