User Stories Contracts in the North West

User Story
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring User Stories skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited User Stories over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 91 104 89
Rank change year-on-year +13 -15 +13
Contract jobs citing User Stories 29 33 71
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 1.47% 1.20% 2.22%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.63% 1.39% 2.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 23 51
10th Percentile £352 - £388
25th Percentile £408 £65 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +10.53%
75th Percentile £550 £550 £625
90th Percentile £626 £618 £650
England median daily rate £500 £538 £525
% change year-on-year -6.98% +2.38% +1.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £67.50 £67.50 -
Median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 -
75th Percentile £72.50 £72.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £61.75 £42.75 £64.50
% change year-on-year +44.44% -33.72% +36.51%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,776 2,377 2,894
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 90.24% 86.28% 90.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,147 1,519 2,058
10th Percentile £300 £306 £313
25th Percentile £393 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £593 £588
90th Percentile £661 £688 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 244 144
10th Percentile £15.97 £10.95 £16.85
25th Percentile £22.66 £13.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £31.88 £21.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +51.81% -40.00% +70.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £45.22 £48.91
90th Percentile £83.96 £57.50 £65.00
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing User Stories as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for User Stories in the North West

User Stories
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing User Stories in the North West.

Daily rate trend for User Stories in the North West

User Stories
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Stories in the North West over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for User Stories in the North West

User Stories
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing User Stories in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for User Stories in the North West

User Stories
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Cheshire +5 16 £447 +587.69% 6
Manchester +5 9 £600 +16.62% 29
Merseyside - 2 £488 - 2
Lancashire +3 1 £550 -4.35% 13
User Stories
England

User Stories
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (13.79%) Confluence
2 2 (6.90%) CICS
2 2 (6.90%) WebSphere
3 1 (3.45%) CMS
3 1 (3.45%) Sitecore CMS
3 1 (3.45%) WordPress
Applications
1 2 (6.90%) InVision
1 2 (6.90%) UserZoom
Business Applications
1 5 (17.24%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 3 (10.34%) Dynamics 365
2 2 (6.90%) AWS
3 1 (3.45%) Azure
3 1 (3.45%) Power Platform
3 1 (3.45%) Serverless
3 1 (3.45%) Snowflake
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (10.34%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (6.90%) DB2
2 2 (6.90%) Hadoop
3 1 (3.45%) Data Lake
3 1 (3.45%) MongoDB
3 1 (3.45%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (3.45%) Power BI
3 1 (3.45%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 5 (17.24%) JIRA
2 3 (10.34%) Jenkins
2 3 (10.34%) Selenium
3 2 (6.90%) Axure RP
3 2 (6.90%) Git
3 2 (6.90%) SOAtest
4 1 (3.45%) GitLab
General
1 10 (34.48%) Social Skills
2 9 (31.03%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (20.69%) Banking
3 6 (20.69%) Marketing
4 5 (17.24%) Finance
5 4 (13.79%) Legal
5 4 (13.79%) Pharmaceutical
6 3 (10.34%) Retail Banking
7 2 (6.90%) General Ledger
7 2 (6.90%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (6.90%) Public Sector
8 1 (3.45%) Corporate Banking
8 1 (3.45%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 13 (44.83%) Analyst
1 13 (44.83%) Business Analyst
2 3 (10.34%) Business IT Analyst
2 3 (10.34%) Consultant
2 3 (10.34%) Developer
2 3 (10.34%) IT Analyst
2 3 (10.34%) IT Business Analyst
2 3 (10.34%) Product Manager
3 2 (6.90%) Architect
3 2 (6.90%) Dynamics 365 Consultant
3 2 (6.90%) Functional Consultant
3 2 (6.90%) SAP Analyst
3 2 (6.90%) SAP Business Analyst
3 2 (6.90%) Senior
3 2 (6.90%) Test Architect
4 1 (3.45%) Mainframe Architect
4 1 (3.45%) Senior Developer
4 1 (3.45%) Technical Manager
4 1 (3.45%) Technical Product Manager
4 1 (3.45%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.90%) CSS
1 2 (6.90%) HTML
1 2 (6.90%) J2EE
1 2 (6.90%) JSON
1 2 (6.90%) Web Services
1 2 (6.90%) XML
2 1 (3.45%) Hibernate
2 1 (3.45%) JPA
2 1 (3.45%) Node.js
2 1 (3.45%) OpenAPI
2 1 (3.45%) RESTful
2 1 (3.45%) Spring
2 1 (3.45%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 4 (13.79%) Product Ownership
2 2 (6.90%) Mainframe
2 2 (6.90%) Mobile Payment
2 2 (6.90%) VSAM
3 1 (3.45%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (3.45%) Blog
3 1 (3.45%) CMDB
3 1 (3.45%) Management Information System
3 1 (3.45%) Marketing Technology
3 1 (3.45%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 2 (6.90%) Android
1 2 (6.90%) Apple iOS
1 2 (6.90%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (51.72%) Agile
2 13 (44.83%) Stakeholder Management
3 7 (24.14%) GAP Analysis
4 5 (17.24%) Business Case
4 5 (17.24%) Business Transformation
4 5 (17.24%) Roadmaps
4 5 (17.24%) Test Automation
4 5 (17.24%) Workshop Facilitation
5 4 (13.79%) Acceptance Criteria
5 4 (13.79%) Analytics
5 4 (13.79%) Business Analysis
5 4 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
5 4 (13.79%) Data Modelling
5 4 (13.79%) Demand Forecasting
5 4 (13.79%) Product Roadmap
5 4 (13.79%) Prototyping
5 4 (13.79%) User Experience
5 4 (13.79%) User Research
6 3 (10.34%) Asset Management
6 3 (10.34%) Data Analysis
Programming Languages
1 4 (13.79%) Java
2 3 (10.34%) JavaScript
3 2 (6.90%) COBOL
3 2 (6.90%) JCL
3 2 (6.90%) REXX
Qualifications
1 4 (13.79%) Degree
2 1 (3.45%) CBAP
2 1 (3.45%) Master's Degree
2 1 (3.45%) PMI Certification
2 1 (3.45%) PMP
2 1 (3.45%) SC Cleared
2 1 (3.45%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (10.34%) Accessibility
1 3 (10.34%) QA
2 2 (6.90%) COREP
2 2 (6.90%) FINREP
2 2 (6.90%) GDPR
3 1 (3.45%) Data Quality
3 1 (3.45%) PMO
3 1 (3.45%) PSD2
3 1 (3.45%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 2 (6.90%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (3.45%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (17.24%) SAP
2 3 (10.34%) Microsoft
3 2 (6.90%) Ab Initio
3 2 (6.90%) Ariba
3 2 (6.90%) CA Agile Central
3 2 (6.90%) Informatica
3 2 (6.90%) Oracle
3 2 (6.90%) Parasoft
4 1 (3.45%) Salesforce
4 1 (3.45%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud
4 1 (3.45%) ServiceNow
4 1 (3.45%) Sitecore