User Stories Contract Job Trends in England

User Story
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring User Stories skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 175 135
Rank change year-on-year +42 -40 -19
Contract jobs citing User Stories 715 392 669
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.09% 1.50% 1.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.39% 1.68% 2.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 509 254 463
10th Percentile £352 £350 £375
25th Percentile £413 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £650 £682 £675
UK median daily rate £494 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -1.30% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 0 8
10th Percentile £39.55 - £31.71
25th Percentile £48.86 - £45.43
Median hourly rate £67.44 - £52.50
75th Percentile £74.26 - £66.39
90th Percentile £80.11 - £69.04
UK median hourly rate £67.44 £24.30 £52.50
% change year-on-year +177.57% -53.72% -17.97%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

User Stories falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 29,953 23,398 33,216
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.52% 89.80% 87.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,141 14,488 22,145
10th Percentile £310 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,876 738 1,974
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £13.31
25th Percentile £18.21 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.37% - -
75th Percentile £60.30 £64.50 £60.36
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.42
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -2.99% +2.15%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

User Stories job vacancy trend in England

User Stories
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing User Stories.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing User Stories

User Stories
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Stories in England over the 6 months to 14 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for User Stories in England

User Stories
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing User Stories.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing User Stories

User Stories
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Stories in England over the 6 months to 14 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for User Stories in England

User Stories
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 User Stories within the England region over the 6 months to 14 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 +55 398 £500 -4.76% 54
North of England +19 128 £485 +17.58% 36
South East -20 72 £483 -8.10% 66
North West +7 63 £404 -10.33% 19
Midlands -9 63 £475 +2.70% 24
Yorkshire -19 49 £513 +13.89% 6
West Midlands -17 44 £492 +1.86% 17
South West -10 26 £475 -20.83% 9
East Midlands -13 19 £425 +19.38% 7
North East -3 18 £488 +21.88% 11
East of England -22 15 £550 +71.14% 14
User Stories
UK

User Stories
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
1 154 (21.54%) Confluence
2 21 (2.94%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.68%) CMS
4 9 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
5 8 (1.12%) SAS
6 3 (0.42%) Anypoint
6 3 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.42%) Drupal
6 3 (0.42%) WordPress
7 2 (0.28%) Apache
7 2 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.28%) Traefik
7 2 (0.28%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.14%) Kentico
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 42 (5.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (4.62%) MS Visio
3 29 (4.06%) Microsoft Office
4 22 (3.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.70%) Adobe XD
5 5 (0.70%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.70%) Sketch
6 4 (0.56%) Notion
6 4 (0.56%) Trello
7 3 (0.42%) InVision
7 3 (0.42%) Zeplin
8 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (2.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
2 6 (0.84%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.70%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.42%) Oracle Receivables
4 3 (0.42%) ProductWriter
5 2 (0.28%) Endur
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle EBS R12
5 2 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.28%) Primavera
5 2 (0.28%) Shopify
6 1 (0.14%) Exchequer
6 1 (0.14%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.14%) HFM
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.14%) SAP BPC
6 1 (0.14%) Temenos T24
6 1 (0.14%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 121 (16.92%) Azure
2 78 (10.91%) AWS
3 64 (8.95%) Power Platform
4 48 (6.71%) Azure DevOps
5 29 (4.06%) GCP
6 25 (3.50%) GitHub
6 25 (3.50%) Microsoft 365
7 21 (2.94%) Dynamics 365
8 20 (2.80%) PowerApps
9 19 (2.66%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 17 (2.38%) Power Automate
10 17 (2.38%) SaaS
11 16 (2.24%) Miro
12 15 (2.10%) Figma
12 15 (2.10%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (1.96%) Snowflake
14 13 (1.82%) Lucidchart
14 13 (1.82%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
15 11 (1.54%) Entra ID
16 10 (1.40%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.26%) WebEx
2 5 (0.70%) Firewall
3 4 (0.56%) DNS
3 4 (0.56%) HTTP
4 3 (0.42%) BGP
4 3 (0.42%) FTP
4 3 (0.42%) VLAN
5 2 (0.28%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.28%) VPN
6 1 (0.14%) Calico
6 1 (0.14%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.14%) LAN
6 1 (0.14%) Network Security
6 1 (0.14%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.14%) WAN
6 1 (0.14%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (7.13%) Power BI
2 24 (3.36%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (2.66%) Tableau
4 15 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
5 14 (1.96%) BigQuery
6 13 (1.82%) Metadata
7 11 (1.54%) NoSQL
7 11 (1.54%) SQL Server
8 7 (0.98%) Amazon Athena
8 7 (0.98%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.98%) Star Schema
9 6 (0.84%) Data Vault
10 5 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.70%) Big Data
10 5 (0.70%) MongoDB
10 5 (0.70%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.56%) Oracle Database
11 4 (0.56%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.42%) Delta Lake
12 3 (0.42%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 200 (27.97%) JIRA
2 30 (4.20%) Jenkins
3 16 (2.24%) Cucumber
3 16 (2.24%) Git
4 15 (2.10%) GitLab
5 14 (1.96%) JUnit
5 14 (1.96%) Selenium
6 13 (1.82%) Postman
7 8 (1.12%) JMeter
7 8 (1.12%) Zephyr
8 7 (0.98%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.84%) REST Assured
9 6 (0.84%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.70%) Axure RP
10 5 (0.70%) Cypress.io
10 5 (0.70%) TeamCity
10 5 (0.70%) TestRail
11 4 (0.56%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.56%) ERwin
11 4 (0.56%) PowerDesigner
General
1 302 (42.24%) Social Skills
2 198 (27.69%) Finance
3 161 (22.52%) Analytical Skills
4 92 (12.87%) Public Sector
5 73 (10.21%) Banking
6 54 (7.55%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.17%) Presentation Skills
8 35 (4.90%) Retail
9 27 (3.78%) Influencing Skills
10 25 (3.50%) Legal
11 22 (3.08%) Marketing
12 15 (2.10%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (1.96%) Front Office
13 14 (1.96%) Investment Banking
14 12 (1.68%) Back Office
15 11 (1.54%) Financial Institution
15 11 (1.54%) Military
15 11 (1.54%) Retail Banking
16 10 (1.40%) Telecoms
17 8 (1.12%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 370 (51.75%) Analyst
2 349 (48.81%) Business Analyst
3 113 (15.80%) Senior
4 76 (10.63%) Product Owner
5 71 (9.93%) Senior Analyst
6 65 (9.09%) Senior Business Analyst
7 49 (6.85%) Developer
8 39 (5.45%) Technical Analyst
9 36 (5.03%) Technical Business Analyst
10 34 (4.76%) Product Manager
11 30 (4.20%) Lead
12 27 (3.78%) Salesforce Business Analyst
13 25 (3.50%) Salesforce Analyst
14 23 (3.22%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
15 22 (3.08%) Designer
16 20 (2.80%) Financial Analyst
17 19 (2.66%) Digital Business Analyst
17 19 (2.66%) Test Analyst
18 18 (2.52%) Consultant
18 18 (2.52%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.08%) REST
2 18 (2.52%) React
3 15 (2.10%) JSON
3 15 (2.10%) Spring
3 15 (2.10%) XML
4 14 (1.96%) Spring Boot
5 12 (1.68%) ADO
5 12 (1.68%) Kafka
6 11 (1.54%) RESTful
7 10 (1.40%) HTML
7 10 (1.40%) Node.js
8 9 (1.26%) Lightning Web Components
8 9 (1.26%) Web Services
8 9 (1.26%) XMPP
9 8 (1.12%) Apache NiFi
9 8 (1.12%) CSS
9 8 (1.12%) VML
10 7 (0.98%) Hibernate
10 7 (0.98%) Playwright
10 7 (0.98%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 217 (30.35%) Product Ownership
2 21 (2.94%) Analytical Mindset
3 19 (2.66%) Onboarding
4 17 (2.38%) PMI
5 15 (2.10%) Data Structures
6 12 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (1.54%) Data Protection Act
8 10 (1.40%) CMDB
9 9 (1.26%) Cloud Native
9 9 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
10 8 (1.12%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 8 (1.12%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.12%) NHS
11 7 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (0.98%) Low-Code
11 7 (0.98%) Mobile App
11 7 (0.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
12 6 (0.84%) Hybrid Cloud
13 5 (0.70%) Data Centre
13 5 (0.70%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 21 (2.94%) Windows
2 17 (2.38%) Linux
3 8 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 8 (1.12%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.56%) VMS
5 1 (0.14%) Android
5 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 498 (69.65%) Agile
2 259 (36.22%) Acceptance Criteria
3 222 (31.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 191 (26.71%) Scrum
5 175 (24.48%) Requirements Gathering
6 171 (23.92%) Workshop Facilitation
7 156 (21.82%) Business Analysis
8 142 (19.86%) Problem-Solving
9 132 (18.46%) DevOps
10 122 (17.06%) User Acceptance Testing
11 120 (16.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 108 (15.10%) Roadmaps
13 98 (13.71%) Migration
14 94 (13.15%) Data Modelling
15 90 (12.59%) Sprint Planning
16 89 (12.45%) Use Case
17 88 (12.31%) Product Backlog
18 86 (12.03%) Backlog Management
19 80 (11.19%) Analytics
19 80 (11.19%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 95 (13.29%) SQL
2 56 (7.83%) Python
3 35 (4.90%) Java
4 19 (2.66%) JavaScript
5 17 (2.38%) C#
5 17 (2.38%) PowerShell
6 14 (1.96%) Bash
7 10 (1.40%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.26%) Perl
8 9 (1.26%) Scala
9 6 (0.84%) Korn
10 5 (0.70%) Apex Code
11 3 (0.42%) Go
11 3 (0.42%) PHP
11 3 (0.42%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.42%) VBA
11 3 (0.42%) XPath
12 2 (0.28%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.28%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.14%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 131 (18.32%) Security Cleared
2 106 (14.83%) SC Cleared
3 85 (11.89%) Degree
4 41 (5.73%) CBAP
5 29 (4.06%) IIBA
6 27 (3.78%) BPSS Clearance
7 21 (2.94%) PMI Certification
8 20 (2.80%) CSPO
9 8 (1.12%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.84%) CCDP
10 6 (0.84%) CCNA
10 6 (0.84%) CCNP
10 6 (0.84%) CFA
10 6 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (0.84%) DV Cleared
10 6 (0.84%) MBA
11 5 (0.70%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.70%) Azure Certification
11 5 (0.70%) PMP
12 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (13.43%) QA
2 39 (5.45%) Accessibility
3 25 (3.50%) Data Quality
4 23 (3.22%) GDPR
5 17 (2.38%) WCAG
6 11 (1.54%) PSD2
7 8 (1.12%) SLA
8 6 (0.84%) ISO 8583
8 6 (0.84%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.56%) HL7
9 4 (0.56%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.42%) GxP
10 3 (0.42%) SEPA
11 2 (0.28%) Basel III
11 2 (0.28%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.28%) GMP
11 2 (0.28%) NCSC
11 2 (0.28%) PMO
12 1 (0.14%) EMIR
System Software
1 25 (3.50%) Docker
2 11 (1.54%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.14%) etcd
4 1 (0.14%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 30 (4.20%) Kubernetes
2 18 (2.52%) Terraform
3 12 (1.68%) Ansible
4 7 (0.98%) NetBackup
5 5 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (0.70%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.56%) Grafana
6 4 (0.56%) HP Quality Center
6 4 (0.56%) Puppet
7 3 (0.42%) SCCM
8 2 (0.28%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.28%) HP ALM
8 2 (0.28%) Istio
8 2 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.14%) Argo
9 1 (0.14%) CASB
9 1 (0.14%) CloudHub
Vendors
1 111 (15.52%) Microsoft
2 75 (10.49%) Salesforce
3 34 (4.76%) ServiceNow
4 32 (4.48%) SAP
5 29 (4.06%) Oracle
6 19 (2.66%) Databricks
7 15 (2.10%) Red Hat
8 14 (1.96%) VMware
9 12 (1.68%) Cisco
9 12 (1.68%) MuleSoft
10 10 (1.40%) Citrix
11 9 (1.26%) Adobe
11 9 (1.26%) Google
12 7 (0.98%) Commvault
13 6 (0.84%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.84%) Workday
14 5 (0.70%) Cognizant
14 5 (0.70%) Pega
14 5 (0.70%) Zuora
15 4 (0.56%) Atlassian