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 18 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
18 Jan 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 174 139
Rank change year-on-year +39 -35 -24
Contract jobs citing User Stories 681 401 656
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.14% 1.49% 1.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.43% 1.67% 2.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 485 255 466
10th Percentile £338 £355 £388
25th Percentile £406 £416 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.81% -0.95% -2.78%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £488 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -4.41% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 0 5
10th Percentile £31.49 - £50.50
25th Percentile £48.86 - £51.25
Median hourly rate £60.61 - £52.50
75th Percentile £74.26 - £66.00
90th Percentile £82.06 - £66.94
UK median hourly rate £60.61 £29.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year +109.00% -44.76% +0.48%

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 28,048 23,994 32,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.18% 89.29% 87.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,911 14,725 21,701
10th Percentile £304 £310 £305
25th Percentile £409 £413 £425
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 £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,747 781 1,610
10th Percentile £15.14 £15.62 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -12.50% +14.29%
75th Percentile £57.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.29 £75.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -18.75% +17.96%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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 +58 374 £500 -5.66% 64
North of England +20 127 £500 +18.34% 59
South East -18 70 £475 -6.86% 104
Midlands +1 65 £425 -9.09% 56
Yorkshire -3 58 £516 +8.68% 29
North West +3 57 £404 -5.06% 22
West Midlands -11 38 £475 - 25
East Midlands +1 27 £360 -6.49% 31
South West -6 23 £495 -17.50% 34
North East -4 14 £500 +25.00% 10
East of England -11 12 £565 +75.65% 54
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
1 150 (22.03%) Confluence
2 21 (3.08%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.17%) SAS
4 7 (1.03%) CMS
5 6 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.73%) nginx
7 4 (0.59%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.29%) Apache
8 2 (0.29%) Traefik
8 2 (0.29%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 1 (0.15%) Drupal
9 1 (0.15%) Kentico
9 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.15%) WordPress
Applications
1 36 (5.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 32 (4.70%) MS Visio
3 25 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
4 18 (2.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.73%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.73%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.59%) Adobe XD
6 4 (0.59%) Notion
6 4 (0.59%) Sketch
6 4 (0.59%) Trello
7 2 (0.29%) InVision
7 2 (0.29%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 22 (3.23%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.32%) Payment Gateway
3 7 (1.03%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.73%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.44%) Endur
5 3 (0.44%) ProductWriter
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle EBS R12
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.29%) Primavera
6 2 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.29%) Shopify
6 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
7 1 (0.15%) Exchequer
7 1 (0.15%) Fidessa
7 1 (0.15%) HFM
7 1 (0.15%) OpenLink RightAngle
7 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.15%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.15%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.15%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 95 (13.95%) Azure
2 76 (11.16%) AWS
3 60 (8.81%) Power Platform
4 41 (6.02%) Azure DevOps
5 29 (4.26%) GCP
6 24 (3.52%) GitHub
6 24 (3.52%) Microsoft 365
7 20 (2.94%) Dynamics 365
8 18 (2.64%) PowerApps
9 17 (2.50%) Power Automate
9 17 (2.50%) Serverless
10 16 (2.35%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.06%) SaaS
11 14 (2.06%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 14 (2.06%) Snowflake
12 13 (1.91%) Figma
12 13 (1.91%) GitHub Actions
12 13 (1.91%) Miro
13 11 (1.62%) Lucidchart
14 10 (1.47%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.17%) WebEx
2 5 (0.73%) DNS
3 4 (0.59%) Firewall
3 4 (0.59%) HTTP
4 3 (0.44%) FTP
5 2 (0.29%) BGP
5 2 (0.29%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.29%) VLAN
5 2 (0.29%) VPN
6 1 (0.15%) Calico
6 1 (0.15%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.15%) Internet
6 1 (0.15%) LAN
6 1 (0.15%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.15%) WAN
6 1 (0.15%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (7.20%) Power BI
2 21 (3.08%) Data Warehouse
3 18 (2.64%) Tableau
4 16 (2.35%) BigQuery
5 14 (2.06%) PostgreSQL
6 13 (1.91%) SQL Server
7 9 (1.32%) Metadata
8 8 (1.17%) Relational Database
9 7 (1.03%) Amazon Athena
9 7 (1.03%) NoSQL
9 7 (1.03%) Star Schema
10 6 (0.88%) Big Data
10 6 (0.88%) Data Vault
11 5 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
11 5 (0.73%) Data Lake
12 4 (0.59%) MongoDB
12 4 (0.59%) Oracle Database
12 4 (0.59%) Redis
12 4 (0.59%) Snowflake Schema
13 3 (0.44%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 201 (29.52%) JIRA
2 34 (4.99%) Jenkins
3 19 (2.79%) GitLab
4 15 (2.20%) Cucumber
5 13 (1.91%) Git
6 12 (1.76%) Postman
7 11 (1.62%) JUnit
8 10 (1.47%) Selenium
9 9 (1.32%) SonarQube
10 8 (1.17%) Zephyr
11 7 (1.03%) JMeter
12 6 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
13 4 (0.59%) Axure RP
13 4 (0.59%) Cypress.io
13 4 (0.59%) ER Studio
13 4 (0.59%) ERwin
13 4 (0.59%) PowerDesigner
13 4 (0.59%) TeamCity
13 4 (0.59%) TestRail
14 3 (0.44%) Gatling
General
1 281 (41.26%) Social Skills
2 175 (25.70%) Finance
3 154 (22.61%) Analytical Skills
4 76 (11.16%) Public Sector
5 69 (10.13%) Banking
6 47 (6.90%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.43%) Presentation Skills
8 33 (4.85%) Retail
9 27 (3.96%) Influencing Skills
9 27 (3.96%) Marketing
10 23 (3.38%) Legal
11 15 (2.20%) Back Office
12 13 (1.91%) Front Office
12 13 (1.91%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (1.76%) Investment Banking
13 12 (1.76%) Telecoms
14 8 (1.17%) Financial Institution
14 8 (1.17%) General Ledger
15 7 (1.03%) Billing
15 7 (1.03%) Military
Job Titles
1 338 (49.63%) Analyst
2 322 (47.28%) Business Analyst
3 94 (13.80%) Senior
4 85 (12.48%) Product Owner
5 59 (8.66%) Senior Analyst
6 54 (7.93%) Senior Business Analyst
7 41 (6.02%) Technical Analyst
8 39 (5.73%) Developer
9 38 (5.58%) Technical Business Analyst
10 29 (4.26%) Lead
10 29 (4.26%) Product Manager
11 25 (3.67%) Salesforce Business Analyst
12 23 (3.38%) Salesforce Analyst
13 22 (3.23%) Designer
14 20 (2.94%) Consultant
15 19 (2.79%) Digital Business Analyst
15 19 (2.79%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
16 18 (2.64%) Test Analyst
17 17 (2.50%) Digital Analyst
18 16 (2.35%) Product Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.23%) REST
2 18 (2.64%) JSON
2 18 (2.64%) XML
3 17 (2.50%) RESTful
4 14 (2.06%) Kafka
4 14 (2.06%) React
5 13 (1.91%) SOAP
5 13 (1.91%) Spring
6 12 (1.76%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.62%) HTML
8 9 (1.32%) ADO
8 9 (1.32%) Playwright
8 9 (1.32%) Web Services
9 8 (1.17%) Apache NiFi
9 8 (1.17%) OAuth
9 8 (1.17%) VML
9 8 (1.17%) XMPP
10 7 (1.03%) OAuth2
11 6 (0.88%) Lightning Web Components
12 5 (0.73%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 215 (31.57%) Product Ownership
2 26 (3.82%) Onboarding
3 20 (2.94%) Analytical Mindset
4 18 (2.64%) Cloud Native
4 18 (2.64%) PMI
5 17 (2.50%) Data Structures
6 14 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
8 8 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
8 8 (1.17%) Management Information System
8 8 (1.17%) Mobile App
8 8 (1.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 7 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (1.03%) Low-Code
9 7 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (0.88%) CMDB
10 6 (0.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 6 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
10 6 (0.88%) NHS
11 5 (0.73%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 21 (3.08%) Windows
2 16 (2.35%) Linux
3 7 (1.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 7 (1.03%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.73%) VMS
5 1 (0.15%) Android
5 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 497 (72.98%) Agile
2 225 (33.04%) Acceptance Criteria
3 208 (30.54%) Stakeholder Management
4 204 (29.96%) Scrum
5 163 (23.94%) Requirements Gathering
6 161 (23.64%) Workshop Facilitation
7 151 (22.17%) Business Analysis
8 138 (20.26%) Problem-Solving
9 122 (17.91%) DevOps
10 118 (17.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 118 (17.33%) User Acceptance Testing
11 115 (16.89%) Roadmaps
12 92 (13.51%) Backlog Management
13 91 (13.36%) Product Backlog
14 90 (13.22%) Sprint Planning
15 89 (13.07%) Migration
16 82 (12.04%) Data Modelling
17 80 (11.75%) Use Case
17 80 (11.75%) User Experience
18 78 (11.45%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 82 (12.04%) SQL
2 58 (8.52%) Python
3 33 (4.85%) Java
4 20 (2.94%) Bash
5 13 (1.91%) PowerShell
6 12 (1.76%) C#
7 9 (1.32%) JavaScript
7 9 (1.32%) Scala
8 8 (1.17%) Perl
8 8 (1.17%) TypeScript
9 5 (0.73%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.59%) Korn
11 3 (0.44%) Go
11 3 (0.44%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.44%) VBA
11 3 (0.44%) XPath
12 2 (0.29%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.15%) Groovy
13 1 (0.15%) PHP
13 1 (0.15%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 107 (15.71%) Security Cleared
2 91 (13.36%) Degree
3 86 (12.63%) SC Cleared
4 36 (5.29%) CBAP
5 23 (3.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 23 (3.38%) CSPO
5 23 (3.38%) IIBA
6 22 (3.23%) PMI Certification
7 8 (1.17%) Master's Degree
8 7 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (0.88%) CCNA
9 6 (0.88%) CFA
9 6 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.88%) DV Cleared
9 6 (0.88%) MBA
10 5 (0.73%) Azure Certification
10 5 (0.73%) CCDP
10 5 (0.73%) CCNP
10 5 (0.73%) ISEB
10 5 (0.73%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (12.63%) QA
2 30 (4.41%) Accessibility
3 28 (4.11%) GDPR
4 19 (2.79%) Data Quality
5 18 (2.64%) WCAG
6 16 (2.35%) PSD2
7 9 (1.32%) PCI DSS
8 8 (1.17%) SLA
9 6 (0.88%) ISO 8583
10 5 (0.73%) ISO 20022
10 5 (0.73%) SEPA
11 3 (0.44%) GxP
11 3 (0.44%) HL7
12 2 (0.29%) Basel III
12 2 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.29%) GMP
12 2 (0.29%) NCSC
12 2 (0.29%) PMO
13 1 (0.15%) EU AI Act
13 1 (0.15%) PERC
System Software
1 26 (3.82%) Docker
2 9 (1.32%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.15%) etcd
4 1 (0.15%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 25 (3.67%) Kubernetes
2 19 (2.79%) Ansible
3 14 (2.06%) NetBackup
4 12 (1.76%) Terraform
5 5 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (0.73%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.59%) Grafana
6 4 (0.59%) Puppet
6 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.44%) Kubeflow
8 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.29%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (0.29%) Istio
9 1 (0.15%) Argo
9 1 (0.15%) CASB
9 1 (0.15%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.15%) HP ALM
9 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 105 (15.42%) Microsoft
2 76 (11.16%) Salesforce
3 29 (4.26%) SAP
4 28 (4.11%) ServiceNow
5 27 (3.96%) Oracle
6 21 (3.08%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.06%) Commvault
8 13 (1.91%) VMware
9 12 (1.76%) Databricks
9 12 (1.76%) MuleSoft
10 11 (1.62%) Cisco
11 10 (1.47%) Veritas
12 8 (1.17%) Citrix
12 8 (1.17%) Pega
13 7 (1.03%) Adobe
13 7 (1.03%) Google
14 6 (0.88%) Guidewire
14 6 (0.88%) Workday
15 5 (0.73%) Zuora
16 4 (0.59%) Cognizant
346 User Stories jobs in England