Graduate Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Graduate
UK > UK excluding London

The median Graduate salary in the UK excluding London is £27,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 5 January 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 304 187 190
Rank change year-on-year -117 +3 -46
Permanent jobs requiring a Graduate 221 539 526
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.53% 1.47% 1.63%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.58% 1.59% 1.71%
Number of salaries quoted 177 113 221
10th Percentile £24,000 £23,000 £22,750
25th Percentile £25,000 £25,500 £25,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £27,500 £33,500 £28,500
Median % change year-on-year -17.91% +17.54% -5.00%
75th Percentile £30,000 £45,000 £32,500
90th Percentile £35,000 - £37,500
UK median annual salary £28,000 £34,250 £28,500
% change year-on-year -18.25% +20.18% -5.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 37,931 33,995 30,719
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.41% 92.95% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 22,982 16,737 23,167
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £58,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -2.50%

Graduate
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Graduate job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Graduate job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Graduate in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Graduate in the UK excluding London

Graduate
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Graduate within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 5 January 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
North of England -53 54 £30,000 -33.33% 101
Midlands -84 49 £26,000 -3.70% 37
East of England +29 45 £27,500 -8.33% 27
South East -32 38 £26,000 -20.00% 102
Yorkshire -10 36 £30,000 -33.33% 43
West Midlands -79 28 £26,000 -4.59% 16
South West +16 26 £30,000 -33.33% 64
East Midlands -22 21 £30,000 +20.00% 21
North West -28 16 £30,000 -17.24% 49
Scotland -26 9 £25,000 -44.44% 14
North East -20 2 £27,500 -31.25% 9
Graduate
UK

Graduate Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 5 January 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 UK excluding London region featuring Graduate in the job title.

1 92 (41.63%) Degree
2 63 (28.51%) SQL
3 60 (27.15%) Computer Science
4 52 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
5 46 (20.81%) C#
6 38 (17.19%) Azure
7 35 (15.84%) PHP
8 33 (14.93%) C++
9 32 (14.48%) Agile
10 29 (13.12%) Java
10 29 (13.12%) Software Engineering
10 29 (13.12%) SQL Server
11 27 (12.22%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (9.95%) CSS
13 21 (9.50%) Microsoft Office
13 21 (9.50%) MVC
14 20 (9.05%) Microsoft
15 19 (8.60%) .NET
15 19 (8.60%) jQuery
15 19 (8.60%) MySQL
15 19 (8.60%) OOP
16 17 (7.69%) ASP.NET
17 16 (7.24%) Decision-Making
17 16 (7.24%) Mentoring
18 15 (6.79%) Continuous Improvement
19 14 (6.33%) Data Analysis
19 14 (6.33%) Master's Degree
20 13 (5.88%) Collaborative Working
20 13 (5.88%) Mathematics
20 13 (5.88%) OO

Graduate Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 7 (3.17%) Confluence
2 2 (0.90%) CMS
2 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.45%) SAS
3 1 (0.45%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (9.50%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (3.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (1.81%) Autodesk Inventor
4 4 (1.81%) SOLIDWORKS
5 1 (0.45%) GNU Octave
5 1 (0.45%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 4 (1.81%) Sage 200
2 1 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 38 (17.19%) Azure
2 7 (3.17%) AWS
3 4 (1.81%) Cloud Computing
3 4 (1.81%) Power Platform
3 4 (1.81%) SaaS
4 2 (0.90%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.90%) Software-Defined Radio
2 1 (0.45%) Intranet
2 1 (0.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (13.12%) SQL Server
2 19 (8.60%) MySQL
3 8 (3.62%) Relational Database
4 4 (1.81%) Power BI
5 2 (0.90%) Tableau
6 1 (0.45%) Big Data
6 1 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.45%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.45%) Redis
Development Applications
1 7 (3.17%) JIRA
2 2 (0.90%) Git
2 2 (0.90%) LabVIEW
General
1 72 (32.58%) Social Skills
2 38 (17.19%) Finance
3 16 (7.24%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (7.24%) Manufacturing
4 12 (5.43%) Marketing
5 9 (4.07%) Retail
6 8 (3.62%) Pharmaceutical
7 7 (3.17%) Electronics
7 7 (3.17%) Legal
7 7 (3.17%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (2.71%) Aerospace
8 6 (2.71%) Law
9 2 (0.90%) Automotive
9 2 (0.90%) Military
10 1 (0.45%) Aviation
10 1 (0.45%) Games
10 1 (0.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.45%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (9.95%) CSS
2 19 (8.60%) .NET
2 19 (8.60%) jQuery
3 17 (7.69%) ASP.NET
4 3 (1.36%) HTML
5 2 (0.90%) .NET Core
5 2 (0.90%) AngularJS
5 2 (0.90%) ASP.NET MVC
6 1 (0.45%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.45%) ASP.NET Web API
6 1 (0.45%) Blazor
6 1 (0.45%) CSS3
6 1 (0.45%) Entity Framework
6 1 (0.45%) HTML5
6 1 (0.45%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 8 (3.62%) Driving Licence
1 8 (3.62%) e-Learning
1 8 (3.62%) Enterprise Software
2 7 (3.17%) Mobile App
3 6 (2.71%) Web Conferencing
4 4 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (1.81%) Virtual Team
5 2 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
5 2 (0.90%) Low-Code
5 2 (0.90%) Management Information System
5 2 (0.90%) Robotics
5 2 (0.90%) Smart Meter
6 1 (0.45%) Digital Media
6 1 (0.45%) Hedge funds
6 1 (0.45%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.45%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 11 (4.98%) Linux
2 7 (3.17%) Android
3 1 (0.45%) Unix
3 1 (0.45%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (27.15%) Computer Science
2 52 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (14.48%) Agile
4 29 (13.12%) Software Engineering
5 21 (9.50%) MVC
6 19 (8.60%) OOP
7 16 (7.24%) Decision-Making
7 16 (7.24%) Mentoring
8 15 (6.79%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (6.33%) Data Analysis
10 13 (5.88%) Collaborative Working
10 13 (5.88%) Mathematics
10 13 (5.88%) OO
11 12 (5.43%) Analytics
12 11 (4.98%) Project Management
13 10 (4.52%) Critical Thinking
13 10 (4.52%) Customer Service
14 9 (4.07%) Collaborative Culture
14 9 (4.07%) Cybersecurity
14 9 (4.07%) E-Commerce
Programming Languages
1 63 (28.51%) SQL
2 46 (20.81%) C#
3 35 (15.84%) PHP
4 33 (14.93%) C++
5 29 (13.12%) Java
6 13 (5.88%) Python
7 10 (4.52%) C
8 8 (3.62%) PL/SQL
9 5 (2.26%) JavaScript
10 4 (1.81%) Delphi
10 4 (1.81%) MATLAB
11 3 (1.36%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.90%) R
13 1 (0.45%) VB
Qualifications
1 92 (41.63%) Degree
2 27 (12.22%) Computer Science Degree
3 14 (6.33%) Master's Degree
4 6 (2.71%) Security Cleared
5 3 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (0.90%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.45%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.26%) ISO 9001
2 4 (1.81%) QA
3 2 (0.90%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.90%) Disclosure Scotland
3 2 (0.90%) PMO
4 1 (0.45%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.45%) ISO 14001
4 1 (0.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 2 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
1 2 (0.90%) Firmware
Vendors
1 20 (9.05%) Microsoft
2 8 (3.62%) Dell
2 8 (3.62%) Oracle
3 6 (2.71%) Broadcom
4 4 (1.81%) Autodesk
4 4 (1.81%) Sage
5 2 (0.90%) Databricks
6 1 (0.45%) ANSYS
6 1 (0.45%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.45%) Google
6 1 (0.45%) Keysight
6 1 (0.45%) PTC
6 1 (0.45%) Salesforce