User Stories Contracts in the UK excluding London

User Story
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London 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 5 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 136 152 114
Rank change year-on-year +16 -38 -26
Contract jobs citing User Stories 235 283 541
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.85% 1.38% 2.27%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.05% 1.63% 2.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 162 195 395
10th Percentile £350 £353 £388
25th Percentile £400 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £490 £495
Median % change year-on-year -5.61% -1.01% +4.21%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £618 £624 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% +1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £22.26 - -
25th Percentile £26.27 £67.50 £25.75
Median hourly rate £41.25 £70.00 £26.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.07% +164.15% -36.90%
75th Percentile £58.25 £72.50 £27.25
90th Percentile £66.80 - -
UK median hourly rate £53.50 £42.75 £64.50
% change year-on-year +25.15% -33.72% +51.76%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 11,463 17,414 21,391
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.37% 84.70% 89.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,190 10,403 14,840
10th Percentile £235 £250 £256
25th Percentile £375 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £663 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 832 2,048 1,307
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.30 £11.00
25th Percentile £17.30 £15.22 £15.56
Median hourly rate £27.50 £37.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.67% +7.14% +75.00%
75th Percentile £64.50 £60.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £35.95 £35.80
% change year-on-year -19.33% +0.42% +43.20%

User Stories
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing User Stories as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for User Stories in the UK excluding London

User Stories
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing User Stories in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for User Stories in the UK excluding London

User Stories
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing User Stories in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for User Stories in the UK excluding London

User Stories
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing User Stories in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for User Stories in the UK excluding London

User Stories
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing User Stories in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for User Stories in the UK excluding London

User Stories
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 User Stories within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 5 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
South East +29 58 £521 +9.68% 92
Scotland +5 56 £434 -13.30% 15
North of England +1 56 £450 -7.22% 53
Midlands +15 32 £460 -8.00% 44
North West +9 29 £500 +3.09% 35
West Midlands +17 23 £475 -5.00% 30
South West +30 20 £575 -2.54% 39
Yorkshire -10 17 £425 -12.82% 14
East of England +37 14 £375 -11.76% 16
North East +4 10 £400 -11.89% 4
East Midlands +14 9 £358 -15.76% 11
Wales +7 1 £600 -7.69% 8
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 12
User Stories
UK

User Stories
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 33 (14.04%) Confluence
2 2 (0.85%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.85%) CICS
2 2 (0.85%) CMS
2 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (0.85%) Oracle Self-Service HR
2 2 (0.85%) Oracle Workflow
2 2 (0.85%) WebSphere
3 1 (0.43%) Apache
3 1 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.43%) Sitecore CMS
3 1 (0.43%) WebLogic
3 1 (0.43%) WordPress
Applications
1 19 (8.09%) MS Visio
2 7 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (2.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (1.28%) Sketch
5 2 (0.85%) InVision
5 2 (0.85%) UserZoom
6 1 (0.43%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.43%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.43%) Fusion 360
6 1 (0.43%) OmniGraffle
6 1 (0.43%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.43%) Trello
6 1 (0.43%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 5 (2.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (1.70%) Oracle Payables
3 3 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
3 3 (1.28%) Oracle Cash Management
3 3 (1.28%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (1.28%) Oracle Receivables
3 3 (1.28%) Primavera
4 2 (0.85%) iTrent
4 2 (0.85%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.43%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.43%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.43%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.43%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 23 (9.79%) Azure
2 19 (8.09%) Power Platform
3 11 (4.68%) AWS
4 9 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
4 9 (3.83%) GCP
4 9 (3.83%) SaaS
5 7 (2.98%) Dynamics 365
6 5 (2.13%) Figma
6 5 (2.13%) OCI
7 4 (1.70%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (1.70%) PowerApps
8 3 (1.28%) Miro
9 2 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (0.85%) dbt
9 2 (0.85%) GitHub
9 2 (0.85%) Lucidchart
9 2 (0.85%) Serverless
10 1 (0.43%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.43%) iPaaS
10 1 (0.43%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.43%) Converged Networks
1 1 (0.43%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (6.38%) Power BI
2 9 (3.83%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (2.55%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (2.13%) Tableau
5 3 (1.28%) Metadata
5 3 (1.28%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.85%) Big Data
6 2 (0.85%) DB2
6 2 (0.85%) GIS
6 2 (0.85%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.85%) MySQL
6 2 (0.85%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.85%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.85%) Semantic Layer
6 2 (0.85%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.43%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.43%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 53 (22.55%) JIRA
2 6 (2.55%) Selenium
3 5 (2.13%) TestRail
4 4 (1.70%) Git
4 4 (1.70%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.70%) JMeter
5 3 (1.28%) Axure RP
5 3 (1.28%) Postman
6 2 (0.85%) Balsamiq
6 2 (0.85%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.85%) GitLab
6 2 (0.85%) SOAtest
6 2 (0.85%) Toad
6 2 (0.85%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.43%) JUnit
7 1 (0.43%) Maven
7 1 (0.43%) MSTest
7 1 (0.43%) NUnit
7 1 (0.43%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.43%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 95 (40.43%) Social Skills
2 50 (21.28%) Finance
3 48 (20.43%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (14.47%) Public Sector
5 24 (10.21%) Banking
6 10 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
7 8 (3.40%) Marketing
8 7 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (2.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.55%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.55%) Manufacturing
10 5 (2.13%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.70%) Automotive
11 4 (1.70%) Legal
11 4 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.70%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (1.70%) Retail Banking
12 3 (1.28%) Back Office
12 3 (1.28%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.85%) Retail
Job Titles
1 116 (49.36%) Analyst
2 106 (45.11%) Business Analyst
3 22 (9.36%) Product Owner
3 22 (9.36%) Senior
4 16 (6.81%) Developer
5 15 (6.38%) Technical Analyst
5 15 (6.38%) Technical Business Analyst
6 11 (4.68%) Designer
6 11 (4.68%) Product Manager
7 10 (4.26%) Senior Analyst
7 10 (4.26%) Senior Business Analyst
7 10 (4.26%) Tester
8 8 (3.40%) Agile Business Analyst
8 8 (3.40%) Data Business Analyst
9 7 (2.98%) Lead
9 7 (2.98%) Product Analyst
9 7 (2.98%) QA Engineer
10 6 (2.55%) Consultant
10 6 (2.55%) ServiceNow Developer
11 5 (2.13%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.38%) CSS
2 14 (5.96%) HTML
3 9 (3.83%) AngularJS
4 8 (3.40%) HTML5
5 6 (2.55%) React
5 6 (2.55%) REST
5 6 (2.55%) SOAP
6 5 (2.13%) Middleware
6 5 (2.13%) Node.js
6 5 (2.13%) Oracle Fusion
6 5 (2.13%) PySpark
7 4 (1.70%) .NET
7 4 (1.70%) Angular 2
7 4 (1.70%) jQuery
7 4 (1.70%) JSON
7 4 (1.70%) XML
8 3 (1.28%) ADO
8 3 (1.28%) Gherkin
9 2 (0.85%) J2EE
9 2 (0.85%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 61 (25.96%) Product Ownership
2 7 (2.98%) Management Information System
3 6 (2.55%) Data Protection Act
4 5 (2.13%) CMDB
4 5 (2.13%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.13%) SCADA
5 4 (1.70%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (1.70%) Public Cloud
6 3 (1.28%) Data Structures
7 2 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (0.85%) Derivative
7 2 (0.85%) Educational Technology
7 2 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (0.85%) Mainframe
7 2 (0.85%) Mobile Payment
7 2 (0.85%) Renewable Energy
7 2 (0.85%) VSAM
8 1 (0.43%) Blog
8 1 (0.43%) Learning Management System
8 1 (0.43%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.70%) Android
1 4 (1.70%) Apple iOS
2 2 (0.85%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (62.13%) Agile
2 60 (25.53%) Scrum
3 56 (23.83%) Stakeholder Management
4 53 (22.55%) Business Analysis
4 53 (22.55%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (21.28%) Acceptance Criteria
6 40 (17.02%) Workshop Facilitation
7 36 (15.32%) Requirements Gathering
7 36 (15.32%) Roadmaps
8 35 (14.89%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (14.47%) User Experience
10 30 (12.77%) Use Case
11 28 (11.91%) GAP Analysis
12 24 (10.21%) Decision-Making
12 24 (10.21%) User Research
13 23 (9.79%) Epics
14 22 (9.36%) Product Backlog
14 22 (9.36%) Product Vision
14 22 (9.36%) User Acceptance Testing
15 21 (8.94%) Wireframes
Programming Languages
1 24 (10.21%) SQL
2 19 (8.09%) JavaScript
3 12 (5.11%) Python
4 9 (3.83%) Java
5 8 (3.40%) C#
6 7 (2.98%) TypeScript
7 3 (1.28%) ProC
8 2 (0.85%) COBOL
8 2 (0.85%) JCL
8 2 (0.85%) PL/SQL
8 2 (0.85%) REXX
8 2 (0.85%) T-SQL
9 1 (0.43%) Assembly Language
9 1 (0.43%) C++
9 1 (0.43%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.43%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 24 (10.21%) Degree
2 23 (9.79%) Security Cleared
3 13 (5.53%) SC Cleared
4 5 (2.13%) CBAP
5 4 (1.70%) DV Cleared
5 4 (1.70%) IIBA
6 2 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (0.85%) ISTQB
6 2 (0.85%) PMI Certification
7 1 (0.43%) APMP
7 1 (0.43%) CSPO
7 1 (0.43%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 1 (0.43%) Master's Degree
7 1 (0.43%) Numerate Degree
7 1 (0.43%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (11.91%) QA
2 8 (3.40%) Accessibility
3 6 (2.55%) GRC
4 4 (1.70%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.28%) GDPR
5 3 (1.28%) Software Quality Assurance
6 2 (0.85%) COREP
6 2 (0.85%) FINREP
7 1 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.43%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.43%) PMO
7 1 (0.43%) PSD2
7 1 (0.43%) WCAG
System Software
1 5 (2.13%) Docker
2 3 (1.28%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 5 (2.13%) HP ALM
2 3 (1.28%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.85%) HP Data Protector
3 2 (0.85%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.85%) NetBackup
3 2 (0.85%) Terraform
4 1 (0.43%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (0.43%) Rancher
Vendors
1 25 (10.64%) Microsoft
2 19 (8.09%) Oracle
3 12 (5.11%) ServiceNow
4 11 (4.68%) SAP
5 8 (3.40%) Salesforce
6 6 (2.55%) Atlassian
6 6 (2.55%) MuleSoft
6 6 (2.55%) Virgin Media
7 5 (2.13%) Google
7 5 (2.13%) HP
8 4 (1.70%) Snow
9 3 (1.28%) Databricks
10 2 (0.85%) Ab Initio
10 2 (0.85%) Ariba
10 2 (0.85%) CA Agile Central
10 2 (0.85%) Dell
10 2 (0.85%) Informatica
10 2 (0.85%) Parasoft
10 2 (0.85%) Siemens
10 2 (0.85%) Veritas