Degree Job Trends in the North West

Academic Degree
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 7 8
Rank change year-on-year -23 +1 +5
Permanent jobs citing Degree 558 961 972
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.33% 18.84% 13.47%
As % of the Qualifications category 31.58% 51.39% 54.18%
Number of salaries quoted 286 309 446
10th Percentile £28,500 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £33,250 £39,720
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £45,974 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.56% -8.05% -9.09%
75th Percentile £57,500 £57,500 £58,943
90th Percentile £72,500 £68,000 £68,750
England median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year - -8.70% -4.17%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

Degree falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the North West.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,767 1,870 1,794
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 13.71% 36.66% 24.86%
Number of salaries quoted 1,083 598 833
10th Percentile £32,820 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £33,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £47,842 £50,055
Median % change year-on-year +18.10% -4.42% -12.95%
75th Percentile £75,000 £60,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £92,254 £76,250 £75,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -0.86%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Degree relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Degree job vacancy trend in the North West

Degree
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Degree

Degree
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Degree in the North West over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Degree in the North West

Degree
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the North West region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -32 306 £42,000 +3.70% 209
Cheshire -3 107 £45,000 -2.12% 45
Merseyside -24 54 £41,250 +2.38% 35
Cumbria -3 50 £42,215 -19.83% 14
Lancashire -12 37 £41,250 -13.49% 35
Degree
England

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 20 (3.58%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.33%) Apache Airflow
2 13 (2.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.25%) Apache
3 7 (1.25%) Confluence
4 6 (1.08%) CMS
5 5 (0.90%) WordPress
6 3 (0.54%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.36%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.36%) IIS
7 2 (0.36%) WinCC
8 1 (0.18%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.18%) Sitecore CMS
8 1 (0.18%) Umbraco
Applications
1 38 (6.81%) Microsoft Office
2 22 (3.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.69%) AutoCAD
4 14 (2.51%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (1.79%) Revit
6 6 (1.08%) MS Visio
6 6 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 2 (0.36%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.18%) Acrobat
9 1 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.18%) Autodesk Smoke
9 1 (0.18%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.18%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.18%) Simulink
9 1 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 6 (1.08%) Dynamics NAV
2 4 (0.72%) Sage 200
2 4 (0.72%) SAP Business One
3 3 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.54%) Magento
3 3 (0.54%) Shopify
4 2 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.18%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.18%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.18%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 66 (11.83%) Azure
2 65 (11.65%) Microsoft 365
3 61 (10.93%) AWS
4 22 (3.94%) Power Platform
5 21 (3.76%) GCP
6 18 (3.23%) Entra ID
6 18 (3.23%) GitHub
7 17 (3.05%) SaaS
8 16 (2.87%) Microsoft Purview
9 12 (2.15%) dbt
9 12 (2.15%) Snowflake
10 10 (1.79%) Power Automate
11 9 (1.61%) Collibra
12 8 (1.43%) GitHub Copilot
12 8 (1.43%) Serverless
13 6 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (1.08%) OneDrive
14 5 (0.90%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (0.90%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (0.90%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.23%) Wireless
2 13 (2.33%) DHCP
2 13 (2.33%) DNS
3 12 (2.15%) Firewall
3 12 (2.15%) VPN
4 11 (1.97%) SD-WAN
4 11 (1.97%) WAN
5 10 (1.79%) LAN
5 10 (1.79%) TCP/IP
5 10 (1.79%) WLAN
6 9 (1.61%) Broadband
6 9 (1.61%) VLAN
7 8 (1.43%) Cisco ISE
7 8 (1.43%) Cisco Wireless
7 8 (1.43%) VoIP
7 8 (1.43%) WebEx
8 7 (1.25%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.90%) Internet
10 4 (0.72%) PPP
10 4 (0.72%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (4.30%) SQL Server
2 17 (3.05%) Power BI
3 16 (2.87%) Metadata
4 12 (2.15%) DynamoDB
5 8 (1.43%) PostgreSQL
6 5 (0.90%) BigQuery
6 5 (0.90%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (0.90%) NoSQL
6 5 (0.90%) Tableau
7 4 (0.72%) Data Lake
8 3 (0.54%) Data Vault
8 3 (0.54%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.54%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.36%) KNIME
9 2 (0.36%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.36%) MS Access
9 2 (0.36%) Power Query
9 2 (0.36%) Redis
9 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 20 (3.58%) JIRA
2 9 (1.61%) Git
3 7 (1.25%) GitLab
4 5 (0.90%) Atlassian Bamboo
4 5 (0.90%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.54%) RStudio
6 2 (0.36%) Hudson
6 2 (0.36%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.18%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.18%) LSMW
7 1 (0.18%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 217 (38.89%) Social Skills
2 141 (25.27%) Finance
3 122 (21.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 102 (18.28%) Analytical Skills
5 70 (12.54%) Aerospace
6 64 (11.47%) Manufacturing
7 46 (8.24%) Telecoms
8 44 (7.89%) Marketing
9 32 (5.73%) Public Sector
10 29 (5.20%) Presentation Skills
11 27 (4.84%) Legal
12 24 (4.30%) Retail
13 21 (3.76%) Organisational Skills
14 19 (3.41%) Electronics
14 19 (3.41%) Pharmaceutical
15 17 (3.05%) Law
16 16 (2.87%) Local Government
17 15 (2.69%) Influencing Skills
18 10 (1.79%) Banking
18 10 (1.79%) Swedish Language
Job Titles
1 135 (24.19%) Senior
2 70 (12.54%) Analyst
3 58 (10.39%) Design Engineer
4 38 (6.81%) Developer
5 27 (4.84%) Lead
6 26 (4.66%) IT Support
7 25 (4.48%) Project Manager
8 24 (4.30%) Senior Design Engineer
9 23 (4.12%) Electrical Engineer
10 20 (3.58%) Architect
10 20 (3.58%) Consultant
11 19 (3.41%) Sales Executive
12 18 (3.23%) Senior Electrical Engineer
12 18 (3.23%) Service Analyst
13 17 (3.05%) Service Desk Analyst
14 16 (2.87%) Business Analyst
15 15 (2.69%) Graduate
15 15 (2.69%) Instrumentation Engineer
15 15 (2.69%) Senior Analyst
16 14 (2.51%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.41%) .NET
2 17 (3.05%) CSS
3 13 (2.33%) HTML
3 13 (2.33%) REST
4 12 (2.15%) Node.js
4 12 (2.15%) Terraform
5 10 (1.79%) AngularJS
5 10 (1.79%) React
6 7 (1.25%) Spring
7 6 (1.08%) CSS3
7 6 (1.08%) HTML5
7 6 (1.08%) MIDP
8 5 (0.90%) ASP.NET
8 5 (0.90%) PySpark
8 5 (0.90%) RESTful
8 5 (0.90%) Spring Boot
8 5 (0.90%) Vue
9 4 (0.72%) .NET Core
9 4 (0.72%) ASP.NET Web API
9 4 (0.72%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.81%) Management Information System
2 35 (6.27%) Onboarding
3 33 (5.91%) Driving Licence
4 22 (3.94%) Product Ownership
5 21 (3.76%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (3.23%) IoT
6 18 (3.23%) SCADA
7 17 (3.05%) Cloud Native
8 12 (2.15%) Security Posture
9 9 (1.61%) Marketing Technology
10 8 (1.43%) Cyberattack
10 8 (1.43%) Data Centre
10 8 (1.43%) Life Science
11 7 (1.25%) FMCG
12 6 (1.08%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.08%) EPoS
12 6 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
13 5 (0.90%) Acoustics
13 5 (0.90%) AI Agents
13 5 (0.90%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 32 (5.73%) Windows
2 17 (3.05%) Windows Server
3 10 (1.79%) macOS
4 8 (1.43%) Linux
5 5 (0.90%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.36%) FreeRTOS
6 2 (0.36%) Windows 7
6 2 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 152 (27.24%) Problem-Solving
2 138 (24.73%) Continuous Improvement
3 124 (22.22%) Agile
4 111 (19.89%) AI
5 100 (17.92%) Computer Science
6 80 (14.34%) Mentoring
7 77 (13.80%) Decision-Making
8 72 (12.90%) Validation
9 67 (12.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 61 (10.93%) Stakeholder Management
11 60 (10.75%) Analytics
12 54 (9.68%) Project Management
13 51 (9.14%) Cybersecurity
14 49 (8.78%) Customer Service
15 47 (8.42%) ITIL
16 45 (8.06%) Digital Engineering
17 39 (6.99%) DevOps
18 37 (6.63%) Programme Delivery
19 36 (6.45%) Project Delivery
20 35 (6.27%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 66 (11.83%) Python
2 56 (10.04%) SQL
3 31 (5.56%) JavaScript
4 26 (4.66%) C#
5 24 (4.30%) Java
6 16 (2.87%) PowerShell
7 14 (2.51%) TypeScript
8 8 (1.43%) C
9 7 (1.25%) R
10 6 (1.08%) C++
10 6 (1.08%) PHP
11 4 (0.72%) Delphi
11 4 (0.72%) T-SQL
12 3 (0.54%) Bash
12 3 (0.54%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 3 (0.54%) Go
13 2 (0.36%) MATLAB
13 2 (0.36%) VB.NET
14 1 (0.18%) Ada
14 1 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 94 (16.85%) HNC
2 62 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
3 60 (10.75%) DBS Check
3 60 (10.75%) Master's Degree
4 56 (10.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 42 (7.53%) HND
6 35 (6.27%) Security Cleared
7 24 (4.30%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (4.30%) Postgraduate
8 21 (3.76%) Chartered Engineer
8 21 (3.76%) SC Cleared
9 16 (2.87%) AWS Certification
10 15 (2.69%) MCSE
11 9 (1.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.61%) PMP
12 8 (1.43%) PhD
12 8 (1.43%) RIBA
13 6 (1.08%) PMI Certification
14 5 (0.90%) CISSP
14 5 (0.90%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (8.96%) QA
2 47 (8.42%) Data Quality
3 31 (5.56%) Accessibility
4 14 (2.51%) GMP
5 13 (2.33%) GDPR
5 13 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 12 (2.15%) IEC 61508
7 11 (1.97%) ISO 9001
7 11 (1.97%) NIST
8 8 (1.43%) SLA
9 6 (1.08%) NEBOSH
10 5 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.54%) COSO
12 3 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 2 (0.36%) GLP
13 2 (0.36%) Good Clinical Practice
13 2 (0.36%) IEC 61131
13 2 (0.36%) PMO
System Software
1 23 (4.12%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (1.25%) Docker
4 5 (0.90%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.36%) Firmware
6 2 (0.36%) UAG
6 2 (0.36%) vSphere
7 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 14 (2.51%) Functional Safety
2 13 (2.33%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (1.25%) Autotask
3 7 (1.25%) Kubernetes
4 5 (0.90%) SCCM
5 4 (0.72%) Jamf Pro
5 4 (0.72%) Nessus
6 3 (0.54%) Ansible
6 3 (0.54%) FortiGate
6 3 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.36%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.36%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.18%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 124 (22.22%) Microsoft
2 18 (3.23%) Cisco
3 17 (3.05%) ServiceNow
4 15 (2.69%) SAP
5 14 (2.51%) Databricks
5 14 (2.51%) Google
5 14 (2.51%) Salesforce
6 11 (1.97%) Thales
7 10 (1.79%) Siemens
8 9 (1.61%) Oracle
9 8 (1.43%) Aruba
9 8 (1.43%) Fortinet
9 8 (1.43%) Informatica
9 8 (1.43%) Juniper
9 8 (1.43%) Tanium
9 8 (1.43%) VMware
10 7 (1.25%) EMC
10 7 (1.25%) Samsung
10 7 (1.25%) Splunk
10 7 (1.25%) TikTok