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 27 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 132 167 141
Rank change year-on-year +35 -26 -39
Contract jobs citing User Stories 613 448 757
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.15% 1.44% 1.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.36% 1.66% 2.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 290 518
10th Percentile £354 £354 £400
25th Percentile £413 £423 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -
75th Percentile £594 £600 £613
90th Percentile £700 £664 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 5
10th Percentile £31.04 - £46.55
25th Percentile £31.49 - £50.00
Median hourly rate £58.63 £33.07 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year +77.29% -37.60% -3.64%
75th Percentile £74.26 - £67.56
90th Percentile £80.11 - £68.27
UK median hourly rate £58.63 £33.07 £53.00
% change year-on-year +77.29% -37.60% -3.64%

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 25,934 26,984 35,910
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.81% 86.59% 88.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,426 16,444 24,762
10th Percentile £297 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £417 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,664 1,003 1,488
10th Percentile £14.51 £15.00 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.59 £20.27 £18.95
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -10.11% +27.14%
75th Percentile £44.75 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £74.35 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.13 £37.39 £43.17
% change year-on-year -32.80% -13.38% +26.81%

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 27 October 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 27 October 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 27 October 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 +39 345 £513 -6.82% 277
North of England +15 105 £513 +2.50% 75
South East -2 61 £475 -1.04% 324
Midlands +18 60 £425 -7.61% 60
North West -2 49 £500 +23.08% 48
Yorkshire 0 48 £520 -5.45% 14
East Midlands +14 32 £388 -1.59% 28
West Midlands -2 28 £450 -5.26% 31
South West +19 23 £500 -16.67% 57
North East -3 10 £525 +16.67% 13
East of England -20 7 £450 +9.09% 56
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
1 107 (17.46%) Confluence
2 14 (2.28%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.63%) CMS
4 8 (1.31%) Apache Airflow
5 6 (0.98%) Microsoft Exchange
5 6 (0.98%) WordPress
6 5 (0.82%) nginx
7 4 (0.65%) Drupal
7 4 (0.65%) JBoss
7 4 (0.65%) Oracle Workflow
7 4 (0.65%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.33%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.33%) CICS
8 2 (0.33%) Traefik
9 1 (0.16%) Apache
9 1 (0.16%) Appian
9 1 (0.16%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.16%) Kentico
9 1 (0.16%) SAS
9 1 (0.16%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 29 (4.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (4.24%) MS Visio
3 21 (3.43%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (2.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (1.14%) Siemens NX
6 5 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.82%) Trello
7 3 (0.49%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.49%) Fusion 360
8 2 (0.33%) Adobe XD
8 2 (0.33%) Sketch
8 2 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.16%) InVision
9 1 (0.16%) Notion
Business Applications
1 21 (3.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (1.31%) Teamcenter
2 8 (1.31%) Temenos T24
3 7 (1.14%) Payment Gateway
4 6 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
5 4 (0.65%) Endur
5 4 (0.65%) Salesforce CRM
5 4 (0.65%) SAP HR
5 4 (0.65%) SAP PM
6 3 (0.49%) ProductWriter
7 2 (0.33%) HFM
7 2 (0.33%) Oracle EBS R12
7 2 (0.33%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.33%) Sage CRM
8 1 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
8 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
8 1 (0.16%) OpenLink RightAngle
8 1 (0.16%) Primavera
8 1 (0.16%) SAP CRM
8 1 (0.16%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 82 (13.38%) Azure
2 58 (9.46%) AWS
3 45 (7.34%) Azure DevOps
4 34 (5.55%) Power Platform
5 25 (4.08%) GCP
6 23 (3.75%) GitHub
7 21 (3.43%) Dynamics 365
8 20 (3.26%) Figma
9 18 (2.94%) Serverless
10 17 (2.77%) Miro
10 17 (2.77%) SaaS
11 16 (2.61%) Snowflake
12 15 (2.45%) AWS Lambda
13 11 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
13 11 (1.79%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.63%) CloudBees
14 10 (1.63%) Entra ID
14 10 (1.63%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 9 (1.47%) dbt
15 9 (1.47%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.98%) Firewall
1 6 (0.98%) WebEx
2 3 (0.49%) DNS
3 2 (0.33%) BGP
3 2 (0.33%) Internet
3 2 (0.33%) LAN
3 2 (0.33%) Software-Defined Networking
3 2 (0.33%) VLAN
3 2 (0.33%) VPN
3 2 (0.33%) WAN
4 1 (0.16%) Calico
4 1 (0.16%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (0.16%) Modbus
4 1 (0.16%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (4.24%) Power BI
2 25 (4.08%) Data Warehouse
3 19 (3.10%) Tableau
4 13 (2.12%) BigQuery
4 13 (2.12%) PostgreSQL
5 11 (1.79%) Star Schema
6 9 (1.47%) Relational Database
7 7 (1.14%) SQL Server
8 5 (0.82%) Data Vault
8 5 (0.82%) Metadata
8 5 (0.82%) Oracle Database
8 5 (0.82%) Snowflake Schema
9 4 (0.65%) Amazon Athena
9 4 (0.65%) Redis
9 4 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.49%) Big Data
10 3 (0.49%) DocumentDB
10 3 (0.49%) Tableau Desktop
11 2 (0.33%) Data Hub
11 2 (0.33%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 172 (28.06%) JIRA
2 24 (3.92%) Jenkins
3 21 (3.43%) GitLab
4 15 (2.45%) Git
5 12 (1.96%) Cucumber
6 11 (1.79%) Selenium
7 8 (1.31%) Postman
8 7 (1.14%) Cypress.io
8 7 (1.14%) MLflow
9 6 (0.98%) JUnit
10 5 (0.82%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.65%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.65%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.65%) ERwin
11 4 (0.65%) JMeter
11 4 (0.65%) PowerDesigner
11 4 (0.65%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.65%) Zephyr
12 3 (0.49%) Maven
12 3 (0.49%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 239 (38.99%) Social Skills
2 166 (27.08%) Finance
3 129 (21.04%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (10.28%) Public Sector
5 56 (9.14%) Banking
6 34 (5.55%) Marketing
7 25 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
8 22 (3.59%) Presentation Skills
8 22 (3.59%) Retail
9 21 (3.43%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (3.26%) Back Office
11 18 (2.94%) Front Office
12 15 (2.45%) Legal
13 14 (2.28%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (2.12%) Investment Banking
15 11 (1.79%) Manufacturing
16 10 (1.63%) Billing
16 10 (1.63%) Law
16 10 (1.63%) Telecoms
17 7 (1.14%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 279 (45.51%) Analyst
2 258 (42.09%) Business Analyst
3 95 (15.50%) Product Owner
4 62 (10.11%) Senior
5 39 (6.36%) Technical Analyst
6 37 (6.04%) Developer
7 36 (5.87%) Technical Business Analyst
8 33 (5.38%) Senior Analyst
9 31 (5.06%) Senior Business Analyst
10 24 (3.92%) Lead
11 22 (3.59%) Architect
12 21 (3.43%) Product Manager
13 18 (2.94%) Test Analyst
14 14 (2.28%) Automation Engineer
14 14 (2.28%) Consultant
14 14 (2.28%) Data Business Analyst
15 13 (2.12%) Data Analyst
15 13 (2.12%) Salesforce Business Analyst
15 13 (2.12%) Scrum Master
16 12 (1.96%) Digital Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (3.10%) RESTful
2 17 (2.77%) SOAP
3 14 (2.28%) JSON
3 14 (2.28%) XML
4 13 (2.12%) ADO
5 12 (1.96%) Spring
5 12 (1.96%) Spring Boot
6 11 (1.79%) HTML
7 10 (1.63%) OAuth
7 10 (1.63%) OAuth2
7 10 (1.63%) REST
8 9 (1.47%) Lightning Web Components
8 9 (1.47%) React
8 9 (1.47%) Web Services
9 8 (1.31%) AngularJS
9 8 (1.31%) Kafka
10 7 (1.14%) Gherkin
10 7 (1.14%) Middleware
10 7 (1.14%) Node.js
10 7 (1.14%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 205 (33.44%) Product Ownership
2 32 (5.22%) Onboarding
3 18 (2.94%) Cloud Native
4 17 (2.77%) Reinsurance
5 16 (2.61%) Data Structures
6 14 (2.28%) Analytical Mindset
6 14 (2.28%) Greenfield Project
7 13 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (2.12%) PMI
8 12 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.96%) Management Information System
8 12 (1.96%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.79%) Algorithms
9 11 (1.79%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 10 (1.63%) SCADA
11 8 (1.31%) Marketing Technology
12 6 (0.98%) Derivative
12 6 (0.98%) Digital Media
12 6 (0.98%) Operational Technology
12 6 (0.98%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 15 (2.45%) Linux
1 15 (2.45%) Windows
2 6 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 6 (0.98%) Windows Server
3 5 (0.82%) VMS
4 2 (0.33%) Unix
5 1 (0.16%) Android
5 1 (0.16%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 451 (73.57%) Agile
2 192 (31.32%) Scrum
3 156 (25.45%) Stakeholder Management
4 145 (23.65%) Acceptance Criteria
5 118 (19.25%) Problem-Solving
6 115 (18.76%) Requirements Gathering
7 110 (17.94%) Roadmaps
8 102 (16.64%) Product Backlog
9 98 (15.99%) Business Analysis
10 96 (15.66%) DevOps
11 94 (15.33%) User Acceptance Testing
12 93 (15.17%) Backlog Management
13 89 (14.52%) Workshop Facilitation
14 87 (14.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 79 (12.89%) Use Case
16 75 (12.23%) Sprint Planning
17 74 (12.07%) Epics
18 73 (11.91%) Analytics
19 71 (11.58%) Backlog Prioritisation
19 71 (11.58%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 66 (10.77%) SQL
2 56 (9.14%) Python
3 37 (6.04%) Java
4 20 (3.26%) Bash
5 15 (2.45%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.12%) PowerShell
7 9 (1.47%) Apex Code
8 8 (1.31%) Perl
8 8 (1.31%) TypeScript
9 6 (0.98%) Go
10 5 (0.82%) VBA
11 4 (0.65%) C#
11 4 (0.65%) Groovy
11 4 (0.65%) Scala
12 3 (0.49%) Korn
13 2 (0.33%) COBOL
13 2 (0.33%) JCL
13 2 (0.33%) REXX
13 2 (0.33%) Ruby
14 1 (0.16%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 78 (12.72%) Degree
1 78 (12.72%) Security Cleared
2 56 (9.14%) SC Cleared
3 17 (2.77%) BPSS Clearance
4 16 (2.61%) PMI Certification
5 15 (2.45%) CBAP
6 12 (1.96%) CSPO
7 11 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (1.31%) DV Cleared
9 6 (0.98%) CCNA
9 6 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
10 5 (0.82%) CCDP
10 5 (0.82%) CCNP
10 5 (0.82%) CFA
11 4 (0.65%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.65%) ISTQB
11 4 (0.65%) PMP
12 3 (0.49%) ISEB
12 3 (0.49%) Six Sigma Black Belt
12 3 (0.49%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (13.05%) QA
2 26 (4.24%) Accessibility
3 23 (3.75%) GDPR
4 14 (2.28%) Data Quality
5 13 (2.12%) WCAG
6 12 (1.96%) PSD2
7 10 (1.63%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.98%) SEPA
9 4 (0.65%) Basel III
9 4 (0.65%) FIPS 140-2
9 4 (0.65%) ISO 8583
9 4 (0.65%) MiFID
10 3 (0.49%) COBIT
10 3 (0.49%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.33%) COREP
11 2 (0.33%) EMIR
11 2 (0.33%) FINREP
11 2 (0.33%) IFRS
11 2 (0.33%) PMO
System Software
1 18 (2.94%) Docker
2 7 (1.14%) Active Directory
3 5 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.16%) etcd
4 1 (0.16%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 20 (3.26%) Ansible
2 16 (2.61%) Terraform
3 14 (2.28%) NetBackup
4 11 (1.79%) Kubernetes
5 7 (1.14%) Puppet
6 6 (0.98%) Kubeflow
6 6 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 3 (0.49%) Grafana
9 2 (0.33%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.33%) Istio
9 2 (0.33%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.16%) Argo
10 1 (0.16%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.16%) HP ALM
10 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 85 (13.87%) Microsoft
2 65 (10.60%) Salesforce
3 32 (5.22%) Oracle
4 23 (3.75%) SAP
5 21 (3.43%) ServiceNow
6 20 (3.26%) Red Hat
7 14 (2.28%) Commvault
8 10 (1.63%) MuleSoft
8 10 (1.63%) Veritas
8 10 (1.63%) VMware
9 9 (1.47%) Cisco
9 9 (1.47%) Citrix
9 9 (1.47%) Databricks
10 8 (1.31%) Temenos
11 7 (1.14%) Siemens
12 6 (0.98%) Adobe
12 6 (0.98%) Workday
13 5 (0.82%) HubSpot
13 5 (0.82%) Pega
14 4 (0.65%) Atlassian