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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 126 144 171
Rank change year-on-year +18 +27 -28
Contract jobs citing User Stories 1,002 569 477
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.17% 2.03% 1.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.56% 2.23% 1.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 651 398 310
10th Percentile £363 £355 £354
25th Percentile £420 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £580 £600 £612
90th Percentile £650 £725 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £523
% change year-on-year - -4.31% -0.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 4 1
10th Percentile £52.50 £30.45 -
25th Percentile £56.25 £31.12 -
Median hourly rate £78.64 £31.49 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +149.72% -4.78% -37.60%
75th Percentile £87.99 £34.37 -
90th Percentile £99.76 £39.55 -
UK median hourly rate £77.37 £31.49 £33.07
% change year-on-year +145.68% -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 39,199 25,531 28,009
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.82% 90.87% 86.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,678 16,181 17,100
10th Percentile £325 £294 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £419
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% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,975 1,587 1,157
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.36 £17.79 £20.19
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.47 £45.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.25 £74.92
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -8.31%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +10 602 £525 - 577
Midlands +12 122 £450 +5.88% 113
North of England -42 117 £474 -5.20% 162
West Midlands +19 94 £450 +2.27% 69
South East -49 64 £450 - 146
North West -30 58 £500 +11.11% 84
Yorkshire -30 48 £463 -11.06% 56
South West -5 45 £481 -3.75% 50
East of England -1 34 £495 +10.00% 46
East Midlands -18 28 £455 +26.39% 44
North East -35 12 £408 -17.47% 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
1 188 (18.76%) Confluence
2 25 (2.50%) CMS
3 14 (1.40%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.00%) Camunda
5 5 (0.50%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.30%) Cloud Foundry
6 3 (0.30%) Headless CMS
6 3 (0.30%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.30%) Kentico
7 2 (0.20%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.20%) Traefik
8 1 (0.100%) Apache
8 1 (0.100%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.100%) Apache Superset
8 1 (0.100%) Drupal
8 1 (0.100%) Moodle
8 1 (0.100%) SAS
8 1 (0.100%) Totara
Applications
1 41 (4.09%) MS Visio
2 31 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.70%) Notion
6 4 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.30%) Productboard
8 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.100%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.100%) Gliffy
9 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.100%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (2.50%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.50%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.40%) ProductWriter
5 3 (0.30%) Aladdin
5 3 (0.30%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.30%) SAP SD
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics SL
6 2 (0.20%) Infor CloudSuite
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (0.20%) Sage X3
6 2 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.20%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.20%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 205 (20.46%) Azure
2 120 (11.98%) Power Platform
3 105 (10.48%) Azure DevOps
4 97 (9.68%) AWS
5 41 (4.09%) Dynamics 365
6 36 (3.59%) SaaS
7 29 (2.89%) GCP
7 29 (2.89%) Power Automate
8 28 (2.79%) GitHub
8 28 (2.79%) PowerApps
9 25 (2.50%) Microsoft 365
10 21 (2.10%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 18 (1.80%) Lucidchart
11 18 (1.80%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 18 (1.80%) Snowflake
12 17 (1.70%) Entra ID
13 14 (1.40%) Figma
14 12 (1.20%) Serverless
15 11 (1.10%) Azure Data Factory
15 11 (1.10%) Miro
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (0.30%) Broadband
2 3 (0.30%) Internet
2 3 (0.30%) Intranet
3 2 (0.20%) HTTP
3 2 (0.20%) SD-WAN
3 2 (0.20%) WAN
3 2 (0.20%) Wireless
4 1 (0.100%) 5G
4 1 (0.100%) CTI
4 1 (0.100%) Network Security
4 1 (0.100%) NFC
4 1 (0.100%) PBX
4 1 (0.100%) SSH
4 1 (0.100%) SSL
4 1 (0.100%) Unified Communications
4 1 (0.100%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (7.88%) Power BI
2 40 (3.99%) Metadata
3 37 (3.69%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (2.69%) Relational Database
5 22 (2.20%) SQL Server
6 20 (2.00%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.90%) Data Lake
8 7 (0.70%) Big Data
9 6 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
9 6 (0.60%) Parquet
9 6 (0.60%) Tableau
10 5 (0.50%) BigQuery
10 5 (0.50%) ClickHouse
10 5 (0.50%) Data Hub
10 5 (0.50%) Delta Lake
10 5 (0.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.50%) Star Schema
11 3 (0.30%) Data Mining
11 3 (0.30%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.30%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 250 (24.95%) JIRA
2 38 (3.79%) Git
3 26 (2.59%) Jenkins
4 24 (2.40%) Maven
5 23 (2.30%) GitLab
6 22 (2.20%) Gradle
7 19 (1.90%) JUnit
8 17 (1.70%) Mockito
8 17 (1.70%) SonarQube
9 14 (1.40%) Postman
10 12 (1.20%) REST Assured
11 11 (1.10%) Selenium
12 10 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
13 9 (0.90%) Bitbucket Server
13 9 (0.90%) Cucumber
14 6 (0.60%) Bitbucket
14 6 (0.60%) Team Foundation Server
15 5 (0.50%) Atlassian Bamboo
16 3 (0.30%) Balsamiq
17 2 (0.20%) SoapUI
General
1 415 (41.42%) Social Skills
2 292 (29.14%) Finance
3 263 (26.25%) Analytical Skills
4 150 (14.97%) Banking
5 137 (13.67%) Public Sector
6 73 (7.29%) Documentation Skills
7 65 (6.49%) Retail
8 42 (4.19%) Influencing Skills
9 38 (3.79%) Investment Banking
10 35 (3.49%) Legal
11 31 (3.09%) Marketing
12 26 (2.59%) Organisational Skills
13 25 (2.50%) Manufacturing
14 22 (2.20%) Presentation Skills
14 22 (2.20%) Telecoms
15 21 (2.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 19 (1.90%) Front Office
17 17 (1.70%) Local Government
17 17 (1.70%) Retail Banking
18 16 (1.60%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 508 (50.70%) Analyst
2 455 (45.41%) Business Analyst
3 150 (14.97%) Senior
4 116 (11.58%) Product Owner
5 112 (11.18%) Developer
6 82 (8.18%) Senior Analyst
7 81 (8.08%) Senior Business Analyst
8 80 (7.98%) Product Manager
9 67 (6.69%) Technical Analyst
10 63 (6.29%) Lead
11 49 (4.89%) Technical Business Analyst
12 33 (3.29%) Consultant
13 30 (2.99%) Salesforce Analyst
14 29 (2.89%) Salesforce Business Analyst
14 29 (2.89%) Senior Developer
15 25 (2.50%) Data Business Analyst
16 24 (2.40%) Data Analyst
17 22 (2.20%) Financial Analyst
17 22 (2.20%) Java Developer
18 19 (1.90%) Finance Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (4.79%) REST
2 39 (3.89%) JSON
3 33 (3.29%) Spring Boot
4 24 (2.40%) SOAP
4 24 (2.40%) Spring
5 23 (2.30%) RESTful
6 22 (2.20%) Kafka
6 22 (2.20%) Terraform
7 21 (2.10%) HTML
7 21 (2.10%) React
8 20 (2.00%) AngularJS
8 20 (2.00%) Hibernate
8 20 (2.00%) JPA
9 16 (1.60%) CSS
10 14 (1.40%) Lightning Web Components
11 13 (1.30%) .NET
12 12 (1.20%) Middleware
12 12 (1.20%) OAuth
12 12 (1.20%) Web Services
13 11 (1.10%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 350 (34.93%) Product Ownership
2 45 (4.49%) Onboarding
3 31 (3.09%) Analytical Mindset
4 30 (2.99%) Cloud Native
5 29 (2.89%) Data Structures
6 28 (2.79%) Management Information System
7 25 (2.50%) Data Protection Act
8 21 (2.10%) CMDB
8 21 (2.10%) Self-Motivation
9 20 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
10 19 (1.90%) AI Agents
11 16 (1.60%) Virtual Team
12 15 (1.50%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (1.30%) Mobile App
14 12 (1.20%) NHS
15 11 (1.10%) FMCG
15 11 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
15 11 (1.10%) Life Science
16 9 (0.90%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 9 (0.90%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 15 (1.50%) Linux
2 8 (0.80%) Unix
3 5 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 5 (0.50%) Windows
4 4 (0.40%) Android
4 4 (0.40%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.20%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 703 (70.16%) Agile
2 452 (45.11%) Stakeholder Management
3 431 (43.01%) Acceptance Criteria
4 340 (33.93%) Requirements Gathering
5 289 (28.84%) Workshop Facilitation
6 270 (26.95%) Business Analysis
7 266 (26.55%) Scrum
8 250 (24.95%) User Acceptance Testing
9 217 (21.66%) Continuous Improvement
10 214 (21.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 200 (19.96%) DevOps
12 197 (19.66%) Problem-Solving
13 194 (19.36%) Roadmaps
14 185 (18.46%) Product Backlog
15 181 (18.06%) Sprint Planning
16 171 (17.07%) Backlog Management
17 169 (16.87%) Backlog Prioritisation
18 156 (15.57%) Validation
19 154 (15.37%) AI
20 152 (15.17%) Backlog Refinement
Programming Languages
1 164 (16.37%) SQL
2 64 (6.39%) Python
3 63 (6.29%) Java
4 56 (5.59%) JavaScript
5 23 (2.30%) C#
6 14 (1.40%) TypeScript
7 12 (1.20%) Apex Code
8 10 (1.00%) Scala
9 7 (0.70%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 7 (0.70%) Kotlin
10 5 (0.50%) Korn
11 3 (0.30%) SOQL
11 3 (0.30%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.20%) Bash
12 2 (0.20%) Magik
12 2 (0.20%) PowerShell
12 2 (0.20%) R
12 2 (0.20%) Ruby
12 2 (0.20%) SOSL
13 1 (0.100%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 168 (16.77%) Security Cleared
2 138 (13.77%) SC Cleared
3 89 (8.88%) Degree
4 33 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
5 24 (2.40%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (1.60%) IIBA
8 15 (1.50%) CBAP
8 15 (1.50%) PMI Certification
9 13 (1.30%) PMP
10 12 (1.20%) CSPO
11 11 (1.10%) DV Cleared
12 8 (0.80%) CISSP
13 5 (0.50%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.50%) ISEB
13 5 (0.50%) ISTQB
14 3 (0.30%) Azure Certification
14 3 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 3 (0.30%) Master's Degree
15 2 (0.20%) SAFe Agilist
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (10.68%) QA
2 74 (7.39%) Data Quality
3 41 (4.09%) Accessibility
4 15 (1.50%) GDPR
5 13 (1.30%) GRC
6 9 (0.90%) ISO 20022
7 7 (0.70%) GxP
8 6 (0.60%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 6 (0.60%) WCAG
9 5 (0.50%) NIST
9 5 (0.50%) PMO
9 5 (0.50%) SEPA
10 4 (0.40%) ISO 15022
10 4 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.30%) Solvency II
12 2 (0.20%) Basel III
12 2 (0.20%) Def Stans
12 2 (0.20%) SLA
System Software
1 44 (4.39%) Docker
2 14 (1.40%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.40%) IAG
5 1 (0.100%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 26 (2.59%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.10%) Ansible
3 9 (0.90%) Grafana
4 8 (0.80%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (0.30%) HP ALM
7 2 (0.20%) Argo
7 2 (0.20%) Istio
8 1 (0.100%) Check_MK
8 1 (0.100%) Kibana
8 1 (0.100%) Podman
Vendors
1 157 (15.67%) Microsoft
2 78 (7.78%) Salesforce
3 41 (4.09%) SAP
3 41 (4.09%) ServiceNow
4 20 (2.00%) Databricks
5 19 (1.90%) Google
6 17 (1.70%) Oracle
7 11 (1.10%) IBM
8 10 (1.00%) Veracode
9 9 (0.90%) CyberArk
9 9 (0.90%) Pega
10 7 (0.70%) Adobe
10 7 (0.70%) Zscaler
11 6 (0.60%) Guidewire
11 6 (0.60%) Okta
11 6 (0.60%) Splunk
12 5 (0.50%) Alteryx
12 5 (0.50%) Atlassian
12 5 (0.50%) ION Trading
12 5 (0.50%) MuleSoft