User Stories Contract Job Trends in Lancashire

User Story
North West > Lancashire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Lancashire requiring User Stories skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 28 23 38
Rank change year-on-year -5 +15 -9
Contract jobs citing User Stories 10 3 3
As % of all contract jobs in Lancashire 4.67% 1.73% 1.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.56% 2.44% 1.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 3 2
10th Percentile - £300 £533
25th Percentile - £338 £544
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £400 £575
Median % change year-on-year +37.50% -30.43% +2.68%
75th Percentile - £469 £594
90th Percentile - £510 £598
North West median daily rate £530 £413 £495
% change year-on-year +28.48% -16.67% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 0
10th Percentile £67.44 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £74.26 - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
Lancashire

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 Lancashire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 180 123 220
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Lancashire 84.11% 71.10% 91.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 101 40 125
10th Percentile £165 £258 £363
25th Percentile £375 £309 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £575
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -17.39% +11.11%
75th Percentile £575 £564 £688
90th Percentile £650 £627 £720
North West median daily rate £450 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 23 56
10th Percentile £32.15 £28.07 £20.58
25th Percentile £43.70 £36.18 £37.73
Median hourly rate £45.46 £40.33 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +12.73% -12.68% +22.19%
75th Percentile £69.80 £46.18 £50.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £51.70 £58.90
North West median hourly rate £29.60 £35.36 £35.00
% change year-on-year -16.29% +1.03% +59.09%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend in Lancashire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing User Stories relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Lancashire.

User Stories job vacancy trend in Lancashire

User Stories
Daily Rate Trend in Lancashire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Lancashire citing User Stories.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Lancashire citing User Stories

User Stories
Hourly Rate Trend in Lancashire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Lancashire citing User Stories.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Lancashire citing User Stories

User Stories
Contract Job Locations in Lancashire

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 Lancashire region over the 6 months to 17 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
Preston - 3 £550 -
User Stories
North West

User Stories
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Lancashire 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 7 (70.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (50.00%) SharePoint
3 1 (10.00%) SharePoint Server
Cloud Services
1 5 (50.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (10.00%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 7 (70.00%) WebEx
2 2 (20.00%) BGP
2 2 (20.00%) DNS
2 2 (20.00%) Firewall
2 2 (20.00%) Software-Defined Networking
2 2 (20.00%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (10.00%) SAP HANA
General
1 9 (90.00%) Legal
2 4 (40.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (10.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (40.00%) Platform Engineer
2 3 (30.00%) Administrator
3 2 (20.00%) Network Engineer
4 1 (10.00%) Product Owner
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (70.00%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (100.00%) Product Ownership
2 2 (20.00%) Data Centre
2 2 (20.00%) Fat Client
2 2 (20.00%) Thin Client
3 1 (10.00%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 5 (50.00%) Linux
1 5 (50.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1 5 (50.00%) Windows
1 5 (50.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (90.00%) Acceptance Criteria
1 9 (90.00%) Product Requirements
1 9 (90.00%) Service Management
2 7 (70.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
2 7 (70.00%) Identity Access Management
3 6 (60.00%) ITSM
3 6 (60.00%) Knowledge Management
3 6 (60.00%) Platform Engineering
3 6 (60.00%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (40.00%) Change Control
4 4 (40.00%) Mobile Device Management
4 4 (40.00%) Performance Monitoring
5 3 (30.00%) Cybersecurity
6 2 (20.00%) Containerisation
6 2 (20.00%) High Availability
6 2 (20.00%) Network Design
6 2 (20.00%) Virtual Infrastructure
7 1 (10.00%) Customer Requirements
7 1 (10.00%) Data Migration
7 1 (10.00%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 9 (90.00%) PowerShell
2 7 (70.00%) Bash
2 7 (70.00%) Perl
2 7 (70.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 9 (90.00%) Security Cleared
2 8 (80.00%) SC Cleared
3 4 (40.00%) CCDP
3 4 (40.00%) CCNA
3 4 (40.00%) CCNP
3 4 (40.00%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (20.00%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (10.00%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (10.00%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (70.00%) Active Directory
2 1 (10.00%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (40.00%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 2 (20.00%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 9 (90.00%) Cisco
1 9 (90.00%) Microsoft
2 7 (70.00%) Citrix
3 5 (50.00%) Red Hat
3 5 (50.00%) VMware
4 2 (20.00%) Palo Alto
5 1 (10.00%) SAP