Inclusion and Diversity Contract Job Trends

Inclusion and Diversity
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Inclusion and Diversity in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 201 160 167
Rank change year-on-year -41 +7 +78
Contract jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity 508 535 627
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.34% 1.69% 1.44%
As % of the General category 2.24% 2.73% 2.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 285 449
10th Percentile £172 £375 £375
25th Percentile £336 £469 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% - +3.45%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £675
90th Percentile £675 £800 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £525 £503
% change year-on-year -28.57% +4.37% +0.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 12
10th Percentile £14.77 - £12.38
25th Percentile £15.75 - £14.93
Median hourly rate £16.84 - £30.82
75th Percentile £19.99 - £59.85
90th Percentile £127.99 - £63.29
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.84 - £55.80
% change year-on-year - - +302.16%

All General Skills
UK

Inclusion and Diversity falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 22,642 19,580 25,604
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 59.71% 61.79% 58.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,274 11,685 16,659
10th Percentile £284 £284 £267
25th Percentile £401 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £735 £763 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,391 651 1,404
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £16.41 £20.00 £15.33
Median hourly rate £22.85 £27.50 £26.72
Median % change year-on-year -16.91% +2.92% +6.88%
75th Percentile £46.00 £53.75 £56.02
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.28 £26.50 £26.00
% change year-on-year -19.72% +1.92% +15.79%

Inclusion and Diversity
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Inclusion and Diversity relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Inclusion and Diversity job vacancy trend in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Inclusion and Diversity over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Inclusion and Diversity in the UK

Inclusion and Diversity
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 Inclusion and Diversity within the UK over the 6 months to 23 January 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 -48 458 £475 -20.83% 873
London -8 274 £571 -7.11% 255
Work from Home -15 232 £450 -25.00% 433
UK excluding London -82 186 £375 -28.57% 870
Midlands -66 57 £195 -66.09% 109
North of England -60 40 £375 -16.67% 151
South East -20 38 £375 -21.05% 336
West Midlands -75 33 £195 -66.09% 51
East Midlands -14 24 £168 -64.76% 58
North West -32 24 £470 +4.47% 75
South West -20 20 £570 +16.92% 95
East of England -18 17 £155 -70.48% 79
Scotland +3 15 £175 -61.11% 79
Yorkshire -45 13 £200 -56.16% 51
North East -18 3 £400 -11.11% 25
Wales -3 1 £331 -37.52% 32
Northern Ireland -9 1 £625 +8.70% 10

Inclusion and Diversity
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 14 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 12 (2.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.97%) Confluence
4 8 (1.57%) Apache Airflow
4 8 (1.57%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.98%) CMS
6 4 (0.79%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 4 (0.79%) HCL Notes
6 4 (0.79%) WordPress
7 2 (0.39%) Apache
7 2 (0.39%) Camunda
7 2 (0.39%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.20%) Appian
8 1 (0.20%) IIS
8 1 (0.20%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 19 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.98%) Adobe Captivate
3 5 (0.98%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 4 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.79%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (0.59%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.59%) Trello
6 2 (0.39%) Adobe After Effects
6 2 (0.39%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.39%) InVision
6 2 (0.39%) Sketch
7 1 (0.20%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.20%) ProjectWise
Business Applications
1 7 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.39%) CODA-Financials
2 2 (0.39%) FLEXCUBE
2 2 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.39%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
3 1 (0.20%) Bloomberg AIM
3 1 (0.20%) Bloomberg TOMS
3 1 (0.20%) Fidessa
3 1 (0.20%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.20%) ResourceLink
3 1 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.20%) thinkFolio
Cloud Services
1 116 (22.83%) Azure
2 72 (14.17%) AWS
3 34 (6.69%) Power Platform
4 27 (5.31%) GitHub
5 25 (4.92%) Microsoft 365
6 24 (4.72%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (4.53%) GCP
8 22 (4.33%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (2.95%) dbt
9 15 (2.95%) SaaS
10 14 (2.76%) Entra ID
11 12 (2.36%) Azure Data Factory
12 10 (1.97%) Serverless
12 10 (1.97%) Snowflake
13 9 (1.77%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (1.77%) Microsoft Purview
14 8 (1.57%) Figma
14 8 (1.57%) Google Workspace
15 7 (1.38%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 6 (1.18%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.56%) Network Security
2 11 (2.17%) Firewall
3 9 (1.77%) VPN
4 7 (1.38%) WAN
5 5 (0.98%) DNS
5 5 (0.98%) LAN
6 4 (0.79%) DHCP
6 4 (0.79%) VSAN
6 4 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (0.59%) AMQP
7 3 (0.59%) Intranet
7 3 (0.59%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.59%) VLAN
8 2 (0.39%) MPLS
8 2 (0.39%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.39%) SMS
8 2 (0.39%) SMTP
9 1 (0.20%) ADSL
9 1 (0.20%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (0.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (4.72%) Power BI
2 20 (3.94%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (2.95%) SQL Server
4 13 (2.56%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.97%) Metadata
6 8 (1.57%) NoSQL
7 7 (1.38%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
8 6 (1.18%) Big Data
8 6 (1.18%) Snowflake Schema
9 5 (0.98%) Hadoop
9 5 (0.98%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 5 (0.98%) Tableau
10 4 (0.79%) BigQuery
10 4 (0.79%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.79%) Spark SQL
11 3 (0.59%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.59%) InfluxDB
11 3 (0.59%) Looker
Development Applications
1 23 (4.53%) Git
2 17 (3.35%) JIRA
3 9 (1.77%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.38%) Cucumber
5 5 (0.98%) Maven
6 4 (0.79%) GitLab
6 4 (0.79%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.59%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.59%) Selenium
7 3 (0.59%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.39%) Axure RP
8 2 (0.39%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.39%) JMeter
8 2 (0.39%) JUnit
8 2 (0.39%) MLflow
8 2 (0.39%) Mockito
8 2 (0.39%) Vite
9 1 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.20%) Pa11y
9 1 (0.20%) Visual Studio
General
1 177 (34.84%) Social Skills
2 124 (24.41%) Finance
3 58 (11.42%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (10.63%) Public Sector
5 26 (5.12%) Banking
6 21 (4.13%) Marketing
7 19 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
8 14 (2.76%) Legal
9 11 (2.17%) Local Government
10 10 (1.97%) Fire and Rescue
10 10 (1.97%) Retail
11 8 (1.57%) Manufacturing
12 7 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.38%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.98%) Investment Banking
13 5 (0.98%) Military
13 5 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.98%) Publishing
14 4 (0.79%) Law
Job Titles
1 83 (16.34%) Analyst
2 43 (8.46%) Lead
3 42 (8.27%) Architect
4 39 (7.68%) Senior
5 34 (6.69%) Data Engineer
6 33 (6.50%) Developer
7 29 (5.71%) Support Engineer
8 27 (5.31%) Project Manager
9 23 (4.53%) Business Analyst
10 21 (4.13%) Consultant
11 19 (3.74%) Cloud Engineer
12 18 (3.54%) IT Analyst
12 18 (3.54%) IT Support
13 16 (3.15%) IT Engineer
14 15 (2.95%) Service Analyst
14 15 (2.95%) Solutions Architect
15 13 (2.56%) Designer
15 13 (2.56%) DevOps Engineer
15 13 (2.56%) PMO Lead
16 12 (2.36%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (3.35%) EDI
2 12 (2.36%) Spring
2 12 (2.36%) Spring Boot
3 11 (2.17%) React
3 11 (2.17%) YAML
4 10 (1.97%) REST
5 9 (1.77%) AngularJS
5 9 (1.77%) HTML
6 8 (1.57%) Middleware
7 6 (1.18%) .NET
7 6 (1.18%) PySpark
8 5 (0.98%) CSS
8 5 (0.98%) Kafka
8 5 (0.98%) RESTful
8 5 (0.98%) XML
9 4 (0.79%) Akka
9 4 (0.79%) Hibernate
9 4 (0.79%) JPA
9 4 (0.79%) scikit-learn
9 4 (0.79%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 23 (4.53%) Onboarding
2 21 (4.13%) Cloud Native
2 21 (4.13%) Management Information System
3 17 (3.35%) Data Centre
4 9 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (1.77%) Product Ownership
4 9 (1.77%) Virtual Team
5 7 (1.38%) Public Cloud
6 6 (1.18%) e-Learning
7 5 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (0.98%) Mobile App
7 5 (0.98%) Reinsurance
7 5 (0.98%) Replication
8 4 (0.79%) Distributed Systems
8 4 (0.79%) Driving Licence
8 4 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (0.79%) Hybrid Cloud
8 4 (0.79%) Learning Management System
8 4 (0.79%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 42 (8.27%) Windows
2 11 (2.17%) Windows 10
2 11 (2.17%) Windows Server
3 9 (1.77%) Linux
4 4 (0.79%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.20%) Android
5 1 (0.20%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
5 1 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (26.38%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (15.35%) Agile
3 68 (13.39%) CI/CD
3 68 (13.39%) DevOps
4 60 (11.81%) Stakeholder Management
5 50 (9.84%) Continuous Improvement
6 45 (8.86%) Analytics
7 39 (7.68%) Migration
8 38 (7.48%) Decision-Making
8 38 (7.48%) Infrastructure as Code
9 36 (7.09%) Data Modelling
10 35 (6.89%) Project Management
10 35 (6.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 32 (6.30%) Test Automation
12 31 (6.10%) Mentoring
13 28 (5.51%) Business Intelligence
13 28 (5.51%) Data Pipeline
14 27 (5.31%) Data Governance
15 26 (5.12%) Coaching
16 25 (4.92%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 61 (12.01%) SQL
2 60 (11.81%) Python
3 29 (5.71%) Java
4 21 (4.13%) JavaScript
5 12 (2.36%) PowerShell
6 10 (1.97%) C#
7 8 (1.57%) TypeScript
8 6 (1.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 6 (1.18%) R
9 5 (0.98%) Bash
9 5 (0.98%) Go
10 4 (0.79%) Rust
10 4 (0.79%) Scala
11 3 (0.59%) C++
12 2 (0.39%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.39%) AWK
12 2 (0.39%) C
12 2 (0.39%) Perl
12 2 (0.39%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.39%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 66 (12.99%) Security Cleared
2 56 (11.02%) SC Cleared
3 33 (6.50%) Degree
4 16 (3.15%) AWS Certification
5 13 (2.56%) DBS Check
6 9 (1.77%) Azure Certification
6 9 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (1.57%) DV Cleared
8 6 (1.18%) CISSP
9 5 (0.98%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.79%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 4 (0.79%) CTC Cleared
10 4 (0.79%) Oracle Certification
11 3 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.59%) CompTIA CySA+
11 3 (0.59%) ISTQB
11 3 (0.59%) Master's Degree
11 3 (0.59%) PMI Certification
11 3 (0.59%) PMP
11 3 (0.59%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.53%) Accessibility
1 23 (4.53%) Data Quality
2 22 (4.33%) QA
3 14 (2.76%) GDPR
3 14 (2.76%) PMO
4 10 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.18%) Actionable Recommendations
6 5 (0.98%) GRC
6 5 (0.98%) NIST
6 5 (0.98%) SLA
7 4 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.59%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.59%) WCAG
9 2 (0.39%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.39%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.39%) PSD2
9 2 (0.39%) Software Quality Assurance
10 1 (0.20%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.20%) SOC 2
System Software
1 29 (5.71%) Active Directory
2 21 (4.13%) Docker
3 5 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.79%) VMware NSX
4 4 (0.79%) vSphere
5 3 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.39%) Firmware
7 1 (0.20%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 38 (7.48%) Terraform
2 27 (5.31%) Kubernetes
3 12 (2.36%) Microsoft Intune
4 11 (2.17%) Grafana
5 9 (1.77%) Prometheus
6 7 (1.38%) Ansible
6 7 (1.38%) SCCM
7 4 (0.79%) Argo
7 4 (0.79%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (0.79%) Kibana
8 1 (0.20%) Data Guard
8 1 (0.20%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.20%) Nessus
8 1 (0.20%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 1 (0.20%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.20%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.20%) vRealize
8 1 (0.20%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 75 (14.76%) Microsoft
2 20 (3.94%) Oracle
2 20 (3.94%) ServiceNow
3 19 (3.74%) Databricks
4 16 (3.15%) Google
5 13 (2.56%) VMware
6 12 (2.36%) Cisco
6 12 (2.36%) Salesforce
7 11 (2.17%) Adobe
8 5 (0.98%) Citrix
8 5 (0.98%) Dynatrace
8 5 (0.98%) SAP
9 4 (0.79%) Apple
9 4 (0.79%) Atlassian
9 4 (0.79%) Lotus
9 4 (0.79%) Netskope
10 3 (0.59%) Bloomberg
10 3 (0.59%) CODA
10 3 (0.59%) Commvault
10 3 (0.59%) Talend