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 19 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 25 20
Rank change year-on-year -18 -5 +4
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,505 2,370 3,016
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.57% 7.19% 7.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.43% 22.93% 26.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,293 1,290 1,704
10th Percentile £204 £260 £244
25th Percentile £356 £384 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £619
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +7.83% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 209 210
10th Percentile £16.46 £15.50 £20.12
25th Percentile £26.06 £25.15 £26.56
Median hourly rate £39.11 £38.50 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.58% -26.67% +6.84%
75th Percentile £68.75 £56.00 £71.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.00 £79.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £34.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year +12.23% -39.84% +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 17,362 10,338 11,265
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.65% 31.37% 29.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,561 6,458 6,928
10th Percentile £350 £300 £313
25th Percentile £440 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £527 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £714 £711 £729
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,376 838 653
10th Percentile £17.09 £17.87 £17.00
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £24.18
Median hourly rate £47.77 £25.15 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.94% -48.67% -9.26%
75th Percentile £72.54 £45.00 £68.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.00 £76.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +88.87% -52.10% +1.17%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 2,280 £510 +2.00% 10,753
UK excluding London -16 1,349 £485 +7.83% 5,659
London -20 983 £525 -4.55% 5,978
Work from Home -21 661 £500 +1.63% 3,478
South East +8 464 £525 +13.51% 1,592
North of England -14 339 £475 +5.56% 1,012
North West -8 213 £475 +3.83% 552
Midlands -32 185 £450 -2.96% 724
East of England -11 138 £350 -30.00% 787
West Midlands -30 137 £450 -5.26% 439
South West -25 128 £400 -13.51% 654
Yorkshire -4 110 £503 +19.82% 301
Scotland -49 70 £500 +11.11% 506
East Midlands -19 47 £475 +13.10% 285
North East -47 16 £455 +30.65% 171
Northern Ireland -13 14 £250 -57.45% 305
Wales -31 13 £530 +71.67% 167
Channel Islands - 3 £350 - 4

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
1 165 (6.59%) SharePoint
2 104 (4.15%) Confluence
3 63 (2.51%) 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 13 (0.52%) CMS
9 9 (0.36%) 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%) nginx
13 3 (0.12%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 249 (9.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 242 (9.66%) Microsoft Office
3 125 (4.99%) Microsoft Project
4 119 (4.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 52 (2.08%) MS Visio
6 18 (0.72%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 17 (0.68%) Adobe After Effects
8 16 (0.64%) Photoshop
9 15 (0.60%) Adobe Illustrator
10 10 (0.40%) Navisworks
10 10 (0.40%) Windchill
11 9 (0.36%) Revit
12 8 (0.32%) Chatbot
12 8 (0.32%) Simulink
12 8 (0.32%) Sketch
12 8 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
13 6 (0.24%) Final Cut Pro
13 6 (0.24%) UserZoom
14 4 (0.16%) AutoCAD
14 4 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 41 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (0.88%) 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%) SAP ERP
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.16%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 564 (22.51%) Azure
2 316 (12.61%) AWS
3 234 (9.34%) Power Platform
4 231 (9.22%) Microsoft 365
5 152 (6.07%) GCP
6 140 (5.59%) Entra ID
7 125 (4.99%) Azure DevOps
8 81 (3.23%) SaaS
9 71 (2.83%) GitHub
10 64 (2.55%) Dynamics 365
11 61 (2.44%) Serverless
12 60 (2.40%) Power Automate
13 54 (2.16%) PowerApps
14 49 (1.96%) Microsoft Copilot
15 47 (1.88%) OneDrive
16 40 (1.60%) 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
1 110 (4.39%) Firewall
2 85 (3.39%) DNS
3 67 (2.67%) Network Security
4 66 (2.63%) TCP/IP
5 61 (2.44%) VPN
6 46 (1.84%) 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%) BGP
13 18 (0.72%) Wireshark
14 17 (0.68%) HTTP
14 17 (0.68%) Radio Access Network
15 15 (0.60%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 171 (6.83%) Power BI
2 115 (4.59%) SQL Server
3 59 (2.36%) PostgreSQL
4 58 (2.32%) Relational Database
5 56 (2.24%) Metadata
6 45 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
7 35 (1.40%) MySQL
8 32 (1.28%) NoSQL
8 32 (1.28%) Tableau
9 26 (1.04%) Big Data
9 26 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
9 26 (1.04%) MongoDB
10 24 (0.96%) Oracle Database
10 24 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
12 18 (0.72%) Data Mining
13 17 (0.68%) Data Lake
14 16 (0.64%) GIS
15 14 (0.56%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 177 (7.07%) JIRA
2 143 (5.71%) Git
3 66 (2.63%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.12%) GitLab
5 24 (0.96%) JUnit
6 23 (0.92%) Selenium
7 22 (0.88%) Maven
8 21 (0.84%) SonarQube
9 20 (0.80%) Gradle
10 19 (0.76%) Visual Studio
11 17 (0.68%) Cucumber
11 17 (0.68%) REST Assured
12 15 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
13 14 (0.56%) Mockito
14 12 (0.48%) Postman
15 10 (0.40%) SpecFlow
15 10 (0.40%) Subversion
16 9 (0.36%) Rational DOORS
16 9 (0.36%) TeamCity
17 8 (0.32%) Cypress.io
General
1 1,139 (45.47%) Social Skills
2 744 (29.70%) Finance
3 583 (23.27%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (8.18%) Public Sector
5 202 (8.06%) Banking
6 170 (6.79%) Organisational Skills
7 128 (5.11%) Manufacturing
8 122 (4.87%) Aerospace
9 117 (4.67%) Influencing Skills
10 99 (3.95%) Marketing
11 93 (3.71%) Telecoms
12 91 (3.63%) Presentation Skills
13 87 (3.47%) Legal
14 80 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
15 64 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 60 (2.40%) Retail
17 54 (2.16%) Pharmaceutical
18 53 (2.12%) Law
19 46 (1.84%) Military
20 42 (1.68%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 335 (13.37%) Analyst
2 287 (11.46%) Senior
3 205 (8.18%) Developer
4 200 (7.98%) Lead
5 169 (6.75%) Architect
6 158 (6.31%) Business Analyst
7 119 (4.75%) Project Manager
8 77 (3.07%) Consultant
9 75 (2.99%) Support Engineer
10 71 (2.83%) IT Support
11 67 (2.67%) Senior Manager
12 55 (2.20%) Solutions Architect
13 54 (2.16%) IT Analyst
14 53 (2.12%) Administrator
15 52 (2.08%) IT Manager
16 49 (1.96%) Designer
17 48 (1.92%) Security Engineer
18 46 (1.84%) Software Engineer
19 45 (1.80%) Technical Support
20 42 (1.68%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (4.87%) REST
2 111 (4.43%) Terraform
3 105 (4.19%) .NET
4 73 (2.91%) React
5 71 (2.83%) HTML
6 65 (2.59%) Kafka
7 59 (2.36%) CSS
8 58 (2.32%) RESTful
9 50 (2.00%) OAuth
10 48 (1.92%) XML
11 46 (1.84%) Oracle Fusion
11 46 (1.84%) Web Services
12 43 (1.72%) Middleware
13 40 (1.60%) Spring Boot
14 39 (1.56%) OAuth2
15 38 (1.52%) SOAP
16 36 (1.44%) JSON
16 36 (1.44%) SAML
17 35 (1.40%) .NET Framework
17 35 (1.40%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 232 (9.26%) Management Information System
2 143 (5.71%) Onboarding
3 119 (4.75%) Product Ownership
4 105 (4.19%) Self-Motivation
5 102 (4.07%) Cloud Native
6 61 (2.44%) Data Centre
7 60 (2.40%) Algorithms
8 58 (2.32%) Data Structures
9 54 (2.16%) Operational Technology
10 51 (2.04%) Security Posture
11 49 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
12 47 (1.88%) Life Science
13 46 (1.84%) AI Agents
13 46 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
14 43 (1.72%) Virtual Team
15 40 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
16 38 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
17 34 (1.36%) SCADA
18 31 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
19 29 (1.16%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 301 (12.02%) Windows
2 184 (7.35%) Linux
3 83 (3.31%) Windows Server
4 64 (2.55%) Unix
5 47 (1.88%) 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
1 812 (32.42%) Computer Science
2 673 (26.87%) Agile
3 665 (26.55%) Problem-Solving
4 527 (21.04%) Stakeholder Management
5 443 (17.68%) Continuous Improvement
6 393 (15.69%) AI
7 360 (14.37%) DevOps
8 324 (12.93%) Project Management
9 323 (12.89%) CI/CD
10 310 (12.38%) Analytics
11 286 (11.42%) ITIL
12 265 (10.58%) Decision-Making
13 258 (10.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 241 (9.62%) Change Management
15 237 (9.46%) Roadmaps
15 237 (9.46%) Scrum
16 232 (9.26%) Cybersecurity
17 228 (9.10%) Software Engineering
18 209 (8.34%) PRINCE2
18 209 (8.34%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 415 (16.57%) Python
2 362 (14.45%) SQL
3 180 (7.19%) PowerShell
4 165 (6.59%) Java
5 129 (5.15%) JavaScript
6 125 (4.99%) C#
7 62 (2.48%) Bash
8 48 (1.92%) TypeScript
9 43 (1.72%) C++
10 30 (1.20%) Bicep
11 29 (1.16%) T-SQL
12 28 (1.12%) Shell Script
13 25 (1.00%) PL/SQL
14 24 (0.96%) C
14 24 (0.96%) R
15 17 (0.68%) Scala
16 12 (0.48%) Apex Code
16 12 (0.48%) X++
17 11 (0.44%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 10 (0.40%) Perl
Qualifications
1 496 (19.80%) Computer Science Degree
2 478 (19.08%) Security Cleared
3 352 (14.05%) SC Cleared
4 210 (8.38%) Master's Degree
5 145 (5.79%) PMI Certification
6 127 (5.07%) PMP
7 126 (5.03%) Microsoft Certification
8 108 (4.31%) CISSP
9 93 (3.71%) Azure Certification
10 89 (3.55%) DV Cleared
11 88 (3.51%) Cisco Certification
12 75 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
13 60 (2.40%) PhD
14 55 (2.20%) CISM
15 49 (1.96%) AWS Certification
16 47 (1.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 39 (1.56%) CCNA
17 39 (1.56%) ISTQB
18 38 (1.52%) CCNP
19 34 (1.36%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (5.87%) QA
2 146 (5.83%) Data Quality
3 95 (3.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 94 (3.75%) NIST
5 86 (3.43%) PMO
6 76 (3.03%) GDPR
7 47 (1.88%) Accessibility
8 41 (1.64%) SLA
9 29 (1.16%) GRC
10 23 (0.92%) 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%) ISO 31000
16 10 (0.40%) COBIT
16 10 (0.40%) IEC 61508
17 9 (0.36%) HIPAA
System Software
1 194 (7.74%) Active Directory
2 122 (4.87%) Docker
3 56 (2.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.20%) Firmware
5 25 (1.00%) 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
8 8 (0.32%) vSphere
9 7 (0.28%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 6 (0.24%) RACF
11 5 (0.20%) NFS
12 4 (0.16%) ISA Server
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.12%) ACF2
13 3 (0.12%) OpenAM
13 3 (0.12%) Time Sharing Option
13 3 (0.12%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 128 (5.11%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.03%) Microsoft Intune
3 63 (2.51%) Ansible
4 35 (1.40%) SCCM
5 29 (1.16%) Grafana
6 27 (1.08%) Prometheus
7 18 (0.72%) Progress Chef
7 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
8 14 (0.56%) Puppet
9 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) SCOM
10 9 (0.36%) CASB
10 9 (0.36%) Functional Safety
11 8 (0.32%) WSUS
12 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (0.24%) Argo
12 6 (0.24%) Cisco Prime
12 6 (0.24%) Control-M
12 6 (0.24%) HP ALM
12 6 (0.24%) Nessus
Vendors
1 643 (25.67%) Microsoft
2 183 (7.31%) Oracle
3 141 (5.63%) ServiceNow
4 139 (5.55%) SAP
5 102 (4.07%) Google
6 74 (2.95%) Cisco
7 72 (2.87%) VMware
8 66 (2.63%) Salesforce
9 63 (2.51%) Adobe
10 53 (2.12%) Databricks
11 47 (1.88%) Splunk
12 43 (1.72%) IBM
13 32 (1.28%) Red Hat
14 30 (1.20%) CyberArk
15 26 (1.04%) OpenAI
16 24 (0.96%) Citrix
17 22 (0.88%) Palo Alto
18 21 (0.84%) BeyondTrust
19 20 (0.80%) Apple
20 19 (0.76%) Ariba