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 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 143 173
Rank change year-on-year +18 +30 -33
Contract jobs citing User Stories 1,036 588 476
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.21% 2.09% 1.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.60% 2.30% 1.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 677 412 307
10th Percentile £363 £358 £353
25th Percentile £418 £413 £447
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £580 £600 £607
90th Percentile £650 £724 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £520
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 5 1
10th Percentile £50.70 £30.60 -
25th Percentile £53.44 - -
Median hourly rate £76.21 £31.49 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +142.00% -4.78% -37.60%
75th Percentile £87.99 £43.00 -
90th Percentile £99.76 £73.45 -
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £31.49 £33.07
% change year-on-year +130.23% -4.78% -37.60%

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 39,799 25,590 27,763
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.96% 90.90% 86.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,011 16,250 16,937
10th Percentile £325 £294 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,071 1,598 1,107
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.53 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.87 £20.50
Median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +53.96% -40.82% -5.56%
75th Percentile £67.25 £44.78 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.50 £74.18
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -10.11%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +17 617 £525 - 39
Midlands +4 125 £450 +5.88% 15
North of England -46 124 £470 -7.16% 24
West Midlands +18 97 £450 - 8
South East -59 70 £450 -5.26% 39
North West -30 63 £500 +7.53% 10
Yorkshire -35 51 £466 -10.34% 7
South West -13 47 £475 -5.00% 14
East of England +1 35 £495 +10.00% 7
East Midlands -14 28 £455 +17.42% 7
North East -32 11 £414 -16.20% 7
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
1 197 (19.02%) Confluence
2 26 (2.51%) CMS
3 13 (1.25%) SharePoint
4 10 (0.97%) Camunda
5 5 (0.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 5 (0.48%) Kentico
6 4 (0.39%) Headless CMS
6 4 (0.39%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.39%) Traefik
7 3 (0.29%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.29%) Umbraco
8 2 (0.19%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.19%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.097%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.097%) Drupal
9 1 (0.097%) EPiServer
9 1 (0.097%) Moodle
9 1 (0.097%) SAS
9 1 (0.097%) Totara
Applications
1 44 (4.25%) MS Visio
2 31 (2.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.68%) Notion
6 5 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.29%) Productboard
8 2 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.097%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.097%) Gliffy
9 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 24 (2.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (1.54%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.48%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.29%) Aladdin
4 3 (0.29%) NetSuite
4 3 (0.29%) ProductWriter
4 3 (0.29%) SAP SD
5 2 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.19%) Dynamics GP
5 2 (0.19%) Dynamics NAV
5 2 (0.19%) Infor CloudSuite
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.19%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.19%) SAP ERP
5 2 (0.19%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.19%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 216 (20.85%) Azure
2 122 (11.78%) Power Platform
3 113 (10.91%) Azure DevOps
4 99 (9.56%) AWS
5 42 (4.05%) Dynamics 365
6 37 (3.57%) SaaS
7 33 (3.19%) GitHub
8 29 (2.80%) GCP
8 29 (2.80%) Power Automate
9 28 (2.70%) PowerApps
10 25 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
10 25 (2.41%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 21 (2.03%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 18 (1.74%) Lucidchart
12 18 (1.74%) Snowflake
13 17 (1.64%) Entra ID
14 14 (1.35%) Figma
15 13 (1.25%) Serverless
16 11 (1.06%) Azure Data Factory
16 11 (1.06%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (0.29%) Broadband
2 3 (0.29%) Internet
2 3 (0.29%) Intranet
3 2 (0.19%) HTTP
3 2 (0.19%) SD-WAN
3 2 (0.19%) WAN
3 2 (0.19%) Wireless
4 1 (0.097%) 5G
4 1 (0.097%) CTI
4 1 (0.097%) Network Security
4 1 (0.097%) NFC
4 1 (0.097%) PBX
4 1 (0.097%) SSH
4 1 (0.097%) SSL
4 1 (0.097%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.097%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (7.82%) Power BI
2 40 (3.86%) Metadata
3 38 (3.67%) Data Warehouse
4 28 (2.70%) Relational Database
5 25 (2.41%) SQL Server
6 22 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.87%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.68%) Big Data
9 6 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.58%) Parquet
9 6 (0.58%) Tableau
10 5 (0.48%) BigQuery
10 5 (0.48%) ClickHouse
10 5 (0.48%) Data Hub
10 5 (0.48%) Delta Lake
10 5 (0.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.48%) Star Schema
11 4 (0.39%) MySQL
12 3 (0.29%) Data Mining
12 3 (0.29%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 262 (25.29%) JIRA
2 41 (3.96%) Git
3 26 (2.51%) Jenkins
4 25 (2.41%) Gradle
5 24 (2.32%) GitLab
5 24 (2.32%) Maven
6 20 (1.93%) JUnit
7 17 (1.64%) Mockito
7 17 (1.64%) SonarQube
8 14 (1.35%) Postman
9 13 (1.25%) REST Assured
9 13 (1.25%) Selenium
10 11 (1.06%) Cucumber
11 10 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
12 9 (0.87%) Bitbucket Server
13 6 (0.58%) Bitbucket
13 6 (0.58%) Team Foundation Server
14 5 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 3 (0.29%) Balsamiq
15 3 (0.29%) CircleCI
General
1 422 (40.73%) Social Skills
2 305 (29.44%) Finance
3 272 (26.25%) Analytical Skills
4 154 (14.86%) Banking
5 137 (13.22%) Public Sector
6 76 (7.34%) Documentation Skills
7 64 (6.18%) Retail
8 41 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
8 41 (3.96%) Legal
9 40 (3.86%) Investment Banking
10 30 (2.90%) Marketing
11 26 (2.51%) Manufacturing
12 25 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
13 22 (2.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 22 (2.12%) Telecoms
14 21 (2.03%) Front Office
14 21 (2.03%) Presentation Skills
15 17 (1.64%) Retail Banking
16 16 (1.54%) Local Government
16 16 (1.54%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 533 (51.45%) Analyst
2 475 (45.85%) Business Analyst
3 155 (14.96%) Senior
4 115 (11.10%) Product Owner
5 112 (10.81%) Developer
6 86 (8.30%) Senior Analyst
7 85 (8.20%) Senior Business Analyst
8 78 (7.53%) Product Manager
9 68 (6.56%) Technical Analyst
10 64 (6.18%) Lead
11 50 (4.83%) Technical Business Analyst
12 35 (3.38%) Consultant
13 30 (2.90%) Salesforce Analyst
14 29 (2.80%) Data Business Analyst
14 29 (2.80%) Salesforce Business Analyst
14 29 (2.80%) Senior Developer
15 27 (2.61%) Data Analyst
16 24 (2.32%) Financial Analyst
17 22 (2.12%) Java Developer
18 21 (2.03%) Finance Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (5.12%) REST
2 40 (3.86%) JSON
3 34 (3.28%) Spring Boot
4 29 (2.80%) SOAP
5 27 (2.61%) Spring
6 24 (2.32%) RESTful
7 23 (2.22%) Terraform
8 21 (2.03%) HTML
8 21 (2.03%) Kafka
8 21 (2.03%) React
9 20 (1.93%) AngularJS
9 20 (1.93%) Hibernate
9 20 (1.93%) JPA
10 18 (1.74%) Lightning Web Components
11 16 (1.54%) .NET
11 16 (1.54%) CSS
11 16 (1.54%) OpenAPI
11 16 (1.54%) Swagger
12 15 (1.45%) Middleware
13 13 (1.25%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 356 (34.36%) Product Ownership
2 46 (4.44%) Onboarding
3 31 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
3 31 (2.99%) Cloud Native
4 30 (2.90%) Data Structures
5 28 (2.70%) Management Information System
6 25 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
7 24 (2.32%) Data Protection Act
8 23 (2.22%) AI Agents
9 21 (2.03%) CMDB
10 19 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
11 16 (1.54%) Virtual Team
12 15 (1.45%) Mobile App
13 12 (1.16%) NHS
14 11 (1.06%) FMCG
14 11 (1.06%) Life Science
15 10 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
15 10 (0.97%) Low-Code
15 10 (0.97%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 16 (1.54%) Linux
2 8 (0.77%) Unix
3 6 (0.58%) Android
3 6 (0.58%) Apple iOS
3 6 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (0.48%) Windows
5 2 (0.19%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 717 (69.21%) Agile
2 466 (44.98%) Stakeholder Management
3 451 (43.53%) Acceptance Criteria
4 360 (34.75%) Requirements Gathering
5 308 (29.73%) Workshop Facilitation
6 283 (27.32%) Business Analysis
7 270 (26.06%) Scrum
8 261 (25.19%) User Acceptance Testing
9 218 (21.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 218 (21.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 207 (19.98%) DevOps
11 206 (19.88%) Problem-Solving
12 194 (18.73%) Roadmaps
13 184 (17.76%) Product Backlog
14 182 (17.57%) Sprint Planning
15 173 (16.70%) Backlog Management
16 169 (16.31%) Backlog Prioritisation
17 161 (15.54%) Validation
18 159 (15.35%) AI
19 157 (15.15%) Backlog Refinement
Programming Languages
1 166 (16.02%) SQL
2 67 (6.47%) Java
3 64 (6.18%) Python
4 58 (5.60%) JavaScript
5 22 (2.12%) C#
6 13 (1.25%) Apex Code
6 13 (1.25%) TypeScript
7 10 (0.97%) Kotlin
7 10 (0.97%) Scala
8 7 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (0.48%) Korn
10 3 (0.29%) SOQL
10 3 (0.29%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.19%) Bash
11 2 (0.19%) Magik
11 2 (0.19%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.19%) R
11 2 (0.19%) Ruby
11 2 (0.19%) SOSL
12 1 (0.097%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 175 (16.89%) Security Cleared
2 145 (14.00%) SC Cleared
3 98 (9.46%) Degree
4 35 (3.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 25 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.83%) IIBA
6 19 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
7 17 (1.64%) CBAP
8 15 (1.45%) PMI Certification
9 14 (1.35%) CSPO
10 13 (1.25%) PMP
11 11 (1.06%) DV Cleared
12 8 (0.77%) CISSP
13 5 (0.48%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.48%) ISEB
13 5 (0.48%) ISTQB
14 3 (0.29%) Azure Certification
14 3 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 3 (0.29%) Master's Degree
15 2 (0.19%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (10.62%) QA
2 74 (7.14%) Data Quality
3 43 (4.15%) Accessibility
4 15 (1.45%) GDPR
5 13 (1.25%) GRC
6 9 (0.87%) ISO 20022
6 9 (0.87%) WCAG
7 7 (0.68%) GxP
8 6 (0.58%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 5 (0.48%) NIST
9 5 (0.48%) PMO
9 5 (0.48%) SEPA
10 4 (0.39%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.29%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.29%) Solvency II
12 2 (0.19%) Basel III
12 2 (0.19%) Def Stans
12 2 (0.19%) SLA
System Software
1 46 (4.44%) Docker
2 14 (1.35%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.39%) IAG
5 1 (0.097%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 28 (2.70%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.06%) Ansible
3 10 (0.97%) Grafana
4 8 (0.77%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.39%) Istio
7 3 (0.29%) HP ALM
8 2 (0.19%) Argo
9 1 (0.097%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.097%) Kibana
9 1 (0.097%) Podman
Vendors
1 161 (15.54%) Microsoft
2 83 (8.01%) Salesforce
3 42 (4.05%) SAP
4 41 (3.96%) ServiceNow
5 21 (2.03%) Databricks
5 21 (2.03%) Oracle
6 18 (1.74%) Google
7 12 (1.16%) IBM
8 10 (0.97%) Veracode
9 9 (0.87%) CyberArk
9 9 (0.87%) Pega
10 7 (0.68%) Adobe
10 7 (0.68%) Zscaler
11 6 (0.58%) Guidewire
11 6 (0.58%) Okta
12 5 (0.48%) Alteryx
12 5 (0.48%) Atlassian
12 5 (0.48%) MuleSoft
12 5 (0.48%) Planview
12 5 (0.48%) Splunk