Graduate Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Graduate
UK > UK excluding London

The median Graduate daily rate in the UK excluding London is £218, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 29 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 368 371 418
Rank change year-on-year +3 +47 +92
Contract jobs requiring a Graduate 4 4 7
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.026% 0.023% 0.032%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.029% 0.025% 0.034%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile £133 - -
25th Percentile £179 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £218 - £150
Median % change year-on-year - - -11.76%
75th Percentile £238 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median daily rate £225 - £150
% change year-on-year - - -11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - £16.90
25th Percentile - - £17.88
Median hourly rate - - £20.50
75th Percentile - - £22.88
90th Percentile - - £23.70
UK median hourly rate - - £20.50
% change year-on-year - - +36.67%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 13,822 16,145 20,313
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.67% 92.24% 94.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,506 9,185 13,566
10th Percentile £209 £220 £225
25th Percentile £360 £375 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £590 £600
90th Percentile £664 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,294 1,322 1,232
10th Percentile £13.50 £14.65 £14.17
25th Percentile £16.30 £19.60 £17.75
Median hourly rate £25.08 £43.00 £44.25
Median % change year-on-year -41.69% -2.82% +101.14%
75th Percentile £50.00 £66.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.90 £74.73 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%

Graduate
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Graduate in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Graduate in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Graduate within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 29 September 2025. 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
South East +22 1 £105 - 136
Scotland -1 1 £210 - 13
North West - 1 £225 - 55
South West - 1 £225 - 49
North of England - 1 £225 - 75
Graduate
UK

Graduate Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 29 September 2025, Graduate contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Graduate in the job title.

1 4 (100.00%) Degree
2 3 (75.00%) Microsoft
3 2 (50.00%) Computer Science
3 2 (50.00%) Python
3 2 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (50.00%) Social Skills
4 1 (25.00%) Impact Assessments
4 1 (25.00%) Incident Response
4 1 (25.00%) Customer Service
4 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (25.00%) SDLC
4 1 (25.00%) OSINT
4 1 (25.00%) Power BI
4 1 (25.00%) Cloud Native
4 1 (25.00%) Task Automation
4 1 (25.00%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (25.00%) Power Platform
4 1 (25.00%) Operational Stability
4 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (25.00%) Business Intelligence
4 1 (25.00%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (25.00%) Mathematics
4 1 (25.00%) Django
4 1 (25.00%) Risk Analysis
4 1 (25.00%) Data Protection
4 1 (25.00%) Visualisation
4 1 (25.00%) Azure
4 1 (25.00%) Open Source
4 1 (25.00%) Social Media

Graduate Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (25.00%) Azure
1 1 (25.00%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (25.00%) Power BI
General
1 2 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Banking
2 1 (25.00%) Finance
2 1 (25.00%) Investment Banking
2 1 (25.00%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 1 (25.00%) Cloud Native
1 1 (25.00%) Data Protection Act
1 1 (25.00%) Social Media
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (50.00%) Computer Science
1 2 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (25.00%) BCP
2 1 (25.00%) Business Continuity
2 1 (25.00%) Business Intelligence
2 1 (25.00%) Customer Service
2 1 (25.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (25.00%) Data Analysis
2 1 (25.00%) Data Protection
2 1 (25.00%) Document Management
2 1 (25.00%) Economics
2 1 (25.00%) Impact Assessments
2 1 (25.00%) Incident Response
2 1 (25.00%) Information Management
2 1 (25.00%) Mathematics
2 1 (25.00%) Operational Stability
2 1 (25.00%) Risk Analysis
2 1 (25.00%) Software Engineering
2 1 (25.00%) Task Automation
2 1 (25.00%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 2 (50.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (100.00%) Degree
2 1 (25.00%) Computer Science Degree
Vendors
1 3 (75.00%) Microsoft