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 26 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 12 9
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +12
Contract jobs citing Degree 85 49 76
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 12.96% 11.29% 14.93%
As % of the Qualifications category 30.47% 44.55% 60.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 24 56
10th Percentile £313 £165 £65
25th Percentile £350 £356 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £381 £500 £489
Median % change year-on-year -23.75% +2.25% +11.14%
75th Percentile £488 £579 £550
90th Percentile £606 £639 £682
North West median daily rate £400 £475 £453
% change year-on-year -15.79% +4.86% +0.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 5
10th Percentile - £24.02 £19.06
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.05 -
Median hourly rate £16.00 £24.10 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -33.60% -9.62% -59.30%
75th Percentile £16.50 £24.14 £34.08
90th Percentile £54.50 £24.17 £58.63
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.66
% change year-on-year +39.88% +21.91% -3.75%

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 279 110 126
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 42.53% 25.35% 24.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 72 87
10th Percentile £313 £205 £158
25th Percentile £358 £346 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £425 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.12% -10.53% +5.56%
75th Percentile £626 £550 £540
90th Percentile £716 £600 £633
North West median daily rate £475 £475 £525
% change year-on-year - -9.52% +2.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 4 8
10th Percentile - £24.06 -
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.14 £14.00
Median hourly rate £16.00 £55.10 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -70.96% +106.66% -25.94%
75th Percentile £19.00 £86.00 £36.81
90th Percentile £93.45 - £54.00
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.66
% change year-on-year +39.88% +21.91% -25.94%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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 26 February 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 +2 46 £363 -30.86% 9
Chester +4 17 £470 - 7
Warrington +4 15 £381 +129.32% 10
Macclesfield -3 1 £600 +14.29%
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 24 (28.24%) SharePoint
2 22 (25.88%) Confluence
3 5 (5.88%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (4.71%) Exchange Server 2013
4 4 (4.71%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 25 (29.41%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (9.41%) MS Visio
3 7 (8.24%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (7.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (7.06%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (11.76%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (4.71%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.18%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 23 (27.06%) Microsoft 365
2 18 (21.18%) Azure
3 15 (17.65%) AWS
4 12 (14.12%) Power Platform
5 10 (11.76%) Apigee
5 10 (11.76%) SaaS
6 8 (9.41%) GCP
7 6 (7.06%) Entra ID
7 6 (7.06%) Kong
8 5 (5.88%) OneDrive
9 4 (4.71%) GitHub
9 4 (4.71%) GitHub Copilot
10 2 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (2.35%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (2.35%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (2.35%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (1.18%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 1 (1.18%) LangSmith
11 1 (1.18%) Power Automate
11 1 (1.18%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (16.47%) Skype
2 10 (11.76%) VPN
3 8 (9.41%) DNS
4 7 (8.24%) SSH
5 5 (5.88%) Internet
5 5 (5.88%) Unified Communications
5 5 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (4.71%) HTTP
6 4 (4.71%) HTTPS
7 3 (3.53%) Firewall
8 1 (1.18%) DHCP
8 1 (1.18%) SSL
8 1 (1.18%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.88%) PostgreSQL
1 5 (5.88%) Power BI
1 5 (5.88%) Relational Database
2 4 (4.71%) MySQL
3 1 (1.18%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (1.18%) MongoDB
3 1 (1.18%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.18%) RDBMS
3 1 (1.18%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 25 (29.41%) JIRA
2 10 (11.76%) Git
3 8 (9.41%) Postman
4 4 (4.71%) GitLab
4 4 (4.71%) Jenkins
5 1 (1.18%) MLflow
General
1 53 (62.35%) Social Skills
2 46 (54.12%) Finance
3 29 (34.12%) Banking
4 21 (24.71%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (15.29%) Public Sector
6 12 (14.12%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (11.76%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (5.88%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (4.71%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (4.71%) Retail
10 3 (3.53%) Legal
10 3 (3.53%) Retail Banking
11 2 (2.35%) Local Government
11 2 (2.35%) Marketing
11 2 (2.35%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (2.35%) Publishing
12 1 (1.18%) Manufacturing
12 1 (1.18%) Military
12 1 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (1.18%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 28 (32.94%) Analyst
2 16 (18.82%) Business Analyst
3 10 (11.76%) 1st Line Support
4 9 (10.59%) Developer
5 8 (9.41%) Java Developer
6 7 (8.24%) Project Manager
7 6 (7.06%) Technical Analyst
7 6 (7.06%) Technical Business Analyst
8 5 (5.88%) Architect
8 5 (5.88%) Banking Analyst
8 5 (5.88%) Banking Business Analyst
8 5 (5.88%) IT Support
8 5 (5.88%) IT Support Technician
8 5 (5.88%) IT Technician
8 5 (5.88%) Lead
8 5 (5.88%) Service Desk Support
8 5 (5.88%) Service Desk Technician
8 5 (5.88%) Support Analyst
8 5 (5.88%) Support Technician
9 4 (4.71%) Payments Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (18.82%) JSON
2 14 (16.47%) XML
3 10 (11.76%) JWT
3 10 (11.76%) OAuth
3 10 (11.76%) REST
3 10 (11.76%) SOAP
3 10 (11.76%) Swagger
4 8 (9.41%) Hibernate
4 8 (9.41%) RESTful
4 8 (9.41%) Spring
4 8 (9.41%) Spring Boot
5 6 (7.06%) OpenAPI
6 4 (4.71%) JAX-RS
6 4 (4.71%) OAuth2
6 4 (4.71%) Spring MVC
6 4 (4.71%) Spring Security
7 1 (1.18%) .NET
7 1 (1.18%) AngularJS
7 1 (1.18%) Middleware
7 1 (1.18%) React
Miscellaneous
1 13 (15.29%) Management Information System
2 7 (8.24%) Enterprise Software
2 7 (8.24%) Tandem
3 5 (5.88%) Low-Code
3 5 (5.88%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (4.71%) Digital Wallet
4 4 (4.71%) Onboarding
5 3 (3.53%) Cloud Native
5 3 (3.53%) PKI
5 3 (3.53%) PMI
5 3 (3.53%) Product Ownership
6 2 (2.35%) Operational Technology
6 2 (2.35%) SCADA
6 2 (2.35%) Security Posture
6 2 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.18%) AI Agents
7 1 (1.18%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (1.18%) Distributed Computing
7 1 (1.18%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.18%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 29 (34.12%) Windows
2 10 (11.76%) Windows 10
3 8 (9.41%) Unix
4 4 (4.71%) Linux
5 2 (2.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (2.35%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.18%) Solaris
6 1 (1.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (47.06%) Agile
2 33 (38.82%) Computer Science
3 30 (35.29%) Stakeholder Management
4 25 (29.41%) Problem-Solving
5 23 (27.06%) ITIL
6 20 (23.53%) CI/CD
7 19 (22.35%) Project Management
8 17 (20.00%) AI
9 16 (18.82%) Change Management
9 16 (18.82%) DevOps
9 16 (18.82%) Microservices
9 16 (18.82%) Validation
10 15 (17.65%) Customer Service
10 15 (17.65%) ITSM
11 14 (16.47%) API Design
12 13 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
12 13 (15.29%) Problem Management
13 11 (12.94%) Requirements Gathering
13 11 (12.94%) Workshop Facilitation
14 10 (11.76%) API Testing
Programming Languages
1 13 (15.29%) SQL
2 10 (11.76%) Java
2 10 (11.76%) Python
3 7 (8.24%) PowerShell
4 3 (3.53%) Bash
5 2 (2.35%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.18%) C#
6 1 (1.18%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.18%) Perl
6 1 (1.18%) Shell Script
6 1 (1.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 31 (36.47%) Computer Science Degree
2 19 (22.35%) Security Cleared
3 11 (12.94%) Master's Degree
4 9 (10.59%) MBA
5 8 (9.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 6 (7.06%) Azure Certification
6 6 (7.06%) ITIL Certification
6 6 (7.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 6 (7.06%) PMI Certification
6 6 (7.06%) PMP
7 4 (4.71%) AWS Certification
7 4 (4.71%) CISSP
8 3 (3.53%) SAFe Agilist
8 3 (3.53%) SC Cleared
9 2 (2.35%) CISM
9 2 (2.35%) TOGAF Certification
10 1 (1.18%) A+ Certification
10 1 (1.18%) IBM Certification
10 1 (1.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.88%) GDPR
1 5 (5.88%) PSD2
2 4 (4.71%) GRC
2 4 (4.71%) PCI DSS
3 3 (3.53%) Basel III
3 3 (3.53%) ISO 8583
3 3 (3.53%) NIST
3 3 (3.53%) QA
4 2 (2.35%) P3O
4 2 (2.35%) PMO
5 1 (1.18%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (1.18%) HIPAA
5 1 (1.18%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (1.18%) NCSC
5 1 (1.18%) NEBOSH
5 1 (1.18%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (16.47%) Active Directory
2 12 (14.12%) Docker
3 1 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (15.29%) Kubernetes
2 11 (12.94%) SCCM
3 9 (10.59%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (4.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (3.53%) Ansible
5 3 (3.53%) Terraform
6 2 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.18%) CA Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.18%) Progress Chef
7 1 (1.18%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (1.18%) SCOM
7 1 (1.18%) SCOrch
7 1 (1.18%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 38 (44.71%) Microsoft
2 12 (14.12%) Citrix
3 10 (11.76%) Cisco
3 10 (11.76%) Remedy
3 10 (11.76%) ServiceNow
4 8 (9.41%) IBM
5 6 (7.06%) Gemalto
5 6 (7.06%) MuleSoft
5 6 (7.06%) Thales
6 4 (4.71%) Splunk
7 3 (3.53%) Oracle
8 2 (2.35%) Google
8 2 (2.35%) LogRhythm
8 2 (2.35%) Red Hat
9 1 (1.18%) CyberArk
9 1 (1.18%) Proofpoint
9 1 (1.18%) Salesforce
9 1 (1.18%) SAP
9 1 (1.18%) Veeam
9 1 (1.18%) VMware