Business Analyst Contract Job Trends

Business Analyst (BA)
UK

The median Business Analyst (BA) daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 March 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 47 40
Rank change year-on-year -2 -7 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Business Analyst 1,908 1,339 2,026
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.43% 4.53% 4.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.82% 4.87% 4.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,364 969 1,445
10th Percentile £350 £356 £381
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +2.39%
75th Percentile £580 £625 £619
90th Percentile £688 £738 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £465
% change year-on-year - -3.23% -2.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 18 9
10th Percentile £25.00 £23.56 -
25th Percentile £41.83 £25.26 £20.77
Median hourly rate £65.00 £34.68 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +87.43% -30.64% -13.79%
75th Percentile £81.50 £51.73 £67.56
90th Percentile £90.25 £73.25 £71.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.94 £31.52 £20.77
% change year-on-year +118.70% +51.76% -66.77%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 39,618 27,480 41,303
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.95% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,739 17,860 27,103
10th Percentile £313 £297 £272
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,468 883 2,495
10th Percentile £14.99 £15.25 £12.95
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.03 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £32.81 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +8.84% -0.26% -22.60%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £75.85 £77.44 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -20.36%

Business Analyst
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Business Analyst' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Business Analyst job vacancy trend in the UK

Business Analyst
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Business Analyst job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Business Analyst job vacancies in the UK

Business Analyst
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Business Analyst over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Business Analyst in the UK

Business Analyst
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Business Analyst job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Business Analyst job vacancies in the UK

Business Analyst
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Business Analyst over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Business Analyst in the UK

Business Analyst
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Business Analyst within the UK over the 6 months to 16 March 2026. 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
England 0 1,677 £500 -4.76% 351
London +5 1,025 £525 -8.70% 107
UK excluding London +3 732 £450 - 328
Work from Home -5 577 £500 - 108
North of England +2 248 £425 - 88
Midlands -1 147 £465 -4.62% 56
Yorkshire +3 121 £475 +5.56% 31
South East -20 115 £500 +3.90% 93
West Midlands -5 111 £475 -5.00% 32
North West -15 110 £400 - 33
South West +21 96 £469 -6.20% 32
Scotland -8 77 £425 -0.70% 19
East Midlands -15 34 £404 +1.00% 24
North East +13 33 £425 +6.25% 26
Wales +11 22 £419 -1.47% 8
East of England -28 22 £481 +1.32% 24
Northern Ireland -1 11 £550 +83.33% 9

Business Analyst Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 March 2026, Business Analyst contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Business Analyst in the job title.

1 663 (34.75%) Agile
2 609 (31.92%) Stakeholder Management
3 573 (30.03%) Business Analysis
4 509 (26.68%) Requirements Gathering
5 445 (23.32%) Workshop Facilitation
6 433 (22.69%) User Stories
7 429 (22.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 312 (16.35%) Problem-Solving
9 282 (14.78%) JIRA
10 277 (14.52%) User Acceptance Testing
11 266 (13.94%) Security Cleared
12 263 (13.78%) Migration
13 235 (12.32%) Acceptance Criteria
14 226 (11.84%) SC Cleared
15 221 (11.58%) SQL
16 215 (11.27%) Confluence
17 180 (9.43%) Data Analysis
18 178 (9.33%) Process Improvement
19 169 (8.86%) Microsoft
20 168 (8.81%) Data Modelling
21 167 (8.75%) Degree
22 159 (8.33%) Decision-Making
23 157 (8.23%) Scrum
24 153 (8.02%) GAP Analysis
25 151 (7.91%) Validation
26 146 (7.65%) MS Visio
27 142 (7.44%) Project Delivery
28 137 (7.18%) Business Intelligence
29 135 (7.08%) Power Platform
30 134 (7.02%) Waterfall

Business Analyst Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 215 (11.27%) Confluence
2 28 (1.47%) SharePoint
3 16 (0.84%) SAS
4 7 (0.37%) CMS
5 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.10%) Camunda
7 1 (0.052%) Appian
7 1 (0.052%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.052%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.052%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.052%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 146 (7.65%) MS Visio
2 127 (6.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 70 (3.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 57 (2.99%) Microsoft Office
5 9 (0.47%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.21%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.21%) Notion
6 4 (0.21%) Trello
7 2 (0.10%) Autodesk Inventor
7 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.052%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.052%) CATIA
8 1 (0.052%) Sketch
8 1 (0.052%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 26 (1.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 23 (1.21%) Endur
3 22 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
4 17 (0.89%) Aladdin
4 17 (0.89%) Payment Gateway
5 9 (0.47%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.42%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.31%) Adobe Campaign
9 5 (0.26%) Integrated Workplace Management System
9 5 (0.26%) Temenos T24
10 4 (0.21%) Actimize
10 4 (0.21%) Fidessa
10 4 (0.21%) Loan IQ
10 4 (0.21%) Oracle Financials
10 4 (0.21%) SAP HR
11 3 (0.16%) Bloomberg TOMS
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
11 3 (0.16%) SimCorp Dimension
11 3 (0.16%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 135 (7.08%) Power Platform
2 118 (6.18%) Azure
3 69 (3.62%) AWS
4 38 (1.99%) Azure DevOps
5 37 (1.94%) Microsoft 365
6 32 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
7 29 (1.52%) Lucidchart
8 25 (1.31%) Miro
8 25 (1.31%) SaaS
9 23 (1.21%) GitHub
10 17 (0.89%) GCP
10 17 (0.89%) Power Automate
10 17 (0.89%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 17 (0.89%) Snowflake
11 15 (0.79%) PowerApps
12 11 (0.58%) Microsoft Purview
13 10 (0.52%) Entra ID
14 9 (0.47%) Figma
14 9 (0.47%) Microsoft Copilot
15 7 (0.37%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.26%) Firewall
1 5 (0.26%) Network Security
2 4 (0.21%) SD-WAN
2 4 (0.21%) WAN
3 3 (0.16%) DNS
3 3 (0.16%) Internet
3 3 (0.16%) LAN
4 2 (0.10%) Broadband
4 2 (0.10%) Cisco IPT
4 2 (0.10%) Intranet
4 2 (0.10%) NAS
4 2 (0.10%) X.25
5 1 (0.052%) Softphone
5 1 (0.052%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (5.87%) Power BI
2 41 (2.15%) Tableau
3 39 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
4 25 (1.31%) Metadata
5 14 (0.73%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.47%) SQL Server
7 7 (0.37%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.31%) Big Data
8 6 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
9 5 (0.26%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.21%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.21%) BigQuery
11 3 (0.16%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.16%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.16%) Power Query
11 3 (0.16%) RDBMS
11 3 (0.16%) SAP BW
12 2 (0.10%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 282 (14.78%) JIRA
2 21 (1.10%) Jenkins
3 20 (1.05%) Sonatype Nexus
4 8 (0.42%) Postman
5 5 (0.26%) Balsamiq
6 3 (0.16%) Toad
7 2 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 2 (0.10%) Charles Proxy
7 2 (0.10%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.052%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.052%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.052%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.052%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.052%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.052%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 732 (38.36%) Social Skills
2 663 (34.75%) Finance
3 441 (23.11%) Analytical Skills
4 285 (14.94%) Banking
5 199 (10.43%) Public Sector
6 150 (7.86%) Documentation Skills
7 69 (3.62%) Retail
8 68 (3.56%) Front Office
9 66 (3.46%) Legal
10 63 (3.30%) Influencing Skills
11 62 (3.25%) Investment Banking
12 52 (2.73%) Presentation Skills
13 47 (2.46%) Marketing
14 44 (2.31%) Telecoms
15 33 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
16 30 (1.57%) Back Office
17 29 (1.52%) Financial Institution
18 28 (1.47%) Local Government
19 21 (1.10%) Manufacturing
20 15 (0.79%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (1.99%) REST
2 28 (1.47%) XML
3 19 (1.00%) SOAP
4 18 (0.94%) JSON
5 12 (0.63%) ADO
5 12 (0.63%) Swagger
6 11 (0.58%) OAuth
7 10 (0.52%) SailPoint
8 9 (0.47%) FHIR
9 8 (0.42%) Oracle Fusion
9 8 (0.42%) VML
10 7 (0.37%) JWT
10 7 (0.37%) Middleware
10 7 (0.37%) OpenAPI
10 7 (0.37%) SAML
11 5 (0.26%) .NET
12 4 (0.21%) HTML
12 4 (0.21%) RESTful
13 3 (0.16%) Murex MxML
13 3 (0.16%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 146 (7.65%) Product Ownership
2 62 (3.25%) Onboarding
3 47 (2.46%) Data Protection Act
4 43 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
5 42 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
6 37 (1.94%) Fixed Income
7 33 (1.73%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 32 (1.68%) Derivative
9 28 (1.47%) Data Structures
10 27 (1.42%) NHS
11 26 (1.36%) Management Information System
12 25 (1.31%) PMI
12 25 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
13 22 (1.15%) Credit Risk
13 22 (1.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
14 21 (1.10%) Equities
15 18 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
16 17 (0.89%) CMDB
17 13 (0.68%) Mobile App
18 12 (0.63%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 17 (0.89%) Linux
2 12 (0.63%) Windows
3 7 (0.37%) VMS
4 4 (0.21%) Apple iOS
4 4 (0.21%) Unix
5 3 (0.16%) Android
6 2 (0.10%) AIX
6 2 (0.10%) Solaris
6 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.052%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.052%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 663 (34.75%) Agile
2 609 (31.92%) Stakeholder Management
3 573 (30.03%) Business Analysis
4 509 (26.68%) Requirements Gathering
5 445 (23.32%) Workshop Facilitation
6 433 (22.69%) User Stories
7 429 (22.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 312 (16.35%) Problem-Solving
9 277 (14.52%) User Acceptance Testing
10 263 (13.78%) Migration
11 235 (12.32%) Acceptance Criteria
12 180 (9.43%) Data Analysis
13 178 (9.33%) Process Improvement
14 168 (8.81%) Data Modelling
15 159 (8.33%) Decision-Making
16 157 (8.23%) Scrum
17 153 (8.02%) GAP Analysis
18 151 (7.91%) Validation
19 142 (7.44%) Project Delivery
20 137 (7.18%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 221 (11.58%) SQL
2 48 (2.52%) Python
3 9 (0.47%) Korn
4 8 (0.42%) Java
5 7 (0.37%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.21%) R
6 4 (0.21%) VBA
7 3 (0.16%) C#
7 3 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.10%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.052%) C++
9 1 (0.052%) COBOL
9 1 (0.052%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 266 (13.94%) Security Cleared
2 226 (11.84%) SC Cleared
3 167 (8.75%) Degree
4 59 (3.09%) CBAP
5 47 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 42 (2.20%) IIBA
7 38 (1.99%) PMI Certification
8 17 (0.89%) PMP
9 15 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
10 13 (0.68%) ISEB
10 13 (0.68%) Master's Degree
11 11 (0.58%) CSPO
12 10 (0.52%) DV Cleared
13 7 (0.37%) CFA
14 5 (0.26%) MBA
15 4 (0.21%) ACCA
16 3 (0.16%) AWS Certification
16 3 (0.16%) CAPM
16 3 (0.16%) CIMA
16 3 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (5.50%) QA
2 101 (5.29%) Data Quality
3 47 (2.46%) GDPR
4 27 (1.42%) MiFID
5 20 (1.05%) Accessibility
6 17 (0.89%) EMIR
7 16 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (0.84%) NIST
8 14 (0.73%) ISO 8583
9 13 (0.68%) PSD2
10 12 (0.63%) GRC
10 12 (0.63%) ISO 20022
11 11 (0.58%) PCI DSS
11 11 (0.58%) PMO
12 10 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 9 (0.47%) HL7
14 8 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
14 8 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.31%) SEPA
15 6 (0.31%) SLA
System Software
1 8 (0.42%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.052%) Docker
2 1 (0.052%) Hyper-V
2 1 (0.052%) RACF
2 1 (0.052%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 21 (1.10%) Ansible
2 6 (0.31%) Kubernetes
3 5 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.10%) Terraform
6 1 (0.052%) Control-M
6 1 (0.052%) Grafana
6 1 (0.052%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.052%) Kibana
Vendors
1 169 (8.86%) Microsoft
2 102 (5.35%) SAP
3 100 (5.24%) Salesforce
4 63 (3.30%) Oracle
5 55 (2.88%) ServiceNow
6 34 (1.78%) Murex
7 24 (1.26%) Bloomberg
8 20 (1.05%) Workday
9 19 (1.00%) Adobe
9 19 (1.00%) Pega
9 19 (1.00%) Sonatype
10 15 (0.79%) Databricks
11 12 (0.63%) Google
12 11 (0.58%) Guidewire
12 11 (0.58%) MuleSoft
13 10 (0.52%) Avaloq
13 10 (0.52%) Splunk
14 9 (0.47%) Ariba
15 8 (0.42%) OpenLink
15 8 (0.42%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud