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 21 March 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 46 42
Rank change year-on-year -1 -4 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Business Analyst 1,953 1,359 2,011
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.46% 4.63% 4.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.85% 4.99% 4.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,395 981 1,422
10th Percentile £350 £356 £380
25th Percentile £413 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +1.20%
75th Percentile £588 £623 £618
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 9 18 10
10th Percentile £25.00 £23.56 £20.77
25th Percentile £58.65 £25.26 £22.20
Median hourly rate £72.50 £34.68 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +109.05% -30.64% -13.79%
75th Percentile £86.25 £51.73 £64.11
90th Percentile £95.25 £73.25 £70.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.50 £31.52 £20.77
% change year-on-year +130.01% +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 40,298 27,260 41,112
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 92.94% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,195 17,769 26,943
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,491 893 2,499
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £33.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +1.54% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £76.25 £71.77
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.77% - -18.75%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 1,715 £500 -4.76% 428
London +1 1,047 £525 -8.70% 146
UK excluding London +2 752 £450 - 356
Work from Home -5 597 £500 - 157
North of England +7 257 £425 - 106
Midlands -2 149 £465 -4.62% 63
Yorkshire +3 123 £475 +5.56% 48
South East -23 116 £500 +5.26% 87
West Midlands -8 115 £475 -5.00% 41
North West -15 115 £400 -2.44% 34
South West +25 97 £463 -5.13% 34
Scotland -7 82 £425 -1.39% 14
North East +12 35 £425 +6.25% 25
East Midlands -20 32 £401 +0.38% 22
East of England -19 24 £469 +4.17% 33
Wales +11 22 £419 -1.47% 9
Northern Ireland -2 11 £550 +83.33% 10

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

For the 6 months to 21 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.

1 674 (34.51%) Agile
2 613 (31.39%) Stakeholder Management
3 579 (29.65%) Business Analysis
4 529 (27.09%) Requirements Gathering
5 462 (23.66%) Workshop Facilitation
6 455 (23.30%) User Stories
7 435 (22.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 316 (16.18%) Problem-Solving
9 295 (15.10%) User Acceptance Testing
10 291 (14.90%) JIRA
11 269 (13.77%) Security Cleared
12 265 (13.57%) Migration
13 249 (12.75%) Acceptance Criteria
14 228 (11.67%) SC Cleared
15 223 (11.42%) SQL
16 222 (11.37%) Confluence
17 189 (9.68%) Process Improvement
18 186 (9.52%) Data Analysis
19 173 (8.86%) Microsoft
20 170 (8.70%) Data Modelling
21 168 (8.60%) Validation
22 166 (8.50%) Degree
23 165 (8.45%) Scrum
24 159 (8.14%) Decision-Making
25 158 (8.09%) GAP Analysis
26 153 (7.83%) MS Visio
27 149 (7.63%) Project Delivery
28 137 (7.01%) Project Management
29 136 (6.96%) Business Intelligence
30 135 (6.91%) DevOps

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
1 222 (11.37%) Confluence
2 29 (1.48%) SharePoint
3 16 (0.82%) SAS
4 6 (0.31%) CMS
5 4 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.15%) Camunda
7 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Exchange
8 1 (0.051%) Appian
8 1 (0.051%) Headless CMS
8 1 (0.051%) Oracle Workflow
8 1 (0.051%) SharePoint 2010
Applications
1 153 (7.83%) MS Visio
2 132 (6.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 69 (3.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 59 (3.02%) Microsoft Office
5 8 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.20%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.20%) Notion
6 4 (0.20%) Trello
7 2 (0.10%) Autodesk Inventor
7 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.051%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.051%) CATIA
8 1 (0.051%) Sketch
8 1 (0.051%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 24 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.13%) Dynamics CRM
2 22 (1.13%) Endur
3 18 (0.92%) Aladdin
4 17 (0.87%) Payment Gateway
5 9 (0.46%) NetSuite
6 8 (0.41%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
8 6 (0.31%) Adobe Campaign
9 5 (0.26%) Integrated Workplace Management System
9 5 (0.26%) Summit
9 5 (0.26%) Temenos T24
10 4 (0.20%) Actimize
10 4 (0.20%) Fidessa
10 4 (0.20%) Loan IQ
10 4 (0.20%) Oracle Financials
10 4 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
11 3 (0.15%) Findur
11 3 (0.15%) SAP Oil and Gas
11 3 (0.15%) SimCorp Dimension
Cloud Services
1 135 (6.91%) Power Platform
2 129 (6.61%) Azure
3 69 (3.53%) AWS
4 44 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
5 35 (1.79%) Microsoft 365
6 31 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
7 30 (1.54%) Lucidchart
8 28 (1.43%) Miro
9 23 (1.18%) GitHub
9 23 (1.18%) SaaS
10 18 (0.92%) GCP
10 18 (0.92%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 17 (0.87%) Snowflake
12 15 (0.77%) Power Automate
13 13 (0.67%) PowerApps
14 11 (0.56%) Entra ID
14 11 (0.56%) Microsoft Purview
15 9 (0.46%) Figma
15 9 (0.46%) Microsoft Copilot
16 7 (0.36%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.26%) Firewall
1 5 (0.26%) Network Security
2 4 (0.20%) DNS
2 4 (0.20%) SD-WAN
2 4 (0.20%) WAN
3 3 (0.15%) Internet
3 3 (0.15%) LAN
3 3 (0.15%) Wireless
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
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (5.73%) Power BI
2 40 (2.05%) Data Warehouse
3 39 (2.00%) Tableau
4 27 (1.38%) Metadata
5 16 (0.82%) Relational Database
6 9 (0.46%) SQL Server
7 7 (0.36%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.31%) Big Data
8 6 (0.31%) Electronic Patient Records
9 5 (0.26%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.26%) RDBMS
10 4 (0.20%) Amazon Athena
10 4 (0.20%) BigQuery
11 3 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.15%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
11 3 (0.15%) Power Query
12 2 (0.10%) Data Mining
12 2 (0.10%) OLAP
Development Applications
1 291 (14.90%) JIRA
2 21 (1.08%) Jenkins
3 20 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
4 8 (0.41%) Postman
5 5 (0.26%) Balsamiq
6 3 (0.15%) Toad
7 2 (0.10%) Browser DevTools
7 2 (0.10%) Charles Proxy
7 2 (0.10%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.10%) Fiddler
7 2 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.051%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.051%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.051%) Gemini Tracker
8 1 (0.051%) Oracle Forms
8 1 (0.051%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 744 (38.10%) Social Skills
2 677 (34.66%) Finance
3 456 (23.35%) Analytical Skills
4 287 (14.70%) Banking
5 202 (10.34%) Public Sector
6 158 (8.09%) Documentation Skills
7 73 (3.74%) Retail
8 68 (3.48%) Legal
9 67 (3.43%) Front Office
10 64 (3.28%) Investment Banking
11 61 (3.12%) Influencing Skills
12 57 (2.92%) Presentation Skills
13 46 (2.36%) Marketing
14 44 (2.25%) Telecoms
15 35 (1.79%) Back Office
16 34 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
17 30 (1.54%) Financial Institution
18 28 (1.43%) Local Government
19 22 (1.13%) Manufacturing
20 17 (0.87%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (1.79%) REST
2 30 (1.54%) XML
3 18 (0.92%) JSON
3 18 (0.92%) SOAP
4 12 (0.61%) ADO
4 12 (0.61%) Swagger
5 11 (0.56%) OAuth
6 9 (0.46%) FHIR
6 9 (0.46%) SailPoint
7 8 (0.41%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (0.41%) VML
8 7 (0.36%) JWT
8 7 (0.36%) Middleware
8 7 (0.36%) OpenAPI
8 7 (0.36%) SAML
9 5 (0.26%) .NET
10 4 (0.20%) HTML
10 4 (0.20%) RESTful
11 3 (0.15%) Gherkin
11 3 (0.15%) Murex MxML
Miscellaneous
1 152 (7.78%) Product Ownership
2 65 (3.33%) Onboarding
3 49 (2.51%) Data Protection Act
4 45 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
5 44 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
6 38 (1.95%) Fixed Income
7 36 (1.84%) Derivative
8 33 (1.69%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 30 (1.54%) Data Structures
10 28 (1.43%) Management Information System
10 28 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
11 27 (1.38%) NHS
12 25 (1.28%) PMI
13 24 (1.23%) Credit Risk
14 21 (1.08%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 20 (1.02%) Equities
16 19 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
17 16 (0.82%) CMDB
18 12 (0.61%) Market Risk
18 12 (0.61%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 16 (0.82%) Linux
2 12 (0.61%) Windows
3 7 (0.36%) VMS
4 6 (0.31%) Unix
5 5 (0.26%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.15%) Android
7 2 (0.10%) AIX
7 2 (0.10%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.10%) Solaris
7 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.051%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 674 (34.51%) Agile
2 613 (31.39%) Stakeholder Management
3 579 (29.65%) Business Analysis
4 529 (27.09%) Requirements Gathering
5 462 (23.66%) Workshop Facilitation
6 455 (23.30%) User Stories
7 435 (22.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 316 (16.18%) Problem-Solving
9 295 (15.10%) User Acceptance Testing
10 265 (13.57%) Migration
11 249 (12.75%) Acceptance Criteria
12 189 (9.68%) Process Improvement
13 186 (9.52%) Data Analysis
14 170 (8.70%) Data Modelling
15 168 (8.60%) Validation
16 165 (8.45%) Scrum
17 159 (8.14%) Decision-Making
18 158 (8.09%) GAP Analysis
19 149 (7.63%) Project Delivery
20 137 (7.01%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 223 (11.42%) SQL
2 48 (2.46%) Python
3 10 (0.51%) Korn
4 7 (0.36%) Java
4 7 (0.36%) JavaScript
5 4 (0.20%) VBA
6 3 (0.15%) C#
6 3 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 3 (0.15%) R
7 2 (0.10%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.051%) C++
8 1 (0.051%) COBOL
8 1 (0.051%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 269 (13.77%) Security Cleared
2 228 (11.67%) SC Cleared
3 166 (8.50%) Degree
4 59 (3.02%) CBAP
5 47 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
6 43 (2.20%) IIBA
7 38 (1.95%) PMI Certification
8 17 (0.87%) PMP
9 15 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (0.77%) ISEB
10 13 (0.67%) Master's Degree
11 12 (0.61%) CSPO
12 10 (0.51%) DV Cleared
13 7 (0.36%) CFA
14 5 (0.26%) MBA
15 4 (0.20%) ACCA
16 3 (0.15%) AWS Certification
16 3 (0.15%) CAPM
16 3 (0.15%) CIMA
16 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (5.63%) QA
2 106 (5.43%) Data Quality
3 52 (2.66%) GDPR
4 27 (1.38%) MiFID
5 21 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 19 (0.97%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.92%) NIST
8 17 (0.87%) EMIR
9 14 (0.72%) ISO 8583
10 13 (0.67%) GRC
10 13 (0.67%) PMO
10 13 (0.67%) PSD2
11 12 (0.61%) ISO 20022
12 11 (0.56%) PCI DSS
13 9 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
13 9 (0.46%) HL7
13 9 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 8 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (0.31%) SLA
15 6 (0.31%) Solvency II
System Software
1 9 (0.46%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.051%) Docker
2 1 (0.051%) Hyper-V
2 1 (0.051%) RACF
2 1 (0.051%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 21 (1.08%) Ansible
2 6 (0.31%) Kubernetes
3 5 (0.26%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.10%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.10%) Terraform
6 1 (0.051%) Control-M
6 1 (0.051%) Grafana
6 1 (0.051%) Kibana
6 1 (0.051%) RSA Archer
6 1 (0.051%) SCCM
Vendors
1 173 (8.86%) Microsoft
2 104 (5.33%) Salesforce
2 104 (5.33%) SAP
3 65 (3.33%) Oracle
4 58 (2.97%) ServiceNow
5 34 (1.74%) Murex
6 24 (1.23%) Bloomberg
7 20 (1.02%) Workday
8 19 (0.97%) Adobe
8 19 (0.97%) Sonatype
9 18 (0.92%) Pega
10 16 (0.82%) Databricks
11 12 (0.61%) Google
12 10 (0.51%) Avaloq
12 10 (0.51%) Guidewire
12 10 (0.51%) MuleSoft
12 10 (0.51%) Splunk
13 9 (0.46%) Ariba
13 9 (0.46%) OpenLink
14 8 (0.41%) Salesforce Marketing Cloud