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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 136 168
Rank change year-on-year +15 +32 -39
Contract jobs citing User Stories 1,005 564 495
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.20% 2.06% 1.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.60% 2.27% 1.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 655 377 316
10th Percentile £363 £351 £353
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -6.45% +1.81%
75th Percentile £580 £613 £600
90th Percentile £650 £725 £672
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 3 2
10th Percentile £35.00 £30.30 £33.01
25th Percentile £52.50 £30.75 £33.02
Median hourly rate £70.00 £31.49 £33.04
Median % change year-on-year +122.29% -4.68% -37.67%
75th Percentile £83.00 - £33.05
90th Percentile £90.57 - £33.06
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £31.49 £33.04
% change year-on-year +122.29% -4.68% -37.67%

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 38,700 24,856 28,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.86% 90.77% 85.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,864 15,818 18,112
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £631 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £753
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,605 1,463 1,438
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.25 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.87 £18.56
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%

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 2 September 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 2 September 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 2 September 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 +12 580 £525 - 489
North of England -27 141 £500 +8.70% 112
Midlands +7 127 £450 +5.88% 67
West Midlands +18 97 £450 -1.10% 55
South East -54 65 £450 -5.26% 82
North West -26 63 £500 +10.25% 70
Yorkshire -19 60 £500 +2.30% 26
South West -14 45 £480 -4.00% 72
East of England -1 32 £495 +10.00% 23
East Midlands -15 30 £455 +23.81% 12
North East -30 19 £420 -4.00% 16
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
1 170 (16.92%) Confluence
2 26 (2.59%) 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%) Apache Superset
9 1 (0.100%) Drupal
9 1 (0.100%) Moodle
9 1 (0.100%) SAS
9 1 (0.100%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.100%) Totara
Applications
1 46 (4.58%) MS Visio
2 32 (3.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.19%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (0.70%) Notion
6 5 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.100%) Gliffy
8 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.100%) Trello
Business Applications
1 22 (2.19%) Dynamics CRM
2 15 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.50%) ProductWriter
3 5 (0.50%) Teamcenter
4 4 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.30%) NetSuite
5 3 (0.30%) SAP SD
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics GP
6 2 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
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%) 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
1 207 (20.60%) Azure
2 108 (10.75%) Power Platform
3 102 (10.15%) AWS
4 94 (9.35%) Azure DevOps
5 41 (4.08%) Dynamics 365
6 32 (3.18%) SaaS
7 30 (2.99%) GCP
8 29 (2.89%) PowerApps
9 28 (2.79%) GitHub
10 26 (2.59%) Power Automate
11 24 (2.39%) Microsoft 365
12 22 (2.19%) Salesforce Service Cloud
13 19 (1.89%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
14 15 (1.49%) Figma
14 15 (1.49%) Snowflake
15 14 (1.39%) Entra ID
16 11 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
16 11 (1.09%) Lucidchart
17 10 (1.00%) Miro
18 9 (0.90%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (0.30%) Broadband
2 3 (0.30%) HTTP
2 3 (0.30%) Intranet
3 2 (0.20%) SD-WAN
3 2 (0.20%) WAN
3 2 (0.20%) Wireless
4 1 (0.100%) 5G
4 1 (0.100%) Internet
4 1 (0.100%) NFC
4 1 (0.100%) SSH
4 1 (0.100%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (6.57%) Power BI
2 39 (3.88%) Metadata
3 27 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 19 (1.89%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.79%) SQL Server
6 12 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
7 9 (0.90%) Data Lake
7 9 (0.90%) Parquet
8 8 (0.80%) Big Data
9 7 (0.70%) Delta Lake
9 7 (0.70%) Tableau
10 5 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.50%) BigQuery
10 5 (0.50%) Data Hub
10 5 (0.50%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.50%) Star Schema
11 4 (0.40%) ClickHouse
12 3 (0.30%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.30%) SAP BW
13 2 (0.20%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 248 (24.68%) JIRA
2 27 (2.69%) Git
3 23 (2.29%) GitLab
3 23 (2.29%) Postman
4 21 (2.09%) Jenkins
5 16 (1.59%) Gradle
6 14 (1.39%) Maven
7 12 (1.19%) JUnit
7 12 (1.19%) Mockito
7 12 (1.19%) SonarQube
8 11 (1.09%) Selenium
9 9 (0.90%) REST Assured
10 8 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
11 7 (0.70%) Bitbucket Server
11 7 (0.70%) Cucumber
11 7 (0.70%) Team Foundation Server
12 6 (0.60%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.50%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 4 (0.40%) Balsamiq
15 3 (0.30%) Zephyr
General
1 419 (41.69%) Social Skills
2 278 (27.66%) Finance
3 273 (27.16%) Analytical Skills
4 144 (14.33%) Banking
5 134 (13.33%) Public Sector
6 77 (7.66%) Documentation Skills
7 66 (6.57%) Retail
8 34 (3.38%) Influencing Skills
8 34 (3.38%) Legal
8 34 (3.38%) Marketing
9 29 (2.89%) Investment Banking
9 29 (2.89%) Presentation Skills
10 26 (2.59%) Manufacturing
11 22 (2.19%) Organisational Skills
12 21 (2.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 17 (1.69%) Retail Banking
14 16 (1.59%) Front Office
14 16 (1.59%) Pharmaceutical
14 16 (1.59%) Telecoms
15 15 (1.49%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 518 (51.54%) Analyst
2 468 (46.57%) Business Analyst
3 145 (14.43%) Senior
4 118 (11.74%) Product Owner
5 108 (10.75%) Developer
6 85 (8.46%) Senior Analyst
7 82 (8.16%) Senior Business Analyst
8 79 (7.86%) Technical Analyst
9 69 (6.87%) Product Manager
10 66 (6.57%) Technical Business Analyst
11 62 (6.17%) Lead
12 40 (3.98%) Salesforce Analyst
12 40 (3.98%) Salesforce Business Analyst
13 31 (3.08%) Consultant
14 26 (2.59%) Senior Developer
15 25 (2.49%) Financial Analyst
16 23 (2.29%) Data Analyst
16 23 (2.29%) Digital Business Analyst
17 22 (2.19%) Finance Business Analyst
18 21 (2.09%) Digital Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (4.18%) REST
2 36 (3.58%) JSON
3 25 (2.49%) RESTful
4 23 (2.29%) Terraform
5 22 (2.19%) Spring Boot
6 21 (2.09%) Kafka
7 19 (1.89%) HTML
7 19 (1.89%) React
8 17 (1.69%) AngularJS
9 14 (1.39%) CSS
9 14 (1.39%) Spring
10 13 (1.29%) SOAP
11 12 (1.19%) Hibernate
11 12 (1.19%) JPA
11 12 (1.19%) Lightning Web Components
11 12 (1.19%) OAuth
12 11 (1.09%) .NET
12 11 (1.09%) OpenID
13 10 (1.00%) Vue
14 9 (0.90%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 351 (34.93%) Product Ownership
2 47 (4.68%) Onboarding
3 35 (3.48%) Analytical Mindset
4 33 (3.28%) Data Protection Act
5 31 (3.08%) Cloud Native
6 27 (2.69%) Self-Motivation
7 24 (2.39%) CMDB
7 24 (2.39%) Data Structures
8 22 (2.19%) Management Information System
9 20 (1.99%) AI Agents
10 19 (1.89%) Virtual Team
11 18 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
12 16 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (1.29%) Life Science
13 13 (1.29%) Mobile App
14 11 (1.09%) FMCG
14 11 (1.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 11 (1.09%) Operational Technology
15 10 (1.00%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 11 (1.09%) 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
1 685 (68.16%) Agile
2 418 (41.59%) Acceptance Criteria
3 413 (41.09%) Stakeholder Management
4 315 (31.34%) Requirements Gathering
5 275 (27.36%) Workshop Facilitation
6 259 (25.77%) Scrum
7 247 (24.58%) User Acceptance Testing
8 236 (23.48%) Business Analysis
9 209 (20.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 206 (20.50%) DevOps
11 203 (20.20%) Problem-Solving
12 196 (19.50%) Continuous Improvement
13 195 (19.40%) Sprint Planning
14 180 (17.91%) Roadmaps
15 169 (16.82%) Product Backlog
16 165 (16.42%) Backlog Management
17 152 (15.12%) Backlog Refinement
18 148 (14.73%) Validation
19 142 (14.13%) AI
20 141 (14.03%) Backlog Prioritisation
Programming Languages
1 148 (14.73%) SQL
2 73 (7.26%) Python
3 60 (5.97%) Java
4 55 (5.47%) JavaScript
5 22 (2.19%) C#
6 12 (1.19%) Apex Code
7 10 (1.00%) Scala
7 10 (1.00%) TypeScript
8 8 (0.80%) Kotlin
9 5 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 5 (0.50%) Korn
10 3 (0.30%) R
10 3 (0.30%) SOQL
10 3 (0.30%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.20%) Bash
11 2 (0.20%) Magik
11 2 (0.20%) PowerShell
11 2 (0.20%) Ruby
11 2 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.20%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 174 (17.31%) Security Cleared
2 142 (14.13%) SC Cleared
3 77 (7.66%) Degree
4 30 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
6 19 (1.89%) Microsoft Certification
7 15 (1.49%) IIBA
8 14 (1.39%) CSPO
9 11 (1.09%) CBAP
9 11 (1.09%) PMI Certification
10 10 (1.00%) DV Cleared
11 9 (0.90%) PMP
12 8 (0.80%) CISSP
13 7 (0.70%) ISTQB
14 5 (0.50%) AWS Certification
14 5 (0.50%) ISEB
15 4 (0.40%) Master's Degree
16 3 (0.30%) Azure Certification
16 3 (0.30%) DBS Check
16 3 (0.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 117 (11.64%) QA
2 68 (6.77%) Data Quality
3 39 (3.88%) Accessibility
4 18 (1.79%) GDPR
5 16 (1.59%) GRC
6 9 (0.90%) GxP
7 8 (0.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 6 (0.60%) ISO 20022
8 6 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.60%) NIST
9 5 (0.50%) WCAG
10 4 (0.40%) SEPA
10 4 (0.40%) Solvency II
11 3 (0.30%) HL7
11 3 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.30%) SLA
12 2 (0.20%) COBIT
12 2 (0.20%) ISO 15022
12 2 (0.20%) PMO
12 2 (0.20%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 34 (3.38%) 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 8 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (0.60%) Grafana
5 5 (0.50%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.30%) Argo
6 3 (0.30%) HP ALM
7 1 (0.100%) Check_MK
7 1 (0.100%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.100%) Kibana
7 1 (0.100%) Podman
7 1 (0.100%) SCCM
Vendors
1 150 (14.93%) Microsoft
2 89 (8.86%) Salesforce
3 49 (4.88%) SAP
4 43 (4.28%) ServiceNow
5 22 (2.19%) Google
6 19 (1.89%) Databricks
7 14 (1.39%) Oracle
8 10 (1.00%) IBM
9 8 (0.80%) CyberArk
9 8 (0.80%) Pega
9 8 (0.80%) Veracode
10 7 (0.70%) Adobe
10 7 (0.70%) Splunk
10 7 (0.70%) Zscaler
11 5 (0.50%) Alteryx
11 5 (0.50%) ION Trading
11 5 (0.50%) Kronos
11 5 (0.50%) MuleSoft
11 5 (0.50%) Okta
11 5 (0.50%) Ping Identity