Inclusion and Diversity Contract Job Trends

Inclusion and Diversity
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Inclusion and Diversity in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months leading up to 8 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 149 154
Rank change year-on-year -100 +5 +50
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 471 560 656
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.92% 1.52%
As % of the General category 1.84% 3.04% 2.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 221 252 477
10th Percentile £195 £195 £400
25th Percentile £356 £400 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £523 £600
Median % change year-on-year -13.88% -12.92% -
75th Percentile £598 £641 £700
90th Percentile £675 £736 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £401 £460 £503
% change year-on-year -12.83% -8.46% -3.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 7 22
10th Percentile £15.21 - £11.37
25th Percentile £16.84 - £12.56
Median hourly rate £18.00 £22.14 £21.99
Median % change year-on-year -18.70% +0.68% -43.62%
75th Percentile £24.38 - £47.50
90th Percentile £98.25 £36.28 £58.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.84 £22.14 £19.62
% change year-on-year -23.94% +12.84% +41.41%

All General Skills
UK

Inclusion and Diversity falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 25,651 18,440 25,063
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.05% 63.36% 58.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 15,724 11,753 15,798
10th Percentile £306 £295 £275
25th Percentile £406 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £763 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +0.53% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,633 780 1,936
10th Percentile £13.95 £14.00 £12.77
25th Percentile £17.50 £17.44 £15.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.82% -8.17%
75th Percentile £61.18 £56.00 £52.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £65.14
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.62 £24.66 £28.50
% change year-on-year +12.00% -13.47% -1.72%

Inclusion and Diversity
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Inclusion and Diversity relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Inclusion and Diversity job vacancy trend in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 8 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 8 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity within the UK over the 6 months to 8 May 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
England -98 411 £463 -13.55% 775
London -62 221 £550 -8.33% 309
Work from Home -50 200 £530 -3.64% 425
UK excluding London -133 190 £401 -12.83% 597
South East -63 57 £394 -22.41% 191
Midlands -71 52 £533 +18.33% 92
North of England -103 39 £419 +1.52% 148
West Midlands -59 33 £540 +18.68% 41
East of England -25 23 £520 +71.90% 41
East Midlands -28 19 £155 -65.56% 50
North East -5 15 £425 -10.53% 20
North West -58 13 £325 -27.78% 73
Yorkshire -83 11 £375 -6.25% 56
Scotland -20 10 £230 -50.27% 46
South West -65 10 £350 -33.33% 64

Inclusion and Diversity
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 16 (3.40%) Apache Spark
1 16 (3.40%) SharePoint
2 13 (2.76%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.91%) Confluence
4 7 (1.49%) CMS
5 6 (1.27%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.85%) WordPress
7 3 (0.64%) Kentico
8 2 (0.42%) Apache
8 2 (0.42%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.21%) Appian
9 1 (0.21%) Drupal
9 1 (0.21%) nginx
9 1 (0.21%) Oracle Application Server
9 1 (0.21%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 20 (4.25%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.85%) Trello
4 3 (0.64%) InVision
4 3 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.64%) Sketch
5 2 (0.42%) Adobe After Effects
5 2 (0.42%) Adobe XD
5 2 (0.42%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (0.64%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (0.42%) FLEXCUBE
4 2 (0.42%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.42%) SAP Business One
4 2 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.21%) Advent Geneva
5 1 (0.21%) Bloomberg AIM
5 1 (0.21%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.21%) Fidessa
5 1 (0.21%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.21%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.21%) SAP FS
5 1 (0.21%) thinkFolio
5 1 (0.21%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 105 (22.29%) Azure
2 88 (18.68%) AWS
3 33 (7.01%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (6.79%) Power Platform
5 25 (5.31%) GitHub
6 24 (5.10%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (4.46%) GitHub Actions
8 17 (3.61%) Azure Data Factory
8 17 (3.61%) Entra ID
8 17 (3.61%) GCP
9 15 (3.18%) dbt
10 10 (2.12%) Amazon EKS
10 10 (2.12%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 10 (2.12%) Serverless
10 10 (2.12%) Snowflake
11 9 (1.91%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.70%) SaaS
13 7 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (1.27%) Figma
15 5 (1.06%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.82%) TCP/IP
2 15 (3.18%) Ethernet
3 11 (2.34%) Firewall
4 9 (1.91%) Network Security
5 8 (1.70%) VLAN
6 7 (1.49%) DNS
7 6 (1.27%) HTTP
7 6 (1.27%) VSAN
7 6 (1.27%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (1.06%) DHCP
9 4 (0.85%) WAN
10 3 (0.64%) VPN
11 2 (0.42%) AMQP
11 2 (0.42%) Intranet
11 2 (0.42%) LAN
11 2 (0.42%) MPLS
12 1 (0.21%) DVB
12 1 (0.21%) iSCSI
12 1 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
12 1 (0.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (5.94%) Power BI
2 25 (5.31%) Data Warehouse
3 20 (4.25%) SQL Server
4 15 (3.18%) Big Data
5 14 (2.97%) Hadoop
6 13 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (1.91%) Snowflake Schema
8 8 (1.70%) DB2
9 7 (1.49%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 6 (1.27%) Azure SQL Database
10 6 (1.27%) Metadata
10 6 (1.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 6 (1.27%) Tableau
11 4 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
11 4 (0.85%) Looker
11 4 (0.85%) Metadata Repository
11 4 (0.85%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.85%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.64%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.64%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 19 (4.03%) JIRA
2 18 (3.82%) Git
3 11 (2.34%) GitLab
3 11 (2.34%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.49%) SonarQube
5 6 (1.27%) JMeter
6 5 (1.06%) Gatling
6 5 (1.06%) LoadRunner
7 4 (0.85%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.85%) Vite
8 3 (0.64%) Snyk
9 2 (0.42%) Axure RP
9 2 (0.42%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.42%) fastlane
9 2 (0.42%) JUnit
9 2 (0.42%) Maven
9 2 (0.42%) Selenium
10 1 (0.21%) Cypress.io
10 1 (0.21%) Team Foundation Server
10 1 (0.21%) Xcode
General
1 149 (31.63%) Social Skills
2 106 (22.51%) Finance
3 91 (19.32%) Public Sector
4 54 (11.46%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (4.25%) Banking
6 17 (3.61%) Presentation Skills
7 10 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
7 10 (2.12%) Legal
7 10 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
8 9 (1.91%) Local Government
9 6 (1.27%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.06%) Marketing
10 5 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (0.85%) Aerospace
11 4 (0.85%) Fire and Rescue
11 4 (0.85%) General Ledger
11 4 (0.85%) Law
11 4 (0.85%) Retail
12 3 (0.64%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 66 (14.01%) Analyst
2 38 (8.07%) Lead
3 37 (7.86%) Senior
4 36 (7.64%) Developer
5 35 (7.43%) Architect
6 33 (7.01%) Data Engineer
7 25 (5.31%) Consultant
8 23 (4.88%) Data Analyst
9 22 (4.67%) Support Engineer
10 21 (4.46%) DevOps Engineer
11 18 (3.82%) Cloud Engineer
11 18 (3.82%) IT Engineer
12 16 (3.40%) IT Support
12 16 (3.40%) Systems Engineer
13 15 (3.18%) Business Analyst
13 15 (3.18%) Technical Engineer
14 14 (2.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 13 (2.76%) Data Scientist
16 12 (2.55%) Azure Engineer
16 12 (2.55%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.18%) React
2 10 (2.12%) YAML
3 9 (1.91%) .NET
3 9 (1.91%) PySpark
4 8 (1.70%) GraphQL
5 7 (1.49%) EDI
6 6 (1.27%) HTML
6 6 (1.27%) Middleware
6 6 (1.27%) REST
7 5 (1.06%) AngularJS
7 5 (1.06%) CSS
7 5 (1.06%) Kafka
7 5 (1.06%) RESTful
7 5 (1.06%) Spring
7 5 (1.06%) Spring Boot
8 4 (0.85%) Next.js
9 3 (0.64%) Akka
9 3 (0.64%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.64%) FastAPI
9 3 (0.64%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 27 (5.73%) Onboarding
2 26 (5.52%) Cloud Native
3 15 (3.18%) Industry 4.0
3 15 (3.18%) Robotics
4 13 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (2.55%) Data Centre
6 10 (2.12%) Management Information System
6 10 (2.12%) Product Ownership
6 10 (2.12%) Replication
7 8 (1.70%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.70%) Linux Command Line
8 7 (1.49%) Data Structures
9 6 (1.27%) Operational Technology
9 6 (1.27%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.06%) Algorithms
10 5 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (0.85%) Reinsurance
11 4 (0.85%) Security Posture
12 3 (0.64%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 40 (8.49%) Windows
2 16 (3.40%) Windows 10
3 15 (3.18%) Windows Server
4 14 (2.97%) Linux
5 8 (1.70%) Unix
6 6 (1.27%) AIX
7 3 (0.64%) Android
7 3 (0.64%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.64%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.42%) VMS
9 1 (0.21%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (24.84%) Problem-Solving
2 90 (19.11%) Agile
3 84 (17.83%) CI/CD
4 75 (15.92%) Decision-Making
5 73 (15.50%) DevOps
6 62 (13.16%) Analytics
7 51 (10.83%) Infrastructure as Code
8 49 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
9 47 (9.98%) Migration
10 44 (9.34%) Continuous Improvement
11 39 (8.28%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 37 (7.86%) AI
13 36 (7.64%) Data Modelling
14 34 (7.22%) Data Pipeline
15 33 (7.01%) Business Intelligence
15 33 (7.01%) Roadmaps
15 33 (7.01%) Test Automation
16 32 (6.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 31 (6.58%) Data Governance
17 31 (6.58%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 75 (15.92%) Python
2 74 (15.71%) SQL
3 19 (4.03%) PowerShell
4 18 (3.82%) Java
5 14 (2.97%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.76%) Bash
6 13 (2.76%) R
7 10 (2.12%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.27%) C#
8 6 (1.27%) Scala
9 5 (1.06%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (1.06%) VBA
10 4 (0.85%) Groovy
10 4 (0.85%) PL/SQL
11 3 (0.64%) Go
11 3 (0.64%) Kotlin
11 3 (0.64%) Ruby
11 3 (0.64%) Swift
12 2 (0.42%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.42%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 82 (17.41%) Security Cleared
2 74 (15.71%) SC Cleared
3 40 (8.49%) Degree
4 17 (3.61%) DBS Check
5 15 (3.18%) AWS Certification
6 13 (2.76%) Azure Certification
7 6 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
7 6 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (0.85%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
8 4 (0.85%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (0.85%) DV Cleared
9 3 (0.64%) CTC Cleared
9 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.42%) CIPD
10 2 (0.42%) CISM
10 2 (0.42%) CISSP
10 2 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
10 2 (0.42%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.42%) PMP
11 1 (0.21%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (6.58%) Data Quality
2 29 (6.16%) Accessibility
3 14 (2.97%) QA
4 13 (2.76%) GDPR
5 10 (2.12%) Actionable Recommendations
6 6 (1.27%) WCAG
7 5 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (1.06%) GRC
7 5 (1.06%) SLA
8 4 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.64%) NIST
9 3 (0.64%) PMO
10 2 (0.42%) Def Stans
10 2 (0.42%) ISO 22301
10 2 (0.42%) NCSC
10 2 (0.42%) PSD2
11 1 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.21%) ISO 31000
11 1 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 37 (7.86%) Active Directory
2 24 (5.10%) Docker
3 13 (2.76%) Hyper-V
4 11 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (1.27%) KVM
6 6 (1.27%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.27%) vSphere
7 4 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.42%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 51 (10.83%) Terraform
2 31 (6.58%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.46%) Grafana
4 14 (2.97%) Ansible
4 14 (2.97%) Prometheus
5 8 (1.70%) Kibana
5 8 (1.70%) Microsoft Intune
6 6 (1.27%) IBM BigFix
6 6 (1.27%) vCenter Server
7 4 (0.85%) SCCM
8 3 (0.64%) Argo
8 3 (0.64%) Rancher
8 3 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.42%) Consul
9 2 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.42%) Packer
10 1 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
10 1 (0.21%) PaperCut
10 1 (0.21%) RSA Archer
10 1 (0.21%) vRealize
Vendors
1 78 (16.56%) Microsoft
2 28 (5.94%) Databricks
3 19 (4.03%) SAP
3 19 (4.03%) ServiceNow
4 17 (3.61%) Google
4 17 (3.61%) Oracle
5 15 (3.18%) Dynatrace
5 15 (3.18%) Siemens
5 15 (3.18%) VMware
6 12 (2.55%) Salesforce
7 7 (1.49%) IBM
8 6 (1.27%) Atlassian
9 3 (0.64%) Acronis
9 3 (0.64%) Adobe
9 3 (0.64%) AppDynamics
9 3 (0.64%) Cisco
9 3 (0.64%) Dell
9 3 (0.64%) MuleSoft
10 2 (0.42%) Citrix
10 2 (0.42%) Commvault