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 9 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 139 158 117
Rank change year-on-year +19 -41 -29
Contract jobs citing User Stories 243 284 492
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 1.84% 1.35% 2.16%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.03% 1.63% 2.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 192 354
10th Percentile £350 £373 £388
25th Percentile £400 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.12% -2.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £545 £575 £588
90th Percentile £630 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +3.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 2
10th Percentile £26.37 - £27.60
25th Percentile £36.55 £67.50 £30.38
Median hourly rate £53.50 £70.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.57% +86.67% -10.71%
75th Percentile £63.00 £72.50 £46.38
90th Percentile £68.70 - £50.20
UK median hourly rate £53.50 £33.04 £64.00
% change year-on-year +61.95% -48.38% +52.38%

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 11,950 17,470 20,258
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 90.48% 82.91% 89.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,360 10,284 13,876
10th Percentile £235 £250 £260
25th Percentile £370 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £694
UK median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 901 2,169 1,254
10th Percentile £13.81 £12.50 £10.67
25th Percentile £16.92 £15.40 £15.21
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.12 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.02% +8.91% +70.69%
75th Percentile £60.00 £61.30 £64.38
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.58 £74.25
UK median hourly rate £27.45 £36.50 £35.65
% change year-on-year -24.79% +2.38% +38.82%

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 9 June 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 9 June 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 9 June 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 +12 67 £447 -10.60% 176
Scotland -7 55 £437 -12.60% 32
South East +29 47 £488 +2.63% 205
Midlands +15 42 £461 -2.89% 47
North West +22 33 £500 -6.98% 107
Yorkshire -7 23 £413 -16.67% 49
East Midlands +22 21 £433 +1.76% 16
West Midlands +12 21 £463 -5.13% 30
South West +25 20 £500 -14.16% 42
East of England +34 13 £400 - 27
North East +8 11 £434 -1.42% 20
Wales - 2 £465 - 22
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 36 (14.81%) Confluence
2 2 (0.82%) CICS
2 2 (0.82%) CMS
2 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (0.82%) Oracle Self-Service HR
2 2 (0.82%) Oracle Workflow
2 2 (0.82%) WebSphere
3 1 (0.41%) Apache
3 1 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.41%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.41%) Sitecore CMS
3 1 (0.41%) WebLogic
3 1 (0.41%) WordPress
Applications
1 15 (6.17%) MS Visio
2 11 (4.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (3.29%) Siemens NX
4 7 (2.88%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (1.65%) Fusion 360
6 3 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (1.23%) Sketch
7 2 (0.82%) InVision
7 2 (0.82%) Trello
7 2 (0.82%) UserZoom
8 1 (0.41%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.41%) OmniGraffle
8 1 (0.41%) Zeplin
Business Applications
1 10 (4.12%) Teamcenter
2 5 (2.06%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (1.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (1.65%) Oracle Payables
4 3 (1.23%) Oracle Cash Management
4 3 (1.23%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (1.23%) Oracle Receivables
4 3 (1.23%) Primavera
5 2 (0.82%) iTrent
5 2 (0.82%) Sage CRM
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.41%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.41%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 30 (12.35%) Azure
2 21 (8.64%) Power Platform
3 11 (4.53%) AWS
4 10 (4.12%) Azure DevOps
4 10 (4.12%) SaaS
5 8 (3.29%) Dynamics 365
6 7 (2.88%) GCP
7 6 (2.47%) OCI
7 6 (2.47%) PowerApps
8 5 (2.06%) Figma
9 3 (1.23%) Miro
10 2 (0.82%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (0.82%) dbt
10 2 (0.82%) GitHub
10 2 (0.82%) Lucidchart
10 2 (0.82%) npm
10 2 (0.82%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.82%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 2 (0.82%) Serverless
10 2 (0.82%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.82%) Cisco Nexus
1 2 (0.82%) Firewall
2 1 (0.41%) Converged Networks
2 1 (0.41%) Modbus
2 1 (0.41%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (6.17%) Power BI
2 9 (3.70%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (2.47%) Oracle Reports
4 5 (2.06%) Tableau
5 3 (1.23%) Metadata
5 3 (1.23%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (0.82%) DB2
6 2 (0.82%) GIS
6 2 (0.82%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.82%) MySQL
6 2 (0.82%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.82%) Semantic Layer
6 2 (0.82%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
7 1 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
7 1 (0.41%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.41%) Looker
7 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 59 (24.28%) JIRA
2 8 (3.29%) Git
2 8 (3.29%) Selenium
3 5 (2.06%) GitLab
3 5 (2.06%) JMeter
3 5 (2.06%) Postman
4 4 (1.65%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.65%) TestRail
5 3 (1.23%) Axure RP
5 3 (1.23%) Cucumber
5 3 (1.23%) Cypress.io
5 3 (1.23%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.82%) Maven
6 2 (0.82%) SOAtest
6 2 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.82%) Toad
6 2 (0.82%) Visual Studio
6 2 (0.82%) webpack
7 1 (0.41%) NUnit
7 1 (0.41%) TestNG
General
1 91 (37.45%) Social Skills
2 65 (26.75%) Finance
3 49 (20.16%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (13.58%) Banking
5 19 (7.82%) Public Sector
6 12 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (3.70%) Marketing
8 8 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (2.47%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (2.06%) Legal
11 4 (1.65%) Automotive
11 4 (1.65%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (1.65%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (1.65%) Retail Banking
12 3 (1.23%) Back Office
12 3 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (1.23%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.82%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.82%) Retail
Job Titles
1 111 (45.68%) Analyst
2 100 (41.15%) Business Analyst
3 25 (10.29%) Product Owner
4 22 (9.05%) Developer
5 20 (8.23%) Senior
6 12 (4.94%) Technical Analyst
6 12 (4.94%) Technical Business Analyst
7 11 (4.53%) Product Manager
7 11 (4.53%) Tester
8 10 (4.12%) Architect
8 10 (4.12%) Designer
8 10 (4.12%) Lead
9 8 (3.29%) Agile Business Analyst
9 8 (3.29%) Data Business Analyst
9 8 (3.29%) Senior Analyst
9 8 (3.29%) Senior Business Analyst
10 7 (2.88%) Consultant
11 6 (2.47%) Product Analyst
11 6 (2.47%) QA Engineer
11 6 (2.47%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (6.17%) CSS
2 14 (5.76%) HTML
3 9 (3.70%) SOAP
4 8 (3.29%) Middleware
4 8 (3.29%) React
5 7 (2.88%) AngularJS
6 6 (2.47%) REST
6 6 (2.47%) Spring Boot
6 6 (2.47%) Web Services
7 5 (2.06%) .NET
7 5 (2.06%) ADO
7 5 (2.06%) Oracle Fusion
7 5 (2.06%) RESTful
8 4 (1.65%) HTML5
8 4 (1.65%) jQuery
8 4 (1.65%) JSON
8 4 (1.65%) OAuth
8 4 (1.65%) OAuth2
8 4 (1.65%) Spring
8 4 (1.65%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (25.93%) Product Ownership
2 12 (4.94%) Onboarding
3 9 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (3.29%) Management Information System
5 7 (2.88%) SCADA
6 5 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.06%) CMDB
7 4 (1.65%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.23%) Data Structures
9 2 (0.82%) Derivative
9 2 (0.82%) Distributed Computing
9 2 (0.82%) Educational Technology
9 2 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (0.82%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.82%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.82%) Mobile Payment
9 2 (0.82%) Public Cloud
9 2 (0.82%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (0.82%) VSAM
10 1 (0.41%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.65%) Android
1 4 (1.65%) Apple iOS
2 2 (0.82%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (62.96%) Agile
2 61 (25.10%) Scrum
3 56 (23.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 54 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
5 49 (20.16%) Business Analysis
6 47 (19.34%) Acceptance Criteria
7 40 (16.46%) Roadmaps
8 35 (14.40%) Requirements Gathering
9 33 (13.58%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (13.58%) User Experience
9 33 (13.58%) Workshop Facilitation
10 24 (9.88%) Product Backlog
11 23 (9.47%) GAP Analysis
11 23 (9.47%) Use Case
12 22 (9.05%) Backlog Management
12 22 (9.05%) Decision-Making
12 22 (9.05%) DevOps
12 22 (9.05%) Migration
13 21 (8.64%) Backlog Prioritisation
13 21 (8.64%) Product Vision
Programming Languages
1 21 (8.64%) SQL
2 20 (8.23%) JavaScript
3 14 (5.76%) Java
4 9 (3.70%) C#
5 7 (2.88%) TypeScript
6 6 (2.47%) Python
7 3 (1.23%) ProC
8 2 (0.82%) COBOL
8 2 (0.82%) JCL
8 2 (0.82%) PL/SQL
8 2 (0.82%) REXX
9 1 (0.41%) Apex Code
9 1 (0.41%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.41%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 25 (10.29%) Security Cleared
2 24 (9.88%) Degree
3 9 (3.70%) SC Cleared
4 7 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
5 4 (1.65%) CBAP
6 3 (1.23%) IIBA
7 2 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
7 2 (0.82%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.82%) ISTQB
7 2 (0.82%) PMI Certification
8 1 (0.41%) APMP
8 1 (0.41%) CSPO
8 1 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 1 (0.41%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.41%) Numerate Degree
8 1 (0.41%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (9.88%) QA
2 9 (3.70%) Accessibility
3 7 (2.88%) GRC
4 5 (2.06%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.23%) GDPR
5 3 (1.23%) Software Quality Assurance
6 2 (0.82%) COREP
6 2 (0.82%) FINREP
6 2 (0.82%) WCAG
7 1 (0.41%) Basel III
7 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.41%) PMO
7 1 (0.41%) PSD2
7 1 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.41%) SEPA
System Software
1 5 (2.06%) Docker
2 3 (1.23%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 6 (2.47%) HP ALM
2 4 (1.65%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.82%) HP Data Protector
3 2 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.82%) NetBackup
3 2 (0.82%) Terraform
4 1 (0.41%) Oracle RMAN
4 1 (0.41%) Rancher
Vendors
1 26 (10.70%) Microsoft
2 19 (7.82%) Oracle
3 12 (4.94%) ServiceNow
4 10 (4.12%) Salesforce
5 9 (3.70%) Siemens
6 7 (2.88%) SAP
7 6 (2.47%) Atlassian
7 6 (2.47%) HP
7 6 (2.47%) MuleSoft
7 6 (2.47%) Virgin Media
8 4 (1.65%) Autodesk
8 4 (1.65%) Snow
9 2 (0.82%) Ab Initio
9 2 (0.82%) Ariba
9 2 (0.82%) Cisco
9 2 (0.82%) Dell
9 2 (0.82%) Informatica
9 2 (0.82%) Palantir
9 2 (0.82%) Sage
9 2 (0.82%) Veritas