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 14 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 204 150 171
Rank change year-on-year -54 +21 -2
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 739 624 550
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.37% 1.91% 1.43%
As % of the General category 2.46% 3.00% 2.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 386 240 337
10th Percentile £313 £173 £425
25th Percentile £368 £355 £505
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% -22.92% -
75th Percentile £575 £602 £675
90th Percentile £675 £651 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £410 £500
% change year-on-year +3.66% -18.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 13 5
10th Percentile £13.31 £17.48 £29.60
25th Percentile £14.85 - £42.50
Median hourly rate £19.65 £22.14 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.27% -50.80% -29.13%
75th Percentile £33.84 £22.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £48.22 £72.50 £54.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.29 £22.14 -
% change year-on-year -12.87% - -

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 30,059 20,818 22,215
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.53% 63.69% 57.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,649 12,901 13,405
10th Percentile £313 £275 £288
25th Percentile £419 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,459 1,196 1,125
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.69
25th Percentile £16.38 £16.17 £17.25
Median hourly rate £29.96 £25.15 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.13% -32.03% +34.55%
75th Percentile £53.87 £48.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.25 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.30 £37.00
% change year-on-year +40.85% -42.43% +42.31%

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 14 September 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 14 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Top 17 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 14 September 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 -65 628 £460 -3.16% 5,231
UK excluding London -30 332 £425 +3.66% 3,208
London -74 326 £510 -5.12% 3,043
Work from Home -40 274 £480 -1.54% 2,997
Midlands -16 103 £425 +1.19% 470
North of England -55 80 £425 +21.43% 733
South East -14 77 £450 -9.55% 530
West Midlands -15 75 £425 +2.41% 335
North East +5 53 £425 +6.25% 99
East Midlands -11 28 £164 -63.61% 135
Scotland -27 27 £325 -28.77% 593
South West -40 26 £475 -20.83% 414
North West -55 14 £518 +29.38% 447
Yorkshire -62 13 £425 +112.50% 188
East of England -38 9 £425 +174.19% 224
Wales -9 7 £394 +18.90% 67
Northern Ireland +3 3 - - 210

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 34 (4.60%) SharePoint
2 18 (2.44%) Confluence
3 12 (1.62%) Apache Airflow
4 11 (1.49%) CMS
5 10 (1.35%) Microsoft Exchange
6 9 (1.22%) WordPress
7 7 (0.95%) Apache Spark
8 6 (0.81%) Apache
9 4 (0.54%) Kentico
10 3 (0.41%) Jupyter
11 2 (0.27%) Skype for Business
12 1 (0.14%) Drupal
12 1 (0.14%) JBoss
12 1 (0.14%) nginx
12 1 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 22 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.08%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.41%) AutoCAD
5 3 (0.41%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.41%) Trello
6 2 (0.27%) Acrobat
6 2 (0.27%) Sketch
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.14%) InVision
Business Applications
1 18 (2.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (2.17%) NetSuite
3 8 (1.08%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.68%) Sage X3
4 5 (0.68%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.68%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.54%) Dynamics NAV
5 4 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.27%) SAP Business One
7 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.14%) Hyperion Planning
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.14%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.14%) SAP FS
7 1 (0.14%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 217 (29.36%) Azure
2 125 (16.91%) AWS
3 86 (11.64%) Azure DevOps
4 80 (10.83%) Power Platform
5 63 (8.53%) Microsoft 365
6 50 (6.77%) GCP
7 49 (6.63%) GitHub
8 42 (5.68%) Dynamics 365
9 40 (5.41%) Serverless
10 37 (5.01%) GitHub Actions
11 34 (4.60%) Power Automate
12 28 (3.79%) Amazon EKS
13 27 (3.65%) Entra ID
14 26 (3.52%) Snowflake
15 23 (3.11%) AWS Lambda
16 21 (2.84%) Azure Data Factory
17 18 (2.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 17 (2.30%) dbt
19 16 (2.17%) PowerApps
20 15 (2.03%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (1.89%) Network Security
1 14 (1.89%) VPN
2 13 (1.76%) Firewall
3 12 (1.62%) DNS
4 11 (1.49%) VLAN
5 9 (1.22%) Wireless
6 8 (1.08%) DHCP
6 8 (1.08%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.81%) Structured Cabling
7 6 (0.81%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.81%) WAN
8 5 (0.68%) 3GPP
8 5 (0.68%) 5G
8 5 (0.68%) BGP
8 5 (0.68%) NGN
8 5 (0.68%) OSPF
8 5 (0.68%) Radio Access Network
8 5 (0.68%) SD-WAN
8 5 (0.68%) tcpdump
8 5 (0.68%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (7.17%) Power BI
2 36 (4.87%) PostgreSQL
3 27 (3.65%) SQL Server
4 26 (3.52%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (2.71%) Metadata
5 20 (2.71%) MongoDB
6 13 (1.76%) Power Query
7 10 (1.35%) Amazon RDS
7 10 (1.35%) Data Lake
7 10 (1.35%) NoSQL
8 9 (1.22%) Looker
8 9 (1.22%) Redis
8 9 (1.22%) Relational Database
9 8 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
9 8 (1.08%) Big Data
9 8 (1.08%) Tableau
10 7 (0.95%) Snowflake Schema
11 5 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
11 5 (0.68%) BigQuery
11 5 (0.68%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 45 (6.09%) Git
1 45 (6.09%) JIRA
2 31 (4.19%) Jenkins
3 30 (4.06%) GitLab
4 12 (1.62%) Cypress.io
4 12 (1.62%) Selenium
5 11 (1.49%) Cucumber
5 11 (1.49%) Postman
6 10 (1.35%) fastlane
6 10 (1.35%) WebDriver
7 7 (0.95%) Gradle
7 7 (0.95%) JUnit
7 7 (0.95%) Mockito
8 6 (0.81%) Vite
9 5 (0.68%) Android Studio
9 5 (0.68%) Crashlytics
9 5 (0.68%) Visual Studio
9 5 (0.68%) Xcode
10 4 (0.54%) CircleCI
10 4 (0.54%) SonarQube
General
1 292 (39.51%) Social Skills
2 222 (30.04%) Public Sector
3 195 (26.39%) Finance
4 118 (15.97%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (4.19%) Organisational Skills
6 26 (3.52%) Banking
6 26 (3.52%) Manufacturing
7 23 (3.11%) Local Government
8 21 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
9 20 (2.71%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (2.30%) Law
11 16 (2.17%) Retail
12 14 (1.89%) Legal
12 14 (1.89%) Marketing
12 14 (1.89%) Telecoms
13 8 (1.08%) Pharmaceutical
14 7 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.95%) Publishing
15 6 (0.81%) Military
16 5 (0.68%) Billing
Job Titles
1 122 (16.51%) Developer
2 113 (15.29%) Analyst
3 92 (12.45%) Senior
4 72 (9.74%) Lead
5 58 (7.85%) Architect
6 45 (6.09%) Consultant
7 32 (4.33%) Senior Developer
8 29 (3.92%) Data Engineer
8 29 (3.92%) DevOps Engineer
9 28 (3.79%) Business Analyst
9 28 (3.79%) Data Analyst
10 21 (2.84%) Software Developer
10 21 (2.84%) Support Engineer
11 20 (2.71%) Dynamics 365 Developer
11 20 (2.71%) IT Engineer
12 18 (2.44%) Coordinator
12 18 (2.44%) Project Manager
13 17 (2.30%) IT Support
13 17 (2.30%) Senior Analyst
14 16 (2.17%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (11.50%) Terraform
2 48 (6.50%) RESTful
3 30 (4.06%) .NET
3 30 (4.06%) React
4 27 (3.65%) HTML
4 27 (3.65%) Node.js
5 26 (3.52%) CSS
6 25 (3.38%) GraphQL
6 25 (3.38%) JSON
7 24 (3.25%) Kafka
8 23 (3.11%) REST
9 17 (2.30%) Django
9 17 (2.30%) Spring
9 17 (2.30%) Spring Boot
10 14 (1.89%) PySpark
11 13 (1.76%) OAuth
11 13 (1.76%) XML
12 12 (1.62%) Gherkin
12 12 (1.62%) OpenID
12 12 (1.62%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 69 (9.34%) Onboarding
2 47 (6.36%) Product Ownership
3 38 (5.14%) Cloud Native
4 24 (3.25%) Management Information System
5 22 (2.98%) Legacy Systems
6 17 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
7 16 (2.17%) Data Structures
8 14 (1.89%) Data Centre
9 11 (1.49%) Mobile App
10 10 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (1.35%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.22%) Taxonomies
12 8 (1.08%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.08%) Blog
12 8 (1.08%) Replication
12 8 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
13 7 (0.95%) Security Posture
14 6 (0.81%) EPoS
15 5 (0.68%) Algorithms
15 5 (0.68%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 74 (10.01%) Windows
2 21 (2.84%) Linux
3 17 (2.30%) Windows 10
3 17 (2.30%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.89%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.76%) Android
6 5 (0.68%) Unix
7 4 (0.54%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.54%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.27%) VMS
9 2 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.14%) AIX
10 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (34.78%) Agile
2 177 (23.95%) Problem-Solving
3 167 (22.60%) DevOps
4 159 (21.52%) CI/CD
5 151 (20.43%) Stakeholder Management
6 134 (18.13%) Continuous Improvement
7 126 (17.05%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
8 118 (15.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 113 (15.29%) AI
10 102 (13.80%) Decision-Making
11 100 (13.53%) Analytics
12 81 (10.96%) Migration
13 80 (10.83%) Test Automation
14 77 (10.42%) Mentoring
15 71 (9.61%) Infrastructure as Code
16 67 (9.07%) Validation
17 66 (8.93%) Data Modelling
17 66 (8.93%) Technical Leadership
18 65 (8.80%) Digital Transformation Programme
19 63 (8.53%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 109 (14.75%) Python
2 105 (14.21%) SQL
3 74 (10.01%) JavaScript
4 50 (6.77%) C#
5 42 (5.68%) Java
6 31 (4.19%) TypeScript
7 15 (2.03%) Kotlin
8 14 (1.89%) PowerShell
8 14 (1.89%) Scala
9 12 (1.62%) Bash
9 12 (1.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 10 (1.35%) Go
10 10 (1.35%) Swift
11 8 (1.08%) Bicep
11 8 (1.08%) Ruby
12 6 (0.81%) Groovy
12 6 (0.81%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.68%) PHP
14 4 (0.54%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.54%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 159 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 149 (20.16%) SC Cleared
3 62 (8.39%) Degree
4 34 (4.60%) Microsoft Certification
5 28 (3.79%) DBS Check
6 27 (3.65%) Azure Certification
6 27 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 25 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
8 15 (2.03%) Master's Degree
9 10 (1.35%) ISTQB
10 7 (0.95%) CISSP
11 6 (0.81%) ACCA
11 6 (0.81%) CIMA
11 6 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.68%) AWS Certification
12 5 (0.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 5 (0.68%) CISM
12 5 (0.68%) PhD
12 5 (0.68%) PMP
13 4 (0.54%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (14.88%) Accessibility
2 51 (6.90%) QA
2 51 (6.90%) WCAG
3 45 (6.09%) GDPR
4 43 (5.82%) Data Quality
5 22 (2.98%) SLA
6 17 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 14 (1.89%) NCSC
8 10 (1.35%) PMO
9 9 (1.22%) NIST
10 6 (0.81%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.81%) GRC
11 5 (0.68%) COBIT
11 5 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.27%) Def Stans
13 2 (0.27%) DICOM
13 2 (0.27%) GxP
13 2 (0.27%) HL7
System Software
1 62 (8.39%) Docker
2 44 (5.95%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.95%) Hyper-V
5 5 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.41%) Firmware
8 2 (0.27%) Apache ZooKeeper
8 2 (0.27%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.27%) vSphere
9 1 (0.14%) KVM
9 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 70 (9.47%) Kubernetes
2 34 (4.60%) Grafana
3 27 (3.65%) Prometheus
4 19 (2.57%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (2.30%) Ansible
6 14 (1.89%) SCCM
7 6 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.68%) Consul
9 4 (0.54%) Kibana
9 4 (0.54%) Rancher
10 3 (0.41%) Packer
11 2 (0.27%) HP ALM
11 2 (0.27%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.27%) ITRS Geneos
11 2 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.27%) ZABBIX
11 2 (0.27%) Zipkin
12 1 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 1 (0.14%) Kustomize
12 1 (0.14%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 171 (23.14%) Microsoft
2 34 (4.60%) Google
3 25 (3.38%) Dynatrace
3 25 (3.38%) ServiceNow
4 24 (3.25%) Databricks
5 21 (2.84%) Salesforce
6 20 (2.71%) SAP
7 18 (2.44%) Oracle
8 14 (1.89%) Splunk
9 12 (1.62%) CyberArk
9 12 (1.62%) Sage
10 11 (1.49%) Cisco
11 10 (1.35%) OpenAI
11 10 (1.35%) VMware
12 9 (1.22%) Apple
12 9 (1.22%) PagerDuty
13 8 (1.08%) Qualys
13 8 (1.08%) UiPath
14 7 (0.95%) Aspera
14 7 (0.95%) Signiant