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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 139 163
Rank change year-on-year +15 +24 -39
Contract jobs citing User Stories 982 555 508
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.15% 2.00% 1.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.53% 2.21% 1.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 653 364 346
10th Percentile £361 £353 £357
25th Percentile £413 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
75th Percentile £582 £620 £600
90th Percentile £650 £725 £659
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 3 2
10th Percentile £35.00 £34.70 £33.01
25th Percentile £56.25 £41.75 £33.02
Median hourly rate £70.00 £53.50 £33.04
Median % change year-on-year +30.84% +61.95% -48.38%
75th Percentile £82.68 £63.00 £33.05
90th Percentile £88.00 £68.70 £33.06
UK median hourly rate £71.25 £53.50 £33.04
% change year-on-year +33.18% +61.95% -48.38%

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 38,794 25,132 28,630
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.10% 90.79% 85.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,129 16,058 18,629
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,535 1,418 1,653
10th Percentile £14.56 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.87 £18.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.08
% change year-on-year +68.99% -38.77% -1.96%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 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 +6 566 £525 - 380
North of England -17 136 £500 +8.11% 104
Midlands +2 116 £455 +7.06% 77
West Midlands +13 90 £475 +4.40% 61
South East -40 75 £438 -5.41% 84
North West -11 69 £500 - 53
Yorkshire -29 50 £501 +4.70% 32
South West -14 43 £486 -2.75% 35
East of England +3 32 £495 +9.94% 20
East Midlands -8 26 £440 +17.33% 16
North East -29 18 £425 -4.23% 22
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 (15.68%) Confluence
2 26 (2.65%) CMS
3 21 (2.14%) SharePoint
4 6 (0.61%) Camunda
5 5 (0.51%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.31%) Cloud Foundry
6 3 (0.31%) Headless CMS
6 3 (0.31%) Kentico
6 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.31%) SAS
7 2 (0.20%) JBoss
8 1 (0.10%) Apache
8 1 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.10%) Apache Solr
8 1 (0.10%) Drupal
8 1 (0.10%) Moodle
8 1 (0.10%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.10%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.10%) Totara
Applications
1 44 (4.48%) MS Visio
2 28 (2.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.71%) Notion
6 3 (0.31%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.10%) Gliffy
8 1 (0.10%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (2.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (1.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.61%) Adobe Campaign
3 6 (0.61%) ProductWriter
4 5 (0.51%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.41%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.41%) Eloqua
5 4 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.31%) Actimize
6 3 (0.31%) Dynamics GP
6 3 (0.31%) Dynamics SL
6 3 (0.31%) Infor CloudSuite
6 3 (0.31%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
6 3 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.31%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.31%) SAP SD
7 2 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
7 2 (0.20%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 202 (20.57%) Azure
2 99 (10.08%) Power Platform
3 90 (9.16%) AWS
4 88 (8.96%) Azure DevOps
5 39 (3.97%) Dynamics 365
6 31 (3.16%) GCP
7 28 (2.85%) PowerApps
8 27 (2.75%) GitHub
9 25 (2.55%) Power Automate
9 25 (2.55%) SaaS
10 23 (2.34%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 22 (2.24%) Microsoft 365
12 17 (1.73%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 15 (1.53%) Entra ID
13 15 (1.53%) Snowflake
14 14 (1.43%) Lucidchart
15 13 (1.32%) Figma
16 9 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
17 8 (0.81%) Google Analytics
18 7 (0.71%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.71%) Network Security
2 5 (0.51%) Firewall
3 4 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (0.31%) Broadband
4 3 (0.31%) DNS
4 3 (0.31%) HTTP
4 3 (0.31%) WebEx
5 2 (0.20%) Intranet
5 2 (0.20%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.20%) WAN
5 2 (0.20%) Wireless
6 1 (0.10%) 5G
6 1 (0.10%) FTP
6 1 (0.10%) Internet
6 1 (0.10%) NFC
6 1 (0.10%) NGFW
6 1 (0.10%) SSH
6 1 (0.10%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (5.70%) Power BI
2 41 (4.18%) Metadata
3 30 (3.05%) Data Warehouse
4 17 (1.73%) Relational Database
5 13 (1.32%) SQL Server
6 9 (0.92%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.92%) Parquet
6 9 (0.92%) Tableau
7 8 (0.81%) Big Data
7 8 (0.81%) PostgreSQL
8 7 (0.71%) BigQuery
8 7 (0.71%) Delta Lake
9 5 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.51%) Data Hub
9 5 (0.51%) Data Mining
9 5 (0.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.41%) Star Schema
11 3 (0.31%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.31%) OLAP
11 3 (0.31%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 227 (23.12%) JIRA
2 25 (2.55%) Postman
3 21 (2.14%) Git
4 18 (1.83%) GitLab
5 11 (1.12%) Gradle
6 10 (1.02%) Jenkins
7 9 (0.92%) Selenium
8 8 (0.81%) Team Foundation Server
9 7 (0.71%) Cucumber
10 6 (0.61%) Balsamiq
11 5 (0.51%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 5 (0.51%) Bitbucket
12 4 (0.41%) Maven
12 4 (0.41%) REST Assured
12 4 (0.41%) Zephyr
13 3 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
14 2 (0.20%) JUnit
14 2 (0.20%) Mockito
14 2 (0.20%) SoapUI
14 2 (0.20%) SonarQube
General
1 389 (39.61%) Social Skills
2 269 (27.39%) Finance
3 261 (26.58%) Analytical Skills
4 137 (13.95%) Banking
5 125 (12.73%) Public Sector
6 71 (7.23%) Documentation Skills
7 63 (6.42%) Retail
8 41 (4.18%) Marketing
9 36 (3.67%) Legal
10 30 (3.05%) Influencing Skills
10 30 (3.05%) Investment Banking
11 27 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
12 25 (2.55%) Manufacturing
13 19 (1.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 18 (1.83%) Retail Banking
15 17 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
16 16 (1.63%) Military
16 16 (1.63%) Pharmaceutical
17 15 (1.53%) Aerospace
17 15 (1.53%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 501 (51.02%) Analyst
2 455 (46.33%) Business Analyst
3 129 (13.14%) Senior
4 124 (12.63%) Product Owner
5 96 (9.78%) Developer
6 77 (7.84%) Senior Analyst
6 77 (7.84%) Technical Analyst
7 73 (7.43%) Product Manager
7 73 (7.43%) Senior Business Analyst
8 66 (6.72%) Technical Business Analyst
9 56 (5.70%) Lead
10 40 (4.07%) Salesforce Business Analyst
11 39 (3.97%) Salesforce Analyst
12 29 (2.95%) Data Analyst
13 27 (2.75%) Consultant
14 24 (2.44%) Financial Analyst
15 23 (2.34%) Data Business Analyst
16 22 (2.24%) Digital Business Analyst
16 22 (2.24%) Systems Analyst
17 21 (2.14%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (3.67%) JSON
1 36 (3.67%) REST
2 20 (2.04%) RESTful
3 15 (1.53%) Kafka
4 14 (1.43%) React
5 13 (1.32%) ADO
5 13 (1.32%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.22%) Lightning Web Components
6 12 (1.22%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.12%) HTML
7 11 (1.12%) OAuth
7 11 (1.12%) XML
8 9 (0.92%) .NET
8 9 (0.92%) Middleware
8 9 (0.92%) OpenID
8 9 (0.92%) SOAP
9 8 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
9 8 (0.81%) SailPoint
9 8 (0.81%) Vue
10 7 (0.71%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 345 (35.13%) Product Ownership
2 43 (4.38%) Onboarding
3 37 (3.77%) Analytical Mindset
4 30 (3.05%) Data Protection Act
5 27 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
6 26 (2.65%) Cloud Native
7 24 (2.44%) CMDB
8 21 (2.14%) Data Structures
8 21 (2.14%) Management Information System
9 20 (2.04%) AI Agents
9 20 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (1.83%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
12 13 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 13 (1.32%) Life Science
13 12 (1.22%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 12 (1.22%) Mobile App
14 11 (1.12%) FMCG
15 10 (1.02%) Operational Technology
15 10 (1.02%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.12%) Linux
2 5 (0.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 5 (0.51%) Unix
2 5 (0.51%) Windows
3 4 (0.41%) Android
3 4 (0.41%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.31%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 647 (65.89%) Agile
2 396 (40.33%) Acceptance Criteria
3 380 (38.70%) Stakeholder Management
4 284 (28.92%) Requirements Gathering
5 240 (24.44%) Workshop Facilitation
6 233 (23.73%) Scrum
7 230 (23.42%) User Acceptance Testing
8 213 (21.69%) Business Analysis
9 202 (20.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 195 (19.86%) DevOps
11 189 (19.25%) Problem-Solving
12 179 (18.23%) Roadmaps
12 179 (18.23%) Sprint Planning
13 175 (17.82%) Continuous Improvement
14 170 (17.31%) Product Backlog
15 154 (15.68%) Backlog Management
16 141 (14.36%) Backlog Prioritisation
17 136 (13.85%) Backlog Refinement
18 135 (13.75%) AI
19 134 (13.65%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 141 (14.36%) SQL
2 73 (7.43%) Python
3 50 (5.09%) Java
4 46 (4.68%) JavaScript
5 18 (1.83%) C#
6 12 (1.22%) Apex Code
7 10 (1.02%) Scala
8 7 (0.71%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.51%) Korn
9 5 (0.51%) PowerShell
9 5 (0.51%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.31%) R
10 3 (0.31%) Ruby
10 3 (0.31%) SOQL
10 3 (0.31%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.20%) Bash
11 2 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.20%) SOSL
12 1 (0.10%) VBA
Qualifications
1 167 (17.01%) Security Cleared
2 138 (14.05%) SC Cleared
3 74 (7.54%) Degree
4 33 (3.36%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (1.63%) CSPO
5 16 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
6 14 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (1.43%) IIBA
7 12 (1.22%) DV Cleared
8 11 (1.12%) PMI Certification
9 9 (0.92%) CBAP
9 9 (0.92%) PMP
10 8 (0.81%) CISSP
11 7 (0.71%) ISTQB
12 6 (0.61%) ISEB
13 5 (0.51%) Master's Degree
14 4 (0.41%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.41%) Azure Certification
14 4 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 3 (0.31%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (11.71%) QA
2 72 (7.33%) Data Quality
3 39 (3.97%) Accessibility
4 19 (1.93%) GDPR
5 15 (1.53%) GRC
6 10 (1.02%) NIST
7 9 (0.92%) GxP
8 8 (0.81%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 7 (0.71%) SLA
10 6 (0.61%) ISO 20022
10 6 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 5 (0.51%) Solvency II
11 5 (0.51%) WCAG
12 4 (0.41%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.41%) SEPA
13 3 (0.31%) HL7
14 2 (0.20%) COBIT
14 2 (0.20%) ISO 15022
14 2 (0.20%) PMO
14 2 (0.20%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 28 (2.85%) Docker
2 15 (1.53%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.61%) IAG
5 2 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.10%) Ceph
6 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (2.65%) Kubernetes
2 20 (2.04%) Terraform
3 16 (1.63%) Ansible
4 8 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (0.41%) SCCM
6 2 (0.20%) Argo
6 2 (0.20%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.10%) CASB
7 1 (0.10%) Check_MK
7 1 (0.10%) Grafana
7 1 (0.10%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.10%) Kibana
7 1 (0.10%) Podman
Vendors
1 145 (14.77%) Microsoft
2 88 (8.96%) Salesforce
3 52 (5.30%) SAP
4 51 (5.19%) ServiceNow
5 24 (2.44%) Google
6 19 (1.93%) Databricks
7 18 (1.83%) Oracle
8 14 (1.43%) Splunk
8 14 (1.43%) Zscaler
9 12 (1.22%) Adobe
10 10 (1.02%) Cisco
11 9 (0.92%) Pega
12 8 (0.81%) CyberArk
13 6 (0.61%) Fortinet
13 6 (0.61%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
14 5 (0.51%) Alteryx
14 5 (0.51%) IBM
14 5 (0.51%) ION Trading
14 5 (0.51%) Kronos
14 5 (0.51%) Workday