Influencing Skills Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Influencing Skills
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Influencing Skills in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Influencing Skills over the 6 months leading up to 27 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 182 189 184
Rank change year-on-year +7 -5 -74
Contract jobs citing Influencing Skills 255 178 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 1.38% 1.21% 1.24%
As % of the General category 2.40% 2.02% 2.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 165 116 180
10th Percentile £312 £304 £364
25th Percentile £413 £431 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £710 £719 £712
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 9
10th Percentile £32.65 - £19.95
25th Percentile £35.60 £25.26 £27.63
Median hourly rate £40.53 £32.50 £34.50
Median % change year-on-year +24.71% -5.80% -43.90%
75th Percentile £59.69 £75.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £80.13 £78.60 £40.56
UK median hourly rate £38.17 £32.50 £34.75
% change year-on-year +17.43% -6.47% -43.50%

All General Skills
UK excluding London

Influencing Skills falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring common skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 10,603 8,830 10,979
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 57.58% 59.93% 55.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,513 5,016 6,886
10th Percentile £204 £210 £210
25th Percentile £361 £358 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,158 547 926
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.36 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.00 £17.72 £15.64
Median hourly rate £22.00 £26.13 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.79% -12.92% +37.24%
75th Percentile £44.94 £55.25 £57.33
90th Percentile £69.99 £70.65 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £23.58 £27.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -14.27% -15.38% +30.00%

Influencing Skills
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Influencing Skills relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Influencing Skills job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Influencing Skills
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Influencing Skills.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Influencing Skills

Influencing Skills
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Influencing Skills in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 27 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Influencing Skills in the UK excluding London

Influencing Skills
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Influencing Skills.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Influencing Skills

Influencing Skills
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Influencing Skills in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 27 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Influencing Skills in the UK excluding London

Influencing Skills
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Influencing Skills within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 27 December 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
North of England -16 70 £476 -11.19% 108
Midlands -20 63 £465 -23.39% 70
South East +15 61 £525 +3.45% 136
West Midlands -15 47 £463 -23.81% 36
North West -3 46 £475 -7.32% 57
South West +12 28 £625 +25.00% 51
Scotland -12 24 £414 -17.30% 26
Yorkshire -29 20 £509 -14.54% 43
East Midlands -12 16 £465 -11.43% 31
East of England -20 8 £595 +18.17% 52
North East - 4 £500 - 9
Wales -4 3 £308 -38.50% 14
Northern Ireland - 1 £275 - 6
Influencing Skills
UK

Influencing Skills
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 9 (3.53%) Confluence
2 8 (3.14%) Apache
2 8 (3.14%) JBoss
2 8 (3.14%) SharePoint
2 8 (3.14%) WebLogic
3 2 (0.78%) CMS
3 2 (0.78%) NetWeaver
3 2 (0.78%) SAP EP
4 1 (0.39%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.39%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 14 (5.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (5.10%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (3.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (1.96%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.78%) Sketch
6 1 (0.39%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.39%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.39%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.39%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.39%) Blender
6 1 (0.39%) CINEMA 4D
6 1 (0.39%) InVision
6 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.39%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.39%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 3 (1.18%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.78%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.78%) Salesforce CRM
2 2 (0.78%) SAP CRM
3 1 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.39%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 50 (19.61%) Azure
2 32 (12.55%) AWS
3 19 (7.45%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (6.27%) GCP
4 16 (6.27%) Power Platform
5 12 (4.71%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (3.92%) Cloud Computing
6 10 (3.92%) Entra ID
7 9 (3.53%) SaaS
8 4 (1.57%) PaaS
8 4 (1.57%) Salesforce Commerce Cloud
8 4 (1.57%) Salesforce Service Cloud
9 3 (1.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 3 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (1.18%) Figma
9 3 (1.18%) IaaS
9 3 (1.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 2 (0.78%) AWS Direct Connect
10 2 (0.78%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.78%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 5 (1.96%) DNS
1 5 (1.96%) Firewall
2 4 (1.57%) Cisco ASA
2 4 (1.57%) DHCP
3 3 (1.18%) BGP
3 3 (1.18%) Cisco ISE
3 3 (1.18%) EIGRP
3 3 (1.18%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 3 (1.18%) IPv4
3 3 (1.18%) IPv6
3 3 (1.18%) LAN
3 3 (1.18%) MPLS
3 3 (1.18%) OSPF
3 3 (1.18%) SD-WAN
3 3 (1.18%) VLAN
3 3 (1.18%) VPN
3 3 (1.18%) VXLAN
3 3 (1.18%) WAN
3 3 (1.18%) Wireless
3 3 (1.18%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (6.27%) Power BI
2 8 (3.14%) MongoDB
3 7 (2.75%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
5 3 (1.18%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 3 (1.18%) Tableau
6 2 (0.78%) GIS
6 2 (0.78%) Metadata
6 2 (0.78%) SQL Server
7 1 (0.39%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
7 1 (0.39%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 21 (8.24%) JIRA
2 9 (3.53%) Selenium
3 8 (3.14%) Eclipse
3 8 (3.14%) Git
3 8 (3.14%) IntelliJ
3 8 (3.14%) JUnit
4 2 (0.78%) GitLab
4 2 (0.78%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.39%) Axure RP
General
1 150 (58.82%) Social Skills
2 68 (26.67%) Analytical Skills
3 60 (23.53%) Finance
4 37 (14.51%) Public Sector
5 22 (8.63%) Presentation Skills
6 15 (5.88%) Banking
6 15 (5.88%) Organisational Skills
7 12 (4.71%) Retail
8 10 (3.92%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (3.14%) Marketing
10 6 (2.35%) Legal
10 6 (2.35%) Telecoms
11 5 (1.96%) Aerospace
11 5 (1.96%) Automotive
12 4 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (1.57%) Law
13 3 (1.18%) Local Government
13 3 (1.18%) Military
13 3 (1.18%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (1.18%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 39 (15.29%) Lead
2 35 (13.73%) Architect
3 33 (12.94%) Analyst
4 26 (10.20%) Senior
5 20 (7.84%) Business Analyst
5 20 (7.84%) Project Manager
6 17 (6.67%) Solutions Architect
7 12 (4.71%) Programme Manager
8 9 (3.53%) Change Manager
9 8 (3.14%) Consultant
9 8 (3.14%) Designer
10 7 (2.75%) Product Owner
10 7 (2.75%) Transition Manager
11 6 (2.35%) Delivery Manager
11 6 (2.35%) Lead Architect
11 6 (2.35%) Service Manager
11 6 (2.35%) Service Transition Manager
12 5 (1.96%) Governance Manager
12 5 (1.96%) Resource Manager
12 5 (1.96%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (3.92%) HTML
2 9 (3.53%) REST
2 9 (3.53%) SOAP
3 8 (3.14%) EJB
3 8 (3.14%) Hibernate
3 8 (3.14%) HTML5
3 8 (3.14%) J2EE
3 8 (3.14%) J2SE
3 8 (3.14%) JSON
3 8 (3.14%) Play Framework
3 8 (3.14%) Spring
3 8 (3.14%) XML
4 7 (2.75%) SailPoint
5 5 (1.96%) Oracle Fusion
6 4 (1.57%) VML
7 2 (0.78%) CSS
7 2 (0.78%) SAP Fiori
7 2 (0.78%) SAP PI
7 2 (0.78%) SAPUI5
8 1 (0.39%) Framer.js
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.02%) Product Ownership
2 20 (7.84%) Management Information System
3 12 (4.71%) Onboarding
4 10 (3.92%) Data Centre
5 7 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.35%) Cloud Native
6 6 (2.35%) Learning Management System
7 5 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.96%) e-Learning
8 4 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (1.57%) NHS
8 4 (1.57%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.57%) Security Operations Centre
8 4 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.18%) Algorithms
9 3 (1.18%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (1.18%) Smart Meter
10 2 (0.78%) Freedom of Information
10 2 (0.78%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.14%) Unix
1 8 (3.14%) Windows
2 4 (1.57%) Mac OS
2 4 (1.57%) VMS
3 3 (1.18%) Linux
4 1 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (39.61%) Stakeholder Management
2 96 (37.65%) Agile
3 82 (32.16%) Problem-Solving
4 64 (25.10%) Continuous Improvement
5 63 (24.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 47 (18.43%) Roadmaps
7 39 (15.29%) Change Management
8 38 (14.90%) Decision-Making
8 38 (14.90%) Project Management
9 36 (14.12%) Mentoring
10 34 (13.33%) Project Delivery
10 34 (13.33%) Scrum
11 31 (12.16%) Strategic Thinking
12 30 (11.76%) AI
13 28 (10.98%) Risk Management
14 27 (10.59%) Waterfall
15 26 (10.20%) Business Strategy
15 26 (10.20%) DevOps
16 25 (9.80%) Coaching
17 24 (9.41%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 17 (6.67%) Java
2 15 (5.88%) SQL
3 10 (3.92%) Python
4 8 (3.14%) Scala
5 6 (2.35%) PowerShell
6 4 (1.57%) Bash
7 2 (0.78%) ABAP
7 2 (0.78%) Go
8 1 (0.39%) C#
8 1 (0.39%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.39%) R
Qualifications
1 53 (20.78%) Security Cleared
2 43 (16.86%) SC Cleared
3 40 (15.69%) Degree
4 9 (3.53%) CISSP
5 8 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.75%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.96%) CSPO
7 5 (1.96%) ISTQB
7 5 (1.96%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 4 (1.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 4 (1.57%) APMG
8 4 (1.57%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.57%) CISM
8 4 (1.57%) DV Cleared
8 4 (1.57%) ITIL Certification
8 4 (1.57%) Master's Degree
9 3 (1.18%) CCIE
9 3 (1.18%) CCNP
9 3 (1.18%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (7.45%) GDPR
2 16 (6.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (3.53%) QA
4 7 (2.75%) NIST
5 5 (1.96%) Data Quality
5 5 (1.96%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (1.57%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.57%) ISO 9001
6 4 (1.57%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.18%) COBIT
7 3 (1.18%) NCSC
7 3 (1.18%) PMO
8 2 (0.78%) WCAG
9 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.39%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.39%) GRC
9 1 (0.39%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.39%) P3O
9 1 (0.39%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (3.53%) Docker
1 9 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (1.96%) Active Directory
2 5 (1.96%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (0.78%) vSphere
5 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 8 (3.14%) Puppet
2 6 (2.35%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (2.35%) SCCM
3 5 (1.96%) Ansible
3 5 (1.96%) Kubernetes
3 5 (1.96%) Terraform
4 1 (0.39%) Argo
4 1 (0.39%) Podman
4 1 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (0.39%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 31 (12.16%) Microsoft
2 17 (6.67%) ServiceNow
3 15 (5.88%) Oracle
4 9 (3.53%) Salesforce
4 9 (3.53%) SAP
4 9 (3.53%) VMware
5 8 (3.14%) Google
5 8 (3.14%) webMethods
6 7 (2.75%) Ariba
6 7 (2.75%) Workday
7 6 (2.35%) Citrix
8 5 (1.96%) Cisco
8 5 (1.96%) F5
9 4 (1.57%) Palo Alto
10 3 (1.18%) Adobe
10 3 (1.18%) Fortinet
10 3 (1.18%) Meraki
10 3 (1.18%) SolarWinds
11 2 (0.78%) Autodesk
11 2 (0.78%) Forcepoint