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 17 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 19 8 13
Rank change year-on-year -11 +5 +17
Contract jobs citing Degree 71 65 54
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 10.33% 13.21% 13.50%
As % of the Qualifications category 27.52% 52.85% 54.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 36 31
10th Percentile £285 £356 £65
25th Percentile £337 £475 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £410 £534 £500
Median % change year-on-year -23.17% +6.80% -20.63%
75th Percentile £488 £575 £540
90th Percentile £638 £626 £565
North West median daily rate £450 £530 £460
% change year-on-year -15.09% +15.22% -3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 2 4
10th Percentile £14.90 £24.02 £19.73
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.05 £23.44
Median hourly rate £16.00 £24.10 £30.04
Median % change year-on-year -33.60% -19.79% -
75th Percentile £34.00 £24.14 £44.31
90th Percentile £47.90 £24.17 £62.72
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £40.33 £41.55
% change year-on-year +12.73% -2.94% +108.98%

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 258 123 99
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 37.55% 25.00% 24.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 196 75 57
10th Percentile £271 £356 £65
25th Percentile £360 £416 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £472 £535 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.78% +7.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £638 £578 £565
90th Percentile £716 £639 £675
North West median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +0.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 2 5
10th Percentile - £24.02 £20.55
25th Percentile £15.50 £24.05 £25.50
Median hourly rate £19.00 £24.10 £34.08
Median % change year-on-year -21.15% -29.30% +46.83%
75th Percentile £52.00 £24.14 £45.00
90th Percentile £82.40 £24.17 £63.00
North West median hourly rate £45.46 £37.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year +22.86% -19.88% +102.06%

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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025. 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 -21 27 £384 -28.62% 3
Chester +5 16 £625 - 8
Warrington -5 11 £344 +52.78% 10
Crewe 0 3 £355 -36.32% 4
Macclesfield -6 1 £375 -25.00% 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 17 (23.94%) SharePoint
2 11 (15.49%) Confluence
3 8 (11.27%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (9.86%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (9.86%) Skype for Business
5 2 (2.82%) Mule
5 2 (2.82%) Mule ESB
6 1 (1.41%) Anypoint
6 1 (1.41%) JBoss
6 1 (1.41%) Tomcat
6 1 (1.41%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (29.58%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (12.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (11.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (11.27%) MS Visio
4 4 (5.63%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (1.41%) IBM Planning Analytics
Cloud Services
1 18 (25.35%) Azure
1 18 (25.35%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (14.08%) SaaS
3 9 (12.68%) Power Platform
4 8 (11.27%) OneDrive
5 7 (9.86%) AWS
6 6 (8.45%) GCP
7 4 (5.63%) Apigee
7 4 (5.63%) Entra ID
8 3 (4.23%) Azure Logic Apps
8 3 (4.23%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (4.23%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (4.23%) Smartsheet
9 2 (2.82%) OpenShift
10 1 (1.41%) GitHub
10 1 (1.41%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (1.41%) Kong
10 1 (1.41%) Power Automate
10 1 (1.41%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 9 (12.68%) SSH
2 8 (11.27%) DNS
2 8 (11.27%) Firewall
3 7 (9.86%) Skype
4 6 (8.45%) Internet
4 6 (8.45%) Network Security
5 5 (7.04%) Unified Communications
5 5 (7.04%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (4.23%) HTTP
6 3 (4.23%) HTTPS
6 3 (4.23%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (2.82%) BGP
7 2 (2.82%) MPLS
7 2 (2.82%) OSPF
7 2 (2.82%) VLAN
7 2 (2.82%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.82%) Power BI
2 1 (1.41%) MySQL
2 1 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (1.41%) Power Query
2 1 (1.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (22.54%) JIRA
2 4 (5.63%) Git
3 3 (4.23%) Jenkins
3 3 (4.23%) Postman
4 2 (2.82%) TestRail
5 1 (1.41%) Cucumber
5 1 (1.41%) GitLab
5 1 (1.41%) JUnit
General
1 49 (69.01%) Social Skills
2 26 (36.62%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (28.17%) Finance
4 10 (14.08%) Banking
5 8 (11.27%) Public Sector
6 6 (8.45%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (7.04%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (5.63%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (5.63%) Publishing
9 3 (4.23%) Investment Banking
9 3 (4.23%) Legal
10 2 (2.82%) Local Government
10 2 (2.82%) Marketing
10 2 (2.82%) Military
11 1 (1.41%) Automotive
11 1 (1.41%) Corporate Banking
11 1 (1.41%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 21 (29.58%) Analyst
2 7 (9.86%) Developer
2 7 (9.86%) Operational Support Analyst
2 7 (9.86%) Operations Analyst
2 7 (9.86%) Operations Support Analyst
2 7 (9.86%) Support Analyst
3 5 (7.04%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 5 (7.04%) IT Support
3 5 (7.04%) IT Support Technician
3 5 (7.04%) IT Technician
3 5 (7.04%) Lead
3 5 (7.04%) Security Engineer
3 5 (7.04%) Senior
3 5 (7.04%) Service Desk Support
3 5 (7.04%) Service Desk Technician
3 5 (7.04%) Support Technician
4 4 (5.63%) Architect
4 4 (5.63%) Business Analyst
4 4 (5.63%) Java Developer
4 4 (5.63%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (12.68%) JSON
2 7 (9.86%) XML
3 6 (8.45%) Spring
3 6 (8.45%) Spring Boot
4 5 (7.04%) Web Services
5 4 (5.63%) Hibernate
5 4 (5.63%) JWT
5 4 (5.63%) OAuth
5 4 (5.63%) REST
5 4 (5.63%) RESTful
5 4 (5.63%) SOAP
6 3 (4.23%) AngularJS
6 3 (4.23%) CSS
6 3 (4.23%) HTML
6 3 (4.23%) JAX-RS
6 3 (4.23%) LDAP
6 3 (4.23%) OAuth2
7 2 (2.82%) J2EE
8 1 (1.41%) Kafka
8 1 (1.41%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 13 (18.31%) Management Information System
2 9 (12.68%) Tandem
3 7 (9.86%) Enterprise Software
4 5 (7.04%) Low-Code
4 5 (7.04%) Onboarding
4 5 (7.04%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (5.63%) PMI
5 4 (5.63%) Product Ownership
5 4 (5.63%) Virtual Team
6 3 (4.23%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (2.82%) Cyberattack
7 2 (2.82%) PKI
8 1 (1.41%) Cloud Native
8 1 (1.41%) CMDB
8 1 (1.41%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (1.41%) Operational Technology
8 1 (1.41%) SCADA
8 1 (1.41%) Security Posture
8 1 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 20 (28.17%) Windows
2 9 (12.68%) Unix
3 1 (1.41%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (43.66%) Computer Science
1 31 (43.66%) ITIL
2 27 (38.03%) Problem-Solving
3 20 (28.17%) Project Management
3 20 (28.17%) Stakeholder Management
4 19 (26.76%) Agile
5 16 (22.54%) Change Management
6 15 (21.13%) Problem Management
7 14 (19.72%) Cybersecurity
7 14 (19.72%) Incident Response
7 14 (19.72%) ITSM
8 13 (18.31%) Migration
9 12 (16.90%) Service Management
9 12 (16.90%) Validation
10 11 (15.49%) Release Management
11 10 (14.08%) CI/CD
11 10 (14.08%) Information Security
11 10 (14.08%) Project Delivery
12 9 (12.68%) Cryptography
12 9 (12.68%) Six Sigma
Programming Languages
1 9 (12.68%) Java
2 7 (9.86%) Python
2 7 (9.86%) SQL
3 5 (7.04%) PowerShell
4 4 (5.63%) JavaScript
5 3 (4.23%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (2.82%) PL/SQL
7 1 (1.41%) Bash
7 1 (1.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 26 (36.62%) Computer Science Degree
2 14 (19.72%) Security Cleared
3 6 (8.45%) ITIL Certification
3 6 (8.45%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
4 4 (5.63%) Azure Certification
4 4 (5.63%) CISSP
4 4 (5.63%) PMI Certification
4 4 (5.63%) PMP
4 4 (5.63%) SC Cleared
5 3 (4.23%) Cisco Certification
5 3 (4.23%) CISM
5 3 (4.23%) Master's Degree
6 2 (2.82%) A+ Certification
6 2 (2.82%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (2.82%) CCIE
6 2 (2.82%) CCNP
6 2 (2.82%) JNCIE
6 2 (2.82%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (1.41%) CBAP
7 1 (1.41%) Check Point Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.63%) NIST
2 3 (4.23%) P3O
2 3 (4.23%) PMO
3 2 (2.82%) Basel III
3 2 (2.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (1.41%) COBIT
4 1 (1.41%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (1.41%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.41%) GDPR
4 1 (1.41%) GRC
4 1 (1.41%) HIPAA
4 1 (1.41%) NCSC
4 1 (1.41%) PCI DSS
4 1 (1.41%) PMBOK
4 1 (1.41%) QA
4 1 (1.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 18 (25.35%) Active Directory
2 5 (7.04%) Docker
Systems Management
1 14 (19.72%) SCCM
2 12 (16.90%) Microsoft Intune
3 7 (9.86%) Kubernetes
4 4 (5.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 4 (5.63%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.82%) HP ALM
5 2 (2.82%) QRadar
Vendors
1 30 (42.25%) Microsoft
2 14 (19.72%) ServiceNow
3 9 (12.68%) IBM
4 7 (9.86%) Splunk
5 6 (8.45%) Gemalto
5 6 (8.45%) Thales
6 5 (7.04%) Cisco
7 3 (4.23%) LogRhythm
7 3 (4.23%) Oracle
7 3 (4.23%) Palo Alto
7 3 (4.23%) Planview
7 3 (4.23%) Zscaler
8 2 (2.82%) AppDynamics
8 2 (2.82%) ArcSight
8 2 (2.82%) Citrix
8 2 (2.82%) Dynatrace
8 2 (2.82%) F5
8 2 (2.82%) Fortinet
8 2 (2.82%) HP
8 2 (2.82%) MuleSoft