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 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 27 24 20
Rank change year-on-year -3 -4 +9
Contract jobs citing Degree 2,501 2,684 3,526
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 6.76% 7.95% 8.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 20.06% 26.68% 27.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,464 1,505 2,147
10th Percentile £287 £230 £214
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.20%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £750 £775 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 164 213
10th Percentile £15.00 £20.04 £17.55
25th Percentile £22.50 £27.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £42.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.65% -15.00% +11.86%
75th Percentile £59.43 £70.25 £70.00
90th Percentile £89.63 £85.00 £82.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.50 £42.50 £51.14
% change year-on-year -18.82% -16.89% +13.64%

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 12,466 10,059 13,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.68% 29.79% 30.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,117 6,157 8,224
10th Percentile £313 £301 £300
25th Percentile £417 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £727 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £505 £538
% change year-on-year -0.99% -6.05% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,005 479 725
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.38 £24.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -23.81% +16.67%
75th Percentile £53.75 £66.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.88 £52.05
% change year-on-year -41.35% -17.62% +15.67%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in the UK

Degree
Top 17 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 December 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
England -2 2,167 £513 -2.38% 5,384
UK excluding London -4 1,258 £475 - 4,494
London -4 1,012 £527 -4.18% 1,445
Work from Home +1 713 £500 - 2,833
North of England -5 307 £450 -10.00% 975
South East +2 287 £475 -5.00% 1,385
Midlands -11 221 £491 +3.37% 732
North West -4 167 £420 -16.00% 506
South West +6 165 £637 +15.73% 509
West Midlands -17 164 £500 - 365
Yorkshire -6 131 £475 - 373
East of England -9 126 £500 +14.29% 652
Scotland -2 110 £463 +6.02% 184
East Midlands -5 57 £450 +23.12% 340
Wales -2 43 £226 -43.50% 107
Northern Ireland -8 28 £425 -10.53% 58
North East -14 10 £298 -40.31% 101

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
1 190 (7.60%) Confluence
2 118 (4.72%) SharePoint
3 57 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
4 38 (1.52%) Apache Spark
5 21 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (0.68%) nginx
7 15 (0.60%) CMS
8 14 (0.56%) IIS
8 14 (0.56%) Skype for Business
9 13 (0.52%) Apache
10 7 (0.28%) Exchange Server 2013
10 7 (0.28%) SAS
11 4 (0.16%) GeoServer
11 4 (0.16%) Luigi
11 4 (0.16%) Smallworld
11 4 (0.16%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.12%) Ethereum
12 3 (0.12%) Hyperledger
12 3 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 295 (11.80%) Microsoft Office
2 241 (9.64%) Microsoft Excel
3 185 (7.40%) Microsoft Project
4 123 (4.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 73 (2.92%) MS Visio
6 20 (0.80%) Chatbot
7 15 (0.60%) Simulink
8 13 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
9 12 (0.48%) Trello
10 11 (0.44%) FrameMaker
11 10 (0.40%) Mozilla Thunderbird
11 10 (0.40%) Sketch
12 7 (0.28%) Adobe XD
13 6 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
14 4 (0.16%) InVision
15 3 (0.12%) InDesign
15 3 (0.12%) Photoshop
15 3 (0.12%) UserZoom
16 2 (0.080%) Adobe Illustrator
16 2 (0.080%) Revit
Business Applications
1 64 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
3 19 (0.76%) Primavera
4 17 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
5 15 (0.60%) SAP ERP
6 13 (0.52%) SAP WM
7 12 (0.48%) SAP EWM
8 11 (0.44%) Oracle General Ledger
9 10 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
10 9 (0.36%) Dynamics GP
10 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
10 9 (0.36%) Oracle EBS R12
11 8 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
12 7 (0.28%) Oracle Financials
12 7 (0.28%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
13 6 (0.24%) Maximo
13 6 (0.24%) Oracle Assets
13 6 (0.24%) Oracle E-Business Tax
14 5 (0.20%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 505 (20.19%) Azure
2 335 (13.39%) AWS
3 199 (7.96%) Microsoft 365
4 190 (7.60%) Power Platform
5 160 (6.40%) GCP
6 105 (4.20%) GitHub
7 94 (3.76%) SaaS
8 82 (3.28%) Azure DevOps
8 82 (3.28%) Entra ID
9 74 (2.96%) Serverless
10 58 (2.32%) Dynamics 365
11 43 (1.72%) Power Automate
12 38 (1.52%) Cloud Computing
13 35 (1.40%) Amazon S3
14 33 (1.32%) GitHub Actions
14 33 (1.32%) PowerApps
14 33 (1.32%) Snowflake
15 32 (1.28%) Amazon ECS
16 26 (1.04%) Azure Logic Apps
16 26 (1.04%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 114 (4.56%) Firewall
2 75 (3.00%) DNS
3 54 (2.16%) VPN
4 47 (1.88%) Network Security
5 44 (1.76%) LAN
6 42 (1.68%) TCP/IP
7 40 (1.60%) WAN
8 38 (1.52%) HTTP
9 33 (1.32%) DHCP
10 31 (1.24%) Skype
11 29 (1.16%) Internet
11 29 (1.16%) Wireless
12 26 (1.04%) SSH
13 23 (0.92%) VoIP
13 23 (0.92%) Wi-Fi
14 20 (0.80%) BGP
14 20 (0.80%) Unified Communications
15 18 (0.72%) Ethernet
16 17 (0.68%) OSPF
17 15 (0.60%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (5.88%) Power BI
2 98 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
3 90 (3.60%) SQL Server
4 65 (2.60%) NoSQL
5 64 (2.56%) Relational Database
6 60 (2.40%) Tableau
7 59 (2.36%) Data Warehouse
8 35 (1.40%) MySQL
9 33 (1.32%) Big Data
10 29 (1.16%) Data Lake
11 26 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
12 25 (1.00%) Metadata
13 20 (0.80%) MongoDB
14 17 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
16 15 (0.60%) RDBMS
17 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
18 12 (0.48%) Amazon Aurora
18 12 (0.48%) GIS
19 11 (0.44%) Redis
Development Applications
1 296 (11.84%) JIRA
2 131 (5.24%) Git
3 104 (4.16%) Jenkins
4 77 (3.08%) GitLab
5 29 (1.16%) Liquibase
6 25 (1.00%) Selenium
7 24 (0.96%) Postman
8 21 (0.84%) Visual Studio
9 13 (0.52%) Bitbucket
9 13 (0.52%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.44%) Cucumber
10 11 (0.44%) JUnit
10 11 (0.44%) Vagrant
11 10 (0.40%) Artifactory
12 9 (0.36%) SpecFlow
13 8 (0.32%) Burp Suite
14 7 (0.28%) CircleCI
14 7 (0.28%) JMeter
14 7 (0.28%) SonarQube
15 6 (0.24%) IntelliJ
General
1 1,300 (51.98%) Social Skills
2 787 (31.47%) Finance
3 603 (24.11%) Analytical Skills
4 279 (11.16%) Banking
5 184 (7.36%) Public Sector
6 122 (4.88%) Manufacturing
7 102 (4.08%) Organisational Skills
8 98 (3.92%) Presentation Skills
9 91 (3.64%) Marketing
10 87 (3.48%) Influencing Skills
10 87 (3.48%) Legal
11 71 (2.84%) Telecoms
12 70 (2.80%) Financial Institution
13 68 (2.72%) Military
14 65 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
15 59 (2.36%) Pharmaceutical
16 58 (2.32%) Front Office
16 58 (2.32%) Investment Banking
17 47 (1.88%) Aerospace
18 42 (1.68%) Law
Job Titles
1 366 (14.63%) Analyst
2 240 (9.60%) Senior
3 236 (9.44%) Developer
4 195 (7.80%) Architect
5 183 (7.32%) Lead
6 169 (6.76%) Project Manager
7 162 (6.48%) Business Analyst
8 104 (4.16%) Consultant
9 85 (3.40%) Software Engineer
10 63 (2.52%) IT Support
11 60 (2.40%) Solutions Architect
12 58 (2.32%) Support Analyst
13 53 (2.12%) Technical Support
14 50 (2.00%) Security Engineer
15 45 (1.80%) Senior Developer
16 44 (1.76%) IT Manager
16 44 (1.76%) Support Engineer
17 43 (1.72%) Data Scientist
18 42 (1.68%) Senior Software Engineer
19 40 (1.60%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 136 (5.44%) REST
2 94 (3.76%) RESTful
3 78 (3.12%) .NET
4 75 (3.00%) HTML
5 58 (2.32%) CSS
6 56 (2.24%) XML
7 53 (2.12%) Middleware
8 51 (2.04%) JSON
9 48 (1.92%) Elastic Stack
9 48 (1.92%) Kafka
9 48 (1.92%) React
10 46 (1.84%) SOAP
11 39 (1.56%) OAuth
11 39 (1.56%) TensorFlow
12 35 (1.40%) AngularJS
12 35 (1.40%) PyTorch
13 33 (1.32%) Spring
14 31 (1.24%) Node.js
14 31 (1.24%) Web Services
15 30 (1.20%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 198 (7.92%) Management Information System
2 118 (4.72%) Product Ownership
3 111 (4.44%) Cloud Native
4 86 (3.44%) Algorithms
5 77 (3.08%) Onboarding
6 65 (2.60%) Analytical Mindset
7 64 (2.56%) Distributed Systems
8 63 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
9 58 (2.32%) Data Centre
10 57 (2.28%) Virtual Team
11 49 (1.96%) Public Cloud
11 49 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
12 45 (1.80%) Derivative
12 45 (1.80%) Life Science
13 42 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
13 42 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
14 41 (1.64%) PMI
15 40 (1.60%) Security Posture
16 38 (1.52%) Mobile App
17 36 (1.44%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 296 (11.84%) Windows
2 218 (8.72%) Linux
3 88 (3.52%) Unix
4 65 (2.60%) Windows Server
5 44 (1.76%) Windows 10
6 33 (1.32%) Mac OS
7 30 (1.20%) Android
8 23 (0.92%) Apple iOS
9 18 (0.72%) Ubuntu
10 17 (0.68%) VMS
11 15 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
12 12 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 10 (0.40%) Amazon Linux
13 10 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
14 9 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
15 6 (0.24%) Windows Server 2003
16 3 (0.12%) CentOS
16 3 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
17 2 (0.080%) Kali Linux
17 2 (0.080%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 956 (38.22%) Computer Science
2 797 (31.87%) Agile
3 756 (30.23%) Problem-Solving
4 389 (15.55%) Stakeholder Management
5 385 (15.39%) Project Management
6 372 (14.87%) DevOps
7 291 (11.64%) Change Management
8 286 (11.44%) CI/CD
9 279 (11.16%) ITIL
10 276 (11.04%) Continuous Improvement
11 264 (10.56%) AI
12 261 (10.44%) Cybersecurity
13 259 (10.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 256 (10.24%) Analytics
15 241 (9.64%) Decision-Making
16 233 (9.32%) Software Engineering
17 231 (9.24%) Migration
18 221 (8.84%) Project Delivery
19 205 (8.20%) Risk Management
20 194 (7.76%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 466 (18.63%) Python
2 366 (14.63%) SQL
3 183 (7.32%) Java
4 131 (5.24%) PowerShell
5 122 (4.88%) JavaScript
6 94 (3.76%) C#
7 81 (3.24%) C++
8 60 (2.40%) Go
9 59 (2.36%) TypeScript
10 55 (2.20%) Bash
11 34 (1.36%) R
12 25 (1.00%) Perl
13 20 (0.80%) C
14 19 (0.76%) MATLAB
14 19 (0.76%) T-SQL
15 18 (0.72%) PL/SQL
16 17 (0.68%) Kusto Query Language
17 16 (0.64%) Kotlin
17 16 (0.64%) Ruby
18 15 (0.60%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 655 (26.19%) Computer Science Degree
2 401 (16.03%) Security Cleared
3 382 (15.27%) Master's Degree
4 314 (12.55%) SC Cleared
5 147 (5.88%) PMI Certification
6 134 (5.36%) PMP
7 122 (4.88%) CISSP
8 97 (3.88%) Microsoft Certification
9 79 (3.16%) Azure Certification
10 74 (2.96%) CISM
10 74 (2.96%) PhD
11 66 (2.64%) AWS Certification
12 63 (2.52%) Cisco Certification
13 58 (2.32%) TOGAF Certification
14 55 (2.20%) DV Cleared
15 51 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
16 50 (2.00%) HND
17 40 (1.60%) CCNP
18 37 (1.48%) HNC
19 33 (1.32%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 157 (6.28%) QA
2 132 (5.28%) GDPR
3 104 (4.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 99 (3.96%) Data Quality
5 77 (3.08%) PMO
6 76 (3.04%) NIST
7 44 (1.76%) Accessibility
8 36 (1.44%) SLA
9 34 (1.36%) PCI DSS
10 32 (1.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 25 (1.00%) GRC
12 19 (0.76%) HIPAA
13 16 (0.64%) COBIT
13 16 (0.64%) NCSC
14 15 (0.60%) Def Stans
14 15 (0.60%) WCAG
15 13 (0.52%) NIST 800
16 12 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
16 12 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
16 12 (0.48%) P3O
System Software
1 186 (7.44%) Docker
2 149 (5.96%) Active Directory
3 43 (1.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (1.00%) Firmware
5 13 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.40%) DFS Replication
7 10 (0.40%) Dovecot
7 10 (0.40%) Postfix
7 10 (0.40%) Squid
8 9 (0.36%) XenApp
9 6 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
9 6 (0.24%) VMware NSX
9 6 (0.24%) vSphere
10 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 5 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (0.16%) NDS
11 4 (0.16%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 3 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.040%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 166 (6.64%) Kubernetes
2 140 (5.60%) Terraform
3 88 (3.52%) Ansible
4 66 (2.64%) Grafana
5 56 (2.24%) Prometheus
6 47 (1.88%) Microsoft Intune
6 47 (1.88%) SCCM
7 30 (1.20%) OPNET
8 22 (0.88%) Puppet
9 14 (0.56%) SCOM
10 12 (0.48%) Nessus
11 11 (0.44%) Kibana
12 10 (0.40%) Proxmox
12 10 (0.40%) QRadar
12 10 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.36%) WSUS
14 8 (0.32%) Nmap
15 7 (0.28%) AirWatch
15 7 (0.28%) Argo
15 7 (0.28%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 532 (21.27%) Microsoft
2 172 (6.88%) SAP
3 149 (5.96%) Oracle
4 125 (5.00%) ServiceNow
5 111 (4.44%) Splunk
6 101 (4.04%) Google
7 78 (3.12%) Cisco
8 73 (2.92%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.16%) Atlassian
10 52 (2.08%) VMware
11 49 (1.96%) Remedy
12 46 (1.84%) Databricks
13 39 (1.56%) Citrix
14 35 (1.40%) IBM
15 28 (1.12%) Palo Alto
16 27 (1.08%) Adobe
17 22 (0.88%) Red Hat
18 20 (0.80%) Workday
19 19 (0.76%) CheckPoint
19 19 (0.76%) MuleSoft