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 17 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 123 162 153
Rank change year-on-year +39 -9 -35
Contract jobs citing User Stories 842 413 572
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.05% 1.69% 1.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.42% 1.85% 1.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 584 270 397
10th Percentile £356 £357 £352
25th Percentile £413 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% +2.38%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £671
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% +0.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 2 6
10th Percentile £37.77 £54.90 £31.71
25th Percentile £48.86 £57.00 £32.03
Median hourly rate £70.00 £61.75 £42.75
Median % change year-on-year +13.36% +44.44% -33.72%
75th Percentile £74.26 £67.75 £62.94
90th Percentile £96.39 £70.60 £69.25
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £53.50 £42.75
% change year-on-year +30.84% +25.15% -33.72%

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 34,813 22,315 31,454
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.68% 91.22% 86.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,200 14,600 20,590
10th Percentile £320 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,148 942 2,247
10th Percentile £15.33 £14.42 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £15.93
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.07% -20.55% +1.39%
75th Percentile £67.84 £62.50 £60.13
90th Percentile £80.02 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.30 £28.30 £36.05
% change year-on-year +49.50% -21.50% +1.11%

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 17 May 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 17 May 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 17 May 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 +48 477 £518 -1.27% 116
North of England -3 130 £451 +0.11% 49
Midlands -6 99 £475 +2.98% 23
West Midlands -10 72 £484 +3.15% 16
North West -1 65 £393 -21.40% 23
South East -52 63 £450 -12.96% 64
Yorkshire -29 46 £505 +12.22% 17
South West -14 37 £485 -15.65% 20
East Midlands -9 27 £463 +17.01% 7
East of England -14 27 £510 +31.61% 13
North East -9 20 £450 +8.43% 10
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
1 161 (19.12%) Confluence
2 18 (2.14%) CMS
3 16 (1.90%) SharePoint
4 9 (1.07%) SAS
5 4 (0.48%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.36%) Camunda
6 3 (0.36%) Drupal
6 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.24%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 2 (0.24%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.24%) JBoss
7 2 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.24%) WordPress
8 1 (0.12%) Apache Solr
8 1 (0.12%) Cloud Foundry
8 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 51 (6.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (5.11%) MS Visio
3 26 (3.09%) Microsoft Office
4 22 (2.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.59%) Notion
6 2 (0.24%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.24%) InVision
6 2 (0.24%) Sketch
6 2 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.24%) Zeplin
7 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 16 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 12 (1.43%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.95%) NetSuite
4 6 (0.71%) Adobe Campaign
4 6 (0.71%) ProductWriter
5 5 (0.59%) Teamcenter
6 4 (0.48%) Dynamics AX
6 4 (0.48%) Eloqua
6 4 (0.48%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.48%) Oracle Receivables
7 3 (0.36%) Dynamics GP
7 3 (0.36%) Dynamics SL
7 3 (0.36%) Infor CloudSuite
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
7 3 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
7 3 (0.36%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.36%) Temenos T24
8 2 (0.24%) Exchequer
8 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 145 (17.22%) Azure
2 73 (8.67%) Power Platform
3 71 (8.43%) AWS
4 51 (6.06%) Azure DevOps
5 26 (3.09%) SaaS
6 24 (2.85%) Salesforce Service Cloud
7 23 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
7 23 (2.73%) Microsoft 365
8 22 (2.61%) GitHub
9 21 (2.49%) GCP
10 15 (1.78%) Power Automate
10 15 (1.78%) PowerApps
11 13 (1.54%) Azure Data Factory
11 13 (1.54%) Figma
11 13 (1.54%) Lucidchart
12 12 (1.43%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 10 (1.19%) Miro
14 8 (0.95%) Entra ID
15 7 (0.83%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
16 5 (0.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.95%) Network Security
2 6 (0.71%) Firewall
3 3 (0.36%) DNS
3 3 (0.36%) FTP
3 3 (0.36%) HTTP
3 3 (0.36%) WebEx
4 2 (0.24%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (0.24%) Wireless
5 1 (0.12%) 5G
5 1 (0.12%) BGP
5 1 (0.12%) NFC
5 1 (0.12%) NGFW
5 1 (0.12%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (6.65%) Power BI
2 24 (2.85%) Metadata
3 22 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
4 16 (1.90%) Tableau
5 13 (1.54%) SQL Server
6 10 (1.19%) Relational Database
7 9 (1.07%) BigQuery
8 8 (0.95%) Data Lake
8 8 (0.95%) Delta Lake
8 8 (0.95%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.59%) Parquet
11 3 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.36%) Big Data
11 3 (0.36%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.36%) Data Vault
11 3 (0.36%) OLAP
11 3 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 2 (0.24%) Metadata Repository
12 2 (0.24%) Oracle OLAP
Development Applications
1 216 (25.65%) JIRA
2 24 (2.85%) Postman
3 17 (2.02%) Git
4 16 (1.90%) GitLab
5 14 (1.66%) Jenkins
6 10 (1.19%) Selenium
7 7 (0.83%) Zephyr
8 6 (0.71%) Gradle
8 6 (0.71%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.59%) Balsamiq
9 5 (0.59%) Cucumber
10 4 (0.48%) JUnit
10 4 (0.48%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 3 (0.36%) REST Assured
11 3 (0.36%) Team Foundation Server
11 3 (0.36%) TeamCity
11 3 (0.36%) TestRail
12 2 (0.24%) Axure RP
12 2 (0.24%) Cypress.io
12 2 (0.24%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 324 (38.48%) Social Skills
2 236 (28.03%) Finance
3 212 (25.18%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (12.95%) Public Sector
5 108 (12.83%) Banking
6 64 (7.60%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (6.06%) Retail
8 44 (5.23%) Presentation Skills
9 34 (4.04%) Marketing
10 24 (2.85%) Influencing Skills
10 24 (2.85%) Legal
11 19 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
12 18 (2.14%) Retail Banking
13 16 (1.90%) Financial Institution
13 16 (1.90%) Investment Banking
14 15 (1.78%) Military
15 13 (1.54%) Front Office
16 10 (1.19%) Manufacturing
17 8 (0.95%) Back Office
17 8 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 466 (55.34%) Analyst
2 435 (51.66%) Business Analyst
3 142 (16.86%) Senior
4 101 (12.00%) Product Owner
5 94 (11.16%) Senior Analyst
6 87 (10.33%) Senior Business Analyst
7 59 (7.01%) Developer
8 56 (6.65%) Technical Analyst
9 55 (6.53%) Product Manager
10 53 (6.29%) Technical Business Analyst
11 47 (5.58%) Salesforce Business Analyst
12 46 (5.46%) Salesforce Analyst
13 32 (3.80%) Lead
14 28 (3.33%) Implementation Analyst
15 26 (3.09%) Data Analyst
16 24 (2.85%) Data Business Analyst
17 23 (2.73%) Banking Analyst
17 23 (2.73%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
17 23 (2.73%) Senior Salesforce Analyst
17 23 (2.73%) Senior Salesforce Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (3.56%) REST
2 17 (2.02%) ADO
3 15 (1.78%) RESTful
4 13 (1.54%) React
5 12 (1.43%) VML
6 10 (1.19%) JSON
6 10 (1.19%) XML
7 9 (1.07%) HTML
8 8 (0.95%) AngularJS
8 8 (0.95%) Lightning Web Components
8 8 (0.95%) Node.js
8 8 (0.95%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.83%) CSS
10 6 (0.71%) .NET
10 6 (0.71%) SOAP
10 6 (0.71%) Spring
11 5 (0.59%) ASP.NET
11 5 (0.59%) Middleware
11 5 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
11 5 (0.59%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 281 (33.37%) Product Ownership
2 27 (3.21%) Onboarding
3 26 (3.09%) Data Protection Act
4 22 (2.61%) Analytical Mindset
4 22 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
5 20 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
6 16 (1.90%) CMDB
6 16 (1.90%) Data Structures
7 15 (1.78%) Management Information System
8 14 (1.66%) Cloud Native
9 13 (1.54%) Virtual Team
10 12 (1.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 10 (1.19%) AI Agents
11 10 (1.19%) PMI
12 8 (0.95%) NHS
12 8 (0.95%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 7 (0.83%) Low-Code
13 7 (0.83%) Marketing Technology
13 7 (0.83%) Mobile App
13 7 (0.83%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 12 (1.43%) Windows
2 11 (1.31%) Linux
3 5 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.36%) CentOS
4 3 (0.36%) Unix
5 2 (0.24%) Android
5 2 (0.24%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.24%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 545 (64.73%) Agile
2 334 (39.67%) Acceptance Criteria
3 279 (33.14%) Stakeholder Management
4 201 (23.87%) Workshop Facilitation
5 195 (23.16%) Requirements Gathering
6 185 (21.97%) Business Analysis
6 185 (21.97%) Scrum
7 166 (19.71%) User Acceptance Testing
8 158 (18.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 157 (18.65%) DevOps
10 152 (18.05%) Roadmaps
11 144 (17.10%) Problem-Solving
12 125 (14.85%) Sprint Planning
13 123 (14.61%) Data Modelling
14 115 (13.66%) Product Backlog
15 114 (13.54%) Migration
16 106 (12.59%) Backlog Management
16 106 (12.59%) Continuous Improvement
17 105 (12.47%) Analytics
18 96 (11.40%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 108 (12.83%) SQL
2 57 (6.77%) Python
3 34 (4.04%) Java
4 24 (2.85%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.54%) C#
6 9 (1.07%) TypeScript
7 7 (0.83%) PowerShell
8 6 (0.71%) Apex Code
9 5 (0.59%) Korn
9 5 (0.59%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.48%) R
10 4 (0.48%) T-SQL
10 4 (0.48%) VBA
11 3 (0.36%) Ruby
12 2 (0.24%) Google Apps Script
12 2 (0.24%) PHP
12 2 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.24%) Scala
12 2 (0.24%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.12%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 153 (18.17%) Security Cleared
2 121 (14.37%) SC Cleared
3 86 (10.21%) Degree
4 37 (4.39%) CBAP
5 33 (3.92%) IIBA
6 32 (3.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 17 (2.02%) CSPO
8 14 (1.66%) PMI Certification
9 11 (1.31%) Master's Degree
10 8 (0.95%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.83%) ISEB
12 6 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (0.71%) MBA
13 5 (0.59%) DV Cleared
14 4 (0.48%) PMP
15 3 (0.36%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 2 (0.24%) AWS Certification
16 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
16 2 (0.24%) DBS Check
16 2 (0.24%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (12.95%) QA
2 53 (6.29%) Data Quality
3 38 (4.51%) Accessibility
4 26 (3.09%) GDPR
5 13 (1.54%) SLA
6 9 (1.07%) NIST
7 7 (0.83%) WCAG
8 6 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.59%) GxP
9 5 (0.59%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.36%) GMP
10 3 (0.36%) GRC
10 3 (0.36%) HL7
10 3 (0.36%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.36%) PSD2
10 3 (0.36%) Solvency II
11 2 (0.24%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.24%) NCSC
11 2 (0.24%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 20 (2.38%) Docker
2 6 (0.71%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.24%) IAG
3 2 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.12%) Ceph
4 1 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (2.49%) Kubernetes
2 14 (1.66%) Ansible
3 12 (1.43%) Terraform
4 7 (0.83%) SCCM
5 5 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
5 5 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.24%) CASB
6 2 (0.24%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.12%) Argo
7 1 (0.12%) Grafana
7 1 (0.12%) Kibana
Vendors
1 114 (13.54%) Microsoft
2 89 (10.57%) Salesforce
3 51 (6.06%) SAP
4 43 (5.11%) ServiceNow
5 22 (2.61%) Oracle
6 21 (2.49%) Databricks
7 16 (1.90%) Google
8 13 (1.54%) Adobe
9 11 (1.31%) Cisco
10 10 (1.19%) Splunk
10 10 (1.19%) Workday
11 8 (0.95%) Pega
11 8 (0.95%) Zscaler
11 8 (0.95%) Zuora
12 7 (0.83%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
13 6 (0.71%) Fortinet
13 6 (0.71%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.71%) MuleSoft
14 5 (0.59%) Citrix
14 5 (0.59%) Cognizant