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 1 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 150 162
Rank change year-on-year +24 +12 -43
Contract jobs citing User Stories 894 495 561
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.04% 1.93% 1.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.39% 2.12% 1.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 605 320 378
10th Percentile £358 £358 £350
25th Percentile £413 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £535
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -4.12% +1.81%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £588
90th Percentile £650 £725 £638
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 2 6
10th Percentile £35.00 £54.90 £31.71
25th Percentile £67.50 £57.00 £32.03
Median hourly rate £72.50 £61.75 £33.04
Median % change year-on-year +17.41% +86.92% -48.38%
75th Percentile £83.00 £67.75 £57.77
90th Percentile £90.57 £70.60 £69.25
UK median hourly rate £73.38 £53.50 £33.04
% change year-on-year +37.16% +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 37,409 23,372 31,772
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.35% 91.17% 85.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,567 15,052 20,589
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £418 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £729 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +2.79% -4.57% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,348 1,165 2,330
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.97 £17.88 £16.06
Median hourly rate £46.90 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +86.48% -34.02% +1.65%
75th Percentile £68.50 £55.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £82.25 £72.50 £72.93
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +3.81%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 1 July 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 +17 513 £525 -1.18% 117
North of England -28 121 £475 - 39
Midlands -8 99 £475 +2.98% 25
West Midlands -2 76 £475 +2.70% 16
South East -34 75 £450 -11.11% 60
North West -16 59 £435 -17.54% 22
Yorkshire -31 43 £500 +11.11% 15
South West -8 41 £486 -0.26% 25
East of England -5 29 £500 +17.58% 11
East Midlands -11 23 £455 +5.20% 9
North East -23 20 £425 -2.02% 2
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 (16.78%) Confluence
2 24 (2.68%) CMS
3 16 (1.79%) SharePoint
4 5 (0.56%) Camunda
4 5 (0.56%) Jupyter
4 5 (0.56%) SAS
5 3 (0.34%) Cloud Foundry
5 3 (0.34%) Drupal
5 3 (0.34%) Kentico
5 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.22%) JBoss
6 2 (0.22%) Sitecore CMS
6 2 (0.22%) WordPress
7 1 (0.11%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.11%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.11%) Tomcat
Applications
1 42 (4.70%) MS Visio
2 38 (4.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (2.46%) Microsoft Office
4 16 (1.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.67%) Notion
6 3 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.11%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.11%) InVision
7 1 (0.11%) Sketch
7 1 (0.11%) Trello
7 1 (0.11%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 14 (1.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.67%) Adobe Campaign
3 6 (0.67%) ProductWriter
4 5 (0.56%) Teamcenter
5 4 (0.45%) Dynamics AX
5 4 (0.45%) Eloqua
5 4 (0.45%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.45%) Oracle Receivables
6 3 (0.34%) Actimize
6 3 (0.34%) Dynamics GP
6 3 (0.34%) Dynamics SL
6 3 (0.34%) Infor CloudSuite
6 3 (0.34%) NetSuite
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.34%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.34%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.22%) Exchequer
7 2 (0.22%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 190 (21.25%) Azure
2 76 (8.50%) Azure DevOps
3 75 (8.39%) AWS
4 69 (7.72%) Power Platform
5 23 (2.57%) GCP
5 23 (2.57%) GitHub
5 23 (2.57%) SaaS
6 20 (2.24%) Dynamics 365
6 20 (2.24%) Salesforce Service Cloud
7 15 (1.68%) Microsoft 365
7 15 (1.68%) PowerApps
7 15 (1.68%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
8 14 (1.57%) Azure Data Factory
8 14 (1.57%) Entra ID
8 14 (1.57%) Power Automate
9 12 (1.34%) Figma
9 12 (1.34%) Lucidchart
10 10 (1.12%) Miro
11 8 (0.89%) Snowflake
12 6 (0.67%) Fivetran
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.89%) Network Security
2 6 (0.67%) Firewall
3 3 (0.34%) DNS
3 3 (0.34%) WebEx
3 3 (0.34%) Wi-Fi
4 2 (0.22%) HTTP
4 2 (0.22%) Wireless
5 1 (0.11%) 5G
5 1 (0.11%) BGP
5 1 (0.11%) Broadband
5 1 (0.11%) FTP
5 1 (0.11%) NFC
5 1 (0.11%) NGFW
5 1 (0.11%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (5.37%) Power BI
2 31 (3.47%) Data Warehouse
2 31 (3.47%) Metadata
3 16 (1.79%) Relational Database
4 10 (1.12%) NoSQL
4 10 (1.12%) Tableau
5 9 (1.01%) Data Lake
5 9 (1.01%) SQL Server
6 8 (0.89%) Delta Lake
6 8 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
7 7 (0.78%) Parquet
8 6 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.56%) BigQuery
9 5 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (0.45%) Big Data
10 4 (0.45%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.34%) OLAP
11 3 (0.34%) Redis
12 2 (0.22%) Oracle OLAP
12 2 (0.22%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 217 (24.27%) JIRA
2 28 (3.13%) Postman
3 24 (2.68%) Git
4 19 (2.13%) GitLab
5 12 (1.34%) Jenkins
6 11 (1.23%) Selenium
7 9 (1.01%) Gradle
8 7 (0.78%) Team Foundation Server
9 6 (0.67%) Cucumber
9 6 (0.67%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.56%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 5 (0.56%) Balsamiq
11 4 (0.45%) JUnit
11 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.45%) Zephyr
12 3 (0.34%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
13 2 (0.22%) Artifactory
13 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
13 2 (0.22%) SoapUI
13 2 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 339 (37.92%) Social Skills
2 233 (26.06%) Analytical Skills
3 231 (25.84%) Finance
4 110 (12.30%) Banking
4 110 (12.30%) Public Sector
5 69 (7.72%) Documentation Skills
6 57 (6.38%) Retail
7 35 (3.91%) Presentation Skills
8 33 (3.69%) Marketing
9 30 (3.36%) Legal
10 23 (2.57%) Influencing Skills
10 23 (2.57%) Investment Banking
11 20 (2.24%) Organisational Skills
12 19 (2.13%) Manufacturing
13 16 (1.79%) Military
14 15 (1.68%) Front Office
15 14 (1.57%) Aerospace
15 14 (1.57%) Retail Banking
16 12 (1.34%) Back Office
16 12 (1.34%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 463 (51.79%) Analyst
2 424 (47.43%) Business Analyst
3 126 (14.09%) Senior
4 119 (13.31%) Product Owner
5 80 (8.95%) Developer
6 78 (8.72%) Senior Analyst
7 73 (8.17%) Senior Business Analyst
8 63 (7.05%) Product Manager
9 60 (6.71%) Technical Analyst
10 52 (5.82%) Technical Business Analyst
11 39 (4.36%) Salesforce Business Analyst
12 38 (4.25%) Salesforce Analyst
13 37 (4.14%) Lead
14 30 (3.36%) Data Analyst
14 30 (3.36%) Implementation Analyst
15 27 (3.02%) Data Business Analyst
16 22 (2.46%) Banking Analyst
16 22 (2.46%) Digital Business Analyst
17 21 (2.35%) Consultant
17 21 (2.35%) Project Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (3.91%) REST
2 24 (2.68%) JSON
3 18 (2.01%) React
3 18 (2.01%) RESTful
4 16 (1.79%) ADO
4 16 (1.79%) AngularJS
5 14 (1.57%) XML
6 12 (1.34%) Lightning Web Components
7 11 (1.23%) Spring Boot
8 10 (1.12%) .NET
9 9 (1.01%) Middleware
9 9 (1.01%) Node.js
10 8 (0.89%) OAuth
10 8 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
11 7 (0.78%) CSS
11 7 (0.78%) HTML
11 7 (0.78%) OpenID
11 7 (0.78%) SOAP
11 7 (0.78%) Spring
11 7 (0.78%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 306 (34.23%) Product Ownership
2 35 (3.91%) Onboarding
3 30 (3.36%) Analytical Mindset
4 26 (2.91%) CMDB
4 26 (2.91%) Data Protection Act
5 24 (2.68%) Self-Motivation
6 22 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
7 20 (2.24%) Cloud Native
8 17 (1.90%) Data Structures
9 15 (1.68%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 14 (1.57%) Management Information System
11 13 (1.45%) Virtual Team
12 11 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.12%) AI Agents
13 10 (1.12%) Life Science
13 10 (1.12%) Reinsurance
14 8 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
14 8 (0.89%) Marketing Technology
15 7 (0.78%) Mobile App
15 7 (0.78%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.01%) Linux
2 6 (0.67%) Windows
3 5 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.34%) Android
4 3 (0.34%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.34%) CentOS
4 3 (0.34%) Unix
5 1 (0.11%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 563 (62.98%) Agile
2 366 (40.94%) Acceptance Criteria
3 309 (34.56%) Stakeholder Management
4 218 (24.38%) Requirements Gathering
5 217 (24.27%) Scrum
6 191 (21.36%) User Acceptance Testing
7 190 (21.25%) Workshop Facilitation
8 181 (20.25%) DevOps
9 180 (20.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 171 (19.13%) Business Analysis
11 161 (18.01%) Problem-Solving
12 158 (17.67%) Roadmaps
13 148 (16.55%) Sprint Planning
14 147 (16.44%) Product Backlog
15 142 (15.88%) Continuous Improvement
16 125 (13.98%) Backlog Management
17 118 (13.20%) Data Modelling
18 115 (12.86%) Validation
19 114 (12.75%) Backlog Prioritisation
19 114 (12.75%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 123 (13.76%) SQL
2 69 (7.72%) Python
3 44 (4.92%) Java
4 36 (4.03%) JavaScript
5 16 (1.79%) C#
6 9 (1.01%) Apex Code
7 8 (0.89%) TypeScript
8 7 (0.78%) PowerShell
9 6 (0.67%) Korn
10 5 (0.56%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.45%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.34%) R
12 3 (0.34%) Ruby
13 2 (0.22%) Bash
13 2 (0.22%) Google Apps Script
13 2 (0.22%) PHP
13 2 (0.22%) Scala
13 2 (0.22%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.22%) VBA
14 1 (0.11%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 162 (18.12%) Security Cleared
2 130 (14.54%) SC Cleared
3 73 (8.17%) Degree
4 30 (3.36%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (2.46%) IIBA
6 21 (2.35%) CBAP
7 14 (1.57%) CSPO
8 13 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
9 10 (1.12%) PMI Certification
10 8 (0.89%) CISSP
10 8 (0.89%) ISTQB
11 7 (0.78%) DV Cleared
11 7 (0.78%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.67%) ISEB
13 5 (0.56%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
14 4 (0.45%) Azure Certification
15 3 (0.34%) DBS Check
15 3 (0.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 3 (0.34%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (12.53%) QA
2 54 (6.04%) Data Quality
3 40 (4.47%) Accessibility
4 20 (2.24%) GDPR
5 11 (1.23%) GRC
6 10 (1.12%) NIST
7 8 (0.89%) GxP
8 7 (0.78%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 6 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.67%) SLA
10 5 (0.56%) ISO 20022
10 5 (0.56%) Solvency II
10 5 (0.56%) WCAG
11 4 (0.45%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.34%) HL7
13 2 (0.22%) COBIT
13 2 (0.22%) ISO 15022
13 2 (0.22%) SNOMED CT
13 2 (0.22%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 24 (2.68%) Docker
2 11 (1.23%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
4 3 (0.34%) IAG
5 2 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.11%) Ceph
6 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (2.91%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.79%) Ansible
2 16 (1.79%) Terraform
3 7 (0.78%) SCCM
4 6 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (0.56%) HP Quality Center
6 2 (0.22%) HP ALM
6 2 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.11%) Argo
7 1 (0.11%) CASB
7 1 (0.11%) Grafana
7 1 (0.11%) Kibana
Vendors
1 122 (13.65%) Microsoft
2 86 (9.62%) Salesforce
3 54 (6.04%) ServiceNow
4 50 (5.59%) SAP
5 20 (2.24%) Databricks
6 18 (2.01%) Oracle
7 17 (1.90%) Google
8 12 (1.34%) Adobe
9 10 (1.12%) Cisco
9 10 (1.12%) Splunk
9 10 (1.12%) Zscaler
10 9 (1.01%) Pega
10 9 (1.01%) Workday
11 6 (0.67%) Fortinet
11 6 (0.67%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
12 5 (0.56%) Alteryx
12 5 (0.56%) Citrix
12 5 (0.56%) CyberArk
12 5 (0.56%) ION Trading
12 5 (0.56%) Kronos