Degree Job Trends

Academic Degree
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 3 7
Rank change year-on-year +1 +4 -2
Permanent jobs citing Degree 11,104 10,745 7,671
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 19.69% 17.30% 15.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 59.01% 53.84% 48.92%
Number of salaries quoted 3,182 4,084 5,126
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £33,750 £42,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% +9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £98,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £52,500 £51,528
% change year-on-year -14.29% +1.89% +6.75%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 18,818 19,958 15,682
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 33.37% 32.13% 31.07%
Number of salaries quoted 7,836 8,256 10,944
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,750 £30,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £41,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,125 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +2.83% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,625 £92,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,683 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.30% +4.76% +5.00%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Degree job vacancy trend in the UK

Degree
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Degree.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Degree

Degree
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Degree over the 6 months to 12 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Degree in the UK

Degree
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the UK over the 6 months to 12 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +1 10,123 £52,500 -9.48% 6,890
UK excluding London 0 8,252 £45,000 -14.29% 6,151
Work from Home +10 3,161 £52,500 -12.50% 9,744
North of England 0 3,152 £41,075 -17.85% 1,312
London +3 2,285 £70,000 -3.45% 1,459
North West +1 1,995 £46,000 -8.00% 673
South East 0 1,788 £47,500 -20.83% 1,801
Midlands 0 1,592 £42,500 -8.79% 1,041
West Midlands +1 1,236 £42,920 -9.64% 551
Yorkshire +1 945 £34,000 -32.00% 533
East of England 0 702 £43,085 -21.66% 899
South West +4 566 £48,500 -11.82% 664
East Midlands -2 367 £40,000 -5.88% 440
Scotland -7 295 £33,500 -33.00% 304
North East +11 212 £33,500 -33.00% 115
Wales 0 132 £48,122 -3.76% 159
Northern Ireland -1 97 £50,000 +38.32% 107
Channel Islands +10 6 - - 2

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
1 187 (1.68%) SharePoint
2 118 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 79 (0.71%) Confluence
4 37 (0.33%) Apache Spark
5 31 (0.28%) CMS
5 31 (0.28%) IIS
6 25 (0.23%) WordPress
7 22 (0.20%) Apache Airflow
8 19 (0.17%) SAS
8 19 (0.17%) WebSphere
9 17 (0.15%) Tomcat
9 17 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
10 10 (0.090%) Apache
10 10 (0.090%) ArcGIS
10 10 (0.090%) SugarCRM
11 8 (0.072%) Ethereum
12 7 (0.063%) nginx
13 5 (0.045%) Headless CMS
14 4 (0.036%) Apache Pulsar
14 4 (0.036%) GeoServer
Applications
1 1,470 (13.24%) Chatbot
2 898 (8.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 828 (7.46%) Microsoft Office
4 156 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 87 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
6 72 (0.65%) AutoCAD
7 67 (0.60%) MS Visio
8 52 (0.47%) Maya
9 44 (0.40%) Photoshop
10 41 (0.37%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 38 (0.34%) Adobe XD
12 33 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
13 28 (0.25%) InDesign
14 24 (0.22%) Simulink
15 23 (0.21%) Adobe Premiere
16 21 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
17 16 (0.14%) Revit
18 10 (0.090%) Spreadsheet
19 9 (0.081%) Sketch
20 8 (0.072%) Trello
Business Applications
1 110 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 90 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
3 33 (0.30%) NetSuite
4 23 (0.21%) SAP CO
4 23 (0.21%) SAP FI
4 23 (0.21%) SAP FI/CO
5 19 (0.17%) SAP IBP
6 13 (0.12%) SAP FSCM
7 12 (0.11%) Dynamics NAV
7 12 (0.11%) Endur
8 11 (0.099%) SAP IS-U
9 10 (0.090%) Sage X3
10 9 (0.081%) SAP FS
10 9 (0.081%) SAP PP
10 9 (0.081%) Unit4 Business World
11 7 (0.063%) SAP WM
12 6 (0.054%) Primavera
13 5 (0.045%) Dynamics AX
13 5 (0.045%) Oracle Payables
13 5 (0.045%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 3,122 (28.12%) Cloud Computing
2 993 (8.94%) Azure
3 675 (6.08%) AWS
4 507 (4.57%) Microsoft 365
5 501 (4.51%) Power Platform
6 271 (2.44%) SaaS
7 188 (1.69%) GCP
8 138 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
9 136 (1.22%) Entra ID
10 117 (1.05%) GitHub
11 113 (1.02%) Dynamics 365
12 81 (0.73%) Serverless
13 72 (0.65%) Figma
14 71 (0.64%) PaaS
15 58 (0.52%) Power Automate
16 51 (0.46%) OneDrive
17 48 (0.43%) PowerApps
18 47 (0.42%) Vertex AI
19 46 (0.41%) GitHub Actions
20 45 (0.41%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 3,062 (27.58%) Internet
2 237 (2.13%) Firewall
3 146 (1.31%) VPN
4 135 (1.22%) LAN
5 126 (1.13%) WAN
6 102 (0.92%) TCP/IP
7 101 (0.91%) DNS
8 97 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
9 75 (0.68%) DHCP
10 74 (0.67%) VoIP
11 65 (0.59%) Network Security
12 55 (0.50%) Wireless
13 53 (0.48%) VLAN
14 42 (0.38%) SSL
15 33 (0.30%) Modbus
16 32 (0.29%) SD-WAN
17 30 (0.27%) BGP
17 30 (0.27%) OSPF
18 29 (0.26%) Unified Communications
19 27 (0.24%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 442 (3.98%) Power BI
2 299 (2.69%) SQL Server
3 169 (1.52%) Tableau
4 133 (1.20%) Data Lake
5 88 (0.79%) Relational Database
6 80 (0.72%) SAP BW
7 75 (0.68%) Metadata
8 74 (0.67%) MySQL
9 71 (0.64%) PostgreSQL
10 61 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
11 59 (0.53%) NoSQL
12 55 (0.50%) GIS
13 49 (0.44%) Big Data
14 46 (0.41%) Looker
15 34 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
16 29 (0.26%) MongoDB
17 27 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
17 27 (0.24%) Oracle Database
18 25 (0.23%) BigQuery
19 24 (0.22%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 383 (3.45%) JIRA
2 178 (1.60%) Git
3 76 (0.68%) Jenkins
4 47 (0.42%) Selenium
5 45 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
6 31 (0.28%) WebDriver
7 28 (0.25%) Balsamiq
7 28 (0.25%) Postman
8 25 (0.23%) Axure RP
9 22 (0.20%) Cypress.io
9 22 (0.20%) GitLab
9 22 (0.20%) SoapUI
10 21 (0.19%) Team Foundation Server
11 17 (0.15%) Bitbucket
11 17 (0.15%) MLflow
12 14 (0.13%) Maven
13 11 (0.099%) Visual Studio
14 10 (0.090%) LabVIEW
15 9 (0.081%) Babel
15 9 (0.081%) Vagrant
General
1 6,184 (55.69%) Social Skills
2 3,687 (33.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 3,306 (29.77%) Banking
4 1,833 (16.51%) Analytical Skills
5 1,779 (16.02%) Finance
6 986 (8.88%) Marketing
7 689 (6.20%) Manufacturing
8 547 (4.93%) Electronics
9 520 (4.68%) Law
10 347 (3.13%) Retail
11 306 (2.76%) Legal
12 292 (2.63%) Public Sector
13 287 (2.58%) Presentation Skills
14 253 (2.28%) Organisational Skills
15 213 (1.92%) French Language
16 187 (1.68%) Telecoms
17 160 (1.44%) Games
18 143 (1.29%) Aerospace
19 128 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
20 121 (1.09%) Swedish Language
Job Titles
1 2,356 (21.22%) Lecturer
2 1,468 (13.22%) Trainer
3 909 (8.19%) Senior
4 875 (7.88%) Analyst
5 644 (5.80%) Lead
6 367 (3.31%) Developer
7 306 (2.76%) Architect
8 299 (2.69%) Support Engineer
9 234 (2.11%) Consultant
10 217 (1.95%) Technical Support
11 215 (1.94%) Systems Engineer
12 207 (1.86%) Business Analyst
13 199 (1.79%) IT Support
14 198 (1.78%) Software Engineer
15 182 (1.64%) Graduate
15 182 (1.64%) Technical Engineer
16 167 (1.50%) Content Editor
16 167 (1.50%) Support Analyst
16 167 (1.50%) Support Specialist
17 164 (1.48%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 246 (2.22%) .NET
2 188 (1.69%) HTML
3 177 (1.59%) CSS
4 155 (1.40%) React
5 83 (0.75%) REST
6 76 (0.68%) XML
7 71 (0.64%) ASP.NET
8 67 (0.60%) Middleware
9 64 (0.58%) Node.js
10 63 (0.57%) .NET Framework
11 55 (0.50%) AngularJS
12 54 (0.49%) RESTful
13 49 (0.44%) PyTorch
14 47 (0.42%) Kafka
15 44 (0.40%) SOAP
16 43 (0.39%) JSON
16 43 (0.39%) TensorFlow
17 40 (0.36%) jQuery
18 38 (0.34%) .NET Core
19 37 (0.33%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 3,097 (27.89%) IoT
2 478 (4.30%) Management Information System
3 357 (3.22%) Onboarding
4 344 (3.10%) Self-Motivation
5 247 (2.22%) Driving Licence
6 172 (1.55%) Algorithms
7 170 (1.53%) Data Centre
8 169 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
9 155 (1.40%) Life Science
10 145 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
11 121 (1.09%) FMCG
11 121 (1.09%) Molecular Biology
12 120 (1.08%) Blog
13 116 (1.04%) Product Ownership
14 112 (1.01%) Cloud Native
15 104 (0.94%) Social Media
16 88 (0.79%) Data Structures
17 75 (0.68%) Operational Technology
17 75 (0.68%) Security Posture
18 74 (0.67%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 523 (4.71%) Windows
2 289 (2.60%) Linux
3 106 (0.95%) Windows Server
4 104 (0.94%) Unix
5 77 (0.69%) Windows 10
6 66 (0.59%) Mac OS
7 64 (0.58%) Android
8 37 (0.33%) Apple iOS
9 33 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 25 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 22 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
12 17 (0.15%) Ubuntu
13 12 (0.11%) VMS
14 9 (0.081%) Amazon Linux
15 5 (0.045%) Embedded Linux
15 5 (0.045%) Kali Linux
15 5 (0.045%) Mac OS X
16 4 (0.036%) Windows Server 2012
17 3 (0.027%) Debian
18 2 (0.018%) Nucleus RTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 5,388 (48.52%) AI
2 3,653 (32.90%) Cybersecurity
3 3,462 (31.18%) Machine Learning
4 3,274 (29.48%) User Experience
5 3,096 (27.88%) Web Development
6 1,836 (16.53%) Problem-Solving
7 1,598 (14.39%) Computer Science
8 1,516 (13.65%) Conversational UI
9 1,103 (9.93%) Agile
10 1,001 (9.01%) Continuous Improvement
11 898 (8.09%) Project Management
12 841 (7.57%) Analytics
13 767 (6.91%) CRM
14 684 (6.16%) Decision-Making
15 665 (5.99%) Customer Service
16 632 (5.69%) Mathematics
17 608 (5.48%) Mentoring
18 595 (5.36%) Chemistry
19 588 (5.30%) Business Intelligence
20 521 (4.69%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 819 (7.38%) Python
2 720 (6.48%) SQL
3 313 (2.82%) Java
4 308 (2.77%) C#
5 282 (2.54%) JavaScript
6 174 (1.57%) C++
7 170 (1.53%) PowerShell
8 125 (1.13%) TypeScript
9 108 (0.97%) C
10 106 (0.95%) Bash
11 68 (0.61%) MATLAB
12 58 (0.52%) PHP
12 58 (0.52%) R
13 56 (0.50%) Go
14 42 (0.38%) VBA
15 36 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 34 (0.31%) T-SQL
17 31 (0.28%) PL/SQL
18 23 (0.21%) Ada
19 20 (0.18%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 4,677 (42.12%) Master's Degree
2 4,088 (36.82%) PhD
3 3,068 (27.63%) Postgraduate
4 906 (8.16%) Computer Science Degree
5 524 (4.72%) Security Cleared
6 377 (3.40%) BPSS Clearance
7 373 (3.36%) SC Cleared
8 287 (2.58%) Microsoft Certification
9 208 (1.87%) AWS Certification
10 187 (1.68%) HND
11 174 (1.57%) PMP
12 163 (1.47%) MCSE
13 161 (1.45%) PMI Certification
14 146 (1.31%) HNC
15 143 (1.29%) CISSP
16 134 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
17 122 (1.10%) DBS Check
18 116 (1.04%) Azure Certification
19 106 (0.95%) MBA
20 104 (0.94%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 346 (3.12%) QA
2 241 (2.17%) Data Quality
3 219 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 209 (1.88%) GDPR
5 161 (1.45%) Accessibility
6 142 (1.28%) NIST
7 108 (0.97%) SLA
8 71 (0.64%) PMO
9 66 (0.59%) ISO 9001
10 58 (0.52%) GxP
11 54 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 12207
12 43 (0.39%) Def Stans
13 41 (0.37%) GRC
14 37 (0.33%) WCAG
15 35 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 15288
16 32 (0.29%) EU AI Act
16 32 (0.29%) HIPAA
17 30 (0.27%) Solvency II
18 29 (0.26%) SOC 2
19 26 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 316 (2.85%) Active Directory
2 142 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 126 (1.13%) Docker
4 64 (0.58%) Hyper-V
5 54 (0.49%) Firmware
6 45 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 24 (0.22%) vSphere
8 16 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.081%) DFS Replication
10 8 (0.072%) Oracle RAC
11 7 (0.063%) BitLocker
12 6 (0.054%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 6 (0.054%) Dovecot
12 6 (0.054%) Postfix
13 5 (0.045%) ProxySG
13 5 (0.045%) Squid
14 4 (0.036%) Embedded Firmware
15 2 (0.018%) Virtual Desktop
15 2 (0.018%) VMware NSX
16 1 (0.009%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 133 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
2 131 (1.18%) Kubernetes
3 87 (0.78%) Terraform
4 58 (0.52%) Ansible
5 57 (0.51%) Grafana
6 44 (0.40%) Prometheus
7 26 (0.23%) SCCM
8 25 (0.23%) Functional Safety
9 16 (0.14%) RSA Archer
10 14 (0.13%) FortiGate
10 14 (0.13%) Jamf Pro
11 13 (0.12%) Nagios
12 12 (0.11%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.099%) Control-M
14 10 (0.090%) Autotask
14 10 (0.090%) Nessus
14 10 (0.090%) vCenter Server
15 8 (0.072%) Data Guard
15 8 (0.072%) FTK
15 8 (0.072%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 1,464 (13.18%) PayPal
2 1,393 (12.55%) Microsoft
3 674 (6.07%) SAP
4 215 (1.94%) Cisco
5 196 (1.77%) ServiceNow
6 174 (1.57%) Google
7 170 (1.53%) Adobe
8 168 (1.51%) Oracle
9 165 (1.49%) VMware
10 158 (1.42%) Salesforce
11 139 (1.25%) Dell
12 62 (0.56%) Palo Alto
13 59 (0.53%) IBM
14 55 (0.50%) Apple
14 55 (0.50%) Databricks
14 55 (0.50%) Siemens
15 53 (0.48%) NEC
16 52 (0.47%) Sage
17 47 (0.42%) Fortinet
18 46 (0.41%) Red Hat