Actionable Recommendations Contract Job Trends in England

Actionable Recommendations
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Actionable Recommendations skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 503 450 472
Rank change year-on-year -53 +22 +106
Contract jobs citing Actionable Recommendations 121 62 61
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.26% 0.22% 0.18%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.52% 1.30% 1.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 40 33
10th Percentile £375 £358 £305
25th Percentile £414 £418 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £575
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -18.26% +9.52%
75th Percentile £580 £531 £725
90th Percentile £745 £603 £850
UK median daily rate £475 £470 £550
% change year-on-year +1.06% -14.55% +6.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 3
10th Percentile - - £22.30
25th Percentile - - £23.88
Median hourly rate £33.98 £25.00 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.92% -10.71% -
75th Percentile £50.98 - £36.63
90th Percentile £61.18 - £40.90
UK median hourly rate £33.98 £25.00 £28.00
% change year-on-year +35.92% -10.71% -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
England

Actionable Recommendations falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 7,974 4,774 4,357
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.45% 17.17% 13.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,092 3,110 2,723
10th Percentile £340 £281 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £610 £622 £638
90th Percentile £715 £725 £755
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 539 227 270
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.13 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.87 £14.10
Median hourly rate £38.72 £31.64 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +22.38% +15.05% -21.99%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.54
90th Percentile £80.00 £87.35 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £38.11 £28.18 £26.62
% change year-on-year +35.24% +5.86% -23.94%

Actionable Recommendations
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Actionable Recommendations relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Actionable Recommendations job vacancy trend in England

Actionable Recommendations
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Actionable Recommendations.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Actionable Recommendations

Actionable Recommendations
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Actionable Recommendations in England over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Actionable Recommendations in England

Actionable Recommendations
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Actionable Recommendations.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Actionable Recommendations

Actionable Recommendations
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Actionable Recommendations in England over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Actionable Recommendations in England

Actionable Recommendations
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Actionable Recommendations within the England region over the 6 months to 17 August 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
London -40 63 £518 +7.25% 79
North of England -64 19 £475 - 30
South East -54 17 £475 +2.15% 40
Yorkshire -32 13 £500 -4.76% 12
Midlands -39 13 £463 -1.07% 13
West Midlands -46 9 £475 +3.26% 8
North West -36 5 £420 -6.67% 13
East Midlands -15 4 £400 -15.79% 5
East of England -18 3 £500 - 4
South West -41 2 - - 6
North East -42 1 £388 -13.89% 5
Actionable Recommendations
UK

Actionable Recommendations
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 5 (4.13%) CMS
2 4 (3.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 4 (3.31%) Sitecore CMS
3 2 (1.65%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (4.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.48%) CPLEX
2 3 (2.48%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.83%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.83%) SPSS
3 1 (0.83%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 4 (3.31%) Shopify
2 3 (2.48%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.83%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 18 (14.88%) Azure
2 12 (9.92%) AWS
3 9 (7.44%) Power Platform
4 8 (6.61%) GitHub
4 8 (6.61%) Microsoft Copilot
5 6 (4.96%) GitHub Actions
5 6 (4.96%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (4.13%) Adobe Analytics
6 5 (4.13%) GCP
6 5 (4.13%) Google Analytics
6 5 (4.13%) SaaS
7 4 (3.31%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (3.31%) Entra ID
7 4 (3.31%) Siteimprove
8 3 (2.48%) Anthropic Claude
8 3 (2.48%) ChatGPT
8 3 (2.48%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (2.48%) Google Gemini
8 3 (2.48%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (2.48%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 6 (4.96%) Broadband
2 4 (3.31%) Network Security
3 3 (2.48%) Firewall
4 1 (0.83%) Kerberos
4 1 (0.83%) LAN
4 1 (0.83%) MQTT
4 1 (0.83%) SMS
4 1 (0.83%) WAN
4 1 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (6.61%) Power BI
2 7 (5.79%) Tableau
3 4 (3.31%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.65%) Big Data
4 2 (1.65%) BigQuery
4 2 (1.65%) Data Lake
4 2 (1.65%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.83%) Looker
5 1 (0.83%) Metadata
5 1 (0.83%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.83%) Qlik Sense
Development Applications
1 7 (5.79%) Git
2 6 (4.96%) JMeter
2 6 (4.96%) LoadRunner
3 4 (3.31%) Jenkins
3 4 (3.31%) Visual Website Optimizer
4 3 (2.48%) Gatling
5 2 (1.65%) eggPlant
5 2 (1.65%) PowerBuilder
6 1 (0.83%) MLflow
General
1 49 (40.50%) Social Skills
2 42 (34.71%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (14.88%) Public Sector
4 14 (11.57%) Finance
5 13 (10.74%) Influencing Skills
6 10 (8.26%) Marketing
7 6 (4.96%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (4.96%) Manufacturing
7 6 (4.96%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (4.13%) Aviation
8 5 (4.13%) Police
8 5 (4.13%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (3.31%) Publishing
10 3 (2.48%) Banking
10 3 (2.48%) Financial Institution
10 3 (2.48%) Legal
10 3 (2.48%) Military
10 3 (2.48%) Retail
10 3 (2.48%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 24 (19.83%) Analyst
2 19 (15.70%) Consultant
3 18 (14.88%) Senior
4 12 (9.92%) User Researcher
5 11 (9.09%) Lead
6 8 (6.61%) Architect
7 7 (5.79%) Business Analyst
7 7 (5.79%) Data Scientist
7 7 (5.79%) Senior Consultant
8 6 (4.96%) Data Analyst
9 4 (3.31%) Configuration Analyst
9 4 (3.31%) Senior Analyst
9 4 (3.31%) User Experience Researcher
10 3 (2.48%) Integration Engineer
10 3 (2.48%) Performance Engineer
10 3 (2.48%) Performance Test Engineer
10 3 (2.48%) Project Manager
10 3 (2.48%) Senior User Experience Researcher
10 3 (2.48%) Senior User Researcher
10 3 (2.48%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.96%) Middleware
2 5 (4.13%) ATL
2 5 (4.13%) CSS
2 5 (4.13%) HTML
2 5 (4.13%) Kafka
3 4 (3.31%) Elastic Stack
3 4 (3.31%) REST
4 3 (2.48%) PyTorch
4 3 (2.48%) TensorFlow
5 2 (1.65%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.65%) OLE
5 2 (1.65%) Pandas
6 1 (0.83%) Django
6 1 (0.83%) LDAP
6 1 (0.83%) OAuth
6 1 (0.83%) OpenID
6 1 (0.83%) RabbitMQ
6 1 (0.83%) React
6 1 (0.83%) SAML
6 1 (0.83%) Semantic HTML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.09%) Management Information System
2 8 (6.61%) Social Media
3 6 (4.96%) Data Protection Act
3 6 (4.96%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (3.31%) Cloud Native
4 4 (3.31%) Data Structures
4 4 (3.31%) Security Posture
5 3 (2.48%) NHS
6 2 (1.65%) AI Agents
6 2 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (1.65%) Client/Server
6 2 (1.65%) Data Centre
6 2 (1.65%) Distributed Systems
6 2 (1.65%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.65%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.83%) e-Learning
7 1 (0.83%) FMCG
7 1 (0.83%) PMI
7 1 (0.83%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.83%) Android
1 1 (0.83%) Linux
1 1 (0.83%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (100.00%) Actionable Insight
2 34 (28.10%) Decision-Making
3 30 (24.79%) Agile
4 26 (21.49%) Analytics
4 26 (21.49%) Roadmaps
5 22 (18.18%) Continuous Improvement
5 22 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (18.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 22 (18.18%) Stakeholder Management
6 19 (15.70%) AI
7 17 (14.05%) User Research
8 15 (12.40%) GAP Analysis
9 14 (11.57%) Business Intelligence
9 14 (11.57%) Service Design
10 13 (10.74%) Business Analysis
11 12 (9.92%) Migration
11 12 (9.92%) Qualitative Research
11 12 (9.92%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
12 11 (9.09%) DevOps
12 11 (9.09%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 28 (23.14%) Python
2 20 (16.53%) SQL
3 11 (9.09%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.48%) Java
4 3 (2.48%) R
5 2 (1.65%) Bicep
5 2 (1.65%) PowerShell
5 2 (1.65%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.83%) C#
6 1 (0.83%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 18 (14.88%) Security Cleared
2 14 (11.57%) SC Cleared
3 11 (9.09%) Degree
4 2 (1.65%) APMG
4 2 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (1.65%) CISSP
4 2 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (1.65%) IIBA
4 2 (1.65%) PMI Certification
4 2 (1.65%) PMP
5 1 (0.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 1 (0.83%) CCA
5 1 (0.83%) CCSP
5 1 (0.83%) CISA
5 1 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (0.83%) CTC Cleared
5 1 (0.83%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.83%) Numerate Degree
5 1 (0.83%) PhD
5 1 (0.83%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (8.26%) Accessibility
2 9 (7.44%) GDPR
3 8 (6.61%) QA
4 7 (5.79%) Data Quality
5 5 (4.13%) PMO
5 5 (4.13%) WCAG
6 3 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (2.48%) PCI DSS
7 2 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (1.65%) NIST
8 1 (0.83%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.83%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.83%) NCSC
8 1 (0.83%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.83%) PERC
8 1 (0.83%) SOC 2
System Software
1 6 (4.96%) Docker
2 2 (1.65%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 7 (5.79%) Kubernetes
2 6 (4.96%) Grafana
3 5 (4.13%) Terraform
4 2 (1.65%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 13 (10.74%) Microsoft
2 10 (8.26%) Oracle
3 7 (5.79%) Google
4 5 (4.13%) Adobe
4 5 (4.13%) Amplitude
4 5 (4.13%) Databricks
4 5 (4.13%) Dynatrace
4 5 (4.13%) New Relic
4 5 (4.13%) Splunk
5 4 (3.31%) IBM
5 4 (3.31%) Optimizely
5 4 (3.31%) Sitecore
5 4 (3.31%) Tealium
6 3 (2.48%) OpenAI
6 3 (2.48%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.65%) AppDynamics
7 2 (1.65%) Planon
7 2 (1.65%) Qualtrics
7 2 (1.65%) SAP
8 1 (0.83%) Foundry