Degree Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Academic Degree
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Cheshire with a requirement for Degree qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 29 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 17 10
Rank change year-on-year +3 -7 +17
Contract jobs citing Degree 86 44 72
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.07% 9.76% 14.81%
As % of the Qualifications category 31.39% 39.64% 61.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 20 48
10th Percentile £313 £187 £65
25th Percentile £350 £356 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% - +12.36%
75th Percentile £488 £551 £585
90th Percentile £600 £645 £689
North West median daily rate £397 £475 £457
% change year-on-year -16.45% +4.05% +1.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 7
10th Percentile £14.30 £24.02 £15.95
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.05 £21.38
Median hourly rate £16.00 £24.10 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -33.60% -9.62% -
75th Percentile £16.50 £24.14 £30.37
90th Percentile £46.90 £24.17 £50.45
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £28.33
% change year-on-year +39.88% +14.72% +18.04%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Cheshire

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

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 274 111 118
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 41.64% 24.61% 24.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 67 79
10th Percentile £305 £219 £202
25th Percentile £353 £350 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £425 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.18% -15.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £627 £550 £571
90th Percentile £716 £600 £689
North West median daily rate £475 £475 £535
% change year-on-year - -11.21% +7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 8
10th Percentile - £24.06 £16.28
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.14 £23.44
Median hourly rate £18.87 £55.10 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -65.75% +106.66% -25.94%
75th Percentile £67.25 £86.00 £36.81
90th Percentile £87.45 - £54.00
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £34.75 £40.25
% change year-on-year +30.82% -13.66% +38.79%

Degree
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Degree job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Degree
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Degree.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Degree

Degree
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Degree in Cheshire over the 6 months to 29 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Degree in Cheshire

Degree
Hourly Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Degree.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Degree

Degree
Hourly Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Degree in Cheshire over the 6 months to 29 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Degree in Cheshire

Degree
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Degree within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 29 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Knutsford +3 40 £358 -31.81% 1
Chester +6 21 £625 - 27
Warrington +10 15 £381 +100.66% 22
Macclesfield -2 2 £488 -11.36% 1
Crewe -4 1 - - 2
Degree
North West

Degree
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 25 (29.07%) SharePoint
2 20 (23.26%) Confluence
3 8 (9.30%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (8.14%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (8.14%) Skype for Business
5 1 (1.16%) JBoss
5 1 (1.16%) Mule
5 1 (1.16%) Mule ESB
5 1 (1.16%) Tomcat
5 1 (1.16%) WebLogic
Applications
1 25 (29.07%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (12.79%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (12.79%) MS Visio
3 9 (10.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (6.98%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (8.14%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (3.49%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.16%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.16%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 24 (27.91%) Microsoft 365
2 19 (22.09%) Azure
3 13 (15.12%) AWS
4 11 (12.79%) Power Platform
5 10 (11.63%) Apigee
6 8 (9.30%) OneDrive
6 8 (9.30%) SaaS
7 7 (8.14%) GCP
8 6 (6.98%) Kong
9 4 (4.65%) Entra ID
9 4 (4.65%) GitHub
9 4 (4.65%) GitHub Copilot
10 2 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (2.33%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (2.33%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (2.33%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (1.16%) Power Automate
11 1 (1.16%) PowerApps
11 1 (1.16%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 14 (16.28%) Skype
2 8 (9.30%) DNS
2 8 (9.30%) SSH
3 7 (8.14%) VPN
4 6 (6.98%) Internet
5 5 (5.81%) Unified Communications
5 5 (5.81%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (4.65%) HTTP
6 4 (4.65%) HTTPS
7 3 (3.49%) Firewall
8 2 (2.33%) Network Security
9 1 (1.16%) DHCP
9 1 (1.16%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (1.16%) SSL
9 1 (1.16%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.65%) MySQL
1 4 (4.65%) PostgreSQL
1 4 (4.65%) Power BI
1 4 (4.65%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 24 (27.91%) JIRA
2 10 (11.63%) Git
3 7 (8.14%) Postman
4 4 (4.65%) GitLab
4 4 (4.65%) Jenkins
5 1 (1.16%) Cucumber
5 1 (1.16%) JUnit
5 1 (1.16%) MLflow
General
1 57 (66.28%) Social Skills
2 40 (46.51%) Finance
3 26 (30.23%) Banking
4 24 (27.91%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (13.95%) Public Sector
6 9 (10.47%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (10.47%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (5.81%) Legal
8 4 (4.65%) Corporate Banking
8 4 (4.65%) Retail
9 3 (3.49%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (2.33%) Local Government
10 2 (2.33%) Marketing
10 2 (2.33%) Retail Banking
11 1 (1.16%) Automotive
11 1 (1.16%) Investment Banking
11 1 (1.16%) Manufacturing
11 1 (1.16%) Military
11 1 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (1.16%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 32 (37.21%) Analyst
2 15 (17.44%) Business Analyst
3 9 (10.47%) Developer
4 8 (9.30%) Java Developer
4 8 (9.30%) Support Analyst
5 7 (8.14%) 1st Line Support
5 7 (8.14%) Operational Support Analyst
5 7 (8.14%) Operations Analyst
5 7 (8.14%) Operations Support Analyst
6 6 (6.98%) Technical Analyst
6 6 (6.98%) Technical Business Analyst
7 5 (5.81%) Banking Analyst
7 5 (5.81%) Banking Business Analyst
7 5 (5.81%) IT Support
7 5 (5.81%) IT Support Technician
7 5 (5.81%) IT Technician
7 5 (5.81%) Lead
7 5 (5.81%) Service Desk Support
7 5 (5.81%) Service Desk Technician
7 5 (5.81%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (18.60%) JSON
2 14 (16.28%) XML
3 10 (11.63%) JWT
3 10 (11.63%) OAuth
4 9 (10.47%) REST
4 9 (10.47%) SOAP
4 9 (10.47%) Spring
4 9 (10.47%) Spring Boot
4 9 (10.47%) Swagger
5 8 (9.30%) Hibernate
5 8 (9.30%) RESTful
6 6 (6.98%) OpenAPI
7 4 (4.65%) JAX-RS
7 4 (4.65%) OAuth2
7 4 (4.65%) Spring MVC
7 4 (4.65%) Spring Security
8 2 (2.33%) Middleware
9 1 (1.16%) .NET
9 1 (1.16%) J2EE
9 1 (1.16%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 10 (11.63%) Management Information System
2 8 (9.30%) Enterprise Software
2 8 (9.30%) Tandem
3 5 (5.81%) Low-Code
3 5 (5.81%) Onboarding
3 5 (5.81%) Video Conferencing
4 3 (3.49%) Digital Wallet
4 3 (3.49%) PKI
4 3 (3.49%) PMI
5 2 (2.33%) Operational Technology
5 2 (2.33%) Product Ownership
5 2 (2.33%) SCADA
5 2 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.16%) AI Agents
6 1 (1.16%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.16%) Distributed Computing
6 1 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (1.16%) Private Cloud
6 1 (1.16%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.16%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 27 (31.40%) Windows
2 9 (10.47%) Unix
3 7 (8.14%) Windows 10
4 2 (2.33%) Linux
4 2 (2.33%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.16%) Solaris
5 1 (1.16%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (39.53%) Agile
1 34 (39.53%) Computer Science
2 31 (36.05%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (33.72%) Stakeholder Management
4 26 (30.23%) ITIL
5 24 (27.91%) Project Management
6 20 (23.26%) CI/CD
7 18 (20.93%) Validation
8 17 (19.77%) Microservices
9 16 (18.60%) Problem Management
10 14 (16.28%) AI
10 14 (16.28%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (15.12%) API Design
11 13 (15.12%) Change Management
11 13 (15.12%) Incident Response
12 12 (13.95%) Customer Service
12 12 (13.95%) DevOps
12 12 (13.95%) ITSM
13 11 (12.79%) Cybersecurity
14 10 (11.63%) API Testing
Programming Languages
1 13 (15.12%) SQL
2 10 (11.63%) Java
3 9 (10.47%) Python
4 6 (6.98%) PowerShell
5 2 (2.33%) Bash
5 2 (2.33%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.16%) C#
6 1 (1.16%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.16%) Perl
6 1 (1.16%) PL/SQL
6 1 (1.16%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 32 (37.21%) Computer Science Degree
2 18 (20.93%) Security Cleared
3 10 (11.63%) Master's Degree
4 8 (9.30%) BPSS Clearance
4 8 (9.30%) MBA
5 6 (6.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 6 (6.98%) PMI Certification
5 6 (6.98%) PMP
6 5 (5.81%) Azure Certification
7 4 (4.65%) CISSP
7 4 (4.65%) ITIL Certification
8 3 (3.49%) AWS Certification
8 3 (3.49%) CISM
8 3 (3.49%) SC Cleared
9 2 (2.33%) A+ Certification
9 2 (2.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (2.33%) SAFe Agilist
9 2 (2.33%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (1.16%) Check Point Certification
10 1 (1.16%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.81%) GDPR
2 4 (4.65%) GRC
2 4 (4.65%) PCI DSS
2 4 (4.65%) PSD2
3 3 (3.49%) ISO 8583
3 3 (3.49%) NIST
3 3 (3.49%) P3O
3 3 (3.49%) PMO
4 2 (2.33%) Basel III
4 2 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (2.33%) QA
5 1 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (1.16%) HIPAA
5 1 (1.16%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.16%) NCSC
5 1 (1.16%) NEBOSH
5 1 (1.16%) PMBOK
5 1 (1.16%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (20.93%) Active Directory
2 11 (12.79%) Docker
3 1 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 15 (17.44%) SCCM
2 12 (13.95%) Kubernetes
2 12 (13.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (4.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 3 (3.49%) Ansible
5 2 (2.33%) QRadar
5 2 (2.33%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.33%) Terraform
6 1 (1.16%) CA Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.16%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (1.16%) SCOM
6 1 (1.16%) SCOrch
6 1 (1.16%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 38 (44.19%) Microsoft
2 9 (10.47%) Citrix
2 9 (10.47%) IBM
3 8 (9.30%) Cisco
3 8 (9.30%) ServiceNow
4 7 (8.14%) MuleSoft
4 7 (8.14%) Remedy
4 7 (8.14%) Splunk
5 6 (6.98%) Gemalto
5 6 (6.98%) Thales
6 4 (4.65%) Oracle
7 2 (2.33%) ArcSight
7 2 (2.33%) LogRhythm
8 1 (1.16%) AppDynamics
8 1 (1.16%) Databricks
8 1 (1.16%) Dynatrace
8 1 (1.16%) Palo Alto
8 1 (1.16%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.16%) SAP
8 1 (1.16%) Zscaler