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

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 134 182 144
Rank change year-on-year +48 -38 -31
Contract jobs citing User Stories 656 436 707
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.15% 1.41% 1.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.40% 1.61% 2.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 463 274 486
10th Percentile £353 £357 £388
25th Percentile £413 £425 £441
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% -
75th Percentile £575 £620 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 1 4
10th Percentile £31.49 - £45.98
25th Percentile £45.93 - £48.56
Median hourly rate £60.61 £33.07 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year +83.28% -35.47% -6.82%
75th Percentile £74.26 - £57.20
90th Percentile £85.95 - £63.42
UK median hourly rate £60.61 £31.04 £51.25
% change year-on-year +95.30% -39.44% -6.82%

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 27,380 27,022 34,479
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.64% 87.64% 88.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,423 16,566 23,536
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £549
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% -4.42% -0.14%
75th Percentile £625 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,778 979 1,450
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £14.64
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.24 £19.15
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.85%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £43.63
% change year-on-year -23.79% -24.36% +24.64%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 +62 366 £500 -9.09% 91
North of England +19 115 £520 +15.56% 27
South East -5 74 £452 -11.37% 66
Yorkshire +14 57 £520 -1.89% 3
Midlands +13 57 £428 -0.87% 24
North West -3 47 £535 +25.88% 20
West Midlands +3 31 £490 +4.81% 19
East Midlands +1 26 £375 -4.76% 5
South West +12 23 £500 -16.67% 19
North East 0 13 £494 +17.56% 4
East of England -10 10 £425 -10.53% 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
1 115 (17.53%) Confluence
2 19 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.68%) CMS
4 9 (1.37%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.76%) nginx
7 4 (0.61%) Drupal
7 4 (0.61%) JBoss
7 4 (0.61%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (0.61%) WordPress
8 3 (0.46%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.30%) Apache
9 2 (0.30%) Traefik
9 2 (0.30%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 1 (0.15%) Appian
10 1 (0.15%) Kentico
10 1 (0.15%) SAS
10 1 (0.15%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 29 (4.42%) MS Visio
2 27 (4.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (2.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.76%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.61%) Adobe XD
6 4 (0.61%) Sketch
6 4 (0.61%) Trello
7 3 (0.46%) Siemens NX
8 2 (0.30%) InVision
8 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.15%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.15%) Notion
9 1 (0.15%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 24 (3.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (1.37%) Payment Gateway
3 8 (1.22%) Temenos T24
4 6 (0.91%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.61%) Endur
5 4 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.61%) SAP HR
5 4 (0.61%) SAP PM
6 3 (0.46%) ProductWriter
6 3 (0.46%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.30%) HFM
7 2 (0.30%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.30%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.30%) Primavera
7 2 (0.30%) Shopify
8 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.15%) OpenLink RightAngle
8 1 (0.15%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.15%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 90 (13.72%) Azure
2 66 (10.06%) AWS
3 50 (7.62%) Azure DevOps
4 45 (6.86%) Power Platform
5 27 (4.12%) GCP
6 25 (3.81%) GitHub
7 24 (3.66%) Dynamics 365
8 19 (2.90%) Figma
8 19 (2.90%) Serverless
9 16 (2.44%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (2.44%) Microsoft 365
9 16 (2.44%) Miro
9 16 (2.44%) Snowflake
10 15 (2.29%) PowerApps
11 14 (2.13%) Power Automate
11 14 (2.13%) SaaS
12 13 (1.98%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 12 (1.83%) GitHub Actions
14 11 (1.68%) Entra ID
15 10 (1.52%) CloudBees
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.22%) WebEx
2 5 (0.76%) DNS
2 5 (0.76%) Firewall
3 3 (0.46%) HTTP
3 3 (0.46%) VPN
4 2 (0.30%) BGP
4 2 (0.30%) FTP
4 2 (0.30%) Internet
4 2 (0.30%) LAN
4 2 (0.30%) Software-Defined Networking
4 2 (0.30%) VLAN
4 2 (0.30%) WAN
5 1 (0.15%) Calico
5 1 (0.15%) Cisco IPT
5 1 (0.15%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.15%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.64%) Power BI
2 23 (3.51%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (2.59%) Tableau
4 16 (2.44%) BigQuery
4 16 (2.44%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (1.37%) Star Schema
6 8 (1.22%) Relational Database
6 8 (1.22%) SQL Server
7 7 (1.07%) Metadata
7 7 (1.07%) Oracle Database
8 6 (0.91%) Amazon Athena
8 6 (0.91%) Data Vault
8 6 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (0.61%) Big Data
9 4 (0.61%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.61%) Redis
9 4 (0.61%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.46%) DynamoDB
10 3 (0.46%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 181 (27.59%) JIRA
2 33 (5.03%) Jenkins
3 20 (3.05%) GitLab
4 17 (2.59%) Cucumber
5 14 (2.13%) Git
6 11 (1.68%) JUnit
6 11 (1.68%) Selenium
7 9 (1.37%) Postman
8 7 (1.07%) JMeter
8 7 (1.07%) Zephyr
9 6 (0.91%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.91%) MLflow
9 6 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.76%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.61%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.61%) ERwin
11 4 (0.61%) PowerDesigner
12 3 (0.46%) Axure RP
12 3 (0.46%) Maven
12 3 (0.46%) TeamCity
General
1 266 (40.55%) Social Skills
2 162 (24.70%) Finance
3 134 (20.43%) Analytical Skills
4 75 (11.43%) Public Sector
5 53 (8.08%) Banking
6 40 (6.10%) Marketing
7 34 (5.18%) Documentation Skills
8 29 (4.42%) Retail
9 27 (4.12%) Presentation Skills
10 23 (3.51%) Legal
11 22 (3.35%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (2.74%) Front Office
13 17 (2.59%) Back Office
14 14 (2.13%) Investment Banking
15 13 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (1.83%) Telecoms
17 11 (1.68%) Billing
18 10 (1.52%) Manufacturing
19 7 (1.07%) Advertising
19 7 (1.07%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 299 (45.58%) Analyst
2 278 (42.38%) Business Analyst
3 92 (14.02%) Product Owner
4 70 (10.67%) Senior
5 43 (6.55%) Technical Analyst
6 41 (6.25%) Technical Business Analyst
7 39 (5.95%) Senior Analyst
8 37 (5.64%) Developer
9 36 (5.49%) Senior Business Analyst
10 31 (4.73%) Product Manager
11 30 (4.57%) Lead
12 21 (3.20%) Test Analyst
13 19 (2.90%) Consultant
14 18 (2.74%) Salesforce Business Analyst
15 15 (2.29%) Architect
15 15 (2.29%) Digital Analyst
15 15 (2.29%) Digital Business Analyst
15 15 (2.29%) Salesforce Analyst
16 14 (2.13%) Automation Engineer
16 14 (2.13%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (2.74%) RESTful
2 17 (2.59%) Spring
3 16 (2.44%) SOAP
4 15 (2.29%) JSON
4 15 (2.29%) Kafka
4 15 (2.29%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.29%) XML
5 14 (2.13%) ADO
6 13 (1.98%) REST
7 10 (1.52%) Lightning Web Components
7 10 (1.52%) OAuth
7 10 (1.52%) OAuth2
7 10 (1.52%) React
8 9 (1.37%) HTML
9 8 (1.22%) Apache NiFi
9 8 (1.22%) Gherkin
9 8 (1.22%) Middleware
9 8 (1.22%) Node.js
9 8 (1.22%) Playwright
9 8 (1.22%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 220 (33.54%) Product Ownership
2 31 (4.73%) Onboarding
3 21 (3.20%) Cloud Native
4 17 (2.59%) Data Structures
5 16 (2.44%) Analytical Mindset
6 14 (2.13%) Greenfield Project
7 13 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (1.98%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.98%) PMI
8 12 (1.83%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.68%) Algorithms
9 11 (1.68%) Reinsurance
10 10 (1.52%) SWIFT Messaging Network
11 9 (1.37%) Marketing Technology
12 8 (1.22%) Management Information System
12 8 (1.22%) SCADA
13 7 (1.07%) Derivative
13 7 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
14 6 (0.91%) Digital Media
14 6 (0.91%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 19 (2.90%) Linux
1 19 (2.90%) Windows
2 7 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 7 (1.07%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.76%) VMS
4 1 (0.15%) Android
4 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 478 (72.87%) Agile
2 197 (30.03%) Scrum
3 175 (26.68%) Stakeholder Management
4 174 (26.52%) Acceptance Criteria
5 138 (21.04%) Requirements Gathering
6 132 (20.12%) Problem-Solving
7 117 (17.84%) Roadmaps
7 117 (17.84%) Workshop Facilitation
8 116 (17.68%) Business Analysis
9 110 (16.77%) DevOps
10 107 (16.31%) Product Backlog
11 103 (15.70%) Backlog Management
11 103 (15.70%) User Acceptance Testing
12 98 (14.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 79 (12.04%) Sprint Planning
14 77 (11.74%) Analytics
14 77 (11.74%) Use Case
15 76 (11.59%) Continuous Improvement
15 76 (11.59%) Data Modelling
16 75 (11.43%) Epics
Programming Languages
1 65 (9.91%) SQL
2 52 (7.93%) Python
3 43 (6.55%) Java
4 20 (3.05%) Bash
5 12 (1.83%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.52%) JavaScript
7 9 (1.37%) Apex Code
8 8 (1.22%) Perl
8 8 (1.22%) Scala
9 6 (0.91%) C#
10 5 (0.76%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.61%) Korn
12 3 (0.46%) Go
13 2 (0.30%) Ruby
13 2 (0.30%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.30%) VBA
13 2 (0.30%) XPath
14 1 (0.15%) Groovy
14 1 (0.15%) PHP
14 1 (0.15%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 90 (13.72%) Security Cleared
2 82 (12.50%) Degree
3 67 (10.21%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (2.90%) CSPO
6 17 (2.59%) CBAP
7 16 (2.44%) PMI Certification
8 11 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
9 10 (1.52%) DV Cleared
10 6 (0.91%) CCNA
10 6 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (0.76%) Azure Certification
11 5 (0.76%) CCDP
11 5 (0.76%) CCNP
11 5 (0.76%) CFA
12 4 (0.61%) AWS Certification
12 4 (0.61%) Master's Degree
12 4 (0.61%) PMP
13 3 (0.46%) OCP
13 3 (0.46%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (12.80%) QA
2 27 (4.12%) GDPR
3 26 (3.96%) Accessibility
4 18 (2.74%) WCAG
5 14 (2.13%) Data Quality
5 14 (2.13%) PSD2
6 12 (1.83%) PCI DSS
7 7 (1.07%) SLA
8 6 (0.91%) ISO 8583
9 5 (0.76%) SEPA
10 4 (0.61%) FIPS 140-2
11 3 (0.46%) COBIT
11 3 (0.46%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.46%) HL7
11 3 (0.46%) ISO 20022
12 2 (0.30%) EMIR
12 2 (0.30%) MiFID
12 2 (0.30%) NCSC
12 2 (0.30%) PMO
12 2 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 24 (3.66%) Docker
2 9 (1.37%) Active Directory
3 8 (1.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.15%) etcd
4 1 (0.15%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 20 (3.05%) Ansible
1 20 (3.05%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.13%) NetBackup
2 14 (2.13%) Terraform
3 6 (0.91%) Kubeflow
3 6 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 5 (0.76%) Progress Chef
5 4 (0.61%) Grafana
5 4 (0.61%) Puppet
6 2 (0.30%) CloudHub
6 2 (0.30%) FortiGate
6 2 (0.30%) Istio
7 1 (0.15%) Argo
7 1 (0.15%) CASB
7 1 (0.15%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 92 (14.02%) Microsoft
2 72 (10.98%) Salesforce
3 33 (5.03%) Oracle
4 26 (3.96%) SAP
5 25 (3.81%) ServiceNow
6 21 (3.20%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.13%) Commvault
8 13 (1.98%) MuleSoft
8 13 (1.98%) VMware
9 12 (1.83%) Databricks
10 11 (1.68%) Cisco
10 11 (1.68%) Citrix
11 10 (1.52%) Veritas
12 9 (1.37%) Adobe
12 9 (1.37%) Pega
13 8 (1.22%) Temenos
14 6 (0.91%) Workday
15 5 (0.76%) Atlassian
15 5 (0.76%) Google
15 5 (0.76%) HubSpot