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 20 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
20 Nov 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 133 183 142
Rank change year-on-year +50 -41 -35
Contract jobs citing User Stories 663 434 726
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.18% 1.40% 1.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.41% 1.61% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 473 270 499
10th Percentile £354 £360 £387
25th Percentile £413 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% -
75th Percentile £594 £613 £600
90th Percentile £686 £675 £684
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 6
10th Percentile £31.49 - £47.13
25th Percentile £43.00 - £50.31
Median hourly rate £74.26 £33.07 £52.75
Median % change year-on-year +124.55% -37.31% -1.86%
75th Percentile - - £64.30
90th Percentile £89.85 - £68.16
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £33.07 £52.75
% change year-on-year +124.55% -37.31% -1.86%

All Process and 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 27,490 26,978 34,630
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.21% 86.87% 88.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,441 16,489 23,672
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £644 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,813 961 1,464
10th Percentile £14.87 £15.10 £14.51
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.03% -17.78% +26.90%
75th Percentile £48.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.62 £74.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £43.95
% change year-on-year -28.14% -20.36% +25.57%

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 20 November 2025.

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 20 November 2025.

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 20 November 2025. 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 +44 371 £505 -8.18% 198
North of England +15 116 £513 +10.81% 39
South East -3 70 £465 -7.10% 75
Midlands +16 60 £425 -1.45% 51
Yorkshire +6 56 £520 -2.58% 11
North West -6 48 £530 +24.71% 22
West Midlands -11 31 £483 +3.21% 36
East Midlands +4 29 £375 -4.76% 13
South West +5 24 £500 -16.67% 27
North East -1 14 £488 +16.07% 6
East of England -24 8 £438 +2.94% 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
1 115 (17.35%) Confluence
2 20 (3.02%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.81%) CMS
4 9 (1.36%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.21%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.75%) nginx
6 5 (0.75%) WordPress
7 4 (0.60%) Drupal
7 4 (0.60%) JBoss
7 4 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.45%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.30%) Apache
9 2 (0.30%) Traefik
9 2 (0.30%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.15%) Appian
10 1 (0.15%) Kentico
10 1 (0.15%) SAS
10 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 28 (4.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (3.92%) MS Visio
3 19 (2.87%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.75%) Chatbot
6 5 (0.75%) Siemens NX
7 4 (0.60%) Adobe XD
7 4 (0.60%) Sketch
7 4 (0.60%) Trello
8 2 (0.30%) Fusion 360
8 2 (0.30%) InVision
8 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.15%) Notion
9 1 (0.15%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 23 (3.47%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.36%) Payment Gateway
3 8 (1.21%) Temenos T24
4 6 (0.90%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.75%) Teamcenter
6 4 (0.60%) Endur
6 4 (0.60%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.60%) SAP HR
6 4 (0.60%) SAP PM
7 3 (0.45%) ProductWriter
8 2 (0.30%) HFM
8 2 (0.30%) Oracle EBS R12
8 2 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.30%) Primavera
8 2 (0.30%) Sage CRM
8 2 (0.30%) Shopify
9 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
9 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
9 1 (0.15%) OpenLink RightAngle
9 1 (0.15%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 90 (13.57%) Azure
2 68 (10.26%) AWS
3 49 (7.39%) Azure DevOps
4 39 (5.88%) Power Platform
5 28 (4.22%) GCP
6 26 (3.92%) GitHub
7 23 (3.47%) Dynamics 365
8 21 (3.17%) Figma
9 19 (2.87%) Serverless
10 17 (2.56%) Miro
11 16 (2.41%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (2.41%) SaaS
11 16 (2.41%) Snowflake
12 15 (2.26%) PowerApps
13 13 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (1.66%) Power Automate
14 11 (1.66%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 10 (1.51%) CloudBees
15 10 (1.51%) Entra ID
15 10 (1.51%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.21%) WebEx
2 7 (1.06%) Firewall
3 5 (0.75%) DNS
4 3 (0.45%) HTTP
4 3 (0.45%) VPN
5 2 (0.30%) BGP
5 2 (0.30%) FTP
5 2 (0.30%) Internet
5 2 (0.30%) LAN
5 2 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.30%) VLAN
5 2 (0.30%) WAN
6 1 (0.15%) Calico
6 1 (0.15%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.15%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.15%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.15%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (4.52%) Power BI
2 24 (3.62%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (2.87%) Tableau
4 16 (2.41%) BigQuery
4 16 (2.41%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (1.36%) Star Schema
6 8 (1.21%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.06%) Oracle Database
7 7 (1.06%) SQL Server
8 6 (0.90%) Amazon Athena
8 6 (0.90%) Metadata
9 5 (0.75%) Data Vault
10 4 (0.60%) Big Data
10 4 (0.60%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.60%) Redis
10 4 (0.60%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.45%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.45%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 183 (27.60%) JIRA
2 34 (5.13%) Jenkins
3 22 (3.32%) GitLab
4 18 (2.71%) Cucumber
5 17 (2.56%) Git
6 11 (1.66%) JUnit
6 11 (1.66%) Selenium
7 10 (1.51%) Postman
8 8 (1.21%) JMeter
9 7 (1.06%) Cypress.io
9 7 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
9 7 (1.06%) Zephyr
10 6 (0.90%) MLflow
10 6 (0.90%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.60%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.60%) ERwin
11 4 (0.60%) Maven
11 4 (0.60%) PowerDesigner
11 4 (0.60%) REST Assured
12 3 (0.45%) Axure RP
General
1 267 (40.27%) Social Skills
2 164 (24.74%) Finance
3 136 (20.51%) Analytical Skills
4 77 (11.61%) Public Sector
5 52 (7.84%) Banking
6 38 (5.73%) Marketing
7 32 (4.83%) Documentation Skills
8 28 (4.22%) Retail
9 24 (3.62%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (3.17%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (2.87%) Legal
12 18 (2.71%) Back Office
12 18 (2.71%) Front Office
13 14 (2.11%) Investment Banking
14 13 (1.96%) Telecoms
15 12 (1.81%) Organisational Skills
16 10 (1.51%) Billing
16 10 (1.51%) Manufacturing
17 8 (1.21%) Law
18 7 (1.06%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 302 (45.55%) Analyst
2 280 (42.23%) Business Analyst
3 96 (14.48%) Product Owner
4 68 (10.26%) Senior
5 43 (6.49%) Technical Analyst
6 40 (6.03%) Technical Business Analyst
7 39 (5.88%) Developer
8 38 (5.73%) Senior Analyst
9 35 (5.28%) Senior Business Analyst
10 28 (4.22%) Lead
11 26 (3.92%) Product Manager
12 21 (3.17%) Test Analyst
13 17 (2.56%) Architect
13 17 (2.56%) Consultant
14 15 (2.26%) Digital Analyst
14 15 (2.26%) Digital Business Analyst
14 15 (2.26%) Salesforce Business Analyst
15 14 (2.11%) Automation Engineer
15 14 (2.11%) Data Analyst
15 14 (2.11%) Data Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.87%) RESTful
2 17 (2.56%) Spring
3 16 (2.41%) SOAP
3 16 (2.41%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.26%) JSON
4 15 (2.26%) Kafka
4 15 (2.26%) XML
5 14 (2.11%) ADO
6 13 (1.96%) REST
7 11 (1.66%) React
8 10 (1.51%) HTML
8 10 (1.51%) OAuth
8 10 (1.51%) OAuth2
9 9 (1.36%) Playwright
10 8 (1.21%) Apache NiFi
10 8 (1.21%) Gherkin
10 8 (1.21%) Lightning Web Components
10 8 (1.21%) Middleware
10 8 (1.21%) Node.js
10 8 (1.21%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 218 (32.88%) Product Ownership
2 33 (4.98%) Onboarding
3 21 (3.17%) Cloud Native
4 16 (2.41%) Data Structures
4 16 (2.41%) Reinsurance
5 15 (2.26%) Analytical Mindset
5 15 (2.26%) PMI
6 14 (2.11%) Greenfield Project
6 14 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (1.81%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.66%) Algorithms
10 10 (1.51%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.51%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 9 (1.36%) Marketing Technology
11 9 (1.36%) SCADA
12 7 (1.06%) Derivative
13 6 (0.90%) Digital Media
13 6 (0.90%) Operational Technology
13 6 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.87%) Linux
1 19 (2.87%) Windows
2 7 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 7 (1.06%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.75%) VMS
4 1 (0.15%) Android
4 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 491 (74.06%) Agile
2 202 (30.47%) Scrum
3 174 (26.24%) Stakeholder Management
4 170 (25.64%) Acceptance Criteria
5 134 (20.21%) Requirements Gathering
6 133 (20.06%) Problem-Solving
7 115 (17.35%) Roadmaps
8 112 (16.89%) Business Analysis
8 112 (16.89%) DevOps
9 109 (16.44%) Workshop Facilitation
10 107 (16.14%) Product Backlog
11 104 (15.69%) User Acceptance Testing
12 102 (15.38%) Backlog Management
13 98 (14.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 85 (12.82%) Analytics
15 83 (12.52%) Use Case
16 79 (11.92%) Continuous Improvement
16 79 (11.92%) Sprint Planning
17 76 (11.46%) Epics
18 73 (11.01%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 65 (9.80%) SQL
2 54 (8.14%) Python
3 45 (6.79%) Java
4 20 (3.02%) Bash
5 13 (1.96%) PowerShell
6 12 (1.81%) JavaScript
7 8 (1.21%) Apex Code
7 8 (1.21%) Perl
7 8 (1.21%) Scala
8 7 (1.06%) TypeScript
9 6 (0.90%) C#
10 4 (0.60%) Go
10 4 (0.60%) Korn
10 4 (0.60%) VBA
11 2 (0.30%) Groovy
11 2 (0.30%) Ruby
11 2 (0.30%) XPath
12 1 (0.15%) PHP
12 1 (0.15%) SOQL
12 1 (0.15%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 94 (14.18%) Security Cleared
2 79 (11.92%) Degree
3 70 (10.56%) SC Cleared
4 22 (3.32%) BPSS Clearance
5 18 (2.71%) PMI Certification
6 17 (2.56%) CBAP
6 17 (2.56%) CSPO
7 11 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
8 10 (1.51%) DV Cleared
9 6 (0.90%) CCNA
9 6 (0.90%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (0.75%) CCDP
10 5 (0.75%) CCNP
10 5 (0.75%) CFA
11 4 (0.60%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.60%) PMP
12 3 (0.45%) ISEB
12 3 (0.45%) ISTQB
12 3 (0.45%) OCP
12 3 (0.45%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (12.67%) QA
2 28 (4.22%) Accessibility
3 25 (3.77%) GDPR
4 18 (2.71%) WCAG
5 14 (2.11%) PSD2
6 13 (1.96%) Data Quality
7 12 (1.81%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.90%) ISO 8583
9 5 (0.75%) SEPA
10 4 (0.60%) Basel III
10 4 (0.60%) FIPS 140-2
10 4 (0.60%) MiFID
10 4 (0.60%) SLA
11 3 (0.45%) COBIT
11 3 (0.45%) HL7
11 3 (0.45%) ISO 20022
11 3 (0.45%) PMO
11 3 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.30%) IFRS
12 2 (0.30%) IFRS 9
System Software
1 25 (3.77%) Docker
2 9 (1.36%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.15%) etcd
4 1 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 21 (3.17%) Ansible
2 20 (3.02%) Kubernetes
3 15 (2.26%) Terraform
4 14 (2.11%) NetBackup
5 6 (0.90%) Kubeflow
5 6 (0.90%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (0.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (0.75%) Progress Chef
6 5 (0.75%) Puppet
7 4 (0.60%) Grafana
8 2 (0.30%) CloudHub
8 2 (0.30%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.30%) Istio
9 1 (0.15%) Argo
9 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 95 (14.33%) Microsoft
2 68 (10.26%) Salesforce
3 33 (4.98%) Oracle
4 25 (3.77%) SAP
5 24 (3.62%) ServiceNow
6 21 (3.17%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.11%) Commvault
8 13 (1.96%) VMware
9 12 (1.81%) MuleSoft
10 11 (1.66%) Cisco
10 11 (1.66%) Citrix
11 10 (1.51%) Veritas
12 9 (1.36%) Databricks
13 8 (1.21%) Adobe
13 8 (1.21%) Pega
13 8 (1.21%) Temenos
14 6 (0.90%) Workday
15 5 (0.75%) Atlassian
15 5 (0.75%) HubSpot
15 5 (0.75%) Siemens
387 User Stories jobs in England