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 30 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 14 9
Rank change year-on-year 0 -5 +16
Contract jobs citing Degree 86 45 75
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 13.01% 9.96% 14.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 31.27% 40.18% 61.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 21 50
10th Percentile £313 £190 £65
25th Percentile £350 £356 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £373 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -25.50% - +12.36%
75th Percentile £464 £550 £573
90th Percentile £600 £640 £689
North West median daily rate £393 £475 £457
% change year-on-year -17.18% +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 £26.66
% change year-on-year +39.88% +21.91% +11.08%

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 275 112 122
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 41.60% 24.78% 24.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 68 82
10th Percentile £305 £222 £230
25th Percentile £353 £350 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £445 £446 £495
Median % change year-on-year -0.22% -9.76% +9.89%
75th Percentile £627 £550 £563
90th Percentile £716 £600 £688
North West median daily rate £475 £475 £530
% change year-on-year - -10.38% +6.00%
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 30 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 30 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 30 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 0 41 £358 -31.81% 1
Chester +6 21 £625 - 23
Warrington +8 15 £381 +100.66% 16
Macclesfield -3 2 £488 -7.14% 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 24 (27.91%) 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 24 (27.91%) 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 4 (4.65%) 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%) LangSmith
11 1 (1.16%) PowerApps
11 1 (1.16%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 14 (16.28%) Skype
2 8 (9.30%) DNS
3 7 (8.14%) 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 8 (9.30%) 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 41 (47.67%) Finance
3 27 (31.40%) Banking
4 25 (29.07%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (13.95%) Public Sector
6 10 (11.63%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (10.47%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (5.81%) Legal
9 4 (4.65%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (4.65%) Retail
10 3 (3.49%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (2.33%) Local Government
11 2 (2.33%) Marketing
11 2 (2.33%) Retail Banking
12 1 (1.16%) Automotive
12 1 (1.16%) Investment Banking
12 1 (1.16%) Manufacturing
12 1 (1.16%) Military
12 1 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (1.16%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 32 (37.21%) Analyst
2 16 (18.60%) 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 17 (19.77%) JSON
2 15 (17.44%) XML
3 10 (11.63%) JWT
3 10 (11.63%) OAuth
3 10 (11.63%) REST
3 10 (11.63%) SOAP
3 10 (11.63%) Swagger
4 9 (10.47%) Spring
4 9 (10.47%) Spring Boot
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 11 (12.79%) Management Information System
2 8 (9.30%) Enterprise Software
3 7 (8.14%) Tandem
4 5 (5.81%) Low-Code
4 5 (5.81%) Onboarding
4 5 (5.81%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (4.65%) Digital Wallet
6 3 (3.49%) PKI
6 3 (3.49%) PMI
7 2 (2.33%) Operational Technology
7 2 (2.33%) Product Ownership
7 2 (2.33%) SCADA
7 2 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (1.16%) AI Agents
8 1 (1.16%) Cloud Native
8 1 (1.16%) Distributed Computing
8 1 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (1.16%) Private Cloud
8 1 (1.16%) Security Posture
8 1 (1.16%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (30.23%) Windows
2 8 (9.30%) 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 35 (40.70%) Agile
2 34 (39.53%) Computer Science
3 32 (37.21%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (33.72%) Stakeholder Management
5 25 (29.07%) ITIL
6 23 (26.74%) Project Management
7 20 (23.26%) CI/CD
8 19 (22.09%) Validation
9 17 (19.77%) Microservices
10 16 (18.60%) Problem Management
11 14 (16.28%) AI
11 14 (16.28%) API Design
11 14 (16.28%) Continuous Improvement
12 12 (13.95%) Change Management
12 12 (13.95%) Customer Service
12 12 (13.95%) DevOps
12 12 (13.95%) Incident Response
12 12 (13.95%) ITSM
13 11 (12.79%) Requirements Gathering
13 11 (12.79%) Workshop Facilitation
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%) CCNA CyberOps
10 1 (1.16%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (5.81%) GDPR
1 5 (5.81%) PCI DSS
1 5 (5.81%) PSD2
2 4 (4.65%) GRC
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
3 8 (9.30%) Cisco
3 8 (9.30%) IBM
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