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 27 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 8 10
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 +11
Contract jobs citing Degree 81 57 64
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 11.49% 14.07% 12.57%
As % of the Qualifications category 32.02% 49.57% 51.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 33 49
10th Percentile £313 £206 £65
25th Percentile £350 £325 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £389 £511 £489
Median % change year-on-year -23.97% +4.56% +11.14%
75th Percentile £489 £580 £575
90th Percentile £601 £676 £689
North West median daily rate £400 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -15.79% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 3
10th Percentile - £24.08 £16.53
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.19 £20.33
Median hourly rate £16.00 £32.50 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -50.77% +21.91% -59.30%
75th Percentile £16.50 £33.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.39
% change year-on-year +39.88% +23.15% -9.00%

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 253 115 124
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 35.89% 28.40% 24.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 180 78 89
10th Percentile £313 £230 £158
25th Percentile £358 £325 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £424 £451
Median % change year-on-year +6.26% -5.99% +0.11%
75th Percentile £588 £547 £538
90th Percentile £652 £586 £645
North West median daily rate £470 £478 £513
% change year-on-year -1.76% -6.73% +2.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 8 6
10th Percentile £17.95 £24.13 -
25th Percentile £19.00 £29.49 £14.00
Median hourly rate £34.46 £32.50 £20.33
Median % change year-on-year +6.04% +59.86% -59.94%
75th Percentile £90.60 £85.44 £26.66
90th Percentile £111.15 £86.00 £35.83
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £16.06
% change year-on-year +39.88% +102.37% -57.17%

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 27 March 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 27 March 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 +1 51 £372 -22.93% 2
Chester -2 13 - - 4
Warrington +6 11 £381 +103.33% 11
Macclesfield +2 1 £600 +3.45% 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 21 (25.93%) Confluence
2 17 (20.99%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.23%) Camunda
3 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 23 (28.40%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (7.41%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (4.94%) MS Visio
4 3 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (12.35%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (4.94%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.23%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 17 (20.99%) AWS
2 14 (17.28%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (13.58%) Azure
4 10 (12.35%) Apigee
5 8 (9.88%) GCP
5 8 (9.88%) Power Platform
6 6 (7.41%) Entra ID
6 6 (7.41%) Kong
7 5 (6.17%) SaaS
8 4 (4.94%) GitHub
8 4 (4.94%) GitHub Copilot
9 3 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
10 2 (2.47%) Azure Logic Apps
10 2 (2.47%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (2.47%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (2.47%) OpenShift
11 1 (1.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 1 (1.23%) IaaS
11 1 (1.23%) PaaS
11 1 (1.23%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 10 (12.35%) Skype
1 10 (12.35%) VPN
2 7 (8.64%) Firewall
3 5 (6.17%) Network Security
4 4 (4.94%) DNS
4 4 (4.94%) HTTP
4 4 (4.94%) HTTPS
4 4 (4.94%) SSH
5 3 (3.70%) Internet
5 3 (3.70%) Wireless
6 1 (1.23%) Cisco ISE
6 1 (1.23%) DHCP
6 1 (1.23%) SSL
6 1 (1.23%) Unified Communications
6 1 (1.23%) VSAN
6 1 (1.23%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (7.41%) Relational Database
2 5 (6.17%) PostgreSQL
2 5 (6.17%) Power BI
3 4 (4.94%) MySQL
4 2 (2.47%) SQL Server
5 1 (1.23%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (1.23%) MongoDB
5 1 (1.23%) NoSQL
5 1 (1.23%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 29 (35.80%) JIRA
2 11 (13.58%) Git
3 8 (9.88%) Postman
4 5 (6.17%) GitLab
5 4 (4.94%) Jenkins
6 1 (1.23%) IntelliJ
6 1 (1.23%) JUnit
6 1 (1.23%) MLflow
General
1 49 (60.49%) Finance
2 41 (50.62%) Social Skills
3 31 (38.27%) Banking
4 15 (18.52%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (16.05%) Public Sector
6 12 (14.81%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (12.35%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (6.17%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (4.94%) Retail
10 3 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (3.70%) Legal
10 3 (3.70%) Retail Banking
11 2 (2.47%) Local Government
12 1 (1.23%) Financial Institution
12 1 (1.23%) Investment Banking
12 1 (1.23%) Manufacturing
12 1 (1.23%) Marketing
12 1 (1.23%) Military
12 1 (1.23%) Publishing
12 1 (1.23%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 23 (28.40%) Analyst
2 17 (20.99%) Business Analyst
3 10 (12.35%) 1st Line Support
3 10 (12.35%) Developer
4 9 (11.11%) Java Developer
5 7 (8.64%) Project Manager
6 6 (7.41%) Technical Analyst
6 6 (7.41%) Technical Business Analyst
7 5 (6.17%) Architect
7 5 (6.17%) Banking Analyst
7 5 (6.17%) Banking Business Analyst
8 4 (4.94%) Apigee Developer
8 4 (4.94%) Lead
8 4 (4.94%) Payments Analyst
8 4 (4.94%) Payments Business Analyst
8 4 (4.94%) Security Engineer
8 4 (4.94%) Solutions Architect
9 3 (3.70%) Azure Engineer
9 3 (3.70%) Consultant
10 2 (2.47%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (19.75%) JSON
2 14 (17.28%) XML
3 11 (13.58%) REST
4 10 (12.35%) JWT
4 10 (12.35%) OAuth
4 10 (12.35%) SOAP
4 10 (12.35%) Swagger
5 9 (11.11%) Spring
5 9 (11.11%) Spring Boot
6 8 (9.88%) Hibernate
6 8 (9.88%) RESTful
7 6 (7.41%) OpenAPI
8 4 (4.94%) JAX-RS
8 4 (4.94%) OAuth2
8 4 (4.94%) Spring MVC
8 4 (4.94%) Spring Security
9 2 (2.47%) .NET
9 2 (2.47%) AngularJS
9 2 (2.47%) Middleware
9 2 (2.47%) React
Miscellaneous
1 11 (13.58%) Management Information System
2 5 (6.17%) Product Ownership
3 4 (4.94%) Digital Wallet
3 4 (4.94%) Tandem
4 3 (3.70%) Cloud Native
4 3 (3.70%) Onboarding
4 3 (3.70%) PKI
4 3 (3.70%) PMI
5 2 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (2.47%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.23%) AI Agents
6 1 (1.23%) Cloud Security Posture
6 1 (1.23%) Distributed Computing
6 1 (1.23%) e-Learning
6 1 (1.23%) Low-Code
6 1 (1.23%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.23%) SCADA
6 1 (1.23%) SWIFT Messaging Network
6 1 (1.23%) Video Conferencing
6 1 (1.23%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 23 (28.40%) Windows
2 10 (12.35%) Windows 10
3 6 (7.41%) Linux
4 5 (6.17%) Unix
5 2 (2.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (2.47%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.23%) Solaris
6 1 (1.23%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (51.85%) Agile
2 31 (38.27%) Computer Science
3 26 (32.10%) Stakeholder Management
4 21 (25.93%) CI/CD
4 21 (25.93%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (24.69%) ITIL
6 19 (23.46%) AI
7 18 (22.22%) Microservices
8 17 (20.99%) DevOps
8 17 (20.99%) ITSM
9 16 (19.75%) Change Management
10 14 (17.28%) API Design
11 13 (16.05%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (16.05%) Project Management
12 12 (14.81%) Validation
13 11 (13.58%) Customer Service
13 11 (13.58%) Generative AI
13 11 (13.58%) Requirements Gathering
13 11 (13.58%) Workshop Facilitation
14 10 (12.35%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 13 (16.05%) SQL
2 12 (14.81%) Java
3 8 (9.88%) Python
4 7 (8.64%) PowerShell
5 3 (3.70%) Bash
6 2 (2.47%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (2.47%) TypeScript
7 1 (1.23%) C#
7 1 (1.23%) JavaScript
7 1 (1.23%) Perl
7 1 (1.23%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 28 (34.57%) Computer Science Degree
2 15 (18.52%) Security Cleared
3 11 (13.58%) Master's Degree
4 9 (11.11%) MBA
5 7 (8.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 7 (8.64%) PMI Certification
5 7 (8.64%) PMP
6 6 (7.41%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (6.17%) Azure Certification
7 5 (6.17%) CISSP
7 5 (6.17%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (4.94%) SC Cleared
9 3 (3.70%) AWS Certification
9 3 (3.70%) CCNA
9 3 (3.70%) CCNP
9 3 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (3.70%) SAFe Agilist
10 1 (1.23%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 1 (1.23%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 1 (1.23%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.41%) GRC
1 6 (7.41%) NIST
1 6 (7.41%) PSD2
2 5 (6.17%) GDPR
2 5 (6.17%) PCI DSS
3 4 (4.94%) QA
4 3 (3.70%) Basel III
4 3 (3.70%) ISO 8583
4 3 (3.70%) SLA
5 2 (2.47%) ISO 20022
5 2 (2.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (2.47%) P3O
5 2 (2.47%) PMO
6 1 (1.23%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (1.23%) HIPAA
6 1 (1.23%) NEBOSH
6 1 (1.23%) SEPA
System Software
1 13 (16.05%) Docker
2 5 (6.17%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.23%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (16.05%) Kubernetes
2 6 (7.41%) Ansible
3 4 (4.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 3 (3.70%) Cisco Prime
4 3 (3.70%) Terraform
5 2 (2.47%) SCCM
5 2 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.23%) CA Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.23%) Progress Chef
6 1 (1.23%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (1.23%) SCOM
6 1 (1.23%) SCOrch
6 1 (1.23%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 28 (34.57%) Microsoft
2 15 (18.52%) Cisco
3 12 (14.81%) Citrix
4 10 (12.35%) Remedy
4 10 (12.35%) ServiceNow
5 9 (11.11%) Splunk
6 6 (7.41%) MuleSoft
7 5 (6.17%) IBM
8 4 (4.94%) CyberArk
8 4 (4.94%) ForeScout
9 3 (3.70%) Broadcom
9 3 (3.70%) Gemalto
9 3 (3.70%) Oracle
9 3 (3.70%) Thales
10 2 (2.47%) Fortinet
10 2 (2.47%) Google
10 2 (2.47%) LogRhythm
10 2 (2.47%) Red Hat
10 2 (2.47%) Zscaler
11 1 (1.23%) Databricks