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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 9 9
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +9
Contract jobs citing Degree 80 56 73
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 11.96% 13.53% 13.70%
As % of the Qualifications category 29.52% 48.70% 56.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 30 54
10th Percentile £331 £179 £65
25th Percentile £353 £376 £158
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £398 £538 £489
Median % change year-on-year -25.98% +9.92% +11.14%
75th Percentile £491 £588 £550
90th Percentile £615 £685 £685
North West median daily rate £400 £499 £463
% change year-on-year -19.76% +7.78% +2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 5
10th Percentile - £24.06 £19.06
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.14 -
Median hourly rate £16.00 £28.35 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -43.55% +6.32% -59.30%
75th Percentile £16.50 £33.75 £34.08
90th Percentile - - £58.63
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £26.53
% change year-on-year +39.88% +22.53% -6.44%

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 271 115 130
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 40.51% 27.78% 24.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 74 90
10th Percentile £313 £211 £158
25th Percentile £358 £328 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year - - +6.74%
75th Percentile £630 £580 £539
90th Percentile £716 £600 £631
North West median daily rate £475 £490 £515
% change year-on-year -3.06% -4.85% +3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 7 8
10th Percentile - £24.11 -
25th Percentile £15.50 £27.72 £14.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £32.50 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -46.15% +21.91% -25.94%
75th Percentile £19.00 £85.63 £36.81
90th Percentile £58.13 £86.00 £54.00
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £16.78
% change year-on-year +39.88% +93.68% -53.39%

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 11 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 11 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 50 £381 -25.51% 9
Warrington +4 12 £388 +133.08% 17
Chester -2 12 £750 +25.00% 22
Macclesfield -2 1 £600 +3.45% 3
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 23 (28.75%) Confluence
2 20 (25.00%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 22 (27.50%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (7.50%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (5.00%) MS Visio
4 3 (3.75%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (2.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 10 (12.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (5.00%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (1.25%) SAP PM
3 1 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 16 (20.00%) AWS
1 16 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (16.25%) Azure
3 10 (12.50%) Apigee
3 10 (12.50%) Power Platform
4 8 (10.00%) GCP
4 8 (10.00%) SaaS
5 6 (7.50%) Entra ID
5 6 (7.50%) Kong
6 4 (5.00%) GitHub
6 4 (5.00%) GitHub Copilot
7 3 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (2.50%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (2.50%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (2.50%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.25%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 1 (1.25%) IaaS
9 1 (1.25%) LangSmith
9 1 (1.25%) Power Automate
9 1 (1.25%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 10 (12.50%) Skype
1 10 (12.50%) VPN
2 7 (8.75%) SSH
3 6 (7.50%) DNS
4 4 (5.00%) Firewall
4 4 (5.00%) HTTP
4 4 (5.00%) HTTPS
5 3 (3.75%) Internet
5 3 (3.75%) Unified Communications
5 3 (3.75%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (2.50%) Network Security
7 1 (1.25%) DHCP
7 1 (1.25%) SSL
7 1 (1.25%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (6.25%) PostgreSQL
1 5 (6.25%) Power BI
1 5 (6.25%) Relational Database
2 4 (5.00%) MySQL
3 1 (1.25%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (1.25%) MongoDB
3 1 (1.25%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.25%) RDBMS
3 1 (1.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 27 (33.75%) JIRA
2 10 (12.50%) Git
3 8 (10.00%) Postman
4 4 (5.00%) GitLab
4 4 (5.00%) Jenkins
5 1 (1.25%) MLflow
General
1 47 (58.75%) Finance
2 45 (56.25%) Social Skills
3 30 (37.50%) Banking
4 17 (21.25%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (16.25%) Public Sector
6 12 (15.00%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (12.50%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (6.25%) Corporate Banking
9 4 (5.00%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (5.00%) Retail
10 3 (3.75%) Retail Banking
11 2 (2.50%) Legal
11 2 (2.50%) Local Government
11 2 (2.50%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (2.50%) Publishing
12 1 (1.25%) Manufacturing
12 1 (1.25%) Marketing
12 1 (1.25%) Military
12 1 (1.25%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (1.25%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 24 (30.00%) Analyst
2 17 (21.25%) Business Analyst
3 10 (12.50%) 1st Line Support
4 9 (11.25%) Developer
5 8 (10.00%) Java Developer
6 7 (8.75%) Project Manager
7 6 (7.50%) Technical Analyst
7 6 (7.50%) Technical Business Analyst
8 5 (6.25%) Architect
8 5 (6.25%) Banking Analyst
8 5 (6.25%) Banking Business Analyst
9 4 (5.00%) Apigee Developer
9 4 (5.00%) Lead
9 4 (5.00%) Payments Analyst
9 4 (5.00%) Payments Business Analyst
9 4 (5.00%) Security Engineer
9 4 (5.00%) Solutions Architect
10 3 (3.75%) Azure Engineer
10 3 (3.75%) Service Desk Support
10 3 (3.75%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (20.00%) JSON
2 14 (17.50%) XML
3 10 (12.50%) JWT
3 10 (12.50%) OAuth
3 10 (12.50%) REST
3 10 (12.50%) SOAP
3 10 (12.50%) Swagger
4 8 (10.00%) Hibernate
4 8 (10.00%) RESTful
4 8 (10.00%) Spring
4 8 (10.00%) Spring Boot
5 6 (7.50%) OpenAPI
6 4 (5.00%) JAX-RS
6 4 (5.00%) OAuth2
6 4 (5.00%) Spring MVC
6 4 (5.00%) Spring Security
7 1 (1.25%) .NET
7 1 (1.25%) AngularJS
7 1 (1.25%) Middleware
7 1 (1.25%) React
Miscellaneous
1 12 (15.00%) Management Information System
2 7 (8.75%) Tandem
3 5 (6.25%) Product Ownership
4 4 (5.00%) Digital Wallet
4 4 (5.00%) Enterprise Software
5 3 (3.75%) Cloud Native
5 3 (3.75%) Low-Code
5 3 (3.75%) Onboarding
5 3 (3.75%) PKI
5 3 (3.75%) PMI
5 3 (3.75%) Video Conferencing
6 2 (2.50%) Security Posture
6 2 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.25%) AI Agents
7 1 (1.25%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (1.25%) Distributed Computing
7 1 (1.25%) e-Learning
7 1 (1.25%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.25%) Operational Technology
7 1 (1.25%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 27 (33.75%) Windows
2 10 (12.50%) Windows 10
3 8 (10.00%) Unix
4 5 (6.25%) Linux
5 2 (2.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (2.50%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.25%) Solaris
6 1 (1.25%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (51.25%) Agile
2 34 (42.50%) Computer Science
3 31 (38.75%) Stakeholder Management
4 21 (26.25%) CI/CD
5 20 (25.00%) ITIL
5 20 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
6 17 (21.25%) AI
6 17 (21.25%) Change Management
6 17 (21.25%) DevOps
6 17 (21.25%) Microservices
7 15 (18.75%) Project Management
8 14 (17.50%) API Design
8 14 (17.50%) ITSM
9 13 (16.25%) Continuous Improvement
9 13 (16.25%) Customer Service
10 12 (15.00%) Validation
11 11 (13.75%) Requirements Gathering
11 11 (13.75%) Workshop Facilitation
12 10 (12.50%) API Testing
12 10 (12.50%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 13 (16.25%) SQL
2 10 (12.50%) Java
2 10 (12.50%) Python
3 7 (8.75%) PowerShell
4 3 (3.75%) Bash
5 2 (2.50%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.25%) C#
6 1 (1.25%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.25%) Perl
6 1 (1.25%) Shell Script
6 1 (1.25%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 31 (38.75%) Computer Science Degree
2 17 (21.25%) Security Cleared
3 11 (13.75%) Master's Degree
4 9 (11.25%) MBA
5 8 (10.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (8.75%) PMI Certification
6 7 (8.75%) PMP
7 6 (7.50%) Azure Certification
7 6 (7.50%) ITIL Certification
7 6 (7.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (5.00%) AWS Certification
8 4 (5.00%) CISSP
9 3 (3.75%) SAFe Agilist
9 3 (3.75%) SC Cleared
10 2 (2.50%) TOGAF Certification
11 1 (1.25%) CISM
11 1 (1.25%) IBM Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.25%) GDPR
1 5 (6.25%) GRC
1 5 (6.25%) PSD2
2 4 (5.00%) NIST
2 4 (5.00%) PCI DSS
2 4 (5.00%) QA
3 3 (3.75%) Basel III
3 3 (3.75%) ISO 8583
4 2 (2.50%) P3O
4 2 (2.50%) PMO
4 2 (2.50%) SLA
5 1 (1.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 1 (1.25%) HIPAA
5 1 (1.25%) ISO 20022
5 1 (1.25%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 12 (15.00%) Docker
2 7 (8.75%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 13 (16.25%) Kubernetes
2 4 (5.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 4 (5.00%) SCCM
3 3 (3.75%) Ansible
3 3 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (3.75%) Terraform
4 2 (2.50%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.25%) CA Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.25%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.25%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (1.25%) SCOM
5 1 (1.25%) SCOrch
5 1 (1.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 31 (38.75%) Microsoft
2 12 (15.00%) Cisco
2 12 (15.00%) Citrix
3 10 (12.50%) Remedy
3 10 (12.50%) ServiceNow
4 8 (10.00%) IBM
5 6 (7.50%) Gemalto
5 6 (7.50%) MuleSoft
5 6 (7.50%) Splunk
5 6 (7.50%) Thales
6 3 (3.75%) Oracle
7 2 (2.50%) Fortinet
7 2 (2.50%) Google
7 2 (2.50%) LogRhythm
7 2 (2.50%) Red Hat
7 2 (2.50%) Zscaler
8 1 (1.25%) CyberArk
8 1 (1.25%) Databricks
8 1 (1.25%) ForeScout
8 1 (1.25%) Proofpoint