Acceptance Criteria Contract Job Trends in the North East

Acceptance Criteria
England > North East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North East requiring Acceptance Criteria skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 39 34 27
Rank change year-on-year -5 -7 +31
Contract jobs citing Acceptance Criteria 3 5 4
As % of all contract jobs in the North East 0.98% 1.69% 1.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.17% 1.84% 2.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 4 3
10th Percentile - £365 £425
25th Percentile - £388 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £410 £550
Median % change year-on-year +28.05% -25.45% +57.14%
75th Percentile - £435 £588
90th Percentile - £462 £595
England median daily rate £463 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -12.74% +0.95% +4.95%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North East

Acceptance Criteria 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 the North East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 257 272 199
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North East 84.26% 91.89% 86.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 103 154
10th Percentile £210 £315 £316
25th Percentile £378 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £448
Median % change year-on-year - +6.15% -14.76%
75th Percentile £575 £591 £575
90th Percentile £641 £698 £626
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 35 11
10th Percentile £13.98 £13.75 £16.25
25th Percentile £17.08 £15.50 £17.50
Median hourly rate £19.25 £29.77 £20.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.34% +48.85% +19.90%
75th Percentile £20.63 £46.18 £39.97
90th Percentile £46.85 £70.00 £46.18
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -5.56% +38.46%

Acceptance Criteria
Job Vacancy Trend in the North East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Acceptance Criteria relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North East.

Acceptance Criteria job vacancy trend in the North East

Acceptance Criteria
Daily Rate Trend in the North East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North East citing Acceptance Criteria.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North East citing Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria
Contract Job Locations in the North East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Acceptance Criteria within the North East region over the 6 months to 11 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
Tyne and Wear -9 3 £525 +28.05% 5
Acceptance Criteria
England

Acceptance Criteria
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North East 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 1 (33.33%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (33.33%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 1 (33.33%) Miro
Development Applications
1 2 (66.67%) JIRA
2 1 (33.33%) Cucumber
2 1 (33.33%) Gatling
2 1 (33.33%) JMeter
2 1 (33.33%) Selenium
2 1 (33.33%) TestRail
General
1 1 (33.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 1 (33.33%) Analyst
1 1 (33.33%) Business Analyst
1 1 (33.33%) Lead
1 1 (33.33%) QA Automation Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) QA Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) QA Test Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Service Transition Leader
1 1 (33.33%) Test Automation Engineer
1 1 (33.33%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 1 (33.33%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (66.67%) Agile
1 2 (66.67%) Scrum
2 1 (33.33%) API Testing
2 1 (33.33%) BDD
2 1 (33.33%) Business Analysis
2 1 (33.33%) Business Process Modelling
2 1 (33.33%) Continuous Delivery
2 1 (33.33%) Decision-Making
2 1 (33.33%) Performance Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 1 (33.33%) QA Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Scenario Testing
2 1 (33.33%) SDLC
2 1 (33.33%) Security Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Service Design
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder and Relationship Management
2 1 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Test Management
2 1 (33.33%) Usability Testing
2 1 (33.33%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 1 (33.33%) Java
Qualifications
1 1 (33.33%) ISTQB
1 1 (33.33%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
1 1 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 1 (33.33%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (66.67%) Accessibility
2 1 (33.33%) QA
2 1 (33.33%) WCAG