Degree Contract Job Trends

Academic Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 22 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 25 20
Rank change year-on-year -18 -5 +4
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,492 2,340 2,985
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.57% 7.20% 7.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.43% 22.89% 26.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,285 1,276 1,688
10th Percentile £204 £260 £246
25th Percentile £356 £385 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £613
90th Percentile £724 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +6.56% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 206 204
10th Percentile £16.46 £15.50 £20.12
25th Percentile £26.00 £25.30 £26.31
Median hourly rate £38.72 £38.91 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -0.49% -25.89% +5.00%
75th Percentile £68.75 £56.00 £71.56
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.00 £77.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.49 £35.25 £57.35
% change year-on-year +9.18% -38.54% +14.70%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 17,270 10,222 11,109
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.65% 31.47% 29.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,482 6,385 6,811
10th Percentile £350 £300 £313
25th Percentile £440 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.52% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £631 £625 £638
90th Percentile £715 £711 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,381 837 637
10th Percentile £17.17 £17.87 £17.05
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £24.18
Median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.03% -49.70% -7.41%
75th Percentile £72.50 £43.75 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £70.50 £75.74
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +88.87% -52.10% +1.18%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Degree job vacancy trend in the UK

Degree
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in the UK

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the UK

Degree
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 22 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
England -15 2,268 £510 +2.00% 10,367
UK excluding London -16 1,343 £480 +6.56% 6,070
London -19 977 £525 -4.55% 5,037
Work from Home -20 652 £503 +3.82% 3,513
South East +9 460 £525 +12.00% 1,719
North of England -10 338 £475 +6.26% 1,155
North West -7 211 £475 +3.83% 637
Midlands -30 187 £450 -2.96% 815
West Midlands -30 139 £450 -5.26% 502
East of England -17 136 £350 -28.21% 753
South West -23 127 £400 -13.51% 719
Yorkshire -6 112 £500 +19.05% 350
Scotland -53 70 £500 +11.11% 533
East Midlands -21 47 £475 +6.26% 313
North East -32 15 £455 +30.65% 179
Northern Ireland -12 14 £250 -57.45% 267
Wales -28 13 £530 +73.50% 195
Channel Islands - 3 £350 - 3

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 163 (6.54%) SharePoint
2 104 (4.17%) Confluence
3 63 (2.53%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (1.08%) Apache Spark
5 21 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (0.76%) Apache
6 19 (0.76%) IIS
7 14 (0.56%) Camunda
7 14 (0.56%) SharePoint Server
8 12 (0.48%) CMS
9 8 (0.32%) SAS
10 7 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 5 (0.20%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.16%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.16%) FactoryTalk
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle Service Bus
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
13 3 (0.12%) CICS
13 3 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 247 (9.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 241 (9.67%) Microsoft Office
3 122 (4.90%) Microsoft Project
4 117 (4.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 51 (2.05%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.68%) Adobe After Effects
6 17 (0.68%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 16 (0.64%) Photoshop
8 15 (0.60%) Adobe Illustrator
9 10 (0.40%) Navisworks
9 10 (0.40%) Windchill
10 9 (0.36%) Revit
11 8 (0.32%) Chatbot
11 8 (0.32%) Simulink
11 8 (0.32%) Sketch
11 8 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
12 6 (0.24%) Final Cut Pro
12 6 (0.24%) UserZoom
13 4 (0.16%) AutoCAD
13 4 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 39 (1.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
3 13 (0.52%) Primavera
4 11 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
5 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.32%) Magento
6 8 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
7 7 (0.28%) HFM
7 7 (0.28%) Workday HCM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.24%) SAP EWM
8 6 (0.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 5 (0.20%) NEC Housing
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
9 5 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
10 4 (0.16%) Aladdin
10 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle General Ledger
10 4 (0.16%) SAP ERP
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 561 (22.51%) Azure
2 316 (12.68%) AWS
3 231 (9.27%) Power Platform
4 227 (9.11%) Microsoft 365
5 155 (6.22%) GCP
6 141 (5.66%) Entra ID
7 124 (4.98%) Azure DevOps
8 79 (3.17%) SaaS
9 71 (2.85%) GitHub
10 65 (2.61%) Dynamics 365
11 61 (2.45%) Serverless
12 60 (2.41%) Power Automate
13 54 (2.17%) PowerApps
14 49 (1.97%) Microsoft Copilot
15 47 (1.89%) OneDrive
16 39 (1.57%) Snowflake
17 38 (1.52%) Figma
18 30 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
19 28 (1.12%) IaaS
20 27 (1.08%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 108 (4.33%) Firewall
2 85 (3.41%) DNS
3 67 (2.69%) Network Security
4 65 (2.61%) TCP/IP
5 59 (2.37%) VPN
6 46 (1.85%) DHCP
7 34 (1.36%) LAN
7 34 (1.36%) WAN
8 29 (1.16%) Wireless
9 23 (0.92%) 3GPP
9 23 (0.92%) Internet
10 21 (0.84%) 5G
11 20 (0.80%) SSL
12 19 (0.76%) SSH
12 19 (0.76%) VLAN
13 18 (0.72%) Wireshark
14 17 (0.68%) BGP
14 17 (0.68%) HTTP
14 17 (0.68%) Radio Access Network
15 16 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 168 (6.74%) Power BI
2 113 (4.53%) SQL Server
3 60 (2.41%) PostgreSQL
4 58 (2.33%) Relational Database
5 56 (2.25%) Metadata
6 43 (1.73%) Data Warehouse
7 36 (1.44%) MySQL
8 32 (1.28%) NoSQL
8 32 (1.28%) Tableau
9 27 (1.08%) MongoDB
10 26 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
11 25 (1.00%) Big Data
12 24 (0.96%) Oracle Database
13 22 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
14 19 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
15 18 (0.72%) Data Mining
16 17 (0.68%) Data Lake
17 16 (0.64%) GIS
18 13 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 174 (6.98%) JIRA
2 145 (5.82%) Git
3 66 (2.65%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.13%) GitLab
5 25 (1.00%) JUnit
6 23 (0.92%) Maven
6 23 (0.92%) Selenium
7 22 (0.88%) SonarQube
8 21 (0.84%) Gradle
9 19 (0.76%) Visual Studio
10 18 (0.72%) Cucumber
11 17 (0.68%) REST Assured
12 15 (0.60%) Mockito
12 15 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
13 12 (0.48%) Postman
14 10 (0.40%) SpecFlow
14 10 (0.40%) Subversion
15 9 (0.36%) TeamCity
16 8 (0.32%) Cypress.io
16 8 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
General
1 1,132 (45.43%) Social Skills
2 739 (29.65%) Finance
3 582 (23.35%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (8.23%) Public Sector
5 201 (8.07%) Banking
6 168 (6.74%) Organisational Skills
7 127 (5.10%) Manufacturing
8 120 (4.82%) Aerospace
9 116 (4.65%) Influencing Skills
10 98 (3.93%) Marketing
11 92 (3.69%) Telecoms
12 90 (3.61%) Presentation Skills
13 86 (3.45%) Legal
14 79 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
15 65 (2.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 60 (2.41%) Retail
17 53 (2.13%) Law
17 53 (2.13%) Pharmaceutical
18 46 (1.85%) Military
19 42 (1.69%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 330 (13.24%) Analyst
2 286 (11.48%) Senior
3 207 (8.31%) Developer
4 200 (8.03%) Lead
5 166 (6.66%) Architect
6 158 (6.34%) Business Analyst
7 117 (4.70%) Project Manager
8 76 (3.05%) Consultant
9 73 (2.93%) Support Engineer
10 71 (2.85%) IT Support
11 66 (2.65%) Senior Manager
12 55 (2.21%) Solutions Architect
13 53 (2.13%) IT Manager
14 51 (2.05%) Administrator
14 51 (2.05%) IT Analyst
15 49 (1.97%) Designer
16 48 (1.93%) Security Engineer
17 46 (1.85%) Software Engineer
18 43 (1.73%) Delivery Manager
19 42 (1.69%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (4.82%) REST
2 112 (4.49%) Terraform
3 104 (4.17%) .NET
4 76 (3.05%) React
5 72 (2.89%) HTML
6 65 (2.61%) Kafka
7 61 (2.45%) RESTful
8 60 (2.41%) CSS
9 52 (2.09%) OAuth
10 49 (1.97%) XML
11 47 (1.89%) Web Services
12 46 (1.85%) Oracle Fusion
13 45 (1.81%) Middleware
14 41 (1.65%) OAuth2
14 41 (1.65%) Spring Boot
15 39 (1.57%) SOAP
16 38 (1.52%) SAML
17 36 (1.44%) JSON
17 36 (1.44%) OpenID
17 36 (1.44%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 230 (9.23%) Management Information System
2 139 (5.58%) Onboarding
3 119 (4.78%) Product Ownership
4 104 (4.17%) Cloud Native
4 104 (4.17%) Self-Motivation
5 62 (2.49%) Data Centre
6 61 (2.45%) Algorithms
7 58 (2.33%) Data Structures
8 55 (2.21%) Operational Technology
9 51 (2.05%) Security Posture
10 50 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
11 48 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
12 46 (1.85%) AI Agents
12 46 (1.85%) Life Science
13 42 (1.69%) Virtual Team
14 40 (1.61%) Legacy Systems
15 37 (1.48%) Hybrid Cloud
16 35 (1.40%) SCADA
17 31 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
18 29 (1.16%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 299 (12.00%) Windows
2 182 (7.30%) Linux
3 84 (3.37%) Windows Server
4 66 (2.65%) Unix
5 47 (1.89%) Windows 10
6 33 (1.32%) Mac OS
6 33 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 30 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 24 (0.96%) Android
9 10 (0.40%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.24%) VMS
10 6 (0.24%) Windows 7
10 6 (0.24%) zOS
11 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.16%) Solaris
12 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.12%) AIX
13 3 (0.12%) CentOS
13 3 (0.12%) MVS
13 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 804 (32.26%) Computer Science
2 672 (26.97%) Agile
3 660 (26.48%) Problem-Solving
4 529 (21.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 437 (17.54%) Continuous Improvement
6 389 (15.61%) AI
7 360 (14.45%) DevOps
8 325 (13.04%) CI/CD
9 321 (12.88%) Project Management
10 309 (12.40%) Analytics
11 284 (11.40%) ITIL
12 265 (10.63%) Decision-Making
13 259 (10.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 241 (9.67%) Change Management
15 238 (9.55%) Roadmaps
16 237 (9.51%) Scrum
17 228 (9.15%) Cybersecurity
18 227 (9.11%) Software Engineering
19 211 (8.47%) Project Delivery
20 210 (8.43%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 415 (16.65%) Python
2 360 (14.45%) SQL
3 178 (7.14%) PowerShell
4 165 (6.62%) Java
5 130 (5.22%) JavaScript
6 125 (5.02%) C#
7 62 (2.49%) Bash
8 48 (1.93%) TypeScript
9 43 (1.73%) C++
10 30 (1.20%) Bicep
11 29 (1.16%) Shell Script
11 29 (1.16%) T-SQL
12 25 (1.00%) PL/SQL
13 24 (0.96%) C
13 24 (0.96%) R
14 17 (0.68%) Scala
15 12 (0.48%) Apex Code
15 12 (0.48%) X++
16 10 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.40%) Go
Qualifications
1 490 (19.66%) Computer Science Degree
2 474 (19.02%) Security Cleared
3 349 (14.00%) SC Cleared
4 210 (8.43%) Master's Degree
5 147 (5.90%) PMI Certification
6 130 (5.22%) PMP
7 124 (4.98%) Microsoft Certification
8 107 (4.29%) CISSP
9 93 (3.73%) Azure Certification
10 89 (3.57%) DV Cleared
11 88 (3.53%) Cisco Certification
12 76 (3.05%) BPSS Clearance
13 60 (2.41%) PhD
14 55 (2.21%) CISM
15 49 (1.97%) AWS Certification
16 48 (1.93%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 39 (1.57%) CCNA
18 38 (1.52%) CCNP
18 38 (1.52%) ISTQB
19 35 (1.40%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 146 (5.86%) QA
2 145 (5.82%) Data Quality
3 94 (3.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 91 (3.65%) NIST
5 86 (3.45%) PMO
6 76 (3.05%) GDPR
7 48 (1.93%) Accessibility
8 41 (1.65%) SLA
9 29 (1.16%) GRC
10 22 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 19 (0.76%) NCSC
12 18 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
13 16 (0.64%) IFRS
13 16 (0.64%) PCI DSS
14 13 (0.52%) P3O
15 11 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
15 11 (0.44%) HIPAA
15 11 (0.44%) ISO 31000
16 10 (0.40%) Basel III
16 10 (0.40%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 193 (7.74%) Active Directory
2 122 (4.90%) Docker
3 58 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.20%) Firmware
5 27 (1.08%) Hyper-V
6 22 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
7 9 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.36%) VMware NSX
7 9 (0.36%) vSphere
8 7 (0.28%) BitLocker
8 7 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.24%) RACF
10 5 (0.20%) NFS
11 4 (0.16%) ISA Server
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
12 3 (0.12%) ACF2
12 3 (0.12%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.12%) Veritas Volume Manager
12 3 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 129 (5.18%) Kubernetes
2 75 (3.01%) Microsoft Intune
3 62 (2.49%) Ansible
4 33 (1.32%) SCCM
5 28 (1.12%) Grafana
6 26 (1.04%) Prometheus
7 18 (0.72%) Progress Chef
8 17 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (0.56%) Puppet
10 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
10 13 (0.52%) SCOM
11 9 (0.36%) CASB
11 9 (0.36%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.24%) Argo
12 6 (0.24%) Cisco Prime
12 6 (0.24%) Nessus
12 6 (0.24%) WSUS
13 5 (0.20%) Control-M
13 5 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 634 (25.44%) Microsoft
2 182 (7.30%) Oracle
3 142 (5.70%) ServiceNow
4 137 (5.50%) SAP
5 105 (4.21%) Google
6 74 (2.97%) Cisco
6 74 (2.97%) VMware
7 65 (2.61%) Salesforce
8 61 (2.45%) Adobe
9 53 (2.13%) Databricks
10 46 (1.85%) Splunk
11 43 (1.73%) IBM
12 30 (1.20%) CyberArk
12 30 (1.20%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.04%) OpenAI
14 22 (0.88%) Citrix
14 22 (0.88%) Palo Alto
15 21 (0.84%) BeyondTrust
16 20 (0.80%) Apple
17 19 (0.76%) Ariba