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 8 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 12 8
Rank change year-on-year -2 -4 +7
Contract jobs citing Degree 74 54 64
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 10.93% 11.87% 12.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 30.71% 42.52% 52.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 39 45
10th Percentile £325 £252 £65
25th Percentile £351 £325 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £469 £410
Median % change year-on-year -14.39% +14.39% -7.87%
75th Percentile £491 £578 £615
90th Percentile £620 £608 £689
North West median daily rate £400 £463 £500
% change year-on-year -13.51% -7.50% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 3
10th Percentile - - £16.53
25th Percentile - £31.25 £20.33
Median hourly rate - £32.50 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year - +21.91% -49.46%
75th Percentile - £33.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £57.81 £32.50 £26.39
% change year-on-year +77.86% +23.15% -34.51%

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 241 127 122
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 35.60% 27.91% 24.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 89 83
10th Percentile £330 £230 £158
25th Percentile £359 £325 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £422 £448
Median % change year-on-year +6.64% -5.70% -10.50%
75th Percentile £575 £520 £544
90th Percentile £650 £581 £672
North West median daily rate £475 £499 £513
% change year-on-year -4.71% -2.73% +0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 7 5
10th Percentile £29.99 £28.81 -
25th Percentile £34.49 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £64.00 £32.50 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +96.92% +132.14% -65.00%
75th Percentile £83.75 £85.63 £26.66
90th Percentile £111.15 £86.00 -
North West median hourly rate £52.78 £32.50 £16.06
% change year-on-year +62.38% +102.37% -59.85%

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 8 May 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
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 8 May 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 49 £401 -12.06% 1
Chester -2 14 £650 +100.00% 6
Warrington +1 9 £375 +100.00% 19
Macclesfield +2 1 £600 +3.45% 1
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 18 (24.32%) Confluence
2 12 (16.22%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.35%) Camunda
3 1 (1.35%) JBoss
3 1 (1.35%) Mule
3 1 (1.35%) Mule ESB
3 1 (1.35%) WebLogic
Applications
1 20 (27.03%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (8.11%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (5.41%) MS Visio
4 3 (4.05%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (13.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (5.41%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.35%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.35%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 16 (21.62%) AWS
2 11 (14.86%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (13.51%) Azure
4 7 (9.46%) Apigee
5 6 (8.11%) GCP
6 5 (6.76%) Kong
6 5 (6.76%) Power Platform
7 4 (5.41%) Entra ID
7 4 (5.41%) GitHub
7 4 (5.41%) GitHub Copilot
8 3 (4.05%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (4.05%) OpenShift
8 3 (4.05%) SaaS
9 1 (1.35%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (1.35%) AWS Step Functions
9 1 (1.35%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (1.35%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.35%) LangSmith
9 1 (1.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 12 (16.22%) VPN
2 10 (13.51%) Skype
3 6 (8.11%) Firewall
4 5 (6.76%) Network Security
4 5 (6.76%) Wireless
5 3 (4.05%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (4.05%) DNS
6 2 (2.70%) HTTP
6 2 (2.70%) HTTPS
6 2 (2.70%) Internet
7 1 (1.35%) DHCP
7 1 (1.35%) FTP
7 1 (1.35%) SSL
7 1 (1.35%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (9.46%) Relational Database
2 6 (8.11%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (6.76%) Power BI
4 4 (5.41%) MySQL
5 3 (4.05%) SQL Server
6 2 (2.70%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (2.70%) MongoDB
6 2 (2.70%) NoSQL
6 2 (2.70%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 26 (35.14%) JIRA
2 9 (12.16%) Git
3 6 (8.11%) Postman
4 5 (6.76%) GitLab
5 2 (2.70%) Jenkins
5 2 (2.70%) JUnit
6 1 (1.35%) Cucumber
6 1 (1.35%) Eclipse
6 1 (1.35%) IntelliJ
6 1 (1.35%) MLflow
General
1 46 (62.16%) Finance
2 35 (47.30%) Social Skills
3 29 (39.19%) Banking
4 14 (18.92%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (16.22%) Organisational Skills
6 11 (14.86%) Public Sector
7 7 (9.46%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (6.76%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (5.41%) Retail
10 3 (4.05%) Legal
10 3 (4.05%) Retail Banking
11 1 (1.35%) Financial Institution
11 1 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (1.35%) Investment Banking
11 1 (1.35%) Manufacturing
11 1 (1.35%) Military
11 1 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (1.35%) Publishing
11 1 (1.35%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (25.68%) Analyst
2 18 (24.32%) Business Analyst
3 10 (13.51%) 1st Line Support
4 8 (10.81%) Developer
4 8 (10.81%) Java Developer
5 7 (9.46%) Project Manager
6 5 (6.76%) Architect
6 5 (6.76%) Banking Analyst
6 5 (6.76%) Banking Business Analyst
6 5 (6.76%) Technical Analyst
6 5 (6.76%) Technical Business Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Payments Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Payments Business Analyst
7 4 (5.41%) Security Engineer
7 4 (5.41%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (4.05%) Consultant
9 2 (2.70%) Applications Architect
9 2 (2.70%) Security Consultant
9 2 (2.70%) Service Manager
9 2 (2.70%) Transition Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (17.57%) JSON
2 12 (16.22%) XML
3 10 (13.51%) REST
4 9 (12.16%) SOAP
4 9 (12.16%) Swagger
5 7 (9.46%) JWT
5 7 (9.46%) OAuth
5 7 (9.46%) Spring
5 7 (9.46%) Spring Boot
6 6 (8.11%) Hibernate
6 6 (8.11%) RESTful
7 5 (6.76%) OpenAPI
8 4 (5.41%) Spring MVC
8 4 (5.41%) Spring Security
9 3 (4.05%) Middleware
10 2 (2.70%) .NET
10 2 (2.70%) AngularJS
10 2 (2.70%) JAX-RS
10 2 (2.70%) OAuth2
10 2 (2.70%) React
Miscellaneous
1 9 (12.16%) Management Information System
2 5 (6.76%) Product Ownership
3 4 (5.41%) Cloud Native
3 4 (5.41%) Digital Wallet
3 4 (5.41%) Onboarding
4 3 (4.05%) PKI
4 3 (4.05%) PMI
4 3 (4.05%) Security Posture
5 2 (2.70%) Cloud Security Posture
5 2 (2.70%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (1.35%) AI Agents
6 1 (1.35%) Cyber Threat
6 1 (1.35%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.35%) Distributed Computing
6 1 (1.35%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.35%) Private Cloud
6 1 (1.35%) SCADA
6 1 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.35%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 1 (1.35%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 16 (21.62%) Windows
2 10 (13.51%) Windows 10
3 8 (10.81%) Linux
4 3 (4.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (2.70%) Unix
6 1 (1.35%) AIX
6 1 (1.35%) Solaris
6 1 (1.35%) VMS
6 1 (1.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (58.11%) Agile
2 22 (29.73%) Computer Science
2 22 (29.73%) Stakeholder Management
3 21 (28.38%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (25.68%) CI/CD
5 18 (24.32%) AI
5 18 (24.32%) DevOps
5 18 (24.32%) ITSM
6 16 (21.62%) Microservices
7 14 (18.92%) Change Management
7 14 (18.92%) ITIL
8 12 (16.22%) API Design
8 12 (16.22%) Project Management
9 11 (14.86%) Continuous Improvement
9 11 (14.86%) Generative AI
10 10 (13.51%) Customer Service
10 10 (13.51%) Performance Metrics
10 10 (13.51%) Requirements Gathering
10 10 (13.51%) Validation
10 10 (13.51%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 13 (17.57%) SQL
2 11 (14.86%) Java
3 6 (8.11%) PowerShell
3 6 (8.11%) Python
4 4 (5.41%) Bash
5 2 (2.70%) Shell Script
5 2 (2.70%) TypeScript
6 1 (1.35%) C#
6 1 (1.35%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.35%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.35%) Perl
6 1 (1.35%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 19 (25.68%) Computer Science Degree
2 12 (16.22%) Security Cleared
3 11 (14.86%) Master's Degree
4 9 (12.16%) MBA
5 7 (9.46%) PMI Certification
5 7 (9.46%) PMP
6 6 (8.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (6.76%) CISSP
7 5 (6.76%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (5.41%) Azure Certification
9 3 (4.05%) AWS Certification
9 3 (4.05%) CCNA
9 3 (4.05%) CCNP
9 3 (4.05%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (4.05%) SAFe Agilist
9 3 (4.05%) SC Cleared
10 1 (1.35%) CEH
10 1 (1.35%) CRISC
10 1 (1.35%) GIAC
10 1 (1.35%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (10.81%) NIST
2 6 (8.11%) GDPR
2 6 (8.11%) GRC
2 6 (8.11%) PSD2
3 5 (6.76%) PCI DSS
4 4 (5.41%) QA
4 4 (5.41%) SLA
5 3 (4.05%) Basel III
5 3 (4.05%) ISO 8583
6 2 (2.70%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 2 (2.70%) HIPAA
6 2 (2.70%) ISO 20022
6 2 (2.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (2.70%) P3O
6 2 (2.70%) PMO
7 1 (1.35%) NEBOSH
7 1 (1.35%) SEPA
System Software
1 12 (16.22%) Docker
2 2 (2.70%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.35%) NFS
3 1 (1.35%) Veritas Volume Manager
3 1 (1.35%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (16.22%) Kubernetes
2 6 (8.11%) Ansible
3 3 (4.05%) Cisco Prime
3 3 (4.05%) Terraform
4 2 (2.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (2.70%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.35%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.35%) PowerBroker
5 1 (1.35%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.35%) SCCM
5 1 (1.35%) SCOM
5 1 (1.35%) SCOrch
5 1 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.35%) Tivoli
5 1 (1.35%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 1 (1.35%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 21 (28.38%) Microsoft
2 17 (22.97%) Cisco
3 10 (13.51%) Citrix
3 10 (13.51%) Remedy
4 9 (12.16%) ServiceNow
5 7 (9.46%) Splunk
6 6 (8.11%) ForeScout
6 6 (8.11%) Oracle
7 5 (6.76%) CyberArk
7 5 (6.76%) MuleSoft
8 3 (4.05%) Broadcom
8 3 (4.05%) Red Hat
9 2 (2.70%) Aruba
9 2 (2.70%) Databricks
9 2 (2.70%) Fortinet
9 2 (2.70%) Google
9 2 (2.70%) Zscaler
10 1 (1.35%) EXASOL
10 1 (1.35%) LogRhythm
10 1 (1.35%) Varonis