Graduate Job Trends in the South East

Graduate
England > South East

The median Graduate salary in the South East is £30,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 August 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 207 230 152
Rank change year-on-year +23 -78 +3
Permanent jobs requiring a Graduate 126 58 219
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.73% 0.65% 1.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.77% 0.72% 1.68%
Number of salaries quoted 116 46 112
10th Percentile £24,938 £24,000 £22,000
25th Percentile £26,000 £24,063 £25,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £30,000 £25,500 £30,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -15.00% +20.00%
75th Percentile £35,000 £28,938 £37,250
90th Percentile £41,250 £32,625 £39,850
England median annual salary £30,000 £27,500 £27,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% - +10.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 16,394 8,003 13,039
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.29% 89.56% 94.86%
Number of salaries quoted 11,622 4,445 8,723
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%

Graduate
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Graduate' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Graduate job vacancy trend in the South East

Graduate
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the South East

Graduate
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Graduate in the South East over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Graduate in the South East

Graduate
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Graduate within the South East region over the 6 months to 17 August 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
Thames Valley +20 38 £30,000 +17.65% 18
Hampshire -14 37 £26,000 -14.05% 5
Surrey -2 31 £30,000 +11.11% 4
Buckinghamshire -5 17 £30,000 +21.21% 5
Kent -4 16 £25,000 - 3
Oxfordshire -14 13 £40,000 +37.93% 2
Berkshire +22 8 £26,000 -18.75% 12
East Sussex - 4 £27,000 - 2
Graduate
England

Graduate Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 17 August 2026, Graduate job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the South East region featuring Graduate in the job title.

1 39 (30.95%) Degree
2 29 (23.02%) Computer Science
3 26 (20.63%) SQL
4 21 (16.67%) C#
4 21 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (15.87%) Software Engineering
6 17 (13.49%) Agile
6 17 (13.49%) Mathematics
7 16 (12.70%) Mentoring
8 14 (11.11%) Java
8 14 (11.11%) Security Cleared
9 13 (10.32%) Computer Science Degree
9 13 (10.32%) Customer Service
10 12 (9.52%) AI
10 12 (9.52%) Physics
10 12 (9.52%) SC Cleared
11 11 (8.73%) Azure
11 11 (8.73%) Microsoft
11 11 (8.73%) PHP
11 11 (8.73%) Python
11 11 (8.73%) Software Testing
11 11 (8.73%) SQL Server
12 10 (7.94%) C++
13 9 (7.14%) Analytics
13 9 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
14 8 (6.35%) Active Directory
15 7 (5.56%) Decision-Making
15 7 (5.56%) Linux
15 7 (5.56%) Windows
15 7 (5.56%) Windows Server

Graduate Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 6 (4.76%) IIS
2 3 (2.38%) Confluence
3 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (7.14%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.97%) AutoCAD
3 2 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.79%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 11 (8.73%) Azure
2 6 (4.76%) GCP
3 5 (3.97%) AWS
3 5 (3.97%) SaaS
4 4 (3.17%) GitHub
5 3 (2.38%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.79%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 6 (4.76%) VPN
2 3 (2.38%) Firewall
2 3 (2.38%) LTE
2 3 (2.38%) Network Security
2 3 (2.38%) TCP/IP
2 3 (2.38%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (8.73%) SQL Server
2 4 (3.17%) MySQL
3 1 (0.79%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.79%) Power BI
3 1 (0.79%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 4 (3.17%) JIRA
2 3 (2.38%) Selenium
2 3 (2.38%) SpecFlow
3 2 (1.59%) Visual Studio
General
1 26 (20.63%) Finance
2 25 (19.84%) Social Skills
3 15 (11.90%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (7.14%) Manufacturing
5 6 (4.76%) Electronics
6 4 (3.17%) Banking
6 4 (3.17%) Marketing
7 3 (2.38%) Automotive
7 3 (2.38%) Retail
8 1 (0.79%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.79%) Games
8 1 (0.79%) German Language
8 1 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.79%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.97%) CSS
1 5 (3.97%) jQuery
2 3 (2.38%) Gherkin
2 3 (2.38%) React
3 2 (1.59%) .NET
3 2 (1.59%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.79%) HTML
4 1 (0.79%) XML
4 1 (0.79%) XSL
Miscellaneous
1 4 (3.17%) Onboarding
2 3 (2.38%) Clustering
2 3 (2.38%) Product Ownership
3 2 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (1.59%) Low-Code
4 1 (0.79%) Client/Server
4 1 (0.79%) FPGA
4 1 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (0.79%) Social Media
4 1 (0.79%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 7 (5.56%) Linux
1 7 (5.56%) Windows
1 7 (5.56%) Windows Server
2 3 (2.38%) Debian
2 3 (2.38%) Gentoo
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (23.02%) Computer Science
2 21 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
3 20 (15.87%) Software Engineering
4 17 (13.49%) Agile
4 17 (13.49%) Mathematics
5 16 (12.70%) Mentoring
6 13 (10.32%) Customer Service
7 12 (9.52%) AI
7 12 (9.52%) Physics
8 11 (8.73%) Software Testing
9 9 (7.14%) Analytics
10 7 (5.56%) Decision-Making
11 6 (4.76%) Data Architecture
11 6 (4.76%) Data Pipeline
11 6 (4.76%) Storytelling
11 6 (4.76%) Visualisation
11 6 (4.76%) Web Development
12 5 (3.97%) MVC
12 5 (3.97%) OOP
13 4 (3.17%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 26 (20.63%) SQL
2 21 (16.67%) C#
3 14 (11.11%) Java
4 11 (8.73%) PHP
4 11 (8.73%) Python
5 10 (7.94%) C++
6 4 (3.17%) Bash
6 4 (3.17%) Ruby
6 4 (3.17%) TypeScript
7 3 (2.38%) JavaScript
8 2 (1.59%) C
9 1 (0.79%) Rust
Qualifications
1 39 (30.95%) Degree
2 14 (11.11%) Security Cleared
3 13 (10.32%) Computer Science Degree
4 12 (9.52%) SC Cleared
5 3 (2.38%) HNC
5 3 (2.38%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.38%) QA
System Software
1 8 (6.35%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.38%) Docker
3 1 (0.79%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.79%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (2.38%) Ansible
1 3 (2.38%) Kibana
1 3 (2.38%) Kubernetes
1 3 (2.38%) Podman
Vendors
1 11 (8.73%) Microsoft
2 6 (4.76%) Citrix
2 6 (4.76%) Google
3 4 (3.17%) Salesforce
4 1 (0.79%) Oracle
4 1 (0.79%) SAP