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 1 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 12 12
Rank change year-on-year -2 0 0
Contract jobs citing Degree 79 58 58
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 11.21% 11.84% 10.84%
As % of the Qualifications category 31.60% 42.03% 48.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 45 42
10th Percentile £329 £286 £158
25th Percentile £362 £325 £259
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £443 £469 £519
Median % change year-on-year -5.49% -9.59% +15.28%
75th Percentile £511 £550 £619
90th Percentile £620 £596 £689
North West median daily rate £416 £466 £510
% change year-on-year -10.68% -8.68% +4.94%
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 £28.75 £26.52
% change year-on-year +101.06% +8.41% -34.66%

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 250 138 120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 35.46% 28.16% 22.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 101 81
10th Percentile £331 £230 £158
25th Percentile £392 £325 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £422 £451
Median % change year-on-year +7.70% -6.33% -15.20%
75th Percentile £588 £520 £575
90th Percentile £650 £580 £680
North West median daily rate £481 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -1.94% -2.00% -0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 6 5
10th Percentile £29.99 £28.20 -
25th Percentile £35.59 £31.25 -
Median hourly rate £82.50 £32.50 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +153.85% +132.14% -65.00%
75th Percentile £83.75 £72.38 £26.66
90th Percentile £111.15 £85.63 -
North West median hourly rate £44.90 £29.27 £16.06
% change year-on-year +53.40% +82.25% -60.43%

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 1 June 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 1 June 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 +7 52 £430 -5.70% 2
Chester -4 15 £613 +88.46% 4
Warrington +2 8 £325 +73.33% 14
Macclesfield +2 1 £600 +3.45% 3
Northwich - 1 - - 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 24 (30.38%) Confluence
2 14 (17.72%) SharePoint
3 2 (2.53%) Camunda
4 1 (1.27%) JBoss
4 1 (1.27%) Mule
4 1 (1.27%) Mule ESB
4 1 (1.27%) WebLogic
Applications
1 27 (34.18%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (6.33%) MS Visio
3 4 (5.06%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (3.80%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (11.39%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (5.06%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.27%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 18 (22.78%) AWS
2 14 (17.72%) Azure
3 12 (15.19%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (10.13%) GCP
5 5 (6.33%) Entra ID
5 5 (6.33%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 5 (6.33%) Power Platform
5 5 (6.33%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 3 (3.80%) Apigee
6 3 (3.80%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (3.80%) Kong
6 3 (3.80%) OpenShift
6 3 (3.80%) SaaS
7 1 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (1.27%) AWS Step Functions
7 1 (1.27%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (1.27%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.27%) IaaS
7 1 (1.27%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (16.46%) VPN
2 11 (13.92%) Firewall
3 9 (11.39%) Skype
4 7 (8.86%) Wireless
5 6 (7.59%) DNS
5 6 (7.59%) Network Security
6 3 (3.80%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (3.80%) FTP
6 3 (3.80%) Internet
6 3 (3.80%) SSH
7 1 (1.27%) DHCP
7 1 (1.27%) DMZ
7 1 (1.27%) DWDM
7 1 (1.27%) IPsec
7 1 (1.27%) MPLS
7 1 (1.27%) Multicast
7 1 (1.27%) OSPF
7 1 (1.27%) SSL
7 1 (1.27%) WAN
7 1 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (6.33%) Power BI
2 3 (3.80%) Relational Database
2 3 (3.80%) SQL Server
3 2 (2.53%) Apache Cassandra
3 2 (2.53%) MongoDB
3 2 (2.53%) NoSQL
3 2 (2.53%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (2.53%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 32 (40.51%) JIRA
2 5 (6.33%) Postman
3 3 (3.80%) Git
4 2 (2.53%) Cucumber
4 2 (2.53%) GitLab
4 2 (2.53%) JUnit
5 1 (1.27%) Bitbucket
5 1 (1.27%) Eclipse
5 1 (1.27%) IntelliJ
5 1 (1.27%) MLflow
5 1 (1.27%) Selenium
5 1 (1.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 48 (60.76%) Finance
2 39 (49.37%) Social Skills
3 29 (36.71%) Banking
4 14 (17.72%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (11.39%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (8.86%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (8.86%) Public Sector
7 4 (5.06%) Corporate Banking
7 4 (5.06%) Retail
8 2 (2.53%) Retail Banking
9 1 (1.27%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (1.27%) Investment Banking
9 1 (1.27%) Legal
9 1 (1.27%) Manufacturing
9 1 (1.27%) Military
9 1 (1.27%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (1.27%) Publishing
9 1 (1.27%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (24.05%) Analyst
2 16 (20.25%) Business Analyst
3 9 (11.39%) 1st Line Support
4 8 (10.13%) Security Engineer
5 6 (7.59%) Consultant
6 5 (6.33%) Architect
6 5 (6.33%) Banking Analyst
6 5 (6.33%) Banking Business Analyst
6 5 (6.33%) Project Manager
6 5 (6.33%) Security Consultant
7 4 (5.06%) Cloud Engineer
7 4 (5.06%) Payments Analyst
7 4 (5.06%) Payments Business Analyst
7 4 (5.06%) Solutions Architect
8 3 (3.80%) Incident Analyst
8 3 (3.80%) Incident and Problem Analyst
8 3 (3.80%) Linux Engineer
8 3 (3.80%) Problem Analyst
8 3 (3.80%) Problem Management Analyst
8 3 (3.80%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (11.39%) JSON
2 8 (10.13%) REST
2 8 (10.13%) XML
3 7 (8.86%) SOAP
3 7 (8.86%) Swagger
4 3 (3.80%) 802.1X
4 3 (3.80%) JWT
4 3 (3.80%) Middleware
4 3 (3.80%) OAuth
4 3 (3.80%) OpenAPI
5 2 (2.53%) .NET
5 2 (2.53%) AngularJS
5 2 (2.53%) React
6 1 (1.27%) ARM Templates
6 1 (1.27%) Jest
6 1 (1.27%) LangChain
6 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (1.27%) Playwright
6 1 (1.27%) PyTorch
6 1 (1.27%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 16 (20.25%) Management Information System
2 8 (10.13%) Cloud Native
3 7 (8.86%) Security Posture
4 5 (6.33%) PKI
5 4 (5.06%) Digital Wallet
5 4 (5.06%) Onboarding
5 4 (5.06%) Product Ownership
6 3 (3.80%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (3.80%) Legacy Systems
6 3 (3.80%) Tandem
7 2 (2.53%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (2.53%) Data Structures
7 2 (2.53%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (2.53%) PMI
8 1 (1.27%) Cyber Threat
8 1 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (1.27%) Operational Technology
8 1 (1.27%) Private Cloud
8 1 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (1.27%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 25 (31.65%) Windows
2 16 (20.25%) Linux
3 9 (11.39%) Windows 10
4 8 (10.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (8.86%) Unix
6 3 (3.80%) AIX
7 1 (1.27%) Android
7 1 (1.27%) Apple iOS
7 1 (1.27%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (51.90%) Agile
2 22 (27.85%) Change Management
2 22 (27.85%) DevOps
2 22 (27.85%) Stakeholder Management
3 19 (24.05%) Computer Science
3 19 (24.05%) ITIL
4 18 (22.78%) ITSM
4 18 (22.78%) Problem-Solving
5 15 (18.99%) AI
5 15 (18.99%) CI/CD
6 14 (17.72%) Project Management
7 13 (16.46%) Roadmaps
8 12 (15.19%) Generative AI
8 12 (15.19%) Scrum
9 11 (13.92%) SIEM
10 10 (12.66%) Customer Service
11 9 (11.39%) Continuous Improvement
11 9 (11.39%) Cryptography
11 9 (11.39%) Performance Metrics
11 9 (11.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 15 (18.99%) Python
2 12 (15.19%) PowerShell
2 12 (15.19%) SQL
3 10 (12.66%) Java
4 8 (10.13%) Bash
5 2 (2.53%) JavaScript
5 2 (2.53%) Shell Script
5 2 (2.53%) TypeScript
6 1 (1.27%) C#
6 1 (1.27%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.27%) Perl
6 1 (1.27%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (20.25%) Computer Science Degree
2 12 (15.19%) CISSP
3 10 (12.66%) Master's Degree
4 9 (11.39%) Security Cleared
5 8 (10.13%) Azure Certification
5 8 (10.13%) MBA
6 7 (8.86%) AWS Certification
7 6 (7.59%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (7.59%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (7.59%) PMI Certification
7 6 (7.59%) PMP
8 4 (5.06%) CCNP
8 4 (5.06%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (5.06%) SC Cleared
9 3 (3.80%) CCNA
9 3 (3.80%) CEH
9 3 (3.80%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (2.53%) CISM
10 2 (2.53%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 2 (2.53%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (11.39%) NIST
2 6 (7.59%) GRC
2 6 (7.59%) PCI DSS
2 6 (7.59%) PSD2
3 5 (6.33%) GDPR
3 5 (6.33%) SLA
4 3 (3.80%) ISO 8583
4 3 (3.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (3.80%) QA
5 2 (2.53%) Basel III
5 2 (2.53%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 2 (2.53%) HIPAA
5 2 (2.53%) ISO 20022
5 2 (2.53%) P3O
5 2 (2.53%) PMO
6 1 (1.27%) NEBOSH
6 1 (1.27%) SEPA
System Software
1 10 (12.66%) Docker
2 3 (3.80%) NFS
2 3 (3.80%) Veritas Volume Manager
3 2 (2.53%) Active Directory
3 2 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 10 (12.66%) Kubernetes
2 8 (10.13%) Progress Chef
3 7 (8.86%) Terraform
4 6 (7.59%) Ansible
5 3 (3.80%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (3.80%) PowerBroker
5 3 (3.80%) Tivoli
5 3 (3.80%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (2.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (1.27%) CA Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (1.27%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (25.32%) Microsoft
2 18 (22.78%) Cisco
3 11 (13.92%) ServiceNow
4 10 (12.66%) Remedy
5 9 (11.39%) Citrix
6 8 (10.13%) Red Hat
7 7 (8.86%) Splunk
8 6 (7.59%) ForeScout
8 6 (7.59%) Google
9 5 (6.33%) CyberArk
9 5 (6.33%) Oracle
10 4 (5.06%) IBM
11 3 (3.80%) Broadcom
11 3 (3.80%) Fortinet
11 3 (3.80%) Gemalto
11 3 (3.80%) MuleSoft
11 3 (3.80%) Thales
11 3 (3.80%) Veritas
12 2 (2.53%) Databricks
12 2 (2.53%) Zscaler