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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 137 168
Rank change year-on-year +15 +31 -40
Contract jobs citing User Stories 1,004 565 498
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.20% 2.05% 1.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.59% 2.25% 1.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 658 376 325
10th Percentile £363 £351 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
75th Percentile £582 £619 £600
90th Percentile £650 £725 £661
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 5 2
10th Percentile £35.00 £30.60 £33.01
25th Percentile £53.44 - £33.02
Median hourly rate £70.00 £31.49 £33.04
Median % change year-on-year +122.29% -4.68% -51.06%
75th Percentile £82.84 £53.50 £33.05
90th Percentile £89.28 £64.90 £33.06
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £42.50 £33.04
% change year-on-year +64.73% +28.64% -51.06%

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 38,772 25,064 28,481
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.81% 90.82% 85.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,937 15,945 18,292
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £753
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,579 1,483 1,510
10th Percentile £14.25 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.87 £18.13
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £69.65 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
% change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%

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 August 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 27 August 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 27 August 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 +16 579 £525 - 431
North of England -19 141 £500 +8.11% 105
Midlands -1 122 £450 +5.88% 63
West Midlands +12 93 £450 -2.17% 50
South East -37 70 £450 -2.70% 79
North West -21 67 £500 +8.70% 60
Yorkshire -33 56 £500 +2.30% 27
South West -16 43 £486 -2.75% 66
East of England +1 33 £495 +10.00% 20
East Midlands -15 29 £440 +19.73% 13
North East -26 19 £420 -4.00% 18
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
1 161 (16.04%) Confluence
2 27 (2.69%) CMS
3 18 (1.79%) SharePoint
4 10 (1.00%) Camunda
5 5 (0.50%) Jupyter
6 4 (0.40%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.30%) Cloud Foundry
7 3 (0.30%) Headless CMS
7 3 (0.30%) Kentico
8 2 (0.20%) JBoss
8 2 (0.20%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.100%) Apache
9 1 (0.100%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.100%) Apache Solr
9 1 (0.100%) Drupal
9 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Exchange
9 1 (0.100%) Moodle
9 1 (0.100%) SAS
9 1 (0.100%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.100%) Totara
Applications
1 47 (4.68%) MS Visio
2 32 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (0.70%) Notion
6 4 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.100%) Gliffy
8 1 (0.100%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (2.19%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (1.59%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.60%) ProductWriter
4 5 (0.50%) Teamcenter
5 3 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.30%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.30%) SAP SD
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
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%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.20%) Sage X3
6 2 (0.20%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.20%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.20%) Temenos T24
6 2 (0.20%) Workfront
Cloud Services
1 206 (20.52%) Azure
2 108 (10.76%) Power Platform
3 95 (9.46%) Azure DevOps
4 94 (9.36%) AWS
5 40 (3.98%) Dynamics 365
6 32 (3.19%) SaaS
7 29 (2.89%) GCP
7 29 (2.89%) PowerApps
8 27 (2.69%) GitHub
9 26 (2.59%) Power Automate
10 24 (2.39%) Microsoft 365
11 23 (2.29%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 20 (1.99%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
13 16 (1.59%) Snowflake
14 15 (1.49%) Figma
15 13 (1.29%) Entra ID
16 12 (1.20%) Lucidchart
17 11 (1.10%) Azure Data Factory
18 9 (0.90%) Miro
18 9 (0.90%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.60%) Network Security
2 4 (0.40%) Firewall
2 4 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
3 3 (0.30%) Broadband
3 3 (0.30%) HTTP
3 3 (0.30%) Intranet
4 2 (0.20%) SD-WAN
4 2 (0.20%) WAN
4 2 (0.20%) Wireless
5 1 (0.100%) 5G
5 1 (0.100%) DNS
5 1 (0.100%) Internet
5 1 (0.100%) NFC
5 1 (0.100%) NGFW
5 1 (0.100%) SSH
5 1 (0.100%) SSL
5 1 (0.100%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (6.57%) Power BI
2 39 (3.88%) Metadata
3 27 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 18 (1.79%) SQL Server
5 14 (1.39%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.90%) Data Lake
6 9 (0.90%) Parquet
7 8 (0.80%) Big Data
7 8 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
7 8 (0.80%) Tableau
8 7 (0.70%) Delta Lake
9 5 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.50%) BigQuery
9 5 (0.50%) Data Hub
9 5 (0.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.50%) Star Schema
10 4 (0.40%) ClickHouse
11 3 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.30%) SAP BW
12 2 (0.20%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 240 (23.90%) JIRA
2 24 (2.39%) Postman
3 22 (2.19%) Git
3 22 (2.19%) GitLab
4 15 (1.49%) Gradle
4 15 (1.49%) Jenkins
5 11 (1.10%) Selenium
6 8 (0.80%) Maven
6 8 (0.80%) REST Assured
7 7 (0.70%) Cucumber
7 7 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
7 7 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
8 6 (0.60%) Bitbucket
8 6 (0.60%) Bitbucket Server
8 6 (0.60%) JUnit
8 6 (0.60%) Mockito
8 6 (0.60%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.50%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 4 (0.40%) Balsamiq
10 4 (0.40%) Zephyr
General
1 407 (40.54%) Social Skills
2 281 (27.99%) Finance
3 267 (26.59%) Analytical Skills
4 146 (14.54%) Banking
5 126 (12.55%) Public Sector
6 77 (7.67%) Documentation Skills
7 63 (6.27%) Retail
8 37 (3.69%) Marketing
9 35 (3.49%) Legal
10 31 (3.09%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (2.99%) Investment Banking
12 27 (2.69%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (2.49%) Manufacturing
14 21 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 19 (1.89%) Organisational Skills
16 17 (1.69%) Front Office
16 17 (1.69%) Retail Banking
17 16 (1.59%) Pharmaceutical
18 15 (1.49%) Aerospace
19 14 (1.39%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 518 (51.59%) Analyst
2 467 (46.51%) Business Analyst
3 136 (13.55%) Senior
4 119 (11.85%) Product Owner
5 103 (10.26%) Developer
6 80 (7.97%) Senior Analyst
6 80 (7.97%) Technical Analyst
7 77 (7.67%) Senior Business Analyst
8 73 (7.27%) Product Manager
9 67 (6.67%) Technical Business Analyst
10 59 (5.88%) Lead
11 41 (4.08%) Salesforce Analyst
11 41 (4.08%) Salesforce Business Analyst
12 31 (3.09%) Consultant
13 26 (2.59%) Financial Analyst
14 24 (2.39%) Data Analyst
15 23 (2.29%) Finance Business Analyst
16 22 (2.19%) Digital Business Analyst
16 22 (2.19%) Senior Developer
16 22 (2.19%) Systems Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (3.78%) REST
2 36 (3.59%) JSON
3 22 (2.19%) Terraform
4 20 (1.99%) Kafka
4 20 (1.99%) RESTful
5 18 (1.79%) HTML
5 18 (1.79%) React
6 16 (1.59%) Spring Boot
7 13 (1.29%) AngularJS
7 13 (1.29%) CSS
8 12 (1.20%) Lightning Web Components
9 11 (1.10%) .NET
9 11 (1.10%) OAuth
10 10 (1.00%) ADO
10 10 (1.00%) Middleware
10 10 (1.00%) OpenID
10 10 (1.00%) Vue
11 9 (0.90%) SailPoint
11 9 (0.90%) XML
12 8 (0.80%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 355 (35.36%) Product Ownership
2 44 (4.38%) Onboarding
3 36 (3.59%) Analytical Mindset
4 33 (3.29%) Data Protection Act
5 25 (2.49%) Cloud Native
5 25 (2.49%) Data Structures
6 24 (2.39%) CMDB
7 23 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
8 22 (2.19%) Management Information System
9 20 (1.99%) AI Agents
10 18 (1.79%) Virtual Team
11 17 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
12 15 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (1.29%) Life Science
14 12 (1.20%) Mobile App
15 11 (1.10%) FMCG
15 11 (1.10%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 10 (1.00%) NHS
16 10 (1.00%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.10%) Linux
2 5 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 5 (0.50%) Unix
2 5 (0.50%) Windows
3 4 (0.40%) Android
3 4 (0.40%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.30%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 670 (66.73%) Agile
2 413 (41.14%) Acceptance Criteria
3 401 (39.94%) Stakeholder Management
4 307 (30.58%) Requirements Gathering
5 263 (26.20%) Workshop Facilitation
6 253 (25.20%) Scrum
7 246 (24.50%) User Acceptance Testing
8 230 (22.91%) Business Analysis
9 211 (21.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 207 (20.62%) DevOps
11 193 (19.22%) Problem-Solving
12 189 (18.82%) Sprint Planning
13 188 (18.73%) Continuous Improvement
14 181 (18.03%) Roadmaps
15 167 (16.63%) Product Backlog
16 165 (16.43%) Backlog Management
17 147 (14.64%) Validation
18 145 (14.44%) Backlog Refinement
19 143 (14.24%) Backlog Prioritisation
20 142 (14.14%) AI
Programming Languages
1 148 (14.74%) SQL
2 76 (7.57%) Python
3 56 (5.58%) Java
4 54 (5.38%) JavaScript
5 22 (2.19%) C#
6 12 (1.20%) Apex Code
7 10 (1.00%) Scala
8 8 (0.80%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.50%) Korn
9 5 (0.50%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.40%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 3 (0.30%) R
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%) Ruby
12 2 (0.20%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.20%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 171 (17.03%) Security Cleared
2 140 (13.94%) SC Cleared
3 77 (7.67%) Degree
4 30 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (1.89%) Computer Science Degree
6 18 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 16 (1.59%) CSPO
8 15 (1.49%) IIBA
9 12 (1.20%) DV Cleared
10 11 (1.10%) CBAP
10 11 (1.10%) PMI Certification
11 9 (0.90%) PMP
12 8 (0.80%) CISSP
13 7 (0.70%) ISTQB
14 5 (0.50%) ISEB
14 5 (0.50%) Master's Degree
15 4 (0.40%) AWS Certification
16 3 (0.30%) Azure Certification
16 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
16 3 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (11.55%) QA
2 67 (6.67%) Data Quality
3 39 (3.88%) Accessibility
4 18 (1.79%) GDPR
5 16 (1.59%) GRC
6 11 (1.10%) NIST
7 9 (0.90%) GxP
8 8 (0.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 8 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 7 (0.70%) SLA
10 6 (0.60%) ISO 20022
11 5 (0.50%) Solvency II
11 5 (0.50%) WCAG
12 4 (0.40%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.40%) SEPA
13 3 (0.30%) HL7
14 2 (0.20%) COBIT
14 2 (0.20%) ISO 15022
14 2 (0.20%) PMO
14 2 (0.20%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 30 (2.99%) Docker
2 13 (1.29%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
4 6 (0.60%) IAG
5 2 (0.20%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.100%) Ceph
6 1 (0.100%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 25 (2.49%) Kubernetes
2 17 (1.69%) Ansible
3 7 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.30%) Argo
4 3 (0.30%) HP ALM
5 2 (0.20%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.20%) SCCM
6 1 (0.100%) CASB
6 1 (0.100%) Check_MK
6 1 (0.100%) Podman
Vendors
1 152 (15.14%) Microsoft
2 89 (8.86%) Salesforce
3 50 (4.98%) SAP
3 50 (4.98%) ServiceNow
4 22 (2.19%) Google
5 19 (1.89%) Databricks
6 15 (1.49%) Oracle
7 13 (1.29%) Splunk
7 13 (1.29%) Zscaler
8 9 (0.90%) IBM
9 8 (0.80%) CyberArk
9 8 (0.80%) Pega
10 7 (0.70%) Adobe
10 7 (0.70%) Cisco
10 7 (0.70%) Veracode
11 5 (0.50%) Alteryx
11 5 (0.50%) Fortinet
11 5 (0.50%) ION Trading
11 5 (0.50%) Kronos
11 5 (0.50%) MuleSoft