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 30 September 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 58 40 51
Rank change year-on-year -18 +11 -15
Contract jobs requiring a Business Analyst 2,070 1,629 1,453
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.77% 4.96% 3.86%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.09% 5.45% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,364 1,116 1,063
10th Percentile £363 £350 £363
25th Percentile £425 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £668 £738 £701
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £440 £450
% change year-on-year +7.95% -2.22% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 9 11
10th Percentile £28.03 £27.13 £19.59
25th Percentile £34.87 £31.49 £35.67
Median hourly rate £58.50 £32.89 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +77.87% -34.22% -12.28%
75th Percentile £76.75 £40.00 £72.38
90th Percentile £104.00 £59.19 £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.90 £40.00 £34.80
% change year-on-year +67.25% +14.96% -45.45%

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 50,615 29,871 34,958
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.21% 90.97% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,878 18,887 21,169
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £733 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,942 1,601 1,551
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.88
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.84% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.55 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.74 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.44% -41.69% -2.16%

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 30 September 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 30 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Business Analyst in the UK

Business Analyst
Top 18 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 30 September 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 -22 1,743 £515 +3.00% 1,025
London -16 1,011 £525 -8.70% 473
UK excluding London -11 853 £475 +7.95% 647
Work from Home -12 633 £500 -1.96% 466
North of England -22 250 £475 +11.76% 174
South East -5 183 £500 +2.56% 145
Midlands -1 165 £459 +22.27% 113
West Midlands +18 130 £450 -5.26% 71
North West -29 110 £450 +5.63% 86
Scotland +7 109 £465 +8.27% 64
Yorkshire -20 102 £475 +16.14% 61
South West +5 83 £478 +4.95% 55
North East -15 39 £525 +31.09% 27
East Midlands -28 34 £463 +29.19% 42
Wales -1 30 £448 -3.24% 12
East of England -22 28 £450 - 43
Northern Ireland +3 13 £444 -15.48% 41
Channel Islands -3 2 £550 +18.92% 2

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

For the 6 months to 30 September 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.

1 796 (38.45%) Stakeholder Management
2 736 (35.56%) Business Analysis
3 704 (34.01%) Requirements Gathering
4 696 (33.62%) Agile
5 614 (29.66%) Workshop Facilitation
6 563 (27.20%) User Stories
7 407 (19.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 396 (19.13%) User Acceptance Testing
9 333 (16.09%) Acceptance Criteria
10 254 (12.27%) Problem-Solving
10 254 (12.27%) SQL
11 239 (11.55%) JIRA
11 239 (11.55%) Process Improvement
12 237 (11.45%) Validation
13 234 (11.30%) Migration
14 230 (11.11%) Data Analysis
15 215 (10.39%) AI
16 206 (9.95%) Decision-Making
17 194 (9.37%) Microsoft
18 190 (9.18%) Data Modelling
19 172 (8.31%) Scrum
19 172 (8.31%) Security Cleared
20 169 (8.16%) Azure
21 167 (8.07%) Confluence
22 163 (7.87%) Requirements Workshops
23 162 (7.83%) Degree
24 152 (7.34%) Translating Business Requirements
25 151 (7.29%) GAP Analysis
26 145 (7.00%) Project Delivery
27 141 (6.81%) Data Mapping

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
1 167 (8.07%) Confluence
2 24 (1.16%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.39%) CMS
4 4 (0.19%) Jupyter
4 4 (0.19%) SAS
5 3 (0.14%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.14%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.097%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.097%) Apache
6 2 (0.097%) Appian
6 2 (0.097%) Camunda
7 1 (0.048%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.048%) Headless CMS
7 1 (0.048%) Moodle
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle Coherence
7 1 (0.048%) PowerExchange
7 1 (0.048%) Totara
Applications
1 103 (4.98%) MS Visio
2 68 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 36 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
4 24 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.19%) Notion
7 2 (0.097%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.048%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.048%) Trello
8 1 (0.048%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 38 (1.84%) Dynamics CRM
2 32 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
3 17 (0.82%) Salesforce CRM
4 13 (0.63%) Oracle Receivables
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Payables
6 11 (0.53%) Aladdin
6 11 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
7 10 (0.48%) Endur
8 8 (0.39%) Maximo
8 8 (0.39%) Oracle General Ledger
9 6 (0.29%) Workday HCM
10 5 (0.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 5 (0.24%) SAP ERP
10 5 (0.24%) SAP FI
10 5 (0.24%) SAP HR
11 4 (0.19%) NetSuite
11 4 (0.19%) Oracle Financials
11 4 (0.19%) SAP CO
11 4 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
11 4 (0.19%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 169 (8.16%) Azure
2 129 (6.23%) Power Platform
3 85 (4.11%) Azure DevOps
4 58 (2.80%) Dynamics 365
5 55 (2.66%) AWS
6 35 (1.69%) SaaS
7 30 (1.45%) Salesforce Service Cloud
8 27 (1.30%) Lucidchart
9 24 (1.16%) Snowflake
10 21 (1.01%) Microsoft 365
10 21 (1.01%) Miro
10 21 (1.01%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 14 (0.68%) GCP
11 14 (0.68%) SuccessFactors
12 12 (0.58%) Entra ID
12 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (0.48%) Microsoft Purview
13 10 (0.48%) Power Automate
14 9 (0.43%) Azure Data Factory
14 9 (0.43%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.39%) Network Security
2 5 (0.24%) Intranet
3 4 (0.19%) Wireless
4 3 (0.14%) DNS
4 3 (0.14%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.097%) 802.11
5 2 (0.097%) Cisco ISE
5 2 (0.097%) PBX
5 2 (0.097%) VoIP
5 2 (0.097%) VPN
5 2 (0.097%) WAN
5 2 (0.097%) Wireless Security
5 2 (0.097%) WLAN
6 1 (0.048%) 5G
6 1 (0.048%) DNSSEC
6 1 (0.048%) HTTP
6 1 (0.048%) Mobile Backhaul
6 1 (0.048%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.048%) SSH
6 1 (0.048%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (5.27%) Power BI
2 47 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
3 43 (2.08%) Metadata
4 35 (1.69%) Data Lake
5 19 (0.92%) Tableau
6 10 (0.48%) Semantic Layer
7 9 (0.43%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
9 6 (0.29%) Data Mining
9 6 (0.29%) GIS
9 6 (0.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 6 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 6 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 5 (0.24%) MongoDB
10 5 (0.24%) SQL Server
11 4 (0.19%) Electronic Patient Records
11 4 (0.19%) Looker
12 3 (0.14%) Big Data
12 3 (0.14%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.14%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 239 (11.55%) JIRA
2 3 (0.14%) Balsamiq
3 2 (0.097%) Eclipse
3 2 (0.097%) GitLab
3 2 (0.097%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.048%) Oracle Forms
4 1 (0.048%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.048%) SonarQube
General
1 723 (34.93%) Finance
2 647 (31.26%) Social Skills
3 437 (21.11%) Analytical Skills
4 286 (13.82%) Banking
5 167 (8.07%) Public Sector
6 164 (7.92%) Documentation Skills
7 137 (6.62%) Retail
8 94 (4.54%) Front Office
9 73 (3.53%) Legal
10 72 (3.48%) Investment Banking
11 57 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
12 56 (2.71%) Manufacturing
13 50 (2.42%) Presentation Skills
14 37 (1.79%) Local Government
15 35 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
16 34 (1.64%) Back Office
17 32 (1.55%) Financial Institution
18 31 (1.50%) Billing
19 29 (1.40%) Marketing
20 28 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (1.30%) Oracle Fusion
2 19 (0.92%) Middleware
3 18 (0.87%) JSON
4 16 (0.77%) XML
5 11 (0.53%) ADO
6 8 (0.39%) SailPoint
7 5 (0.24%) FHIR
7 5 (0.24%) Gherkin
7 5 (0.24%) Terraform
8 4 (0.19%) 802.1X
8 4 (0.19%) EDI
8 4 (0.19%) OpenAPI
8 4 (0.19%) STL
8 4 (0.19%) Swagger
9 3 (0.14%) FIX Protocol
9 3 (0.14%) NumPy
9 3 (0.14%) Pandas
9 3 (0.14%) VML
10 2 (0.097%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.097%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 204 (9.86%) Product Ownership
2 94 (4.54%) Onboarding
3 56 (2.71%) Derivative
4 50 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
5 40 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
6 38 (1.84%) Data Structures
7 36 (1.74%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 35 (1.69%) Analytical Mindset
9 31 (1.50%) Fixed Income
10 30 (1.45%) Management Information System
11 28 (1.35%) NHS
12 24 (1.16%) Credit Risk
12 24 (1.16%) Operational Technology
12 24 (1.16%) Reference Data
13 21 (1.01%) Equities
14 19 (0.92%) Taxonomies
15 17 (0.82%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.82%) Market Risk
16 16 (0.77%) FMCG
16 16 (0.77%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 16 (0.77%) Windows
2 4 (0.19%) Android
3 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.048%) Linux
4 1 (0.048%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 796 (38.45%) Stakeholder Management
2 736 (35.56%) Business Analysis
3 704 (34.01%) Requirements Gathering
4 696 (33.62%) Agile
5 614 (29.66%) Workshop Facilitation
6 563 (27.20%) User Stories
7 407 (19.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 396 (19.13%) User Acceptance Testing
9 333 (16.09%) Acceptance Criteria
10 254 (12.27%) Problem-Solving
11 239 (11.55%) Process Improvement
12 237 (11.45%) Validation
13 234 (11.30%) Migration
14 230 (11.11%) Data Analysis
15 215 (10.39%) AI
16 206 (9.95%) Decision-Making
17 190 (9.18%) Data Modelling
18 172 (8.31%) Scrum
19 163 (7.87%) Requirements Workshops
20 152 (7.34%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 254 (12.27%) SQL
2 32 (1.55%) Python
3 15 (0.72%) Korn
4 8 (0.39%) Java
5 5 (0.24%) PL/SQL
6 3 (0.14%) R
7 2 (0.097%) C#
7 2 (0.097%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.048%) ABAP
8 1 (0.048%) C
8 1 (0.048%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.048%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.048%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.048%) Ruby
8 1 (0.048%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.048%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 172 (8.31%) Security Cleared
2 162 (7.83%) Degree
3 135 (6.52%) SC Cleared
4 47 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
5 37 (1.79%) IIBA
6 33 (1.59%) CBAP
7 27 (1.30%) PMI Certification
8 23 (1.11%) ACCA
9 22 (1.06%) CIMA
10 17 (0.82%) PMP
11 12 (0.58%) DV Cleared
11 12 (0.58%) FFIEC
12 10 (0.48%) ISEB
13 9 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
14 7 (0.34%) ISTQB
15 6 (0.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 6 (0.29%) Master's Degree
16 5 (0.24%) Computer Science Degree
16 5 (0.24%) CSPO
17 4 (0.19%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 140 (6.76%) Data Quality
2 107 (5.17%) QA
3 35 (1.69%) GDPR
4 26 (1.26%) NIST
5 22 (1.06%) MiFID
6 20 (0.97%) PMO
7 18 (0.87%) EMIR
8 16 (0.77%) Accessibility
9 15 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 14 (0.68%) GRC
10 14 (0.68%) IFRS
10 14 (0.68%) ISO 20022
11 12 (0.58%) COBIT
12 11 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
13 10 (0.48%) Basel III
14 7 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 5 (0.24%) GxP
15 5 (0.24%) SEPA
16 4 (0.19%) HL7
16 4 (0.19%) ISO 15022
System Software
1 14 (0.68%) Active Directory
2 8 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
3 6 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.097%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (0.14%) HP ALM
1 3 (0.14%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.097%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.048%) Autotask
3 1 (0.048%) Grafana
3 1 (0.048%) Kibana
Vendors
1 194 (9.37%) Microsoft
2 130 (6.28%) SAP
3 119 (5.75%) Salesforce
4 73 (3.53%) ServiceNow
5 70 (3.38%) Oracle
6 33 (1.59%) Murex
7 29 (1.40%) Databricks
8 22 (1.06%) Workday
9 18 (0.87%) CyberArk
10 15 (0.72%) IBM
11 14 (0.68%) Ariba
12 13 (0.63%) Bloomberg
12 13 (0.63%) Guidewire
13 12 (0.58%) IFS
14 11 (0.53%) Charles River
15 10 (0.48%) Pega
16 8 (0.39%) Calypso
16 8 (0.39%) OpenLink
17 7 (0.34%) Avaloq
17 7 (0.34%) Informatica