Influencing Skills Contract Job Trends in England

Influencing Skills
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Influencing Skills in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Influencing Skills over the 6 months leading up to 26 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 246 209
Rank change year-on-year +54 -37 -48
Contract jobs citing Influencing Skills 522 257 412
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.48% 1.00% 1.11%
As % of the General category 2.50% 1.59% 1.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 137 277
10th Percentile £401 £360 £400
25th Percentile £463 £507 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £573 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -0.43% - +4.55%
75th Percentile £675 £678 £675
90th Percentile £831 £772 £775
UK median daily rate £560 £550 £550
% change year-on-year +1.82% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 10 28
10th Percentile £25.40 £23.53 £19.98
25th Percentile £37.00 £25.26 £34.88
Median hourly rate £40.73 £32.50 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +25.32% -14.74% -38.02%
75th Percentile £52.31 £75.00 -
90th Percentile £94.11 £87.85 £42.52
UK median hourly rate £40.73 £32.50 £38.12
% change year-on-year +25.32% -14.74% -38.02%

All General Skills
England

Influencing Skills 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 in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 20,871 16,137 21,991
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 59.02% 62.63% 59.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,227 9,981 14,442
10th Percentile £300 £300 £264
25th Percentile £406 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,297 533 1,578
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.62 £13.18
25th Percentile £17.05 £20.19 £15.17
Median hourly rate £23.58 £30.81 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.47% +18.48% -13.33%
75th Percentile £55.00 £60.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £23.58 £30.00 £26.00
% change year-on-year -21.42% +15.38% -7.52%

Influencing Skills
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Influencing Skills job vacancy trend in England

Influencing Skills
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Influencing Skills.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Influencing Skills

Influencing Skills
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Influencing Skills in England over the 6 months to 26 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Influencing Skills in England

Influencing Skills
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Influencing Skills.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Influencing Skills

Influencing Skills
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Influencing Skills in England over the 6 months to 26 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Influencing Skills in England

Influencing Skills
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 Influencing Skills within the England region over the 6 months to 26 February 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 +74 255 £625 +6.38% 105
North of England -3 90 £476 -10.06% 54
South East +4 72 £589 -1.83% 79
Midlands -29 60 £458 -24.19% 32
North West +8 57 £469 +18.58% 36
West Midlands -33 45 £438 -27.92% 20
Yorkshire -45 27 £525 -4.55% 16
South West -10 26 £627 +4.42% 24
East Midlands -23 14 £490 -6.67% 12
East of England -23 8 £565 +12.21% 13
North East - 6 £500 - 2
Influencing Skills
UK

Influencing Skills
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 32 (6.13%) Confluence
2 11 (2.11%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.53%) Apache
3 8 (1.53%) JBoss
3 8 (1.53%) WebLogic
4 7 (1.34%) CICS
5 4 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.77%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.57%) CMS
7 2 (0.38%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.38%) SAP EP
8 1 (0.19%) nginx
Applications
1 29 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (5.17%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (3.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (2.11%) Microsoft Project
5 7 (1.34%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.38%) Sketch
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.19%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.19%) InVision
7 1 (0.19%) OmniGraffle
7 1 (0.19%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 14 (2.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.57%) Salesforce CRM
2 3 (0.57%) SAP CO
2 3 (0.57%) SAP FI
2 3 (0.57%) SAP FI/CO
2 3 (0.57%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.38%) Aladdin
3 2 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.38%) SAP CRM
3 2 (0.38%) SAP ERP
3 2 (0.38%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.19%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle FAH
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.19%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.19%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 1 (0.19%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 85 (16.28%) Azure
2 59 (11.30%) AWS
3 32 (6.13%) GCP
4 31 (5.94%) Power Platform
5 28 (5.36%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (4.98%) SaaS
7 23 (4.41%) Microsoft 365
8 15 (2.87%) OpenShift
9 11 (2.11%) Entra ID
10 9 (1.72%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (1.72%) SuccessFactors
11 6 (1.15%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (1.15%) iPaaS
12 5 (0.96%) Figma
12 5 (0.96%) GitHub
12 5 (0.96%) IaaS
12 5 (0.96%) Snowflake
12 5 (0.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 4 (0.77%) dbt
13 4 (0.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.87%) Firewall
2 7 (1.34%) DNS
3 6 (1.15%) Network Security
4 5 (0.96%) DHCP
5 4 (0.77%) BGP
5 4 (0.77%) Cisco ASA
5 4 (0.77%) MPLS
5 4 (0.77%) OSPF
5 4 (0.77%) VPN
6 3 (0.57%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (0.57%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 3 (0.57%) IPv4
6 3 (0.57%) IPv6
6 3 (0.57%) LAN
6 3 (0.57%) VLAN
6 3 (0.57%) VXLAN
6 3 (0.57%) WAN
6 3 (0.57%) Wireless
6 3 (0.57%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (5.75%) Power BI
2 12 (2.30%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.72%) Metadata
3 9 (1.72%) MongoDB
3 9 (1.72%) Oracle Reports
3 9 (1.72%) Tableau
4 8 (1.53%) Data Lake
5 7 (1.34%) DataStage
6 5 (0.96%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 5 (0.96%) SQL Server
7 3 (0.57%) BigQuery
7 3 (0.57%) Data Vault
7 3 (0.57%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.38%) GIS
8 2 (0.38%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.38%) Power Query
9 1 (0.19%) DB2
Development Applications
1 50 (9.58%) JIRA
2 21 (4.02%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.11%) Git
4 10 (1.92%) Selenium
5 9 (1.72%) GitLab
6 8 (1.53%) Eclipse
6 8 (1.53%) IntelliJ
6 8 (1.53%) JUnit
7 4 (0.77%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.38%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.19%) Axure RP
9 1 (0.19%) Balsamiq
9 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.19%) WebDriver
General
1 297 (56.90%) Social Skills
2 159 (30.46%) Finance
3 105 (20.11%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (12.26%) Public Sector
5 40 (7.66%) Presentation Skills
6 31 (5.94%) Banking
7 30 (5.75%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (4.79%) Retail
9 19 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
10 14 (2.68%) Legal
10 14 (2.68%) Marketing
11 13 (2.49%) Local Government
12 12 (2.30%) Front Office
13 10 (1.92%) Financial Institution
13 10 (1.92%) Manufacturing
14 9 (1.72%) Law
14 9 (1.72%) Publishing
14 9 (1.72%) Telecoms
15 8 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.77%) Military
Job Titles
1 89 (17.05%) Lead
2 86 (16.48%) Architect
3 75 (14.37%) Analyst
4 56 (10.73%) Business Analyst
5 54 (10.34%) Senior
6 36 (6.90%) Project Manager
7 26 (4.98%) Programme Manager
8 24 (4.60%) Solutions Architect
9 22 (4.21%) Change Manager
10 19 (3.64%) Product Manager
11 17 (3.26%) Designer
12 13 (2.49%) CyberArk Architect
12 13 (2.49%) Senior Analyst
13 11 (2.11%) Business Manager
13 11 (2.11%) Senior Business Analyst
13 11 (2.11%) Software Engineer
14 10 (1.92%) Enterprise Architect
14 10 (1.92%) Lead Architect
15 9 (1.72%) Data Analyst
15 9 (1.72%) Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.07%) Middleware
2 14 (2.68%) OpenID
3 13 (2.49%) LDAP
3 13 (2.49%) SAML
4 12 (2.30%) REST
5 11 (2.11%) Kafka
6 10 (1.92%) Spring
7 9 (1.72%) HTML
7 9 (1.72%) JSON
7 9 (1.72%) SOAP
8 8 (1.53%) EJB
8 8 (1.53%) Hibernate
8 8 (1.53%) HTML5
8 8 (1.53%) J2EE
8 8 (1.53%) J2SE
8 8 (1.53%) Play Framework
8 8 (1.53%) XML
9 6 (1.15%) .NET
9 6 (1.15%) Oracle Fusion
9 6 (1.15%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 48 (9.20%) Product Ownership
2 30 (5.75%) Management Information System
3 27 (5.17%) Onboarding
4 24 (4.60%) Cloud Native
5 16 (3.07%) Data Centre
6 12 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
6 12 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (1.53%) Distributed Systems
8 8 (1.53%) NHS
8 8 (1.53%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.34%) BYOD
9 7 (1.34%) Mainframe
9 7 (1.34%) Public Cloud
9 7 (1.34%) VSAM
10 6 (1.15%) e-Learning
11 5 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (0.96%) Fixed Income
11 5 (0.96%) Learning Management System
11 5 (0.96%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.64%) Unix
2 15 (2.87%) Linux
3 14 (2.68%) Windows
4 7 (1.34%) AIX
4 7 (1.34%) Solaris
5 6 (1.15%) VMS
6 4 (0.77%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.57%) Android
7 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.19%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (38.70%) Stakeholder Management
2 185 (35.44%) Agile
3 142 (27.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 125 (23.95%) Problem-Solving
5 106 (20.31%) Continuous Improvement
6 96 (18.39%) Roadmaps
7 85 (16.28%) Decision-Making
8 76 (14.56%) DevOps
9 73 (13.98%) Project Management
10 70 (13.41%) Change Management
11 69 (13.22%) AI
12 58 (11.11%) Mentoring
12 58 (11.11%) Project Delivery
12 58 (11.11%) Scrum
13 52 (9.96%) CI/CD
14 49 (9.39%) Coaching
15 48 (9.20%) Risk Management
16 46 (8.81%) Analytics
17 45 (8.62%) Strategic Thinking
18 43 (8.24%) Enterprise Architecture
Programming Languages
1 34 (6.51%) Python
2 29 (5.56%) SQL
3 28 (5.36%) Java
4 8 (1.53%) Scala
5 7 (1.34%) COBOL
6 6 (1.15%) PowerShell
7 5 (0.96%) JavaScript
8 4 (0.77%) Bash
8 4 (0.77%) C#
8 4 (0.77%) Ruby
9 2 (0.38%) ABAP
9 2 (0.38%) R
10 1 (0.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.19%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 106 (20.31%) Security Cleared
2 91 (17.43%) SC Cleared
3 72 (13.79%) Degree
4 13 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (2.30%) PMI Certification
6 10 (1.92%) ITIL Certification
7 9 (1.72%) Azure Certification
7 9 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.72%) PMP
8 8 (1.53%) AWS Certification
8 8 (1.53%) Master's Degree
9 7 (1.34%) CISSP
10 5 (0.96%) APMG
10 5 (0.96%) CBAP
10 5 (0.96%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (0.96%) CSPO
10 5 (0.96%) IIBA
10 5 (0.96%) ISEB
10 5 (0.96%) ISTQB
10 5 (0.96%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (6.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 23 (4.41%) NIST
3 19 (3.64%) QA
4 18 (3.45%) NCSC
4 18 (3.45%) PMO
5 17 (3.26%) GDPR
6 16 (3.07%) Accessibility
7 14 (2.68%) Data Quality
8 8 (1.53%) GRC
9 6 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (1.15%) WCAG
10 5 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.96%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.96%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.77%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.77%) SLA
12 3 (0.57%) COBIT
13 2 (0.38%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.19%) Def Stans
14 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 14 (2.68%) Docker
1 14 (2.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (0.96%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.96%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (0.38%) vSphere
4 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 27 (5.17%) Kubernetes
2 26 (4.98%) Terraform
3 8 (1.53%) Puppet
4 6 (1.15%) Ansible
5 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (0.77%) SCCM
6 2 (0.38%) Rancher
7 1 (0.19%) Argo
7 1 (0.19%) Consul
7 1 (0.19%) logstash
7 1 (0.19%) Packer
7 1 (0.19%) Podman
7 1 (0.19%) RSA Archer
7 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 52 (9.96%) Microsoft
2 31 (5.94%) SAP
3 24 (4.60%) ServiceNow
4 20 (3.83%) VMware
5 19 (3.64%) Oracle
6 18 (3.45%) Salesforce
7 15 (2.87%) CyberArk
8 14 (2.68%) Workday
9 13 (2.49%) Splunk
10 11 (2.11%) Google
11 9 (1.72%) Ariba
11 9 (1.72%) IBM
12 8 (1.53%) webMethods
13 7 (1.34%) Databricks
14 6 (1.15%) Avaloq
14 6 (1.15%) Cisco
14 6 (1.15%) Citrix
14 6 (1.15%) F5
15 5 (0.96%) Fortinet
15 5 (0.96%) Palo Alto