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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 15 11
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 +10
Contract jobs citing Degree 80 45 57
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 12.74% 10.20% 13.60%
As % of the Qualifications category 29.85% 39.82% 55.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 21 35
10th Percentile £303 £190 £65
25th Percentile £331 £356 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £358 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -28.40% - +11.11%
75th Percentile £449 £553 £549
90th Percentile £618 £640 £638
North West median daily rate £402 £500 £463
% change year-on-year -19.60% +8.11% +2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 7
10th Percentile £14.60 £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 £21.56 £24.14 £30.37
90th Percentile £53.48 £24.17 £50.45
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £32.04
% change year-on-year +39.88% +1.44% +33.50%

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 268 113 103
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 42.68% 25.62% 24.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 69 66
10th Percentile £272 £250 £170
25th Percentile £342 £356 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £469 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.72% -6.20% +13.64%
75th Percentile £628 £571 £561
90th Percentile £716 £641 £644
North West median daily rate £475 £475 £545
% change year-on-year - -12.84% +6.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 4 8
10th Percentile - £24.06 £16.28
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.14 £23.44
Median hourly rate £18.94 £55.10 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -65.63% +106.66% -25.94%
75th Percentile £59.63 £86.00 £36.81
90th Percentile £84.93 - £54.00
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year +39.88% -29.62% +84.72%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -7 34 £350 -33.33% 4
Chester +7 23 £625 - 27
Warrington +3 13 £379 +82.53% 28
Macclesfield -3 1 £375 -36.17% 1
Crewe -5 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 22 (27.50%) SharePoint
2 17 (21.25%) Confluence
3 8 (10.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (8.75%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (8.75%) Skype for Business
5 2 (2.50%) Mule
5 2 (2.50%) Mule ESB
6 1 (1.25%) Anypoint
6 1 (1.25%) JBoss
6 1 (1.25%) Tomcat
6 1 (1.25%) WebLogic
Applications
1 23 (28.75%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (13.75%) MS Visio
3 10 (12.50%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (10.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (7.50%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (7.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (1.25%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 24 (30.00%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (21.25%) Azure
3 12 (15.00%) AWS
4 11 (13.75%) Power Platform
5 10 (12.50%) Apigee
6 8 (10.00%) OneDrive
7 7 (8.75%) SaaS
8 6 (7.50%) GCP
8 6 (7.50%) Kong
9 4 (5.00%) Entra ID
9 4 (5.00%) GitHub
9 4 (5.00%) GitHub Copilot
10 3 (3.75%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (3.75%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (3.75%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (3.75%) Smartsheet
11 2 (2.50%) OpenShift
12 1 (1.25%) Power Automate
12 1 (1.25%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (16.25%) Skype
2 8 (10.00%) DNS
2 8 (10.00%) SSH
3 6 (7.50%) Internet
3 6 (7.50%) VPN
4 5 (6.25%) Unified Communications
4 5 (6.25%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (5.00%) Firewall
5 4 (5.00%) HTTP
5 4 (5.00%) HTTPS
6 2 (2.50%) Network Security
7 1 (1.25%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.25%) SSL
7 1 (1.25%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.00%) MySQL
1 4 (5.00%) PostgreSQL
1 4 (5.00%) Power BI
1 4 (5.00%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 22 (27.50%) JIRA
2 8 (10.00%) Git
3 5 (6.25%) Postman
4 4 (5.00%) GitLab
4 4 (5.00%) Jenkins
5 2 (2.50%) TestRail
6 1 (1.25%) Cucumber
6 1 (1.25%) JUnit
General
1 54 (67.50%) Social Skills
2 35 (43.75%) Finance
3 25 (31.25%) Banking
4 24 (30.00%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (12.50%) Public Sector
6 8 (10.00%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (7.50%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (6.25%) Legal
9 4 (5.00%) Retail
10 3 (3.75%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (3.75%) Investment Banking
11 2 (2.50%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (2.50%) Local Government
11 2 (2.50%) Marketing
11 2 (2.50%) Military
11 2 (2.50%) Retail Banking
12 1 (1.25%) Automotive
12 1 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (1.25%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 29 (36.25%) Analyst
2 12 (15.00%) Business Analyst
3 9 (11.25%) Developer
4 8 (10.00%) Java Developer
5 7 (8.75%) Operational Support Analyst
5 7 (8.75%) Operations Analyst
5 7 (8.75%) Operations Support Analyst
5 7 (8.75%) Support Analyst
6 6 (7.50%) 1st Line Support
6 6 (7.50%) Technical Analyst
6 6 (7.50%) Technical Business Analyst
7 5 (6.25%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 5 (6.25%) IT Support
7 5 (6.25%) IT Support Technician
7 5 (6.25%) IT Technician
7 5 (6.25%) Lead
7 5 (6.25%) Service Desk Support
7 5 (6.25%) Service Desk Technician
7 5 (6.25%) Support Technician
8 4 (5.00%) Apigee Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (20.00%) JSON
2 13 (16.25%) XML
3 10 (12.50%) JWT
3 10 (12.50%) OAuth
3 10 (12.50%) Spring
3 10 (12.50%) Spring Boot
4 8 (10.00%) Hibernate
4 8 (10.00%) RESTful
5 7 (8.75%) REST
5 7 (8.75%) SOAP
5 7 (8.75%) Swagger
6 6 (7.50%) OpenAPI
7 4 (5.00%) JAX-RS
7 4 (5.00%) OAuth2
7 4 (5.00%) Spring MVC
7 4 (5.00%) Spring Security
8 2 (2.50%) J2EE
8 2 (2.50%) Middleware
8 2 (2.50%) Web Services
9 1 (1.25%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 8 (10.00%) Management Information System
1 8 (10.00%) Tandem
2 7 (8.75%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (6.25%) Low-Code
3 5 (6.25%) Onboarding
3 5 (6.25%) PMI
3 5 (6.25%) Video Conferencing
4 3 (3.75%) PKI
5 2 (2.50%) Product Ownership
5 2 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.25%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.25%) CMDB
6 1 (1.25%) Digital Wallet
6 1 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
6 1 (1.25%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.25%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.25%) SCADA
6 1 (1.25%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 26 (32.50%) Windows
2 8 (10.00%) Unix
3 6 (7.50%) Windows 10
4 2 (2.50%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.25%) Linux
5 1 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.25%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (40.00%) Computer Science
2 30 (37.50%) Problem-Solving
3 29 (36.25%) Agile
4 24 (30.00%) Project Management
4 24 (30.00%) Stakeholder Management
5 22 (27.50%) ITIL
6 18 (22.50%) CI/CD
6 18 (22.50%) Microservices
7 17 (21.25%) Validation
8 15 (18.75%) Problem Management
9 13 (16.25%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (15.00%) AI
10 12 (15.00%) Change Management
10 12 (15.00%) Cybersecurity
11 11 (13.75%) API Design
11 11 (13.75%) Customer Service
11 11 (13.75%) Incident Response
12 10 (12.50%) API Testing
12 10 (12.50%) ITSM
12 10 (12.50%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 14 (17.50%) SQL
2 11 (13.75%) Java
3 8 (10.00%) Python
4 6 (7.50%) PowerShell
5 3 (3.75%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (2.50%) Bash
6 2 (2.50%) PL/SQL
7 1 (1.25%) C#
7 1 (1.25%) JavaScript
7 1 (1.25%) Perl
7 1 (1.25%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 30 (37.50%) Computer Science Degree
2 16 (20.00%) Security Cleared
3 7 (8.75%) BPSS Clearance
3 7 (8.75%) PMI Certification
3 7 (8.75%) PMP
4 6 (7.50%) Master's Degree
4 6 (7.50%) MBA
5 5 (6.25%) Azure Certification
5 5 (6.25%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 4 (5.00%) CISSP
6 4 (5.00%) SC Cleared
7 3 (3.75%) CISM
7 3 (3.75%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (2.50%) A+ Certification
8 2 (2.50%) AWS Certification
8 2 (2.50%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (2.50%) SAFe Agilist
8 2 (2.50%) TOGAF Certification
9 1 (1.25%) CCNA CyberOps
9 1 (1.25%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.25%) P3O
1 5 (6.25%) PMO
2 4 (5.00%) NIST
3 3 (3.75%) GDPR
4 2 (2.50%) Basel III
4 2 (2.50%) GRC
4 2 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (2.50%) PCI DSS
4 2 (2.50%) PSD2
4 2 (2.50%) QA
5 1 (1.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (1.25%) HIPAA
5 1 (1.25%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.25%) ISO 8583
5 1 (1.25%) NCSC
5 1 (1.25%) PMBOK
System Software
1 18 (22.50%) Active Directory
2 10 (12.50%) Docker
3 1 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 15 (18.75%) SCCM
2 12 (15.00%) Kubernetes
2 12 (15.00%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (5.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (2.50%) HP ALM
4 2 (2.50%) QRadar
5 1 (1.25%) Ansible
5 1 (1.25%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.25%) SCOM
5 1 (1.25%) SCOrch
5 1 (1.25%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 37 (46.25%) Microsoft
2 8 (10.00%) Citrix
2 8 (10.00%) IBM
2 8 (10.00%) Splunk
3 7 (8.75%) Cisco
3 7 (8.75%) MuleSoft
4 6 (7.50%) Gemalto
4 6 (7.50%) Remedy
4 6 (7.50%) ServiceNow
4 6 (7.50%) Thales
5 5 (6.25%) Oracle
6 3 (3.75%) LogRhythm
6 3 (3.75%) Planview
7 2 (2.50%) AppDynamics
7 2 (2.50%) ArcSight
7 2 (2.50%) Dynatrace
7 2 (2.50%) HP
8 1 (1.25%) Palo Alto
8 1 (1.25%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.25%) Zscaler