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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 42 25 20
Rank change year-on-year -17 -5 +4
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,504 2,348 2,966
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.56% 7.18% 7.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 14.41% 22.83% 26.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,289 1,280 1,679
10th Percentile £204 £260 £246
25th Percentile £356 £387 £399
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £613
90th Percentile £725 £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 292 205 203
10th Percentile £16.46 £16.34 £20.12
25th Percentile £26.00 £25.75 £26.20
Median hourly rate £39.50 £39.32 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.46% -25.10% +5.00%
75th Percentile £68.75 £56.00 £71.88
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.00 £78.34
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £35.25 £57.35
% change year-on-year +9.84% -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 17,371 10,286 10,994
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.67% 31.46% 29.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,547 6,425 6,738
10th Percentile £350 £300 £313
25th Percentile £443 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £529 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.76% - -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 1,392 845 628
10th Percentile £17.17 £17.87 £17.59
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £24.99
Median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.03% -49.70% -7.41%
75th Percentile £72.54 £43.75 £68.19
90th Percentile £88.00 £70.16 £75.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +88.87% -52.10% -

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 2,279 £510 +2.00% 10,234
UK excluding London -16 1,353 £480 +6.56% 6,061
London -21 980 £525 -4.55% 4,983
Work from Home -20 656 £505 +4.34% 3,525
South East +6 465 £525 +10.53% 1,685
North of England -15 339 £475 +6.26% 1,135
North West -4 212 £475 +3.83% 630
Midlands -31 187 £450 -3.23% 806
West Midlands -26 139 £450 -5.26% 500
East of England -13 137 £350 -28.21% 751
South West -22 128 £400 -13.51% 711
Yorkshire -11 112 £500 +19.05% 344
Scotland -48 72 £500 +11.11% 531
East Midlands -24 47 £475 +6.26% 306
North East -35 15 £455 +30.65% 172
Northern Ireland -13 14 £250 -57.45% 338
Wales -31 13 £530 +73.50% 187
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 (6.51%) SharePoint
2 104 (4.15%) Confluence
3 64 (2.56%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (1.08%) Apache Spark
5 21 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
6 20 (0.80%) IIS
7 19 (0.76%) Apache
8 14 (0.56%) Camunda
8 14 (0.56%) SharePoint Server
9 12 (0.48%) CMS
10 8 (0.32%) SAS
11 7 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 5 (0.20%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.16%) ArcGIS
13 4 (0.16%) FactoryTalk
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle Service Bus
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
14 3 (0.12%) CICS
14 3 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 247 (9.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 241 (9.62%) Microsoft Office
3 122 (4.87%) Microsoft Project
4 117 (4.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 51 (2.04%) 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 (1.56%) 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
1 563 (22.48%) Azure
2 318 (12.70%) AWS
3 231 (9.23%) Power Platform
4 228 (9.11%) Microsoft 365
5 156 (6.23%) GCP
6 141 (5.63%) Entra ID
7 124 (4.95%) Azure DevOps
8 79 (3.15%) SaaS
9 71 (2.84%) GitHub
10 65 (2.60%) 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 39 (1.56%) Snowflake
17 38 (1.52%) Figma
18 30 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
19 28 (1.12%) IaaS
20 27 (1.08%) Azure AI
Communications & Networking
1 107 (4.27%) Firewall
2 85 (3.39%) DNS
3 67 (2.68%) Network Security
4 64 (2.56%) TCP/IP
5 59 (2.36%) VPN
6 46 (1.84%) DHCP
7 34 (1.36%) LAN
7 34 (1.36%) WAN
8 30 (1.20%) Wireless
9 23 (0.92%) 3GPP
9 23 (0.92%) Internet
10 21 (0.84%) 5G
11 19 (0.76%) SSH
11 19 (0.76%) SSL
11 19 (0.76%) VLAN
12 18 (0.72%) Wireshark
13 17 (0.68%) BGP
13 17 (0.68%) Radio Access Network
14 16 (0.64%) HTTP
14 16 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 168 (6.71%) Power BI
2 113 (4.51%) SQL Server
3 61 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
4 58 (2.32%) Relational Database
5 56 (2.24%) Metadata
6 43 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
7 37 (1.48%) 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
11 25 (1.00%) Oracle Database
12 22 (0.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
13 19 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
14 18 (0.72%) Data Mining
15 17 (0.68%) Data Lake
16 16 (0.64%) GIS
17 13 (0.52%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 174 (6.95%) JIRA
2 145 (5.79%) Git
3 66 (2.64%) Jenkins
4 53 (2.12%) 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 1,136 (45.37%) Social Skills
2 741 (29.59%) Finance
3 582 (23.24%) Analytical Skills
4 206 (8.23%) Public Sector
5 202 (8.07%) Banking
6 168 (6.71%) Organisational Skills
7 127 (5.07%) Manufacturing
8 121 (4.83%) Aerospace
9 116 (4.63%) Influencing Skills
10 98 (3.91%) Marketing
11 92 (3.67%) Telecoms
12 90 (3.59%) Presentation Skills
13 86 (3.43%) Legal
14 80 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
15 65 (2.60%) 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
1 331 (13.22%) Analyst
2 288 (11.50%) Senior
3 208 (8.31%) Developer
4 201 (8.03%) Lead
5 166 (6.63%) Architect
6 158 (6.31%) Business Analyst
7 117 (4.67%) Project Manager
8 76 (3.04%) Consultant
9 73 (2.92%) Support Engineer
10 71 (2.84%) IT Support
11 66 (2.64%) Senior Manager
12 55 (2.20%) Solutions Architect
13 53 (2.12%) IT Manager
14 51 (2.04%) Administrator
14 51 (2.04%) IT Analyst
15 49 (1.96%) Designer
16 48 (1.92%) Security Engineer
17 47 (1.88%) Software Engineer
18 43 (1.72%) Delivery Manager
19 42 (1.68%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (4.79%) REST
2 112 (4.47%) Terraform
3 105 (4.19%) .NET
4 76 (3.04%) React
5 73 (2.92%) HTML
6 65 (2.60%) Kafka
7 61 (2.44%) CSS
7 61 (2.44%) RESTful
8 52 (2.08%) OAuth
9 49 (1.96%) XML
10 47 (1.88%) Web Services
11 46 (1.84%) Oracle Fusion
12 45 (1.80%) Middleware
13 41 (1.64%) OAuth2
13 41 (1.64%) Spring Boot
14 39 (1.56%) SOAP
15 38 (1.52%) SAML
16 36 (1.44%) JSON
16 36 (1.44%) OpenID
16 36 (1.44%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 231 (9.23%) Management Information System
2 139 (5.55%) Onboarding
3 120 (4.79%) Product Ownership
4 105 (4.19%) Cloud Native
5 104 (4.15%) Self-Motivation
6 63 (2.52%) Data Centre
7 61 (2.44%) Algorithms
8 58 (2.32%) Data Structures
9 55 (2.20%) Operational Technology
10 52 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
11 51 (2.04%) Security Posture
12 48 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
13 47 (1.88%) Life Science
14 46 (1.84%) AI Agents
15 42 (1.68%) Virtual Team
16 40 (1.60%) Legacy Systems
17 37 (1.48%) Hybrid Cloud
18 35 (1.40%) SCADA
19 31 (1.24%) Data Protection Act
20 29 (1.16%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 301 (12.02%) Windows
2 183 (7.31%) Linux
3 84 (3.35%) Windows Server
4 66 (2.64%) Unix
5 48 (1.92%) Windows 10
6 34 (1.36%) Mac OS
6 34 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 30 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 24 (0.96%) Android
9 10 (0.40%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.28%) VMS
11 6 (0.24%) Windows 7
11 6 (0.24%) zOS
12 5 (0.20%) Solaris
12 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.12%) AIX
13 3 (0.12%) CentOS
13 3 (0.12%) MVS
13 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 809 (32.31%) Computer Science
2 677 (27.04%) Agile
3 664 (26.52%) Problem-Solving
4 535 (21.37%) Stakeholder Management
5 441 (17.61%) Continuous Improvement
6 391 (15.62%) AI
7 364 (14.54%) DevOps
8 326 (13.02%) CI/CD
9 322 (12.86%) Project Management
10 309 (12.34%) Analytics
11 289 (11.54%) ITIL
12 266 (10.62%) Decision-Making
13 260 (10.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 242 (9.66%) Change Management
15 241 (9.62%) Scrum
16 240 (9.58%) Roadmaps
17 231 (9.23%) Cybersecurity
18 229 (9.15%) Software Engineering
19 215 (8.59%) PRINCE2
20 212 (8.47%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 416 (16.61%) Python
2 361 (14.42%) SQL
3 178 (7.11%) PowerShell
4 165 (6.59%) Java
5 131 (5.23%) JavaScript
6 126 (5.03%) 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%) 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
1 492 (19.65%) Computer Science Degree
2 476 (19.01%) Security Cleared
3 350 (13.98%) SC Cleared
4 213 (8.51%) Master's Degree
5 149 (5.95%) PMI Certification
6 132 (5.27%) PMP
7 124 (4.95%) Microsoft Certification
8 109 (4.35%) CISSP
9 93 (3.71%) Azure Certification
10 89 (3.55%) Cisco Certification
10 89 (3.55%) DV Cleared
11 77 (3.08%) BPSS Clearance
12 61 (2.44%) PhD
13 56 (2.24%) CISM
14 50 (2.00%) AWS Certification
15 49 (1.96%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 39 (1.56%) CCNA
16 39 (1.56%) ISTQB
17 38 (1.52%) CCNP
18 35 (1.40%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 149 (5.95%) QA
2 145 (5.79%) Data Quality
3 95 (3.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 92 (3.67%) NIST
5 86 (3.43%) PMO
6 77 (3.08%) GDPR
7 48 (1.92%) Accessibility
8 41 (1.64%) SLA
9 30 (1.20%) GRC
10 22 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 19 (0.76%) NCSC
12 18 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
13 17 (0.68%) PCI DSS
14 16 (0.64%) IFRS
15 13 (0.52%) P3O
16 12 (0.48%) ISO 31000
17 11 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
17 11 (0.44%) HIPAA
17 11 (0.44%) IEC 61508
18 10 (0.40%) COBIT
System Software
1 194 (7.75%) Active Directory
2 123 (4.91%) Docker
3 59 (2.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (1.20%) Firmware
5 27 (1.08%) Hyper-V
6 22 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (0.40%) vSphere
8 9 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
8 9 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (0.36%) VMware NSX
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%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.12%) OpenAM
13 3 (0.12%) Time Sharing Option
13 3 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 130 (5.19%) Kubernetes
2 75 (3.00%) Microsoft Intune
3 62 (2.48%) 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 10 (0.40%) Functional Safety
12 9 (0.36%) CASB
13 6 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 6 (0.24%) Argo
13 6 (0.24%) Cisco Prime
13 6 (0.24%) Nessus
13 6 (0.24%) WSUS
14 5 (0.20%) Oracle RMAN
14 5 (0.20%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 635 (25.36%) Microsoft
2 183 (7.31%) Oracle
3 142 (5.67%) ServiceNow
4 137 (5.47%) SAP
5 105 (4.19%) Google
6 75 (3.00%) Cisco
6 75 (3.00%) VMware
7 66 (2.64%) Salesforce
8 61 (2.44%) Adobe
9 54 (2.16%) Databricks
10 46 (1.84%) Splunk
11 43 (1.72%) 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%) Apple
15 21 (0.84%) BeyondTrust
16 19 (0.76%) Ariba