Job Vacancy Trend Daily Rate Trend Daily Rate Histogram Hourly Rate Trend Hourly Rate Histogram Job Locations Skill Sets
Period
to 16 January 2021

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Master's Degree qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months to 16 January 2021 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

Note that daily and hourly rates are treated separately in these statistics. When calculating contractor rate percentiles, daily rates are never derived from quoted hourly rates or vice versa.

Master's Degree
UK
6 months to
16 Jan 2021		 Same period 2020 Same period 2019
Rank 472 539 596
Rank change year-on-year +67 +57 +22
Contract jobs citing Master's Degree 111 221 307
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.27% 0.30% 0.31%
As % of the Qualifications category 1.19% 1.42% 1.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 142 187
Median daily rate £475 £475 £525
Median daily rate % change year-on-year - -9.52% +5.00%
10th Percentile £325 £287 £300
90th Percentile £650 £700 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £433 £375 £388
% change year-on-year +15.33% -3.23% +19.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 14 8
Median hourly rate £53.00 £48.00 £34.00
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +10.42% +41.18% +2.11%
10th Percentile £33.51 £32.35 £29.08
90th Percentile £61.25 £57.50 £70.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £45.00 £34.00
% change year-on-year +27.78% +32.35% -45.60%

Master's Degree is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 9,338 15,616 19,096
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.97% 21.36% 19.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,098 10,079 11,702
Median daily rate £475 £463 £450
Median daily rate % change year-on-year +2.70% +2.78% +5.88%
10th Percentile £278 £256 £256
90th Percentile £648 £644 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £425
% change year-on-year - +5.88% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 492 657 847
Median hourly rate £40.00 £34.00 £25.12
Median hourly rate % change year-on-year +17.65% +35.35% +12.24%
10th Percentile £15.04 £14.05 £12.55
90th Percentile £64.50 £57.50 £51.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £30.50 £26.50
% change year-on-year +24.59% +15.09% +7.90%

Master's Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Master's Degree as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Daily rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 16 January 2021.

Daily rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Master's Degree.

Hourly rate trend for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Master's Degree over the 6 months to 16 January 2021.

Hourly rate histogram for Master's Degree in the UK

Master's Degree
Top 13 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Master's Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 16 January 2021. 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
Job
Vacancies
England +92 100 £475 -3.80% 90
London +72 64 £500 -9.09% 33
UK excluding London +132 33 £433 +15.33% 61
South East +95 17 £373 -9.70% 22
Work from Home -175 16 £475 -24.30% 13
North of England +111 6 £475 +47.86% 12
Midlands +64 5 £420 +32.81% 4
North West +75 4 £450 - 4
West Midlands +51 4 £475 +131.71% 1
East of England +70 3 £332 -11.47% 10
South West +89 2 £425 +13.33% 6
Yorkshire +51 2 £563 +53.06% 3
East Midlands +44 1 £365 -14.62% 3

For the 6 months to 16 January 2021, IT contractor jobs citing Master's Degree also mentioned the following skills in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads with a requirement for Master's Degree.

1 111 (100.00%) Degree
2 80 (72.07%) Computer Science
3 48 (43.24%) Computer Science Degree
4 42 (37.84%) Problem-Solving
5 41 (36.94%) Analytical Skills
6 40 (36.04%) Agile Software Development
7 39 (35.14%) Java
8 32 (28.83%) SQL
9 31 (27.93%) Finance
10 29 (26.13%) Python
11 28 (25.23%) Microservices
12 25 (22.52%) Linux
12 25 (22.52%) Scrum
13 22 (19.82%) HTML
13 22 (19.82%) Jenkins
13 22 (19.82%) Git (software)
14 21 (18.92%) HTML5
14 21 (18.92%) Relational Database
14 21 (18.92%) Oracle
14 21 (18.92%) Statistics
15 20 (18.02%) Continuous Integration
16 19 (17.12%) Big Data
16 19 (17.12%) Algorithms
16 19 (17.12%) Software Engineering
16 19 (17.12%) C++
16 19 (17.12%) Data Science
17 18 (16.22%) JavaScript
17 18 (16.22%) Open Source
18 17 (15.32%) Azure
18 17 (15.32%) Docker

Master's Degree
Co-occurring IT Skills by Category

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

Application Platforms
1 14 (12.61%) Apache
2 11 (9.91%) Apache Spark
2 11 (9.91%) Red Hat Fuse
3 7 (6.31%) Tomcat
4 4 (3.60%) DNN
5 3 (2.70%) Apache Qpid
5 3 (2.70%) SAS
6 2 (1.80%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (1.80%) CMS
6 2 (1.80%) Elasticsearch
7 1 (0.90%) Drupal
7 1 (0.90%) IIS
7 1 (0.90%) NServiceBus
7 1 (0.90%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.90%) SharePoint
7 1 (0.90%) WebSphere
Applications
1 4 (3.60%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.80%) SAP APO
1 2 (1.80%) SAP SD
2 1 (0.90%) Salesforce.com CRM
2 1 (0.90%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.90%) Temenos Globus
2 1 (0.90%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 17 (15.32%) Azure
2 14 (12.61%) AWS
3 8 (7.21%) GitHub
4 6 (5.41%) Amazon EC2
4 6 (5.41%) Amazon EKS
4 6 (5.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 4 (3.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 4 (3.60%) Datadog
6 3 (2.70%) Power Platform
7 2 (1.80%) GCP
7 2 (1.80%) IaaS
7 2 (1.80%) OpenShift
7 2 (1.80%) PaaS
7 2 (1.80%) SaaS
8 1 (0.90%) Google Analytics
8 1 (0.90%) Google Compute Engine
8 1 (0.90%) npm
8 1 (0.90%) Office 365
8 1 (0.90%) OneDrive
8 1 (0.90%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 3 (2.70%) VPN
2 2 (1.80%) BGP
2 2 (1.80%) Firewall
2 2 (1.80%) MPLS
2 2 (1.80%) Multicast
2 2 (1.80%) OSPF
3 1 (0.90%) HTTP
3 1 (0.90%) HTTPS
3 1 (0.90%) Internet
3 1 (0.90%) iSCSI
3 1 (0.90%) LAN
3 1 (0.90%) MQTT
3 1 (0.90%) Radio Access Network
3 1 (0.90%) Remote Desktop
3 1 (0.90%) SAN
3 1 (0.90%) VLAN
3 1 (0.90%) VoIP
3 1 (0.90%) VSAN
3 1 (0.90%) WAN
3 1 (0.90%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (18.92%) Relational Database
2 19 (17.12%) Big Data
3 12 (10.81%) NoSQL
4 9 (8.11%) Hadoop
4 9 (8.11%) SQL Server
5 6 (5.41%) Amazon RDS
5 6 (5.41%) ArangoDB
5 6 (5.41%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (4.50%) MySQL
7 4 (3.60%) Apache Cassandra
7 4 (3.60%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (3.60%) RDBMS
8 3 (2.70%) Power BI
9 2 (1.80%) Apache Hive
9 2 (1.80%) DB2
9 2 (1.80%) HBase
9 2 (1.80%) Impala
10 1 (0.90%) Spotfire
10 1 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 1 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 22 (19.82%) Git (software)
1 22 (19.82%) Jenkins
2 7 (6.31%) CMake
2 7 (6.31%) Gradle
3 5 (4.50%) GitLab
4 4 (3.60%) Maven
5 3 (2.70%) Ant
5 3 (2.70%) JIRA
5 3 (2.70%) JMeter
6 2 (1.80%) Bitbucket
6 2 (1.80%) IntelliJ
6 2 (1.80%) LoadRunner
6 2 (1.80%) SonarQube
6 2 (1.80%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (1.80%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.90%) gulp
7 1 (0.90%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.90%) Postman
7 1 (0.90%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.90%) webpack
General
1 31 (27.93%) Finance
2 13 (11.71%) Banking
3 10 (9.01%) Marketing
4 6 (5.41%) Telecoms
5 5 (4.50%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.70%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (1.80%) Electronics
7 2 (1.80%) German Language
7 2 (1.80%) Legal
8 1 (0.90%) Advertising
8 1 (0.90%) Automotive
8 1 (0.90%) French Language
8 1 (0.90%) Games
8 1 (0.90%) General Ledger
8 1 (0.90%) Investment Banking
8 1 (0.90%) Law
8 1 (0.90%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.90%) Private Banking
8 1 (0.90%) Retail
Job Titles
1 22 (19.82%) Developer
2 10 (9.01%) Architect
3 9 (8.11%) Consultant
4 8 (7.21%) Java Developer
4 8 (7.21%) Senior Developer
5 5 (4.50%) Analyst
5 5 (4.50%) Applications Engineer
5 5 (4.50%) Azure Developer
5 5 (4.50%) C# Developer
5 5 (4.50%) C# Developer - Commodities
5 5 (4.50%) DevOps Engineer
5 5 (4.50%) Software Engineer
5 5 (4.50%) Solutions Architect
5 5 (4.50%) Technical Leader
6 4 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (3.60%) Azure DevOps Engineer
6 4 (3.60%) Azure Engineer
6 4 (3.60%) Java Solutions Architect
6 4 (3.60%) Operations Engineer
6 4 (3.60%) Operations Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (19.82%) HTML
2 21 (18.92%) HTML5
3 16 (14.41%) .NET
3 16 (14.41%) Middleware
4 15 (13.51%) REST
5 14 (12.61%) Kafka
6 13 (11.71%) AngularJS
6 13 (11.71%) Apache Camel
7 12 (10.81%) JDBC
7 12 (10.81%) JMS
7 12 (10.81%) jQuery
8 11 (9.91%) Ajax
8 11 (9.91%) GWT
8 11 (9.91%) Hibernate
8 11 (9.91%) JSF
8 11 (9.91%) OSGi
8 11 (9.91%) Spring
9 8 (7.21%) GraphQL
9 8 (7.21%) Spark Streaming
9 8 (7.21%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 41 (36.94%) Analytical Skills
2 19 (17.12%) Algorithms
3 13 (11.71%) Enterprise Software
4 11 (9.91%) Clustering
5 7 (6.31%) Data Structures
6 5 (4.50%) CUDA
6 5 (4.50%) User Experience
7 4 (3.60%) Augmented Reality
7 4 (3.60%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (3.60%) NHS
8 3 (2.70%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (2.70%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.80%) Blog
9 2 (1.80%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.80%) Equities
9 2 (1.80%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.80%) SIMD
9 2 (1.80%) W3C
10 1 (0.90%) Cyberattack
10 1 (0.90%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (22.52%) Linux
2 8 (7.21%) Android
3 7 (6.31%) Unix
3 7 (6.31%) Windows
4 1 (0.90%) AIX
4 1 (0.90%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.90%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (72.07%) Computer Science
2 42 (37.84%) Problem-Solving
3 40 (36.04%) Agile Software Development
4 28 (25.23%) Microservices
5 25 (22.52%) Scrum
6 21 (18.92%) Statistics
7 20 (18.02%) Continuous Integration
8 19 (17.12%) Data Science
8 19 (17.12%) Software Engineering
9 18 (16.22%) Open Source
10 17 (15.32%) OO
11 15 (13.51%) High Availability
11 15 (13.51%) Mathematics
12 14 (12.61%) Machine Learning
13 12 (10.81%) Performance Tuning
13 12 (10.81%) Web Development
14 11 (9.91%) DevOps
14 11 (9.91%) Extreme Programming
14 11 (9.91%) RUP
14 11 (9.91%) Scalability Testing
Programming Languages
1 39 (35.14%) Java
2 32 (28.83%) SQL
3 29 (26.13%) Python
4 19 (17.12%) C++
5 18 (16.22%) JavaScript
6 16 (14.41%) C#
7 13 (11.71%) Java 8
8 9 (8.11%) Bash Shell
9 7 (6.31%) C
9 7 (6.31%) PL/SQL
9 7 (6.31%) Scala
10 6 (5.41%) PowerShell
11 5 (4.50%) ES6
11 5 (4.50%) R
12 4 (3.60%) Ruby
12 4 (3.60%) TypeScript
13 2 (1.80%) Assembly Language
13 2 (1.80%) ES7
13 2 (1.80%) Shell Script
13 2 (1.80%) XPath
Qualifications
1 111 (100.00%) Degree
2 48 (43.24%) Computer Science Degree
3 12 (10.81%) PhD
4 5 (4.50%) MBA
5 4 (3.60%) CISSP
6 3 (2.70%) CISA
6 3 (2.70%) Numerate Degree
7 2 (1.80%) CIMA
7 2 (1.80%) CISM
7 2 (1.80%) CSPO
7 2 (1.80%) GIAC
7 2 (1.80%) ISEB
7 2 (1.80%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 2 (1.80%) JNCIP
7 2 (1.80%) JNCIS
7 2 (1.80%) Postgraduate
7 2 (1.80%) SC Cleared
7 2 (1.80%) Security Cleared
8 1 (0.90%) ITIL Certification
8 1 (0.90%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.11%) QA
2 4 (3.60%) PCI DSS
3 3 (2.70%) MiFID
4 2 (1.80%) GAAP
4 2 (1.80%) IFRS
4 2 (1.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.90%) CDISC
5 1 (0.90%) COBIT
5 1 (0.90%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.90%) NIST
5 1 (0.90%) NIST 800
5 1 (0.90%) PMO
System Software
1 17 (15.32%) Docker
2 2 (1.80%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.80%) Apache Flume
2 2 (1.80%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 2 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
2 2 (1.80%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (1.80%) vSphere
3 1 (0.90%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 13 (11.71%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.60%) Ansible
2 4 (3.60%) Nagios
2 4 (3.60%) Opscode Chef
3 2 (1.80%) Grafana
3 2 (1.80%) Hadoop YARN
3 2 (1.80%) Istio
3 2 (1.80%) Knative
3 2 (1.80%) Puppet
4 1 (0.90%) Control-M
4 1 (0.90%) PowerCLI
4 1 (0.90%) Rundeck
4 1 (0.90%) SCCM
4 1 (0.90%) SCOrch
4 1 (0.90%) vRealize
4 1 (0.90%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 21 (18.92%) Oracle
2 15 (13.51%) Microsoft
3 8 (7.21%) Databricks
4 6 (5.41%) SAP
4 6 (5.41%) Splunk
4 6 (5.41%) StreamSets
5 5 (4.50%) Google
6 4 (3.60%) IBM
7 3 (2.70%) Cisco
7 3 (2.70%) Juniper
7 3 (2.70%) Red Hat
7 3 (2.70%) TIBCO
7 3 (2.70%) VMware
8 2 (1.80%) Adobe
8 2 (1.80%) Cognizant
8 2 (1.80%) Solace
9 1 (0.90%) Citrix
9 1 (0.90%) HP
9 1 (0.90%) Murex
9 1 (0.90%) Siemens