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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 173 134
Rank change year-on-year +38 -39 -17
Contract jobs citing User Stories 731 390 646
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 1.51% 1.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.37% 1.68% 1.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 528 258 452
10th Percentile £354 £353 £385
25th Percentile £411 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £514 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.23% -2.14% -2.33%
75th Percentile £573 £600 £600
90th Percentile £641 £678 £675
UK median daily rate £491 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -1.90% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 0 8
10th Percentile - - £31.71
25th Percentile £48.86 - £45.43
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £52.50
75th Percentile - - £66.39
90th Percentile £82.06 - £69.04
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £24.30 £52.50
% change year-on-year +205.66% -53.72% -17.97%

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 30,862 23,227 32,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.27% 90.15% 87.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,776 14,571 21,606
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,913 757 2,031
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £35.00 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +2.31% -2.26%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.35 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £26.61 £32.66 £33.07
% change year-on-year -18.53% -1.24% -5.53%

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 26 February 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 26 February 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 26 February 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 +61 412 £500 -5.21% 48
North of England +12 126 £488 +13.37% 41
South East -27 75 £454 -15.53% 41
Midlands -9 64 £475 +2.70% 17
North West +9 62 £405 -14.74% 28
Yorkshire -25 47 £513 +28.13% 7
West Midlands -19 46 £475 -1.66% 12
South West -20 26 £463 -22.92% 10
North East -3 19 £488 +21.88% 7
East Midlands -16 18 £414 +16.15% 5
East of England -19 15 £550 +63.84% 7
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
1 160 (21.89%) Confluence
2 23 (3.15%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.64%) CMS
4 10 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (1.23%) SAS
6 3 (0.41%) Anypoint
6 3 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.27%) Apache
7 2 (0.27%) Drupal
7 2 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.27%) Traefik
7 2 (0.27%) WordPress
8 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 1 (0.14%) Kentico
8 1 (0.14%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
Applications
1 44 (6.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (4.51%) MS Visio
3 29 (3.97%) Microsoft Office
4 22 (3.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.68%) Adobe XD
5 5 (0.68%) Chatbot
5 5 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.68%) Sketch
6 4 (0.55%) Notion
6 4 (0.55%) Trello
7 3 (0.41%) InVision
7 3 (0.41%) Zeplin
8 1 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (2.60%) Dynamics CRM
2 7 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.82%) Adobe Campaign
3 6 (0.82%) NetSuite
3 6 (0.82%) Payment Gateway
4 4 (0.55%) Eloqua
4 4 (0.55%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.27%) Actimize
5 2 (0.27%) Endur
5 2 (0.27%) Exchequer
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS R12
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Financials
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.27%) Primavera
5 2 (0.27%) ProductWriter
5 2 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.27%) Shopify
6 1 (0.14%) Fidessa
6 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 124 (16.96%) Azure
2 76 (10.40%) AWS
3 67 (9.17%) Power Platform
4 50 (6.84%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (4.10%) GCP
6 26 (3.56%) Microsoft 365
7 25 (3.42%) GitHub
8 22 (3.01%) Dynamics 365
9 21 (2.87%) PowerApps
10 20 (2.74%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 19 (2.60%) Power Automate
12 17 (2.33%) SaaS
13 15 (2.05%) GitHub Actions
14 14 (1.92%) Figma
14 14 (1.92%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
15 13 (1.78%) Entra ID
15 13 (1.78%) Lucidchart
15 13 (1.78%) Miro
15 13 (1.78%) Snowflake
16 10 (1.37%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.37%) WebEx
2 5 (0.68%) DNS
2 5 (0.68%) Firewall
3 4 (0.55%) FTP
3 4 (0.55%) HTTP
4 3 (0.41%) BGP
4 3 (0.41%) VLAN
5 2 (0.27%) Software-Defined Networking
5 2 (0.27%) VPN
6 1 (0.14%) Calico
6 1 (0.14%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.14%) LAN
6 1 (0.14%) Network Security
6 1 (0.14%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.14%) WAN
6 1 (0.14%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (6.98%) Power BI
2 28 (3.83%) Data Warehouse
3 17 (2.33%) Tableau
4 15 (2.05%) Metadata
5 14 (1.92%) BigQuery
5 14 (1.92%) PostgreSQL
6 11 (1.50%) NoSQL
6 11 (1.50%) SQL Server
7 9 (1.23%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.96%) Amazon Athena
8 7 (0.96%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.68%) Big Data
9 5 (0.68%) Data Vault
9 5 (0.68%) Star Schema
10 4 (0.55%) MongoDB
10 4 (0.55%) Snowflake Schema
11 3 (0.41%) DynamoDB
11 3 (0.41%) OLAP
11 3 (0.41%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 201 (27.50%) JIRA
2 28 (3.83%) Jenkins
3 14 (1.92%) Cucumber
3 14 (1.92%) Git
3 14 (1.92%) GitLab
4 13 (1.78%) Postman
5 11 (1.50%) JUnit
5 11 (1.50%) Selenium
6 7 (0.96%) JMeter
6 7 (0.96%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.96%) Zephyr
7 6 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.68%) Axure RP
8 5 (0.68%) Cypress.io
8 5 (0.68%) REST Assured
8 5 (0.68%) TeamCity
8 5 (0.68%) TestRail
9 4 (0.55%) ER Studio
9 4 (0.55%) ERwin
9 4 (0.55%) PowerDesigner
General
1 299 (40.90%) Social Skills
2 202 (27.63%) Finance
3 162 (22.16%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (13.13%) Public Sector
5 70 (9.58%) Banking
6 57 (7.80%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (4.92%) Presentation Skills
8 35 (4.79%) Retail
9 28 (3.83%) Marketing
10 27 (3.69%) Legal
11 24 (3.28%) Influencing Skills
12 14 (1.92%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (1.78%) Military
14 12 (1.64%) Financial Institution
14 12 (1.64%) Front Office
15 11 (1.50%) Investment Banking
16 10 (1.37%) Retail Banking
16 10 (1.37%) Telecoms
17 9 (1.23%) Back Office
17 9 (1.23%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 384 (52.53%) Analyst
2 362 (49.52%) Business Analyst
3 114 (15.60%) Senior
4 77 (10.53%) Product Owner
5 73 (9.99%) Senior Analyst
6 64 (8.76%) Senior Business Analyst
7 51 (6.98%) Developer
8 38 (5.20%) Technical Analyst
9 36 (4.92%) Product Manager
9 36 (4.92%) Technical Business Analyst
10 31 (4.24%) Lead
11 29 (3.97%) Salesforce Business Analyst
12 27 (3.69%) Salesforce Analyst
13 24 (3.28%) Data Analyst
13 24 (3.28%) SC Cleared Business Analyst
14 22 (3.01%) Designer
15 21 (2.87%) Data Business Analyst
16 19 (2.60%) Financial Analyst
17 18 (2.46%) Consultant
17 18 (2.46%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.87%) REST
2 18 (2.46%) React
3 16 (2.19%) XML
4 15 (2.05%) ADO
4 15 (2.05%) JSON
5 14 (1.92%) Spring
6 13 (1.78%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.50%) Kafka
7 11 (1.50%) RESTful
8 10 (1.37%) HTML
8 10 (1.37%) Node.js
8 10 (1.37%) XMPP
9 9 (1.23%) Lightning Web Components
9 9 (1.23%) Web Services
10 8 (1.09%) Apache NiFi
10 8 (1.09%) CSS
10 8 (1.09%) VML
11 7 (0.96%) Playwright
12 6 (0.82%) .NET
12 6 (0.82%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 221 (30.23%) Product Ownership
2 21 (2.87%) Analytical Mindset
3 19 (2.60%) Onboarding
4 17 (2.33%) PMI
5 15 (2.05%) Legacy Systems
6 14 (1.92%) Data Structures
7 13 (1.78%) CMDB
8 12 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.37%) Cloud Native
9 10 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (1.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 9 (1.23%) Management Information System
11 8 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
11 8 (1.09%) NHS
12 7 (0.96%) Low-Code
12 7 (0.96%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 6 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.82%) Marketing Technology
13 6 (0.82%) Mobile App
14 5 (0.68%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 20 (2.74%) Windows
2 17 (2.33%) Linux
3 8 (1.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 8 (1.09%) Windows Server
4 4 (0.55%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 503 (68.81%) Agile
2 272 (37.21%) Acceptance Criteria
3 232 (31.74%) Stakeholder Management
4 186 (25.44%) Scrum
5 184 (25.17%) Requirements Gathering
6 177 (24.21%) Workshop Facilitation
7 164 (22.44%) Business Analysis
8 136 (18.60%) Problem-Solving
9 133 (18.19%) DevOps
10 124 (16.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 124 (16.96%) User Acceptance Testing
11 113 (15.46%) Roadmaps
12 101 (13.82%) Data Modelling
12 101 (13.82%) Migration
13 93 (12.72%) Use Case
14 92 (12.59%) Sprint Planning
15 90 (12.31%) Product Backlog
16 84 (11.49%) Analytics
16 84 (11.49%) Backlog Management
17 78 (10.67%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 96 (13.13%) SQL
2 58 (7.93%) Python
3 33 (4.51%) Java
4 19 (2.60%) JavaScript
5 18 (2.46%) PowerShell
6 16 (2.19%) C#
7 14 (1.92%) Bash
8 10 (1.37%) TypeScript
9 9 (1.23%) Perl
10 8 (1.09%) Scala
11 6 (0.82%) Korn
12 5 (0.68%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.55%) T-SQL
13 4 (0.55%) VBA
14 3 (0.41%) Go
14 3 (0.41%) XPath
15 2 (0.27%) Google Apps Script
15 2 (0.27%) Kotlin
15 2 (0.27%) PHP
15 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 139 (19.02%) Security Cleared
2 114 (15.60%) SC Cleared
3 84 (11.49%) Degree
4 42 (5.75%) CBAP
5 31 (4.24%) IIBA
6 30 (4.10%) BPSS Clearance
7 22 (3.01%) PMI Certification
8 19 (2.60%) CSPO
9 9 (1.23%) Master's Degree
10 6 (0.82%) CCDP
10 6 (0.82%) CCNA
10 6 (0.82%) CCNP
10 6 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (0.82%) DV Cleared
10 6 (0.82%) ISEB
10 6 (0.82%) MBA
10 6 (0.82%) PMP
11 5 (0.68%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.68%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.55%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (12.72%) QA
2 38 (5.20%) Accessibility
3 33 (4.51%) Data Quality
4 23 (3.15%) GDPR
5 15 (2.05%) WCAG
6 10 (1.37%) PSD2
7 9 (1.23%) SLA
8 6 (0.82%) ISO 8583
8 6 (0.82%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.55%) HL7
9 4 (0.55%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.41%) GxP
10 3 (0.41%) SEPA
11 2 (0.27%) Basel III
11 2 (0.27%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.27%) GMP
11 2 (0.27%) NCSC
11 2 (0.27%) PMO
12 1 (0.14%) EMIR
System Software
1 24 (3.28%) Docker
2 12 (1.64%) Active Directory
3 9 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.14%) etcd
4 1 (0.14%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 30 (4.10%) Kubernetes
2 17 (2.33%) Terraform
3 12 (1.64%) Ansible
4 7 (0.96%) NetBackup
5 5 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 5 (0.68%) Grafana
5 5 (0.68%) HP Quality Center
5 5 (0.68%) Progress Chef
5 5 (0.68%) SCCM
6 4 (0.55%) Puppet
7 3 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.27%) HP ALM
8 2 (0.27%) Istio
9 1 (0.14%) Argo
9 1 (0.14%) CASB
9 1 (0.14%) CloudHub
9 1 (0.14%) Kibana
Vendors
1 116 (15.87%) Microsoft
2 81 (11.08%) Salesforce
3 38 (5.20%) ServiceNow
4 33 (4.51%) SAP
5 31 (4.24%) Oracle
6 20 (2.74%) Databricks
7 15 (2.05%) Adobe
7 15 (2.05%) Red Hat
8 14 (1.92%) VMware
9 13 (1.78%) Cisco
10 12 (1.64%) Citrix
10 12 (1.64%) MuleSoft
11 9 (1.23%) Google
12 7 (0.96%) Commvault
12 7 (0.96%) Pega
12 7 (0.96%) Workday
13 6 (0.82%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.82%) Zuora
14 5 (0.68%) Cognizant
14 5 (0.68%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud